In my last post I spoke about the pros and cons of self-publishing your finished novel (see it here: https://amyfillion.com/should-you-self-publish-or-traditionally-publish-your-book/.) Today I’d like to focus on traditional publishing. After you compare the two, I hope I’ve helped you form a more complete idea of what both routes entail and which may be the best for you.
Pros of traditional publishing:
Exposure: When your novel is traditionally published this means you’ve landed yourself a literary agent (see cons below) and that agent has sold your book to a publishing company. Once your book is ready for publication, the publishing company is able to get your book both online and into major bookstores across the country. They also have the ability to work with companies in other countries and many big-time publishers also have ties to legal personnel who are able to help if your book is wanted for a film deal.
Cost: When you sign a contract with your literary agent and they find a publisher who wants your work, the cost you’d pour into self-publishing is taken care of. This includes the book cover and any editing costs.
Pride: I personally believe there’s still a stigma that comes with self-publishing. People that aren’t writers themselves and/or aren’t aware of the steps it takes to publish your novel, whether on your own or traditionally, might have the notion that your self-published book isn’t as good as one that was picked up by a publishing company. If you want to see your book in bookstores, you want to go the traditional route. While pride may not be the most descriptive word I could have used (after all, I self-published and feel an immense amount of pride in my accomplishments,) I do feel feel that there’s a large sense of pride that comes with finding an agent and selling your book to a traditional publisher and thus, having your books stocked in bookstores. This may also seem the more impressive route to other people interested in your book.
Bestseller lists: When you traditionally publish, you’re in the running for making major bestseller lists. It is extremely hard to do this when you self-publish, especially in platforms other than Amazon.
Cons to traditional publishing:
Slooowww: Traditionally publishing your book can take eighteen months to two years from finding an agent to seeing your work in bookstores. This includes editing, book cover design, contracts, etc. With self-publishing, even with hiring editors and a book cover designer, your novel may be ready in a few months from the time you write your last word, to launch date.
You don’t have full control: When you sign on that dotted line with an agent, you are also signing away some of the rights of your book. Yes, they will pay for those editors and book cover designs, but will you be happy with the edits made? Is the design going to be something you fall in love with? This is not guaranteed.
Finding an agent: Finding an agent is extremely difficult. Let’s put it this way: In researching, I found that, on average, any single agent might possibly receive five HUNDRED queries every week (a query is an email you will send with only about three to four small paragraphs about your book to “hook” the agent into wanting to see more). And that might even be on the low end. Of these queries, an agent might take between one and five new authors each year, much less for highly established agents. Some agents have assistants to read their queries for them. Many agents won’t get back to you if they are declining your query. It’s a waiting game, really. You should query about sixty to eighty agents before turning to self-publishing instead, but it’s recommended that you query only about five to ten agents at a time. These agents might get back to you in a day, they might get back to you in six to eight weeks, or they might never get back to you at all. Each agent will have their specifications on their agent websites. If you’re not willing to wait it out a good nine months, then self-publishing may be the way to go.
They own your book: Essentially, this goes along with losing full control of your book. You sign with an agent and then a publishing company, and they own your book. You don’t.
I do hope this has helped you with your decision to either self-publish or traditionally publish your book. There are certainly pros and cons to both.
To sum up:
If you want full control of your book, if you’re not willing to wait up to a year for the querying process, and then up to an additional two years to see your book on bookstore shelves if you happen to find an agent and a publishing company that want your book, then self-publishing is for you.
If you don’t mind losing a bit of control of your book and if you want the validation of having found an agent as well as the exposure of seeing your book sold on various platforms in addition to Amazon and other online companies, then traditional publishing is for you.
Either way, congratulations, and good luck!