Speaking as someone who has been traditionally published and self-published, I understand both sides of the equation. I was elated when I got my first book deal, but after subsequent book deals, that excitement faded. I still get aggravated whenever a royalty check arrives because those checks are pitifully low compared to what I earn from my self-published titles. The publishing house is the one reaping all of the rewards.
If you’re thinking about your publishing options, following are some reasons why self-publishing rules over traditional publishing—and why now is the best time to take control over your work.
1. Make More Moola
On average, traditional publishers pay authors around $1.25 per book in royalties. So if your book sells for $20, you earn just over a buck. You don’t have to be a mathematician to know that you have to sell a ton of books to actually make decent revenues with a traditional publisher. Conversely, when you publish yourself, your book printing and distribution costs might run around $4.00 per book. Sell a book for $20 and you earn $5 to $10 depending on the retail outlet, and $16 if you sell it yourself. Need I say more?
2. Buy Your Books at a Better Price
If you want to buy copies of your own books from your traditional publisher, expect to pay 40% to 50% off of the retail price. So if your book retails for $20, you will likely pay $10 per copy even though it costs the publisher just $2 or $3 to print your book. Yep, they make money off the authors too. When you self-publish, you buy your books at cost.
3. Book Advances are Like Unicorns
Okay, book advances may not be exactly like unicorns because advances do exist, however they are not as exciting as they sound. These days publishers are paying less and less to acquire books (unless you are a celebrity author or you’re on a reality show). The average author with a first-time book deal can expect to receive an advance of $5,000 to $15,000. Once your book is released, you won’t see another dime until you have earned back that advance–$1.25 at a time—until the advance is paid back in full.
4. Maintain Control
Once you sign with a traditional publisher, they essentially own all the creative control over your work. The can change your title, modify your text, or even remove entire chapters. You will have little or no say at all over the cover and interior design. By the time it’s done, it may only loosely resemble the manuscript you wrote.
5. Faster Time to Market
Most traditional publishers take a year or more to bring a book to market. With self-publishing, you can have your book finished and ready to roll within a matter of weeks.
6. Bookstore Placement Matters Less
One of the benefits of traditional publishing used to be that you would get bookstore placement. However, some reports have shown that at least 70% of book sales happen online, and with the rise of ebooks, that number is climbing by the day. Sadly, bookstores are barely hanging on. They no longer have the impact on sales that they once had.
7. Sell Your Own Ebook
Traditional publishers require rights to your print book AND ebook, and you will be paid a paltry sum for ebook sales. You will also be forbidden to sell or distribute your book in ebook format, and instead will have to route those sales back to your publisher. It’s like leaving piles of cash on a table that you can see through a glass window but cannot touch.
8. You’re the Marketing Agent Anyway
Many new authors wrongly assume that a traditional publisher is going to play an active role in marketing books. Unfortunately, this is rarely true. In some cases you may work with a contracted publicist who will book you on a few radio shows. You might receive some promotional fliers and bookmarks. But don’t expect much beyond the basics. You’re still expected to do the majority of marketing for your books and if you’re going to do it anyway, why not focus on marketing your self-published work where you make a lot more money as a result?
9. Reprint Whatever You Want
When you self-publish, you create the rules. You can tweet your book out to the world 140 characters at a time. You can reprint excerpts from your book on your blog or on other websites and blogs. You can print out chapters and distribute them at live events. Want to do this under a traditional publishing agreement? You’ve got to get permission to reprint your own work—and there’s a good chance they will not allow you to do so.
10. Save Years of Work and Headaches
The process for landing a traditional publisher is incredibly time consuming. You must begin by contacting agents and editors with a query letter. If they respond, they will ask for a book proposal, which is a 30+ page document that can take as long to write as your manuscript itself, plus sample chapters from you manuscript. After sending a proposal you must wait for a response. About 99% of manuscripts are rejected, and so you keep trying. Even if you do land an agent, that agent still needs to find a publisher. This process can continue for years. Instead, self-publish and reap all the benefits right away. If your book does well, you can eventually sell it to a traditional publisher—though you may find that you won’t want to.
11. Consumers Don’t Care Who Published Your Book
Think about what it’s like when you’re shopping for a book. You look at the title, the author’s name, and the sales copy on the jacket (or online). Do you really care who published the book? Most consumers don’t pay much attention to the publisher. They read reviews and want to know that the book appeals to them; the publisher doesn’t really matter as long as it’s a good read.
12. The Self-Publishing Stigma Has Left the Building
When self-publishing first started dominating the scene, there was a stigma behind it. People assumed your book wasn’t as good as one released by a traditional press. However, that dividing line has faded. As long as your book is professionally produced—it has a great cover and comprehensive editing—then you have every reason to be proud that you took control and produced your book your way.
Stephanie,
My sentiment, exactly!
Carol
Hee hee, thanks Carol!
Wow, this is eye-opening indeed! I have been putting this option off because I thought I’d get better marketing and distro from a publisher – and because of the high, initial capital outlay. I think that if my manuscript doesn’t get picked up by the end of this year, I’m going to go this route. Thanks for the great info!!
I’m so glad you found this helpful. There are a lot of myths about traditional publishing so my goal was to paint the real picture. Good luck with your book–no matter what you decide!
I’ve been passing your article around. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you very much, MJ!
This is a great article and it’s nice to hear it from someone who has gone through both publishing routes. I can’t believe how fast ebooks are taking over. Epublishing involves an aggressive marketing approach to get your book noticed (but like you said, if you traditionally published the book, it’d be the same.) Only this time, you have complete control.
I just approved the proof of my next book and was amazed at the math. Self-publishing cuts out a middleman. Even though it means more work, I think the rewards help justify self-publishing.
Excellent article and valid points made. I am delighted that the “gatekeepers” in traditional publishing can no longer stem the flow of books that don’t meet their criteria. Truly, some of the books offered by mainstream publishers are formulaic blather that leaves a reader cold. I suspect many worthy tomes ended up on slush piles. But no longer. Authors can take charge of their own works and let the reading public decide. Self-published authors take note. Proofread and edit your work!!! Those of you who don’t give an undeserved bad name to all of us.
Thanks for your article and the opportunity to share my opinion.
All excellent points. If 99.9% of authors are going to have to do assertive marketing and promotion, wouldn’t you rather be doing it for yourself?! A very comprehensive piece that I’m sharing, thanks!
I just read an argument for traditional publishers coming from an agent. I think it is funny now. Of course they advocate that route. Without authors going through traditional channels they are redundant.
Plus I like the idea of being independent and marketing my own book. Either way it is going to be hard work. I’d just like more control.
Hi David,
There are definitely pros and cons on both sides, though I’m with you on the issue of control. I have an author friend whose title was changed by a traditional publisher to something far less appealing. The same has happened to me which is one of the many reasons why I now publish all of my own books in house. Best of luck to you!
Thanks, Stephanie! Nice article and very succinct. You are inspiring and motivating, as always.
I have self-published the first book in The Homemaker Helper Series, as I wanted to maintain full control. I had thought about publishing traditionally but after doing my own research, found self-publishing to be more feasible. I too found out the majority of the marketing is up to the author, whether one self-publishes or not.
“The Homemaker Helper Series”
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All true – and you only need to satisfy 3 of these conditions at the most to want to go the self-publishing route!
Good point, Jeff. Thanks!
There are some pros to self-publishing, however, there’s cons, too.
1. Getting booked at bookstores doesn’t happen (except on rare occasions).
2. Getting foreign rights sales doesn’t happen as much.
3. Getting picked up by major book clubs–not sure this occurs, either.
4. Getting calls from national/international radio shows (live)–not so much.
5. Getting print media attention? Ditto.
Hi Cal, It’s true that it’s harder to get traditional bookstore placement with a self-published book, though authors can always pursue distributors who can get their books placement. Also, I’d argue that all of these items you listed would be easier to achieve if the author has built a platform and has some national recognition, which ultimately is the key to success in publishing no matter who produces the book. An author with some notoriety and a built-in audience is going to find that doors are much easier to open. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I found this link on a FB post by my friend, Chuck Barrett. I’m really glad I clicked on it. I’ve been debating whether to attempt the traditional publishing route or self publish and now I have a lot more mental ammunition with which to power my decision making process. Thanks!
I tried to get a book published. I have a binder full of rejection letters for my effort. I looked at self publishing, but it seemed a bit much. It may be time to revisit the idea.
The biggest benefit is to retain ownership over your own material. If you want to reach an audience you may have a better chance distributing the content piece by piece by blogging/tweeting/status updating than trying to sell the books. But the book is the master source of all the content you can release in so many different ways. It is nice to be in control and have the freedom to adapt to new media outlets.
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Great post! I’m still on both sides of this equation but I cover these exact points when other authors ask for advice. In fact I had started writing a blog about this some time back so that I could just send those who asked to the link. Now I’m just going to send them here. Well put, well done. Thanks. : )
Thanks very much, Rick!
It’s hard any way you go, especially for those of us with writing skills but lacking in the sparkling personality/know when & how to say-the-right-thing-gene. Right now I’m trying to divide my time between marketing my first self-published book while writing a second one for a traditional publisher. No advance, and their royalty percentages aren’t exciting, but I’ll get my work out there again–and History Press exclusively publishes what I write. I, too, know a few writers who are unhappy with their publishers. What I especially liked about your post is that consumers don’t care who the publisher is, and that gives me hope!
I currently have three titles through a traditional publisher and can tell you that, indeed, you do all the marketing yourself. Nor does working with a traditional publisher automatically make your books appear in any brick and mortar store; I’ve been working very, very hard to get our titles in the stores so that we may do book signings and events there, to no avail. On the major booksellers’ websites, yes. In any of their stores, no. All the rules are changing, to include the relationships between publishers and book buyers. I am the one who has gotten all the reviews and interviews, not the publisher.
And now the publisher is re-thinking their entire children’s department, so the fourth title – under contract with all materials long-ago submitted – is delayed. Our 4th and 5th titles in the series are currently without contract. A self-published friend of mine sent this link and now I am thinking very, very hard about going this route after all.
And I have to agree – consumers do NOT care who publishes the books….
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Kyrja. Sorry to hear about the contract delay, though perhaps it will be a catalyst for bigger and better opportunities. Good luck to you!
Fantastic article Stephanie. Since making the decision to self-publish my upcoming debut novel, What We Saw, I have felt an overwhelming sense of control. I enjoy the marketing and social media side of things, so it isn’t as much of a chore to me as it could be for some. Great to see the indie revolution well and truly underway!
Congratulations to you, Ryan. That control feels great, doesn’t it?!
Thanks for this very useful post. Your past experience on both sides of the debate adds to the value of your insights and suggestions.
Thanks you, Rick!
Thank you for this, Stephanie. Can you provide your recommendations for the top companies to assist end-to-end with self-publishing? From book design and editing through distribution?
I’m excited to publish, thanks to you
Hi Dana,
Well I’m a bit biased in my answer to this one (!) since Authority Publishing assists with the entire self-publishing process, including editing, custom cover design, interior design, distribution to the major online retailers and Ingram, printing, and ebook formatting. Details about our services are available here. If you’re looking for other suggestions, then I’d recommend that you hop on over to the Nonfiction Authors Network on LinkedIn and either ask the question or read through some of the archives to learn from participants’ experiences.
Thanks and good luck!
I ‘m new to publishing and would like to know how to start. I have written a few stories and I’m ready to put them into book form. Need your help.
HI Thomas, We have lots of blog posts and resources here for new authors. I hope you find some helpful information!