The first thing I ask my clients is, “What is your reason for publishing?”
TIME usually becomes the biggest factor in the decision. How much time and effort do you want to spend on your writing career?
Vanity
A vanity press is an organization that will take whatever you give them, make copies or prints for you, bind it to look like a book and call it a book. They charge large sums of money, and you get very little for the cost—a few copies and maybe a poster. They prey on people who are rushing to the end product without any real desire for quality. These writers only want to be able to say they published a book. If there wasn’t a market for it, vanity presses wouldn’t exist. If you are a serious writer, avoid these enterprises.
Traditional
At the other extreme are the traditional publishers. Think HarperCollins, Scholastic and Penguin-Random House. This model has served readers and writers for many years, and they will be around for many years to come. If your goal is to get rich, a big publisher is not a guarantee. Traditional publishing is a money-making business, and they will do their best to make money—for you as well as for themselves.
Your investment with the traditional publishers will be time. It takes time to pitch agents, then time for them to pitch a publisher. Then the process of producing the manuscript for sale takes time. Patience is the name of the game.
I never understood why publishers take such a large portion of the profits from a book until I got into the publishing side of this business. Now it makes so much more sense to me.
Each publisher is different, and each contract may have its nuances. But, think about it: a full-service publisher pays for all levels of editing, cover design, book design, marketing (albeit often not much in that area anymore), printing, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution. The cost will quickly add up when you try to set up those activities on your own.
The author may not make much money per book sold with a traditional, but the reach that publisher has and the distribution can turn your sales into the tens of thousands.
Self-publishing
The great thing about self-publishing is anyone can do it. The problem with self-publishing is anyone can do it.
When done right, it’s a great alternative. Sadly, too many people have written something at midnight, determined it was great on the first draft, and slapped it up on Amazon the next morning. No editing, no formatting, no proofreading. You will understand what I’m talking about if you’ve ever purchased one of these books. It’s disappointing and a waste of money. I even read one where the authors simply put a disclaimer in the front along the lines of, “We know there are errors, so don’t bother commenting about them on the reviews.”
Uh? How are you supposed to take someone seriously who cannot be bothered to correct known mistakes? And in the digital age, those are easy to fix.
If you’re a serious writer, then take the time to make your work readable. You probably spent countless hours on your book (or years, as in my case). Spend a little more time and make it fit for the public. I beg you not to cut corners. There are things worth spending money on. Editors are one of those places.
It will take considerable time and energy. A lot of steps go into publishing and some things you don’t know you don’t know.
Indie/Hybrid Publishing
Independent publishing (or indie press) is becoming more common. Smaller presses with fewer staff members are standing up every day and providing a great alternative for writers who want to focus on writing and leave more of the business end to someone else. But there are drawbacks to indies as well.
Some of the good things first: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of people out there who have already figured out how to navigate the ins and outs of publishing.
An Indie will have established relationships with printers, editors, cover artists, book designers, and more, saving you the time of having to search and vet them.
Often, independent publishers can edit and format your manuscript faster and get it into the market a lot quicker than a traditional publisher.
Now, on the negative side, indie presses usually don’t have a large reach. Getting books into libraries and bookstores takes the work of distributors, warehouses and fulfillment offices. Big publishing houses can afford to outsource those items; smaller publishers usually cannot. They will rely on Amazon as the main sales venue, using a company like IngramSpark to make titles available to bookstores and libraries. But unless the publisher pays extra, Ingram distribution is simply your title in a list of many titles, with no agent pushing it for you.
The price tag of an indie can be shocking—$5,000-$10,000 for one book is not uncommon. Only you can determine what your time is worth. If you have that type of disposable income, hybrid publishing may be the best option for you.
Summary
Take your time and research your options. This is one decision not to rush into.