Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The Lonely Road

In my last post, I discussed the choice between focusing upon seeking Agent representation versus the search for publishing directly at the source. Today, I am going to consider a more substantial question: traditional publishing vs self-publishing:

Traditional Publishing

The path of Traditional Publishing has been fairly set for a long time. Changes in the industry have certainly stirred things up from time to time, but the larger game still holds today. Money. The big five publishing companies choose titles not unlike the film industry. Big blockbusters and heavy hitters provide the revenue stream while smaller or untested works often eek by on the backs of these bigger sellers. The opportunity for taking chances on untested concepts or authors is certainly there, but largely limited.



These companies clearly have a sizable budget for marketing, but like the blockbuster hits vs indie film analogy, that marketing budget is going to be aimed at the titles likely to draw sales. Meaning, if a new author signs with one of these companies, the author is largely responsible for the marketing of their own book. Not overly beneficial if the author felt they were going to be able to farm that job out to the marketing team. Additionally, it seems to me that the marketing done in these early days largely relies upon the brand of the publisher, more than the content of the book. As if to say, "Look everyone, I have a book coming out soon. It was accepted by this big company, so you know it's good."

Soon is also a relative term as the process of publication from initial acceptance to final publication can take up to two years. There are many steps in traditional publishing, which include; editing - not just proofreading editing that focuses upon correcting grammar and structure, but marketing editing where larger aspects of the content of the book can be tweaked to fit market standards. Cover creation is usually done by artists chosen by the company and created with marketing concepts in mind, leaving little say to the author.

Indeed, the traditional publication process takes the author's individual work and makes it into a collaborative effort owned in part, or in whole, by the company. The company usually gets the last say in development, placement, pricing, etc. The biggest advantage of these sizable companies really is getting physical copies of a book into the brick and mortar books stores nation wide. From there, the response and sales are largely in fate's hands.

Self-Publishing

In the early days of self-publishing, the options were largely through vanity publications. These publication runs were paid for directly by the author, allowing them to bypass the traditional publication companies. The moniker vanity basically sums up the sentiment of this early evolution. Another option would have been publication through some niche publicists, smaller companies that published to suit specific interests; poetry compilations or craft how-to books for instance.

These days, however, self-publication has taken a new form in the publication world: E-books and Print-on-Demand (POD). A dizzying, digital deluge of some fifty-thousand e-books alone are said to be produced each year. Many, if not most, bypass the normal publication steps; i.e. agent vetting, editorial review and revision, marketing tweaks, etc. It seems that everyone with a notion can publish their work with very little difficulty though Amazon and other such companies, delivered straight to the reader.

Additionally, the advent of on demand printing means that publishers no longer need to publish in sizable runs in order to stock book store shelves nation, or even world, wide. Now, any customer can go online, order the book of their choosing from a list, and have a freshly printed copy shipped to their home in relatively no time at all. Online sales is really the focus of self-publishing, leaving brick and mortar bookstores able to order their own copies if prompted. However, there are no sizable runs to stock their shelves like with the traditional publishers. The marketing of the work is also left almost entirely to the author to handle which can be a challenge if they are unknown in larger circles.

This unparalleled simplicity and availability in publishing provides its own issues. Since anyone can now publish their works, largely without the traditional screening and editing process, the quality of this deluge has been called into question. Indeed, just lacking the very brand of the big companies can cause some readers to dismiss the work outright. Also, a title becoming lost in this annual flood of self-published books, all presented largely equivalently by these publishing services, is a serious concern.

So, to the question at hand. 

Should one chose to go the traditional route or the self-publishing route? Well, as with all things, it comes down to what fits the need best. For me, the idea of taking my book and placing it into the hands of others to be tweaked and augmented, decided over and parted out over a period of years is less appealing. Especially if I am going to be responsible the marketing in either instance. It seems to me that it is easier to market something when you have something to market, beyond the promise of brand backing in an eventual release.

The route of self-publishing can be considered a lonely road as the author becomes responsible for everything from editing to cover creation, marketing, publicizing, etc. The success or failure of the piece rests almost entirely in the hands of the writer, which can be both empowering and paralyzing. But, being a do it yourself kind of person, the lonely road feels more welcoming to me than the alternative. To that end, I have decided to pursue the self-publication route for my book. Stay tuned for updates, including the publication of my official Author's site coming soon.

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