Should you self-publish or publish traditionally?

Whether you’ve completed your book or not, many concerns may halt your progress or cause you to wonder why you’re writing. Even if you’re writing for the love of it, you’ve likely wondered more than once how you’ll get it into your readers’ hands.

It’s not a thought you should brush aside, because you need a different plan depending on the route you take: traditional or independent.

What is the difference between traditional and independent publishing?

When you’re writing, you don’t think about the business side of things, and that’s okay until you actually reach the business side of things. The differences between traditional publishing and independent publishing (or self-publishing) are extensive, but I want to focus on a few key differences for the sake of this blog post:

These are some of the greater concerns when it comes to the differences between the two routes. In addition to those concerns, traditional publishing usually requires an agent if you hope to work with large publishers, queries and synopses are necessary for the process, contracts are brought in the mix, rights are an issue and a concern, vetting publishers if you’re not agenting becomes a priority, etc.

The list can go on. But from what you see in bullets, some of the differences require you to consider not just your dreams and ideal situations but also your reality. Let’s take a look at those.

Who handles the money?

Traditional

If you’re working with a publisher (not a vanity publisher), they do. They work with freelancers or in-house editors, designers, typesetters, proofreaders, and more. You are becoming part of the process and, in the end, someone else on their list of people to pay.

The first thing to understand is that a publisher is investing in you, which means that they will want to do things a certain way to sway the market they’re familiar with. This means you are not the sole voice over how your book looks or what changes may need to be made. The publisher has power, too, and while you have a say in a lot, they know things that will push your book closer to the market that will buy it.

Independent

If you’re publishing independently, however, you pay for it. You pay for everyone. More than that, you’re marketing for yourself. This means you get to make every decision, but it also means that you have to know where your book is going and form a plan that will take it there.

This is where your decisions carry the most weight. Many independent authors want to spend less and make more, and while being wary of what you’re spending is a sign of good frugality, pinching pennies until you reduce the quality of the services you receive is not a good decision.

This doesn’t mean spending more equates with better services, mind you, but don’t run toward a questionable service simply because it charges fewer zeros. This time, you’re investing in yourself.

Who decides when a book is ready to publish?

Traditional

You will have several voices telling you what to work on or change, and most of that will involve you making the changes. At least with your writing. More often than not, your book won’t be as ready as you think it is, and because the publisher is investing in you, they will be working toward preparing your book, the product, for the audience they know best. So you’ll have to be open-minded, and while you are expected to voice your concerns and opinions and assert them, you must be open to compromise.

Independent

People don’t know how many eyes land on a manuscript before publication, but in the traditional world, you may have a developmental editor, a copy editor, a mechanical editor, a typesetter, a proofreader, and perhaps a couple more. It breaks down to a budget issue and how much a publisher is investing, and that determines how many eyes and how much time goes into your book before sending it out, but the fact is that more eyes read your book than you think.

When publishing independently, you don’t want to hire so many people to work on a manuscript you have to market yourself. The easy and honest answer is to prepare a budget and save up for what you need instead of what you’ll settle for, but even vanity publishers don’t usually charge as much as you’d pay for all I mentioned above, not to mention a cover designer or PR consultant.

Still, it’s difficult to hire so many people on an average budget. So independent authors usually make cuts, as any budget demands (even in the traditional publishing world), and that’s okay. Make sure you prioritize the things you absolutely need and the things you should pay for.

How does the book actually sell?

Traditional

A traditional publisher has a team, an active audience, a reputation, and a plan. Through their contacts and all I just mentioned, your book will be seen by people who buy them. If it’s everything you and the publisher know it to be, it will make you both enough money to keep doing what you’re doing.

You will be responsible for part of this. What, exactly, depends on your representation and their plan for you. You have to be flexible enough to talk to blogs, newspapers, and more because, while the publisher has marketing power, you are the brand. The book is the product.

Independent

We’re back to sole responsibility here, where you have to put in all the effort, money, planning, etc. You do have the option of hiring someone to help you, but keep in mind that the difference here is that you’re hiring someone to focus on your book. This can be advantageous in the sense that you’re a client they need, whereas a publisher may or may not have all the time in the world for you.

So if you do hire someone, ensure they’re great at their job, but if you don’t, you need to do plenty of your own research (and should even if you hire someone) to understand your market before creating a game plan.

So which should I choose?

The traditional route is seemingly less expensive but more difficult, and the independent route is seemingly more expensive and less difficult. I use the word seemingly because, for traditional publishing, while you won’t be out as much in costs, you will be out a lot of time. If you publish independently, you will be out more money at first, but whether it’s less difficult depends on how prepared you are to do the groundwork.

Traditional

Submitting a manuscript to a publisher isn’t just about picking a publisher once a month and sending a generic query. It’s about research, genuine words, and lots of emails. You won’t be querying one publisher or agent. You’ll be querying twenty. Thirty. One hundred if you have to. And you will, if you truly care, be researching each agency and publisher. You will find the right person to send your email to. You will find what books they represent that make yours a good fit in their lineup.

And you’ll do this because (1) there are crazy people out there pretending to be publishers, and (2) you want someone to invest in your book, but you want someone you’re also willing to invest in. Book deals and contracts end up falling apart all the time. Don’t be one of them just because you didn’t want to look at their website or books they’ve published.

Independent

When you’re doing your own thing, you’re paying for all your freelancers, as I’ve mentioned. But you’re also responsible for all your sales. Marketing isn’t an after-the-fact thing to consider. It’s essential to the success of your book. No matter how good your book is, without knowing the market or understanding how your audience will come about wanting to buy your book, your book will not sell.

You have to know what people are buying. You must know where they are buying. And it’s very important to know what is making them buy. Facebook Ads and Twitter posts to the writing community will not sell your book.

Especially if you’re trying to sell to other writers for “support,” which I will tell you now is a terrible idea. But we’ll talk about that in a different blog post.

Publish Traditionally

So whether you should publish traditionally or independently, in the end, is your decision. Keep in mind, it’s not enough to choose one over the other because of the amount of work one will take. It’s also not enough to choose one direction because it’s the cheaper route.

Make the decision because it fits your goals and your dreams. Make the decision because you’re willing to put in the work. Make it because your weaknesses are being cared for, and your strengths will allow you to shine. Think hard about what you should do, and do what’s best for your book.

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