Self Publishing v. Traditional

What’s going on, y’all? I’d like to talk today about a question that I get asked a lot working in publishing. People often ask if they should self publish or go the traditional route. 

And it’s a good question. It’s important for you to know who you’re trying to talk to and how you want to reach them. 

But to me, it only boils down to two things: how patient are you and how much do you want to do yourself?

There’s more to the decision, of course, but those are the two things I think are the most pertinent to the decision. 

If you choose to go the traditional route, it’s going to take a while, maybe a few years, depending on the path you choose. If you want to publish with a large press, you’re going to find an agent, which will take some time. Going with an independent press could be faster and not need an agent, but you do sacrifice some of your national reach, if that’s a goal. But most publishers are acquiring books that will be published anywhere from 6 months to 2 years from the time the contract is signed. Add in the time it takes to actually sign with an agent and/or get a contract from a press, and you get a ballpark on the time frame. And you do lose some creative control of your work. 

If you self publish, you, obviously, get to work right away, and you have total creative control.

That one is pretty simple to explain. 

However, when we get to the second part of the equation, it gets a little murkier. It is true that you can publish quicker yourself and you get to keep all the royalties. The kicker, and it’s a rather large one, is that you have to do all the work too. 

Publishers have a distribution network and sales teams. They need to sell your book to keep the lights on. An agent gets a portion of your royalties, and they like your book, so they push hard as well. Publicists help with talking about your book and finding the places to do it. And, more importantly, a publisher has a distribution network. 

Now, you do give up most of your royalties to pay for all that, but you get the farthest reach with your work and the highest sales numbers. 

On the self-publishing trail, you have to do all that yourself or pay others to do it for you. 

That’s the nuts and bolts of it. It’s simple, but it’s a complicated decision. It all depends on what you want to do with your book. Whether you’re after more money, more control over your work, sales numbers, etc., you have to use that to choose the best path yourself. The average book, all the way across the spectrum, sells around 3000 copies. There’s a lot to this decision. Do the research and pick what you think is best for your project.