For the new novelist with that freshly written masterpiece that is destined to change the world as we know it, the promise of a publishing deal from a major publishing house is what literary dreams are made of. So why should I turn away from that dream and consider the independent publishing route? Here are just a few reasons to at least think twice about your options.
Biding your Time
When Laci first completed "Songbird" we went after a traditional publishing contract. The process of submitting and waiting was torturous to say the least. Even after finding an agent, the book was submitted to a publishing house, and we waited months for a response. When that house said no thanks, it was submitted to another and we waited for months again for a response. That process was repeated again and again, submit and wait, submit and wait, "no simultaneous submission please", submit and wait. We spent years in this process for a single book. Once we decided to give the independent publishing route a go it was live on Amazon in both print and Kindle editions with-in a month. Had we not wasted so much time chasing the traditional publishing dream The War Song Series would be into its third book by now. We would have a well-established sales funnel with the series. And we would have gotten into Amazon when the Kindle market first boomed and had a much easier time promoting and selling the book.
Chasing the Dream
Let's face facts. That dream you have in your mind of a publisher sweeping up your masterpiece and cutting you a large advance check while they do all the work of making it a success just doesn't exist. Today, only 0.01% of authors will get a traditional contract. And even those authors with a traditional publishing deal are largely responsible for promoting their own book. While a publisher may help with cover designs and editing, (mostly by telling you what is wrong with your vision and how it needs to change) once "your" book is out there you still have to do work of getting readers to buy it. You're still contacting book stores and bloggers and reviewers, you're still doing book signings and launch tours and book promos, You are still doing all the work that you always imagined your publisher would be doing. Now that's not to say there aren't some perks and advantages to a traditional publisher, but are they really worth what it ultmately costs you? This leads us to our next reason not to take the traditional route.
Playing the Numbers
With a traditional publisher you are hoping for maybe a 10-12% royalty on each book you sell. Say you have a $10 paperback edition of your book and it sells 1000 copies in a month's time. That's a pretty good month. Your book just brought in $10,000 of which you now receive $1000 for your royalties. Nice and all, but not exactly making a full time wage yet. Now with the independent publishing route you are making 70% royalties on each sale. So in that same month you just made $7000 from royalties. And guess what, you are now a full time writer! Even in the EBook scenario with a kindle version on Amazon for $5.00 making the same amount of sales you are pulling in $3500 independently and only $500 through your big publishing house. It's hard to argue with the numbers. You may be paying up front for some costs to get your book out there (cover design, editing, etc.), but once it is out, it is yours. You do the work and you earn the rewards.
There are still many more reasons out there to go with the independent route and there are still good reasons to try your hand at traditional. It ultimately comes down to control of your work. You have poured yourself into this book. In the end can you stand to have someone else tell you what you should be doing with it? Moreover can you stand to pay someone an additional 60% of your royalties to tell you what you should or shouldn't do with your own work? So what do you think? Are there still good reasons to shoot for a traditional publisher? Are there other reasons not to that you have experienced? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
