This post is a continuation of my series looking at whether self-publishing or traditional publishing is the right choice for you and your manuscript. We have already looked at the advantages of traditional publishing, as well as the disadvantages, and the advantages of self-publishing. Now we will be considering what the disadvantages of self-publishing are.
The aim of this series is to give you more information to make the choice that is right for you, as well as better preparing you for some likely situations in traditional publishing or self-publishing that you may come across. Everyone is different, so even if you know another author who has self-published and is happy with it, it may not be the best option for you. Take time to really consider what concessions you can make and what is an absolute requirement.
High Start-Up Costs
Let’s just say it straight out – self-publishing is expensive! The exact figure will very much depend on you and what you want to do, but it will be costly, especially if you have a low budget. This is the flip side of the higher royalties you get with self-publishing – you have to make a large investment to begin with.
As a self-published author, it is your responsibility to pay for everything you want to be done with your manuscript, from editing (the more rounds of this, the better your book will be) and marketing, to formatting, cover design and printing. All of these people should be professionals and their service charges will reflect this.
If you get all of this done professionally, a guideline cost is somewhere between £2,500 and £5,000. You may be able to cut back on some things to reduce costs, but there is a strong risk that this will also reduce the quality of the book, meaning fewer people buy it, so you don’t earn as much in royalties.
Of course, as you are self-publishing, you can make all the decisions, so you can decide what is absolutely vital to you and what you wouldn’t mind sacrificing. However, these high start-up costs may be off-putting or simply impossible for some authors, so self-publishing may not always be an option for everyone.
Gathering an Excellent Publishing Team
One of the advantages of self-publishing that I gave in that post was that you can assemble your own publishing team, making sure that you are picking the best and that they are people you will work well with. These teams will be made up of editors, proofreaders, formatters, cover designers and marketers – whatever you choose to have.
However, the flip side of this is that, while you have complete control over who is on your team, you also have the responsibility of picking them. This is somewhat of a burden, as a team from a traditional publisher will almost always be skilled professionals who will do an excellent job, so you don’t need to evaluate them.
When you are building a self-publishing team of freelancers, it’s more complicated. A lot of them will also be as skilled as the ones at the traditional publishing house (which will quite possibly be using freelancers anyway), but you have to find this out for yourself.
This means you will have to carry out research into each freelancer you are considering, as well as what you could expect to be the industry standard. For example, I have qualified with the Publishing Training Centre, which is a well-known and reliable organisation in the UK editing industry. It can be a great help here if you have any connections who can recommend good freelancers to you.
The Stigma of Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is becoming increasingly common and well-respected, but this doesn’t mean that there is no sort of label that comes attached. Some people may take the fact that you are self-publishing to mean that your book is not good enough to get published otherwise or is of low quality.
You will likely be fighting an uphill battle just to make your book seem credible to some readers, much less worthy of critical acclaim, despite the number of self-published authors who have achieved just that. Still, acceptance of self-publishing as legitimate is gradually spreading, but be prepared to have to work harder to be taken seriously.
Building a Business and Marketing
If you are self-publishing, you need to be prepared to start running your own business, as this will be what self-publishing amounts to. This will mean you dealing with accounts and tax payments, as well as managing your selected team and organising payments to them.
All marketing, branding and publicity will also fall to you to organise, even if this does involve hiring a marketer or similar. Either way, this is a very expensive part of self-publishing that is easily forgotten when considering costs beforehand.
At a traditional publishing house, the company will largely take care of these issues. If you are a debut author, they may spend less time and money on publicity for you, but it will still be there. In addition, being signed to a publishing house is excellent marketing in itself; your book will be on their lists, they will ensure it is stocked in all the major places and the name should carry a lot of weight.
If you self-publish, you will need to organise a marketing strategy or pay someone else to do it for you, then supervise their work.
Lack of Support
Another thing that the traditional publishing route can offer is support, to improve your book (through editing) and market it (as explained above). However, another advantage that you lose with self-publishing is the presence of a literary agent. A good agent will do much more than simply submit your manuscript to publishers on your behalf; they will advocate for your book and negotiate for you.
They will also have a lot of knowledge and experience of the industry that they can pass on to you, advising and motivating you. They can also help create a long-term plan for you as an author, working with you over the years.
Wrapping Up
We have now looked at the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional publishing and self-publishing, so I hope you feel better informed to make a decision. Do leave any questions or thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to keep doing your own research, as these posts are just intended as an overview of some of the issues. Next time, we will be looking at some fictional case studies and considering what would be the best choice in these situations.
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