A Digestible, Quick Guide to Learn Self-Publish Vs. Traditional Publish

Hello friends and lovers,

Although I’m brand new to the game and have yet to publish my book, you can rest assured this post is simply dedicated to some of my thoughts on the matter. I’ve completed hours of research and my hope is that this may help someone, if they are planning on publishing their own novel. This is in no way to gear anyone toward a specific side, I just want to share a few things I’ve noticed along the way in my search.

Now that we can push that aside, let’s dive in!

Traditional Publishing

Most of us are aware of traditional publishing - it consists of submitting your manuscript to a publishing house. If signed on with the publishing house, they will do the following for you.

• Publish Novel

• They will market your book. Although the Writer, also, needs to complete marketing on their own, it is expected to help sell copies alongside the publishers.

• Book Cover: the agency chooses this, oftentimes you will have no choice.

• Publishers can offer an advance that can range from 5k-20k. Large range of course, but keep in mind this is not a standard practice. A new writer might not be offered any type of advance.

• Royalties: Your Royalties are earned after you have paid the advance back in copies, if you were to receive an advance. It’s possible your advance is the only money you see in a year or longer.

  • You earn about 15%-20% of royalties from your book.

Self Publishing

Self-Publishing - this consists of the writer publishing and taking this burden on their own. Although the process is a lone one, you can always find supportive communities on Facebook or Instagram. However, self-publishing consists of the following:

• Publish your novel

  • Amazon KDP

  • Ingram Spark

  • Barnes and Noble

  • Apple Books

  • Kobo Books

  • Google Play Books

• Market entirely on your own—very heavily.

• Book cover: this is entirely your cost, but also 100% your creative say.

• Proof reading, editing- this will be your cost as well. It’ll be a great idea to hire editors and proof readers to fine tune your final drafts.

• Royalties: Normally when you self publish an e-book, you are looking at 60%-70% of royalties you are keeping, which is much higher than the royalties you can receive through the traditional publishing route.

• Self publishing can eventually help lead you to a traditional publisher.

These are the examples of research I have come across during my journey of figuring out whether I want to self-publish or not.

At first, I thought I would enjoy traditional publishing. My writers, I feel unsure about this. I truly value the aspect of creative control, and wonder if self-publishing would allow such liberties, (at the cost of more vested time in personal expenses and marketing)

Now, marketing scares me. I’m deathly afraid of it. I’ve marketed before, but not to the level I will be expecting.

If I go traditionally, I will still need to market and help make a name for myself — granted I could have an agency that helps market, but they have many more authors to think about. Maybe more successful authors that they want to build up. Not sure. I’m not willing to take that chance and pay a middle man, if I will end up doing most of the marketing on my own anyway.

I don’t know about you, but at the moment I feel as though I will be going the self-publishing route. Yes, expenses will be completely out of my pocket. However, what dream doesn’t mean you have to invest in, right? For example:

• I love traveling, but it ain’t cheap! I invest in the memories I want to create. I love staying in luxury hotels and because of that, I just save my pennies up for a much longer time. I see it as an investment in something that I enjoy and it’s worth the patience and dedication it takes to due so.

• I love baking, but I need to buy tools in order to make beautiful pastries that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to make. (Small investment example, but same idea.)

• I love photographing, but if I want it as a career, I need to invest in a professional camera. I can’t expect to use my iPhone camera.

• I love streaming shows… ok I think you get the idea.

Again this is a quick guide to tell you differences between the two. As I learn more I will re-visit this topic and add onto it or create a new post.

Comment below with any tips, thoughts or perspectives on the matter! We’re a community and we can learn and thrive with our collected interests.

Will you be going through the self-publishing route, or the traditional publishing route? There is no right or wrong, only what makes you most comfortable.