Quills and Questions #2: Traditional Vs. Self-Publishing?

Going through a publisher, or publishing the book yourself? 

This is a choice that all starting authors must choose, and it’s only been within the last decade or so that self-publishing has become more popular. 

I’m here to tell you that there is no right or wrong answer. 

Every publisher, just like every platform, is different. 

Now, in my experience, I have leaned away from traditional publishing houses for a number of reasons. Some of which include: Spending thousands of dollars (that I don’t have) up front for the services a publisher provides. Not owning the copyright to my books. Having a set time limit for how long my books are allowed to sell before they are deemed “good sellers or bad sellers.” Or even having them take anywhere between 70% to 90% of my profits each time a copy sells. 

Now, not all publishers fall under the categories above. The big publishing houses typically will pay you up front for a set number of copies. Sweet! You just got paid for 10,000 copies, and if you sell more than they were expecting, you start to earn commissions off future sales! But getting your books into big publishers is difficult.  

Smaller publishers follow some of the quarrels I had above. One publisher may charge you up front for services, but then you get all the royalties from your book after. Another may charge you nothing for services, but then take $14.50 from your $15.00 novel. I ran into a Colorado author a few years ago, who told me that his publisher only kept his books on shelves for 8 weeks, then took them down. And then? They wouldn’t put them back up. 

Not all small publishers are this way. Remember the golden rule: DO YOUR RESEARCH! Find a publisher and delve into their terms and conditions, make sure that what their offering is fair to you. 

I had a hybrid publisher for my first book. I paid him up front for services, and then once the book was published, he gave me my copyright. The book was in my name. Instead of going through small publishing again and risking a different publisher keeping the copyright to my books, I decided to self-publish the rest of the Isle of the Dark Series. 

Self-publishing, I have found, is nice! Because everything is on your schedule, and services, such as Amazon KDP, are free to use. However, Amazon does do one of the things I mentioned above: 

They take about 90% of your profit. 

Although it's free to upload your book, because they handle all manufacturing and shipping, they take most of the money from the sale. 

You can go down the more difficult route, like I have: I buy my books from Amazon in bulk at a discount, then go out and sell them for full retail value. However, that requires you to have proper sales licenses for your state, sometimes insurance, and to handle all taxes from sales made. A lot more work, but worth it if you want to see some money back. (Unless you are wildly popular right from the start.) 

Amazon is not the only self-publishing platform out there! I’ve heard mixed reviews on D2D, and I know there are many more. So again, take your time to see what all these different self-services offer. 

Another thing to remember about self-publishing, you have to do everything yourself. Editing, formatting, cover art, margins, marketing– just to name a few. I speak from experience when I say figuring out formatting is AWFUL. (At least for me. Maybe I’m just not very good at it…) So that’s certainly a point in favor of traditional publishing: They will take care of all that technical stuff for you.

You’ll need to weigh what your pros and cons are when you're ready to publish. Ready for the hard work for more profit? Or maybe you want an easier process and don’t care how much money you’ll earn from it. Or maybe you’ll find a sweet spot in the middle. Who knows!

I could go on and on. However, to spare you a college essay, I will stop here. 

If you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out to me on my website’s contact page! I will answer you, and maybe the topic will become a future Quill’s and Questions Post! ;)