Self-publishing vs Traditional

This is part of my final report in my Tech Writing class and I thought it would be good to share my findings with you.

Self- Publishing versus Traditional categories

Creative control

            This is self-publishing’s greatest strength and appeal to all kinds of authors and creators as they control all aspects of their product. They decide what designs to have, how to make the book, lines to cross, what to hold back, how to market it, who to market it to, and when you have it out. Traditional publishing is what decides what decisions you want stay, change, or are completely expunged from the product. This can discourage someone to publish their product as their identity can be stripped away to different degrees to the point where it’s the traditional publisher’s book now and not the author’s or in some cases, not get their book published at all. This is the most common reason why traditionally published authors and self-published authors on the Authors’ Exodus Group on LinkedIn got together as they are sick of not having a good enough say in their books.

Mistakes

            This can depend in some cases. If a self-publisher makes a mistakes when it comes to editing, marketing, or overall design, it is their fault and their fault alone. This can either empower the author to do better next time, make them not want to publish anymore, or become delusional and say that the mistakes aren’t mistakes. The self-published author can avoid mistakes by paying for professional authors, asking for help from fellow friends and family, using software like Grammarly, or just doing it themselves if they are proficient at it. With traditional publishers, they have editors and professional designers to make sure the book to up to par with others. If they ever make a mistake, it is not the author’s fault this time and the traditional publisher will make up for it. Now this all depends on who the author is and how they take failure and mistake making. Mistakes in works can give authors and makers bad names for not polishing their products as best as they can be and even give their name a permanent negative stigma. If you are good at making mistakes and learning from them, then self-publishing is not a bad choice to make, but neither is traditional if you’re the opposite or the same.

Marketing

            This is another category that can depend greatly on the author. Traditional publishers already have a network and audience to inform about a new book that is coming out so the author already has people that will take interest in their book. A self-published author has to build up their own audience through their own networks and methods. This can be either a great challenge or no sweat at all. If you’re new to marketing and don’t know where to show your book, then you’ll have trouble selling your book to anyone. On the other hand, if you already have an audience through social media, are good at marketing, know where to spread your work, or have people in the industry who can show your work to the right people then marketing will be no trouble at all. Even traditional publishing authors still need to do a little bit of this on their own to really push their books out there. In conclusion, if you’re good at getting out there then choose self-publishing however if you aren’t, then pick traditional. Again, it all depends on the author themselves.

Time to Market

          In this mini category that links itself to marketing, time to market or time for the product to get to the marketplace, self-publishers can get their work out as fast as they want to. Traditional publishing authors have to wait for their publisher to go through their book and fix and change different things which could take months or even years in some cases. This can be difficult for the author as the book they are publishing could be banking on something that is current and fresh in people’s minds. They need that currently trending topic to really make their work sell otherwise it’ll just look outdated and behind the times. You could say that this is the fault of the author making dated material, but it’s their work so it really depends on them. This is also a trend people follow as people like to publisher work pertaining to current events. A great example is the recently best-selling book Reasons to Vote for Democrats by Michael J. Knowles, which is self-published satire about why to currently vote for Democratic Party (the book is a completely blank with only sources in the back by the way). This aligns with current events where the democrats are losing and are an unappealing party is support especially with the controlling, communist-like alt-left. This book wouldn’t work when the democrats are doing well so it needed to be published in the current political situation. Self-publishing is best in this situation and its ability to publish work in little to no time.

These are a few other things that have to do with exposure. If a self-publishing author wants to move to traditional at any point, they can have a better chance of getting accepted than a new author since they already have an audience, reviews, and sales to show for it. On the other hand, traditional publishers have a better chance of getting awards and have a better “appearance” as self-publishers only ask for certain formatting from their authors while traditional publishers need their authors to catch their interest.

Upfront Costs

            Unlike some self-publishers like BookBaby, traditional publishers don’t ask their authors to pay an upfront cost and in some even pay the author upfront to publish the book. Now there are self-publishing companies like Createspace and Smashwords that publish for free, but these are only a couple of free self-publishers compared to most others that ask for an upfront cost. Some self-publishers ask for hundreds to even thousands of dollars to publish the author’s work. Of course this is no trouble for an author with a lot of money, but who really has that much money to waste?

Royalties

            Since traditional publishers do a lot of work for their authors, they need to pay their workers which cuts the author’s pay. Self-publishers don’t take as much which can seem extremely appealing to authors especially if the book does well. Of course, how the book does is the real concern for all authors, but when it comes to royalties’ then self-publishing is where it’s best.

Results

            After tallying up everything, I’ve made this little list to summarize what form of publishing is positive or negative in each category.

Category	Self-publishing	Traditional
Creative control	Positive	Negative
Mistakes	(Author Dependent)	(Author/Publisher Dependent)
Marketing	(Author Dependent)	Positive, but author input still required
Time to Market	Positive	Negative
Upfront Cost	(Author/Publisher Dependent)	Positive
Royalties	Positive	Negative
Total	3 positive, 3 author dependent	2 positive, 1 author dependent, 3 negative

            As you can see from the result, you can see why people would choose self-publishing at face value, however, keep in mind that mistakes, marketing, and upfront cost can make or break a self-publishing author’s career. On the traditional publisher side, creative control, time to market, and royalties can do the same. Overall, it depends on who the author publishing their work is. If they’re good at marketing, have a strong social media presence, and the right people to show your book off then choose self-publishing. If you’re new with no idea how to market, need editing and book designs, and don’t care about the wait to get the previous two things then choose traditional publishing. Both forms of publishing your work have their positives and negatives, but in the end. It all depends on the author and their skills.