Traditional vs. self-publishing
There used to be a stigma associated with self-publishing your book. If you self-published your book, it meant a traditional publisher wasn’t willing to risk their reputation and money for your work. The bottom line is they didn’t think they could sell enough copies of your book to make it worth their while.
All that has changed dramatically.
Many authors now choose to publish their novels without a big company behind them for several reasons:
Keep control over the process
Make decisions regarding marketing
Retain more of the profits
Distribute far and wide as needed
Ensure the book never goes out of print
Some of the big publishing companies actually look for self-published authors who have made a name for themselves. It’s a sure-fire way for them to generate profits without taking much of the risk.
Of course, there are upsides to having a traditional publisher, too:
Provide an editor to polish your book
Create a cover that sells
Use their expertise to fine-tune everything from cover to writing an enticing book description
Give you that stamp of approval that comes with having a publisher
It’s very easy to publish your book these days, with almost no barrier to entry. Anyone can upload their Word document to Amazon and have it available as an eBook within 24-48 hours. And if you just want to check that box that says you have written a book, that’s perfectly fine. Similarly, if you’re writing your memoirs and only want to share them with your family members, you can do so without finding a traditional publisher.
On the other hand, if you want to make a living as an author, you have to take self-publishing as seriously as running your own business. That’s essentially what it is. You can hire an editor and a cover designer to create the best book you can possibly write. You can also learn how to market your book, garner reviews, and use advertising effectively to grow your readership.
If you publish with a traditional author, you’ll still have to do your own marketing, too. They won’t pay for prime real estate to have your book sit on an end cap at Barnes & Nobles. That’s where John Grisham is already placed.
Only you can make this happen for you, and self-publishing puts you in the driver’s seat from start to finish. With traditional publishing, you have a system in place to get you started, but there’s still a lot to learn.