Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing
The two most prevalent options for authors to get published are traditional publishing and self-publishing.
Traditional publishing
Traditional publishing is a very slow process. In traditional publishing, the author completes their manuscript, writes a query letter or a proposal, and submits these documents to a publishing house, or he or she has the literary agent do this for them. An editor reads it, considers whether it is right for the publishing house, and decides either to reject it (leaving the author free to offer it to another publisher) or to publish it.
If the publishing house decides to publish the book, the house buys the rights from the writer and pays him or her an advance on future royalties. The house puts up the money to design and package the book, prints as many copies of the book as it thinks will sell, markets the book, and distributes the finished book to the public.
With traditional publishing, a manuscript can take years to become a book. First, an author may have to pitch the manuscript to several publishing houses before it is picked up which could take months considering the bigger houses can take up to six months to work through the multitude of queries on editors' desks. Most likely you will have to try several publishing houses before you get one to show interest.
Then, if a house decides to take your book, the actual process of producing the book can take another year if your book is fiction. Nonfiction books relevant to current world events might be pushed through more quickly. So, the whole process can take up to three 3 years which is crazy in a world where you can publish with Createspace or IngramSpark and your book can be on sale within a few days and then you can be paid a couple of months later.
With traditional publishing, there are no upfront financial costs, and there's usually some kind of advance against royalties, which are usually 7-25% of net book price. So, if you get an advance say of $10,000, you will need to earn more than $10,000 out of your royalty rate on book sales before you get any more money. Should you choose to go this route beware of potentially prohibitive contract clauses where you lose most of the rights to your work. Once you sign a contract your work essentially belongs to the publisher, and it may belong to the publisher for the life of copyright which is the life of the author plus 70 years after you die.
Self-Publishing
The self-publishing process is a bit different. The term self-publishing implies doing everything yourself. As a self-publishing author, the author becomes the publisher. The author must proofread the final text and provide the funds required to publish the book, as well as the camera-ready artwork. The author is responsible for marketing and distributing the book, filling orders, and running advertising campaigns.
The self-publishing process has evolved so much that no longer do author have print hundreds of copies of their book and have them sit around in storage, sometimes for months waiting on them to sell! Today, the Print on Demand (POD) used by some self-publishing companies means that authors can have fewer copies printed—only as many as they need, in fact.
With self-publishing, you can literally have a finished book in your hands within six months and if you decide to produce an eBook, this can be reduced to weeks, or even days. Of course, authors have to pay for this service, which raises the issue of money. When you self-publish, you pay for everything—design, editing, printing, advertising, distribution so you’ll need a budget upfront if you want a professional result. I’ve worked with authors who have paid up to $20k to self-publish their book. This is senseless to me! At WDP I don’t believe you should pay anywhere near that amount to publish a book. However, if you intend to earn a living or supplement your income from your books then you want your book to be professionally done so you will need to make an investment in your product.
You have total creative control over content and design. Once you’re ready to publish, you upload your files to Amazon, in Ingram Spark. You can approve the formatting online or, you can order a copy and it might take a couple of weeks. The entire process is incredibly quick as opposed to traditional publishing.
Higher royalties. If you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99 (on Amazon), you can get a 70% royalty. Traditional royalty rates usually fit in the 7-25% bracket, averaging 10%. So basically, you need to sell far fewer books in order to make the same amount of money with self-publishing.
Self-publishing is a big commitment and will demand a lot of your time. You may benefit from a self-publishing assistant like WDP. As your personal Author’s Assistant, I can coordinate parts of the publishing process and coordinate and assist in the marketing of the book once it is published. I specialize in assisting authors with all phases of self-publishing, so whether you need help with Editing, Book Covers, Print or eBook Formatting, Book Trailer, Book Marketing, Author Websites or Testimony/Sermon to Book, Manuscript Preparation or Printing Coordination & Distribution I am here to help.
Are you willing to play the waiting game in order to earn a large advance from a traditional publisher or is quick turnaround and control of your manuscript more important? Whichever way you choose to publish a document that's free of spelling and grammatical errors is more likely to catch the attention of a publishing house editor or satisfy the customers.
Traditional publishing
Traditional publishing is a very slow process. In traditional publishing, the author completes their manuscript, writes a query letter or a proposal, and submits these documents to a publishing house, or he or she has the literary agent do this for them. An editor reads it, considers whether it is right for the publishing house, and decides either to reject it (leaving the author free to offer it to another publisher) or to publish it.
If the publishing house decides to publish the book, the house buys the rights from the writer and pays him or her an advance on future royalties. The house puts up the money to design and package the book, prints as many copies of the book as it thinks will sell, markets the book, and distributes the finished book to the public.
With traditional publishing, a manuscript can take years to become a book. First, an author may have to pitch the manuscript to several publishing houses before it is picked up which could take months considering the bigger houses can take up to six months to work through the multitude of queries on editors' desks. Most likely you will have to try several publishing houses before you get one to show interest.
Then, if a house decides to take your book, the actual process of producing the book can take another year if your book is fiction. Nonfiction books relevant to current world events might be pushed through more quickly. So, the whole process can take up to three 3 years which is crazy in a world where you can publish with Createspace or IngramSpark and your book can be on sale within a few days and then you can be paid a couple of months later.
With traditional publishing, there are no upfront financial costs, and there's usually some kind of advance against royalties, which are usually 7-25% of net book price. So, if you get an advance say of $10,000, you will need to earn more than $10,000 out of your royalty rate on book sales before you get any more money. Should you choose to go this route beware of potentially prohibitive contract clauses where you lose most of the rights to your work. Once you sign a contract your work essentially belongs to the publisher, and it may belong to the publisher for the life of copyright which is the life of the author plus 70 years after you die.
Self-Publishing
The self-publishing process is a bit different. The term self-publishing implies doing everything yourself. As a self-publishing author, the author becomes the publisher. The author must proofread the final text and provide the funds required to publish the book, as well as the camera-ready artwork. The author is responsible for marketing and distributing the book, filling orders, and running advertising campaigns.
The self-publishing process has evolved so much that no longer do author have print hundreds of copies of their book and have them sit around in storage, sometimes for months waiting on them to sell! Today, the Print on Demand (POD) used by some self-publishing companies means that authors can have fewer copies printed—only as many as they need, in fact.
With self-publishing, you can literally have a finished book in your hands within six months and if you decide to produce an eBook, this can be reduced to weeks, or even days. Of course, authors have to pay for this service, which raises the issue of money. When you self-publish, you pay for everything—design, editing, printing, advertising, distribution so you’ll need a budget upfront if you want a professional result. I’ve worked with authors who have paid up to $20k to self-publish their book. This is senseless to me! At WDP I don’t believe you should pay anywhere near that amount to publish a book. However, if you intend to earn a living or supplement your income from your books then you want your book to be professionally done so you will need to make an investment in your product.
You have total creative control over content and design. Once you’re ready to publish, you upload your files to Amazon, in Ingram Spark. You can approve the formatting online or, you can order a copy and it might take a couple of weeks. The entire process is incredibly quick as opposed to traditional publishing.
Higher royalties. If you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99 (on Amazon), you can get a 70% royalty. Traditional royalty rates usually fit in the 7-25% bracket, averaging 10%. So basically, you need to sell far fewer books in order to make the same amount of money with self-publishing.
Self-publishing is a big commitment and will demand a lot of your time. You may benefit from a self-publishing assistant like WDP. As your personal Author’s Assistant, I can coordinate parts of the publishing process and coordinate and assist in the marketing of the book once it is published. I specialize in assisting authors with all phases of self-publishing, so whether you need help with Editing, Book Covers, Print or eBook Formatting, Book Trailer, Book Marketing, Author Websites or Testimony/Sermon to Book, Manuscript Preparation or Printing Coordination & Distribution I am here to help.
Are you willing to play the waiting game in order to earn a large advance from a traditional publisher or is quick turnaround and control of your manuscript more important? Whichever way you choose to publish a document that's free of spelling and grammatical errors is more likely to catch the attention of a publishing house editor or satisfy the customers.
