Traditional Publishing or Self-publishing?
Not long ago, any writer offered a deal by a traditional publishing house would have jumped at it. And, indeed, why not? The publisher takes care of all expenses – cover, proof-reading, editing, formatting, printing, marketing and distribution. Print copies of the book would appear in book stores all over the country, maybe all over the world. A writer’s dream. That dream may be pricked somewhat, however, when he discovers that his royalties can be barely 10%, sometimes even less. He will maybe earn around 80 pence for an average full-length paperback. Lots of sales will be needed if he is going to make a good living writing.
The other option is to self-publish. (I am not going to talk about the many Vanity Presses that seek to con the unwary. That is a topic for another time.) To have a chance of even moderate success, the self-publishing writer has to ensure his book is of a decent literary quality, has an eye-catching cover (at least £300), a good editor (over £1000 for a 90,000 word novel), plus formatting and printing costs (several hundred pounds.) A daunting, not to say discouraging, set of prerequisites.
The opening sentence of this article would seem to imply that the modern writer might very well NOT jump at a traditional publishing opportunity. Looking at the costs for self-publishing, rejecting a traditional offer would seem close to folly. And yet, from my own experience, I can claim there are clear reasons why the modern writer now has to consider several pros and cons before making a choice.
I bring up the traditional versus self-publishing issue at this time because it is pertinent to some decisions I have recently had to make. I actually did have three different traditional publishers but now I self-publish via KDP Select on Amazon. (What was that about ‘close to folly'?)
People in the business talk about the big five publishers. A deal with one of those is like winning the pools. Getting your book accepted by publishers and their offshoots in this group is worse than hundred to one odds, even if your book is excellent. So, for the vast majority of very good writers, such an opportunity is really not an option.
There are, of course, the less well-known, less wealthy, publishing houses. They do have many distribution outlets, so paperbacks of your book in stores (with some accompanying fame) is a very real eventuality. However, almost all traditional publishers operate similar time scales. The average writer has to wait about three months, maybe even six, just to have his book read and accepted by the traditional publisher. When the decision to publish is made, the book has to fit into an existing timetable and wait for other work to be completed,. The writer will be very lucky to see the printed version within a year after the decision to publish. Maybe even two. That is far from unusual.
This is a long wait. A year or so ago, I left a publisher (for marketing reasons) and went to another who claimed to be a marketing expert. As a matter of fact, he was, and I was delighted with his deal. My ten page contract obligated me to provide the publisher with two new books a year for five years. I had no problem with that and after fourteen months I had three new 100,000 novels. He was still working with the other five I had given him, so he asked to keep the new ones in abeyance for the opportune time. I agreed, somewhat reluctantly.
However, for reasons unexpected and unrelated to publishing, this publisher had to cancel the contract and I am now left with several books to republish. Should I start the search for a new publisher? I am a retired professional man, so I am not young. I have two non-fiction books, a contemporary novel, and a mysteries series currently totalling eight books. If I were to find another publisher and was to write no more books, I would have to wait close to fifteen years before all of my existing books were republished And during all that time I would sitting around twiddling my thumbs, wondering what was happening, waiting, hoping even for the rare email (which actually never comes), with absolutely no control of even the slightest aspect of the process. Who wants that?
The top publishers have resources, connections with the media, national newspapers, magazines, journalists, and all sorts of established ways of marketing your book once it finally appears. But the lower levels of publishers not so much. Many of them expect the writer to take on some of the financial responsibility for marketing their book. This can, and has, proved in many cases to have disappointing results. And if the book doesn’t grab public interest and make its own snowball growth, publishers can lose interest and the book disappears into obscurity. Marketing requires significant expertise nowadays, an expertise beyond the reach of many ordinary writers. But there are those who can sell thousands of copies of even mediocre books. These are the people modern writers need to ally with. (But finding the genuine ones in a snake pit filled with pretenders and fraudsters is not easy. Another topic for another time.)
Is the self-publishing publishing picture any brighter? How do I go about it? There are many options. One answer is Amazon. And many people aren’t shy of availing of the opportunity. Amazon makes the entire process remarkably easy. If a book is ready for publication, it can be uploaded on the Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing site and appear, with its own Amazon page, both in UK and the US and, indeed, Amazon pages all over the world, in about two to three days. (Rather a more attractive option than eighteen months!)
Self-publishing offers many other advantages. Acceptance is guaranteed. Royalties are very high, usually 70%. The author has complete control over his book, its content, its pricing, the publishing timetable. Furthermore, with Amazon KDP, he has continued access to the already-published book at any time and as often as he wishes, should he want to make changes and improvements
Currently Amazon offers around fourteen million books to their readers. And your book is buried somewhere in the middle of that! How on earth are readers going to find it? And how many of them will buy and read it? Marketing is the answer but almost all writers see this as a huge, time-consuming chore. Worse. In the past few years marketing books has become a very complex science. Unless an author has a solid grasp of the essentials, his marketing efforts will fail. But there are many gurus out there offering marketing courses. Some are very good and that is a way to go. Even the basics of such courses, however, are extremely complicated, especially for an old guy like me. Nonetheless, if your writing is of an acceptable standard, there is an alternative way. You can employ a marketing expert to work for you and with you. A really good one will help you sell thousands of your self-published books, more than enough to cover all expenses and, with any luck, enough to allow you to make writing your career.
I don’t have the years left to work with a traditional publisher. That is why, as I stated earlier, I decided to self-publish. And marketing? I have found a lovely lady who is a genuine expert and a joy to work with. She has been advising me for the past three months, ‘optimising’ my books and preparing the groundwork for a marketing plan. No attempt has yet been made to sell any of my books (that is about to start!) but as I write these words, I have eleven fantastic new covers, all of my books are professionally edited and formatted, and all are now published on Amazon (some currently available only as pre-orders). On my desk is a detailed five-page promotions schedule for 2024 and, believe me, I need no special foresight to predict that the next few months will see my book sales rise to levels beyond anything I have ever experienced.
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