While chatting to University of Canberra student Morgan at OzComicCon Canberra, I realised how daunting the prospect of publishing can be for new players.
Broadly speaking, you have three options:
- Traditional publishing
- Self-publishing
- Hybrid publishing
Hybrid publishing
If you’re considering hybrid publishing, do your research. Lots of research.
While many are legit, there’s also a lot of crooks out there and this is where they like to congregate.
If you get it wrong you can easily find yourself out of pocket by tens of thousands of dollars with little to show for it. I’ve spoken to authors who’ve lost $100k and more. Many have even lost the rights to their own work.
That’s not to say there aren’t good guys aren’t out there, there are, but it can be difficult to tell them apart from the ones looking to empty your pockets.
If you go hybrid, make sure you know what you’re getting. Gain plenty of industry knowledge so you know if you’re getting value for money.
The difference between traditional and self-publishing
The main difference between tradition and self-publishing is that with traditional publishing, someone else turns your manuscript into a book.
The bigger publishers will have the resources to get it into bricks-and-mortal bookstores, but the smaller indie-publishers most likely won’t.
For some authors, the kudos of saying you have a publisher is reward enough.
If you’re prepared to learn how to turn your manuscript into a book, aren’t desperate to get it into bricks-and-mortar bookshops, and don’t need the kudos, self-publishing is a viable alternative. There’s a learning curve, certainly, but you only need to learn it once.
Generally speaking, publishing has four broad steps:
- Producing the manuscript (always the author’s responsibility)
- Project managing the manuscript into a book (the publisher’s or self-publisher’s responsibility)
- Distribution (the publisher’s or self-publisher’s responsibility)
- Marketing and selling the book (mostly the author, but the publisher may contribute)
Distribution into bricks-and-mortar bookstores is about the only thing a traditional publisher can do better than a self-publisher.
What you have to do for yourself
Authors are always responsible for producing the best manuscript they possibly can in the time they have available.
Gone are the days when a publisher will work with you to produce a great story. What that means is that, depending on your skills, you may end up paying for editing to get your manuscript up to a submittable standard.
You can only expect a publisher to pay for a professional editor once they take the manuscript on – at least if they’re a big publisher. Smaller publishers may do it in-house (ie, the owner themselves).
Both traditional and self-published authors are also responsible for selling their own books. You generally do this through:
- online promotion (your blog, social media accounts, interviews and guest blogs, etc.)
- in-person events like writers’ festivals, conventions, book launches and book signings (most of which you’ll probably have to organise yourself even if you’re traditionally published).
In short, marketing and promotion is largely in your domain, so if you’re thinking of going with a traditional publisher because they’ll do all the marketing for you, think again. It’s on you.
What traditional publishers will do for you
If you’re a big-name author like George RR Martin, your publisher will invest heavily in marketing and distribution. For anyone not already making the publisher a fortune, the best you might hope for is:
- a spot in a trade magazine (maybe)
- an announcement in the publisher’s newsletter
- a listing on the publisher’s website
- guidance in areas like social media marketing, websites and blogging, and getting your name out there through writers’ festivals and traditional media
As a general rule, publishers are not going to spend time or money on you until you can prove you can sell your books, and lots of them.
What they will do is take on the project management tasks and associated financial risks of turning your manuscript into a book. That means they’ll pay for editing, layout and design, a book cover (or do them in-house), printing, etc.
What they get in return is full control and most of the profits.
If they’re a big publisher they may distribute your book into bricks-and-mortal bookstores, though you’ll want to ensure that’s in your contract if it’s the main reason you want to go with a traditional publisher.
Few small publishers can afford the expense of the large print runs required for physical distribution. What you’re gaining with a small publisher is a more personal relationship and their personal knowledge and publishing skills.
Either way, publishers make all the decisions, and rightly so considering they’re taking all the financial risks.
Considering that, they also make most of the money, but hopefully that’s balanced out with significantly greater sales.
Self-publishing
If you’re prepared to learn how to publish your own books, you’ll find you can do it cheaply and easily (and it gets easier and cheaper with every new book you publish). You just need to be prepared to master the learning curve, which can be daunting at first.
With self-publishing you keep full control over everything. You:
- choose a cover you like (or design your own if you have the skills or are prepared to learn them)
- pick your own editor and proofreader etc.
- decide who to distribute through (there are quite a few options, and most cost nothing – see the resources section below)
- what marketing and promotion to do, as it suits you
There’s no pressure to sell beyond the pressure you put on yourself.
You’ll also gain experience, knowledge and industry confidence, as well as considerably more money per sale.
Even if you sell fewer copies you may actually make more money, and as you’re in charge of your own marketing choices there’s every chance you’ll make similar (or higher) sales.
Similarly, if you don’t sell enough books your publisher could dump you, and I know more than a few authors who’ve been dumped because they’re not selling enough books. One got dumped after the second book in her trilogy didn’t do well (they never even published the third book), and another after he’d already published three trilogies with his publisher.
What’s best for you?
Traditional publishing takes the burden of publishing away from you (mostly in the time it takes, the costs, and in providing the skills/knowledge you may not have yet). What you give up is control and a large amount of self-determination.
Conversely, if you’re prepared to learn some basic project management skills and gain some industry knowledge, it’s pretty simple to self-publish these days. You can even do it for free easily enough.
When it comes down to it, publishing is just project management combined with a little time and some (potentially zero) financial risk. The more you know and the more people you can rely on (you might be best friends with an editor or cover artist, for instance), the fewer the financial risks, the easier and faster publishing gets, and more confident you become.
Choose your own path.
