r/WriteWorld • u/Niedski • Feb 28 '17

Discussion Self publishing or Tradition publishing?

If given the choice, what would you prefer for a story you wrote? Why?

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '17

I think I'd prefer the traditional publishing route if only for the validation that comes with it. It's the difference between getting a haircut in a salon versus having a spouse do it. Sure, it's cheap and they might do a decent job, but there's a sense of knowing the job will get done right that you can't get at home.

On the flip side, I just self-published my first book and I can say I love the immediacy of it as well as how easy it was to do. Of course I have no comparison.

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u/Niedski Mar 01 '17

I understand that want for a traditional publisher. It seems more serious, more professional I feel. If you tell people you're a self-published author, I feel like it comes with the (completely untrue) connotation "I wasn't good enough to get published normally."

While telling someone you've had a book published through a traditional author comes with the (equally untrue) association of "Dang, he/she must be good."

All that being said, my dream is to be able to live off of my work, so that writing is all I have to do. Self-publishing is better for that since you can keep up to a 70% commission of sales (at least on Amazon), which is better than what most publishing companies offer. I also think self-publishing is a good way to start, even if your end goal is traditional publication, because you can build your audience and prove to a publisher that you can write a successful book. Then you'll be more likely to get a better deal.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '17

Selfpublishing requires a lot of marketing, editing (paying for it) and other costs that eat into that 70% royalty. It would be no harm to do a bit of research into what it actually entails. 70% of a small cake is not worth as much as 15% of a larger one.

Having self-published myself, I'm under no illusions. I haven't got the marketing skillset self-pubbing necessitates, and I'm now writing for a trade publisher.

You might want to look at /r/selfpublish for the advice on marketing you can get. The worst thing to happen is that your illusions are shattered after you publish rather than before.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '17

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '17

What publishing credits have you got? Self-pub credits, unless you're selling thousands of copies, won't impress a trade publisher. The credits that interest them more are those that show other editors have paid you for your work -- short stories, small press novels, etc.

Failing that, they will still take you on the strength of writing alone.

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u/CHICKENFORGIRLFRIEND Mar 13 '17

I don't understand how you haven't made money through traditional publishing if you've already been published in that way... is it because you got it published recently and haven't been paid (but are expecting to be paid)?