Note: This was a persuasive paper I wrote for one of my classes. I thought It would be interesting to publish here.
The written word is a fascinating thing that can move hearts and grow minds. Once a potential author is finished writing their book they then have two paths ahead of them to get their work into the hands of readers; the path of traditional-publishing and the path of self-publishing. Traditional-publishing is the path in which an author sends their manuscript out to different publishing houses around the globe waiting patiently for one of the publishing houses to pick up the authors work and sign them on as one of their authors. Self-publishing is as it sounds; it is the path in which an author buckles down and does all the work to get their book into the hands of the readers themselves. The idea of self-publishing can seem reasonably daunting to new authors, enough so that they will often not take that path. However, self-published authors can avoid having to pitch their book ideas, losing their creative freedom, and losing the rights to their work.
When an author decides to travel down the traditional-publishing route, it could take them months or even years to be picked up by a publisher. Publishing houses are similar to fraternities in that they can be very picky on who they let in, and once you are in it’s a challenge to stay. This has whats always given traditional published authors good rapport, that exclusivity. Readers assume that if an author was picked up by a publishing house, then their work must be an undiscovered gem. Yet JK Rowling's first manuscript Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was rejected by twelve publishing houses before finally getting picked up. Could you imagine being the publishing house that rejected that multi-billion dollar book? It goes to show that publishing houses are not infallible, and while an author might be denied by one, this does not mean their book is terrible. Self-publishing takes all of that concern away because with just a little bit of effort an author could have their book out in only a few months.
There are now many online resources and platforms that allow for easy publishing without any chance of rejection including Amazons KDP, Apple’s iBooks and, Barns and Noble’s Nook, to name a few. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program is just about the easiest and quickest way to go about it. Amazon also dominates the total Ebook sales in the world, the US being at 83.3% of the industry. Self-published authors hold a whopping 34% of that market, and that share is growing each year. The rest of the percentages are split between other publishers, but the top five traditional-publishing houses only reach 26% (February). When an author believes their book is ready for the market, it only takes about an hour to fill out all the necessary information like the book’s genre and title. Once they finish filling out this information, their book can be up on the market in a matter of hours. With self-publishing, the author is the one who decides if their book is good enough.
Signing on with a traditional publisher does have its benefits. With self-publishing, the author is the one who has to run the mile, find and hire an editor, a proofreader, a formatter, a cover artist, and sometimes even an agent to help them. Doing this can take some money and a leap of faith on the quality of work the author is getting. A publishing house can provide these things for them. They do not have to worry about the quality of the work or the price. But this does come at two major costs to an author.
The first cost to the author will be that when a publishing house picks up the author’s book they will often not see it as the already polished gem that the author does. They will see it as unpolished and always in need of improvements and they will send it off to their editors. If an author has the unfortunate luck of working with an agent who has a completely different view of the book than they do, by the end of the process, the book could look like a completely different gem than the one the author walked in with. This really applies to just about every creative aspect of an authors book or series: “The book publisher has the final say on every aspect of the author's book, from editorial content to cover design to the number of books in the first printing”(The Publishing War). There are some authors that do not mind the loss of their creative input, and there are some who are lucky and the publishing agent they get fully trusts the author's creativity. But this is something that is left more up to chance with traditional-publishing. Since self-publishing is all the author, with their input and their decisions, they will never have the chance of losing the vision they had for their book.
Now on to the second cost and the most important aspect an author must consider when choosing self-publishing or traditional-publishing. When an author signs on with a traditional-publishing house they are not just working with a publisher who will provide them with the resources to get their work out there, the author is signing away their rights to their book and sometimes even their name as an author. The contract for a publishing house often buys the author out of the rights to their book and any future installment in the series. This is how the publishing house gains the ability to have final say on the creative aspect of an authors work; they no longer own their work. The contract typically pays the author a specified sum that they, their lawyer, and the publisher work out, per each book published, plus a royalty anywhere between 7% and 25%, the latter being quite rare(Pros). This can be useful because the author is getting money, usually upwards of a thousand, upfront, instead of risking the chance of the book not selling well on the market and making little in royalties. However, if an authors book does exceptionally well on the market, then the author is at a loss because their book or series is then worth significantly more than what they sold it for. If this happens and an author continues with traditional-publishing, they have a chance of negotiating their worth considerably higher for their next contract. But they are still at a loss with their first book or series.
There are also traps within the contract given to the author. One such trap being a thing called an agency contract. This trap basically allows for the publisher to now make a percentage of royalties for anything the author has or will publish, regardless if it was through the publishing house. That means if the authors name is on the book, even if they published it themselves with none of the publishers help, the publisher now also get money for it. The goal for an author when signing with a publishing house is to fight for as much as they can get and never settle because they are just happy the publishing house picked up their work. With self-publishing, the author will always retain the rights to their work, they will always have final say on their cover, their story, how much they want to sell their book, and they will never have to fight a contract just to settle with something less than their worth. Everything is their decision. Self-published authors can make up to 70% in royalties with Amazon KDP alone, their minimum royalty rate being 35%, not a measly 7% or even a traditional publisher’s top 25%(Royalties)(pros). With self-publishing an author is free to be writer they want to be without having to worry about loosing the rights to themselves and their work.
Self-publishing can seem daunting and impossible to become successful. But do not be discouraged. Self-published authors can avoid having to pitch their book ideas, losing their creative freedom, and losing the rights to their work. There are more and more self-published authors reaching to top sellers lists each day. Some of the global sensations of the last few years such as such as E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Andy Weir’s The Martian, both of which became big box office movies, were Self-Published novels. So while traditional-publishing can seem like the easier route it is certainly the route with less freedom.
Sources:
“February 2017 Big, Bad, Wide & International Report: covering Amazon, Apple, B&N, and Kobo ebook sales in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.” Author Earnings, Feb. 2017, authorearnings.com/report/february-2017/.
“Pros And Cons Of Traditional-Publishing vs Self-Publishing.” The Creative Penn, 19 Oct. 2017, www.thecreativepenn.com/self-publishing-vs-traditional/.
"Publishing Wars (II) - Traditional Vs Self-Publishing [analysis]." Africa News Service, 4 Feb. 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/A317426636/ITOF?u=9211haea&sid=ITOF&xid=bee19537. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
"The Publishing War - Traditional Vs Self-Publishing." Africa News Service, 28 Jan. 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/A316589959/ITOF?u=9211haea&sid=ITOF&xid=18410c1b. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Royalties | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202181110.
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