Traditional Publishing or Other?

To publish traditionally, self-publish, or use a Print on Demand (POD) company? That is the question! This is a huge decision to make. In fact, it might be one of THE most important decisions you will have to make when writing your book. In this article, I will give a brief overview of what these are and how they work. I went the self-publishing route, but that is up to each individual, because a lot of factors go into each of these avenues. You, as the author, have to decide and take your goals into careful consideration.

Traditional Publishing: With traditional publishing, they essentially handle costs, marketing, and distribution. However, you do not have the control that you have as a self-publisher. This is one of the reasons why I took the route I did. In traditional publishing, there are publishing houses such as Penguin Random House (These used to be two separate publishing houses, and then they merged.), HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group. These are known as the “Big Five.” There are other smaller contenders as well. The way that Traditional Publishing works is that you either submit your manuscript yourself to a publishing house or you hire an agent, and the agent will submit your manuscript to a publishing house. The agent is a go-between for you to the publishing house and basically acts as your “assistant” in letting you know where things stand with your book. They pitch your manuscript to the publishing house, negotiate with the publishing house for payment, contract negotiations, and, of course, they earn a commission on your (as the author) earnings. With that being said, please note that having an agent does not necessarily mean that your manuscript will be published through a publishing house. In a YouTube Video that I watched at the beginning of all of my research, entitled “What New Authors Should Expect From A Traditional Publisher,” Author Anna David states that she heard a statistic that said, “two out of every 10,000 book proposals submitted to the “Big Five” publishers sell (to the publishing house) and that is with an agent representing” you, the author. That statistic alone was alarming to me! Anna went on to say that “publishers are not interested in talent and unique ideas…” but rather, “more interested in people with followers like a big newsletter list like celebrities, and those people are the ones who get selected.” All production costs, which include editing of the book, designing, marketing the book, and distribution of the book, are covered through the publishing house. A publishing house will also give you an advance and a SHARE of royalties. I will not go into details at this time regarding advances and royalties, but just note that, at the end of the day, the publishing house will attain most of the financial rewards from the book sales, after it is published. Going through a publishing house is great if you do not want to be as involved with your book, being more like a bystander once your manuscript is accepted, if you want to focus on other things, or if you want the potential of winning prestigious literary awards, for authors, such as the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal, for illustrators. And, if you do not mind waiting and waiting. Sometimes, this whole process can take years from the time of the submission to the book actually getting published with one of the “Big Five”. Author Anna David, in her interview on YouTube, stated a great fact, that publishing houses are not what they used to be.

Print-On-Demand (POD): Companies like Ingram Spark, Palmetto Publishing, Barnes & Noble Book Publishing, and LuLu are all popular for POD. POD companies have become very popular. They are self-publishing models where books are printed after orders are placed, so you do not have to worry about storing your books. When someone buys a book, through a format such as Amazon, in which a POD company puts the book onto, after an order is placed, the book is printed. So, there are not any books being stored anywhere. In my research, when I was still trying to decide what route was best for me, I researched all of these companies. These companies are a great way to minimize the cost of self-publishing a book. POD books are often printed at a fixed rate per book, regardless of the size of the order. I found that Ingram Spark was the best. However, they all have their pros and cons, which need to be factored in when making your decision. Also, although POD companies all promise to put your books on different formats, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., these POD companies also want a piece of the pie. For me, I want as much of the profit (don’t we all?) as possible. This is not to say that one day, I might decide to have a book reprinted through a POD company to get the book on different formats, through the Web. But, I wanted to try the route I took first. There are some interesting facts, through my research about each one of these companies, that should be carefully considered when making your decision. These will be discussed in a later Blog.

Self-Publishing: This type of route is the one I decided to take, for my book, A Birthday Surprise In Triple Oaks Forest. It made the most sense, for me. I know and have done marketing, in the past so I decided to take the reins and do it all myself. The best part of self-publishing is that you, the author, gets to keep 100% (with the exception of taxes) of your profit. A drawback, that some people might see, is all of the leg work must be done by you, this includes finding an editor, finding an illustrator, paying for all of your expenses, interviewing (which I did and highly suggest) a print company, and of course, the marketing which includes having business cards made (I made my own through Canva), making flyers (again, I made my own), making phone calls, keeping track of all invoices, spreadsheets for tax purposes, setting up appointments to talk to people about book events, keeping a business calendar, creating, and hiring someone to do your website (I will have more on websites in another future Blog). I am sure I have forgotten some other things that I do, or had to do, but you get the picture. I love doing this sort of thing, so to me this was the way to go. I am also kind of a control freak when it comes to something I have poured my whole heart and sole into, for two years, being my book. I did not want to have to give creative control over to someone such as a publishing house, or a POD company, just to have them rework MY story. When you self-publish, you have complete control. So, how does one find a printing company? Again, I did a lot of research. After researching not only things to ask, in an interview, when trying to find a printing company, I also researched not only local companies, but a couple of companies out of state. I was very impressed with one, in particular. This company was Gorham Printing, out of Washington state. They were very professional, in the interview, answered all of the questions I had, and even sent me their book that had everything in it that would need to know. However, because they are so far away, I decided that it would be best to stay local. I made several calls, and decided on two. After appointments with both, I decided to go with Valley Center Print Logistics. Valley Center Print Logistics, has had a lot of experience with printing children’s books. This was one of many criteria that I had when choosing a print company. In the interview, I was shown many children’s books that they had done, a book with different paper types, etc. To me, they checked all of the boxes, on my list for what I wanted.

The cost of printing the books, hiring a formatter through them, and working with someone personally, every step of the way, was much less financially than what I would’ve spent hiring a POD company or trying to get in with a traditional publishing house. This way offers a built-in opportunity for you to sell your books yourself, through Pre-launch parties, book events, book readings and signings, and school author events. You take your inventory to the events yourself and sell it.

Again, you might not be able to have your book on shelves of a major chain store, but that does not mean that you cannot approach them. Barnes & Noble, love to honor local authors, and have a section where you can have your books displayed, however, when I spoke to the manager, of my local store, I was told that I could probably sell more by doing an author night, within the store. This appeals to me, but I am sure (at the time of this Blog, the manager has not gotten back with me) they will want a percentage (40% seems to be the going rate), of every book I sell. While this is a drawback, I would get exposure.

So, in essence, you, the author, must choose how you want your book to be printed, recognized, and ultimately delivered to your customers. If you have lots of money and time, the traditional way might be for you. If you don’t want to do a whole lot of marketing (you will still need to do some), and you want global exposure, a POD company might be right for you. But, if you want total control, attain all of the profits, and you like marketing, and a little less expensive route, self-publishing is the way to go!