Traditional Publishing or Self-Publishing – Advantages of Self-Publishing

This blog continues my series about whether you should publish your book the traditional, publishing house, route or whether you should go for the self-publishing option. Of course, this decision will ultimately come down to your personal preferences and what you think is right for your book. What’s right for one author may be a bad idea for another, so it’s important to spend a while researching and thinking about your choices.

So far, we have considered both the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing, so now it’s the turn of self-publishing. This post will focus on the advantages of self-publishing and how these will affect you, with another to follow discussing the disadvantages of this method.

Keeping Creative Control

If you are self-publishing, you will have the final say on all major decisions about your book. If you choose to work with a publishing house, although your opinion will possibly be taken into account, they will have the final say on things such as cover design and edits to your novel. Of course, this may end up not being a problem for you at all if you are happy with and agree to their choices, but it is impossible to know this beforehand, so there’s always some risk.

They will even have control over where to sell your book and possible plot edits, so it may not stay true to your original vision. If you choose to self-publish, you are working for yourself and can always decide what you want for your book and keep to the plan you want to.

Higher Royalties

If you are self-publishing, you get to keep all the royalties as your income (after tax!), whereas you may only get around 10% with a traditional publisher. The publishing house will keep some, if you have an agent they will take a cut and your initial advance will have to be repaid out of your share before you even start to receive it! With self-publishing, there is no-one else you need to pay off and so everything goes directly to you. This leads well into the next point which is …

Frequent Pay Dates

In traditional publishing, an author is usually only paid twice yearly, which can lead to serious cash flow problems if they are reliant on this money. Even if they are not, it is still inconvenient and annoying.

If you instead decide to self-publish, you receive royalties much more frequently – almost always every month. This makes it a lot easier to manage your finances and recoup your initial investment, especially combined with the higher royalties point from above. If your book is selling well, it’s nice to see these royalties a bit quicker!

Open to Everyone

One of the obvious advantages of self-publishing is that it is self-publishing, meaning that, in theory, anyone can choose to do it, with no barriers to entry. Of course, it may not actually be possible for everyone to self-publish, due to time or money restrictions, but it is certainly open to a lot more people than traditional publishing is.

It is notoriously difficult to be accepted by a traditional publishing house, even if you are working with a literary agent – and they have to have accepted your manuscript first. Publishers can only afford to take on books that they are reasonably sure will be profitable, so they will probably not go for a riskier investment. In addition, they can often have a huge backlog of books on their list to publish, so there’s only so many more they can take on at a time.

If you are self-publishing, you don’t need anyone to accept your manuscript to be able to show it to the world, so it may be your only option in some cases. There is also the advantage that you have the final say on all decisions, so you can publish it exactly as you like without needing to change something you don’t want to.

You can also publish it when you want to, avoiding the (often years long) waits described in disadvantages of traditional publishing. Overall, you have more control over every aspect of the publishing process, not just creative control.

Your Own Publishing Team

If you are self-publishing, you have the distinct advantage of being able to pick your own publishing team. You will almost certainly need at least some of the following: editor, proofreader, cover designer, marketer and formatter, as well as the final printing team. As a self-published author, you can decide who you want to work with and hire them, rather than having to use a traditional publishing house’s team.

This means that you can check before using their services that they are a good match for you and your manuscript, as well as being able to fire them if they are not right for you. Your team should, therefore, be exactly what your work needs to flourish. Of course, the downside to this is the cost – a highly skilled team will be very expensive. On the other hand, you may well get a better return on investment later due to the higher royalties.

No Deadlines

Working with a publishing house means working to strict, often tight, deadlines. If you are a self-published author, you’re not bound to follow any particular deadline, although you may have set one for yourself. Nevertheless, this does give you a greater degree of flexibility if you need it.

Quicker Publishing Process

The traditional publishing process can often take years to be complete, whereas self-publishing allows you to publish as soon you possibly can, should you want to. You are in control of the whole process, so you get to decide when to go to print or release an ebook. This can work particularly well if you are writing about topical events that won’t be relevant in a few years, or just want your book to be very up-to-date with current lifestyle and affairs.

Wrapping Up

Now you know some of the advantages of self-publishing, as well as the pros and cons of traditional publishing, so next time we will be looking at the disadvantages of choosing to self-publish. If you have any other suggestions, leave them in the comments, as well as what helped you decide whether to self-publish or go the more traditional route.

 

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