Self Published VS. Traditional: What's Best For You?

Writing a book is hard enough, but it can be daunting and downright scary trying to decide the best way to publish your novel. This week we’re comparing the two options so you can decide what’s right for you. We ourselves are self-publishing our debut, to learn more on why we chose it, check out this blog here

First, let’s talk about traditional publishing. This route involves querying your manuscript to a literary agent or publishing company to take on your project. Querying is a one-page letter talking about you, your manuscript, its comparisons, and why someone should love your story. Typically, it’s much harder to query to a publishing company which is why it’s recommended to work with a literary agent. An agent will work with you to pitch your novels to publishing companies to make your manuscript into reality. Publishing companies take on the editing, formatting, cover, and any other cost in publishing a novel. 

You also have the credibility of being backed by a publishing agency. Your novel is more likely to be taken seriously and more reliable when published traditionally. Especially if it is published through a big house name like Penguin, Little Brown, etc. 

But it’s not that easy. 

The querying process can take days, weeks, even years to acquire a literary agent, if at all. And that does not guarantee a publishing house will take your novel. Oftentimes literary agents are looking for specific manuscripts which you can usually find on their website or social media. You will usually submit a query letter, and often the first five pages or even first chapter. An agent will usually spend at most a few seconds with your query letter making the process pretty brutal, as agents can get hundreds of query letters at a time. Most agents allow submissions on querytracker.net (which is free to use but has premium features). 

So when querying, be prepared to face a lot of rejection. It’s truly not for the faint of heart. These rejections are usually template-based, if a response is even given at all. There’s debate in the writing community if authors should use a template based query letter or customize it to each agent, so if this option appeals to you, research the pros and cons to both. 

Another downside to traditional publishing is that the publishing house owns your novel. Once you sign a contract, publishers get the final say in all decisions. They can decide to change the title of your novel, erase/change certain aspects of the novel, the cover design, everything. But most importantly, they decide how big and how long your book will be on the shelves in bookstores. And once they pull it from the shelves, it’s gone. Thankfully most books these days can still be purchased online so you aren’t completely cut off but at that point the publishing company probably feels they’ve earned what they could and are now moving on to the next thing. 

Essentially, authors get what is called an advance. They will guess how much they believe they can earn off of your manuscript and give you a sum of money upfront. If you surpass the advance in profits, then you start earning royalties. Most of the time, authors do not surpass this amount but that does not necessarily mean the book was a failure. 

For self-publishing, you have complete and total control over every aspect of the publishing and distribution process. You have the freedom to make all decisions and the success of your novel is based on your efforts and quality of work.  These days indie authors have a lot more options in terms of marketing and being spotlighted by brick and mortar stores though some places do still shy away from self-published novels. 

For self-publishing, it’s a work of drive and heart. You still have to go through every step a traditional publishing house would use to make your book as professional looking as possible, or your book will fall through. This is where it gets expensive. For a successful self published novel launch, you will need: 

• Professional edit (line edit, developmental edit, etc.)

• Professional formatting (you can do this yourself but you will need a professional software such as Vellum) 

• Sensitivity read (some people would argue this is optional, I however do not)

• A professional website

• A distribution platform (Ingram Spark, Amazon KDP, Barnes and Noble, etc.)

• A business license (again, not every SP author does this, I think it’s essential for looking professional)

• Professional cover art

Like I said earlier, indie novels can make it into brick and mortar stores but you have to consider what the best options for your novel. For example, some stores like Target, require a certain percentage of discount so they can earn a profit for stocking your novel in their shelves. This needs to factor into the cost of production, your profit, and how much you would have to charge on your book to be able to even make somewhat of a profit (which, sadly, unless you overcharge on your novel, your profit will likely be less than $2). 

Websites like Ingram Spark have programs that tell you how much the production of your novels would cost and how much you would have to charge to earn the profit you would like. 

There are ways of lowering the costs of self-publishing without cutting corners which I will explain in another blog. But the main takeaway is that you are responsible for every aspect. You make all decisions and you earn all profits. 

Whether you go traditional or self-publish, both options have their pros and cons but both can be successful so do what you feel works best for you. Good luck on your publishing endeavors and I will see you all next time!