In this week’s episode, I discuss traditional publishing versus self/indie publishing, including how the two processes differ and the pros/cons of each. I also discuss which I’ve chosen for myself and why, and issue a reminder to be safe regardless of which method you choose by avoiding scammers!
The Publishing Debate
- Topic has 7+ million hits on Google
- “Traditional” Publishing
- How it generally works:
- You write and polish your novel
- You write and polish a query letter
- You send that out with the first few pages to agents, trying to hook one
- Once you have an agent, they may make suggestions/edit requests to your book
- Once they feel it’s ready, they craft a new query and begin following the same process with publishing houses
- If the receiving editor likes it and the purchasing folks agree, they make an offer
- Contract is negotiated (though there is often little room to negotiate for first-time writers) and once everyone is satisfied, signed
- Publisher most likely will request more changes
- Once they are happy with it, it goes off to book design, may be renamed, and is printed
- Writer will likely be expected to do own marketing as well as any the publisher might do
- Writer receives an advance and, once they have earned that out, future royalties
- Big Six now Big Five Publishers: Simon and Schuster,HarperCollins, Macmillan, Random House/The Penguin Group (merged 2013),andHachette; (Harper & Simon also considering)
- Many imprints under these that you may not realize are imprints, such as St Martin’s Press, New American, Grosset & Dunlap, Del Rey, Delacort, etc
- These companies control roughly two-thirds of the U.S. consumer book publishing market
- Middle Publishers include Scholastic Corporation, O’Reilly Media, W. W. Norton & Company, Harlequin Enterprises,
- Small Press – usually publishes 10-30 titles a year versus hundreds, and can give you a more personal experience that feels lost in the bigger publishers and better chance of acceptance with more “niche” stuff
- Agents
- the big publishers require you to have them, many middle publishers do as well, while many smaller houses accept submissions directly from writers
- Pros
- Advances – and generally the bigger the publisher, the more you get
- Distribution – they have the reach and marketing team to get books in many places that self/indie’s have a harder time getting in, like physical bookstores and libraries
- “Respectability” – there are those who consider traditional publishing to be the only “real” publishing and some of the big reviewers don’t review indie works without ridiculously excessive payments
- Cons
- Loss of control – the publisher will ultimate decide the title, edits that will be made, the cover, etc
- No control over the price of your work
- Low royalties – as little as 10%, rarely above 20-25%
- Process takes years and has a lot of “gatekeepers”
- Slow slow process – can take years to get that first book from polished and in submission to a shelf
- Mistakes seem almost permanent unless there is a reprinting for print works
- How it generally works:
- Self-Publishing AKA Going Indie
- How it generally works
- You writes and polishes novel until they are fully satisfied with it
- Most will hire a professional editor to give the book a final going over so they can be sure that what they release isn’t some typo ridden mess
- Either design cover or pay for a cover designer
- Write and polish the blurb
- Write and polish press releases
- Decide on platforms and convert work to appropriate formats
- Find reviewers and send out review copies
- Collect royalties, keep writing
- Platforms –
- Hard copy
- CreateSpace (can direct tie to Kindle for Kindle Match)
- Lulu (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble)
- Lightening Source (distributes to major book stores and libraries)
- EBook
- Kindle Direct Publishing
- Smashwords (distributes to Apple, B&N, Kobo)
- Lulu (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble)
- Pros
- You retain 100% control of your novel from start to finish – you decide the title, you decide which suggested changes you like or don’t, you decide on the cover for better or worse, you set the prices, etc
- Higher percentage of royalties – generally around 60-80% of the sales prices, though can go as low as 35% or as high as 100% depending on your pricing and distributer
- Significantly faster time line – book from polished to published in just a few months, or even weeks
- Ability to do corrections and quickly!
- Cons
- It’s all on you – marketing, production, etc – you essentially become your own business
- Like any self-made business, it requires more time and more investment
- Costs – you have to pay for all that stuff a publisher usually does: editing, cover design, marketing & promotions, review copies, website, etc
- Personal choice
- Avoiding the scams and thieves
- Resources like Preditors and Editors & Writer Beware
- Common Sense
- Hard copy
- How it generally works
Progress Report: Finished NaNo with 118,000+ words and just over 34% project completion
Goal: 30 chapters of my NaNo project by the end of December; get back to Aisuru by rereading what I have so far and seeing if it still draws me – if not, try to figure out what I changed that caused this
Random Recommendation: I issued a challenge to those listeners who are also writers to look into writing conferences in their area and see if one will be a good fit for them. I also mention two in Texas that are good to look at, DFW Writers’ Conference held in Dallas each May (http://dfwcon.org/) and the Writer’s League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference held in Austin each June (http://www.writersleague.org/)