Traditional vs self-publishing

There are many different types of established publishers that you could entrust your work to – or the option to forgo any external parties and choose to do it yourself. But depending on what you want for your work, there are drawbacks and positives to each way of publishing, so in this article we’ll delve a little deeper into types of publishing methods to choose from.

From what I’ve heard so far, I know that self-publishing gets a notoriously bad rep for being far too accessible, meaning that anyone anywhere can post their work to the world, however each methodology will have its own ups and downs, so we’re going into this open-minded, everyone!

What is traditional publishing?

Using a traditional publisher will mean that you’re paying not only for the whole aspect of creating and making a book publically available, such as cover design or marketing, but you’re also relying on a company’s expertise and their understanding of the process. After all, if you’re choosing a company who has been at this for a while, there are higher chances that they know what they’re doing and can net you more sales. 

There are a lot of moving parts that come with getting a book polished – like rounds of editing, proofreading, production, design, marketing, sales and distribution that can be extremely daunting for a newbie to get to grips with. Some may have this experience themselves or know alternatives, but oftentimes some aspects will be missed off and may have detrimental effects on the performance of a released book.

Traditional publishers also can be known for a specific genre, theming or other aspect that ties all of their work together. For example, Faber is well-known for their poetry collections published by a wide array of authors and they would probably be a stronger choice than another publisher who would have their focal point on a different genre of writing.

What is self-publishing?

Self-publishing is when an author decides to take on as much of the publishing process themselves, or through external companies to address each part rather than relinquishing control to a publishing house. It’s a tricky conclusion to draw as there is a lot of distrust with the self-publishing sector, and varying results as to how successful self-published works are.

The Martian by Andy Weir was originally a self-published novel, which later got a big movie adaption out of its success, as well as Wool which did quite well for itself too – so it definitely is possible to see success from self-publishing. But this occurs if the work is strong enough and has enough steam for its own promotion, or if there are ways to pick up on this along the way.

Debating both formats

There is a lot more support coming from traditional publishing – as before, these people know what they’re doing! It can be harder to get your foot in the door of traditional publishing as many traditional publishers only accept work from literary agents as opposed to from the horse’s mouth: your work will have to be sellable and they will only invest in stories that are likely to be a hit, so you’ll have to strongly believe in your work and have it be as polished as possible!

As self-publishing platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Direct are so easy to use, there has been a notable uptick in books available on the market. Unfortunately (though with exceptions) a lot of these are uploads which have skipped a few of the steps of the publishing process and tend to be of the quantity > quality approach, so there is need for the polish of a traditional publisher to uphold the high standards of publishing lest we be overwhelmed with a flood of regurgitated plots and copy-and-paste just for the sake of a quick profit. That’s not to say that there aren’t well-crafted labours of love available, but there is a lot to sift through which makes them hard to find.

From a lot of clouded muddles, the hybrid approach is gaining in popularity which keeps a lot of the bonuses from both avenues. Hybrid publishing lets authors leave the production and distribution of a book to the publishing house but retains a lot of the creative control (and perhaps even higher royalties!) over the work’s content.

That’s the ‘lishing’ done, now off to the pub!

With all of the different options to choose from in terms of publishing house, whether that be traditional, independent or none at all, the best thing to do is your own research on which method will work best to fit your work.