Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing?

By Wendy Scheuring, The Author’s Writer @January 16, 2024, Rev. May 9, 2024

Your manuscript is finally completed and edited. Now you start looking for publishing options: What choices do you have?

We can sum up the publishing process succinctly, simply by stating that there are two basic options: Self-publishing and traditional publishing. (Of course, there are many options, but we’ll talk about the main two in this blog.)

Let’s begin with traditional publishing.

Traditional publishers are in the business of “selling books.”

If you are writing nonfiction, you need to be a well-known person, a celebrity, or a person that has been affected by or involved in a highly publicized event if you want to be accepted by a traditional publisher.

If you are a new novelist, you will have to write something exciting, different, and intriguing, something never seen before. You must write about trends and themes that are popular and will most likely sell. You may already have a following and a paid email subscription list.

The Big 5 traditional publishers are: Penguin Random House, Hachette, Harper Collins, MacMillan, and Simon & Schuster, which was recently bought out by Paramount, according to https://wordsrated.com/the-big-five-publishers-statistics/

If you’d like a good idea of the types of books that are making the New York Times Bestseller List, check out their latest link: https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/

In other words, just know that the competition to get your book into one of these traditional publishing houses is fierce.

Once your nonfiction manuscript is complete (or at least three chapters for a fiction book) and edited, you will need to find an interested agent. If the agent believes the manuscript is saleable, they will get in touch with their contacts at various publishing houses and try to sell your manuscript.

Polishing your manuscript and finding the right agent takes time. Now, if your book is accepted, do know that it takes about two years for it to be published. Your manuscript will be edited by several editors. Once it is in proper form, the publishing house will create the cover for you, do the formatting, and print and distribute the book.

In essence, with the traditional publisher, you will have less control of your finished product, including your book cover. Do know that traditional publishers do not accept books written with the help of AI.

Your profits will come in the form of royalties (after a cut for your agent and the publisher). Advances are rare for most authors today and are quite exceptional.

Self-publishing is on the other end of the publishing spectrum.

While traditionally published books are highly scrutinized and go through a thorough editing process, many self-published books are not reviewed by an editor. Many times, self-published authors will enlist the help of family, friends, beta readers, and/or do the editing themselves. Some authors, however, do hire editors to put their best book on the market.

Let’s talk about the two most common and well-known avenues for self-publishing.

Many self-published authors think downloading their books onto well-known online bookstores, such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (eBook option only at the time of the writing of this blog), will get them into a bigger market and the result will be great sales. Do know, however, that the market in these types of venues is quite flooded. You will need to rely on book promotions and a great cover (your packaging) to gain attention. Your success will also depend upon your genre. Some genres, like romance, do well on Amazon KDP.

Some self-published authors use Ingram Spark, a book printer and distributor, that assists with getting your book into those online bookstores and even brick and mortar stores.

Depending upon how self-published authors choose to publish, they may also want to purchase an ISBN(s) and register their books with the U.S. Copyright Office. Do know that books written with AI will not be accepted for copyright registration. Only human writers can obtain U.S. copyrights at this time. If your book appears on Amazon, for example, and you used AI to write it or even for ideas, you must disclose this to your readers.

In summary, the focus of traditional publishing is book sales. Book content is more regulated, and some traditional books can be edited to sound rather formulaic. You, as the author, may not have as much say as you like with the finished product.

With self-publishing, an author has more choices, more freedom, yet more responsibility when it comes to book content, book covers, and book distribution.

However, whether you are traditionally publishing or self-publishing your book, you will need to dedicate time and energy to promoting it.

Are you writing a book? The Author’s Writer can help you wherever you are in the process, from idea to publishing.

Need help with sales? The Author’s Writer has a helpful book entitled, 40 Day Countdown to Launch: Promote Your Book Organically as well as an online author book promotions support group!