After typing ‘The End’ in your manuscript, what should be your next step? How can you ensure that your carefully crafted words reach as many readers as possible?

Until about 15 years ago, there was essentially only one viable path to the market: find an agent or publisher who appreciated your book enough to guide it through the publishing process. However, the emergence of platforms like Amazon, Lulu, and IngramSpark changed the landscape. These platforms provided a faster route to market, greater control, and a larger share of profits from your work.

Today, authors can make a choice – not necessarily an either-or choice, nor a mutually exclusive one, but a choice nonetheless. They can follow the traditional route, embark on a self-publishing adventure, or even combine the two (especially if they plan to write multiple books).

Let’s explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

TRADITIONAL ROUTE

Traditional publishing, a well-established route to market, has been in existence for decades. In essence, it involves finding an agent who presents your book to publishers. Once a publisher decides to publish your book, they provide an advance, handle editing, design, marketing, and distribution, and pay you royalties every six months. This is the idealized pathway, at least.

However, this route is riddled with obstacles, delays, and uncertainties, making it feel almost as arduous as the process of writing the book itself. It is incredibly uncertain whether your book will ever see the light of day, and even if it does, it may take years. Agents and publishers have been inundated with submissions over the past two decades, resulting in lengthy response times, regardless of whether the decision is positive or negative. The decision-making process within a publisher can be just as agonizing as it is with an agent.

The book, once accepted by the publisher, moves forward at their pace. In other words, you lose control of pretty much all aspects of the publication process – from the date it is to be published, to the cover design, price and whatever marketing plans are put in place. (The reality of marketing and publicity these days is that the budgets are so small, that publishers look to the author to do a lot of the work themselves – unless you are Stephen King or Malcolm Gladwell.)

One of the major advantages of working with professionals on your manuscript is their expertise. From the commissioning editor who provides a structural edit (see this blog for more information), to the copy-editor, cover designer, proofreader, and publicity co-ordinator, each person plays a crucial role in helping your book reach its audience. Moreover, the distribution of the printed book through wholesalers and major retailers is handled with utmost effectiveness, surpassing what you can achieve on your own—unless you have a network of supporters or a series of events to personally sell your book.

Being published by a reputable publisher carries a certain prestige and credibility. However, it’s worth noting that self-publishing has gained widespread acceptance in recent years.

When it comes to financial benefits, they are not as easily quantifiable. While you may receive an upfront payment, advances have been decreasing over time. So, don’t expect to become an instant millionaire. Additionally, royalties are only paid once the advance has been recouped, and they are typically paid every six months.

SELF-PUBLISHING ROUTE

For self-publishing, the path is of course much more certain. You elect to publish on a certain platfrom: KDP (Amazon ) is the most well-known but there are others around that offer a very good service (Lulu and IngramSpark being just two), set up your own timeframe and price point. But from here on, you have to start spending money because to make the most of your book, you’ll need help. Always employ at the very least a good copy-editor, proof-reader and designer. You can find all of these on sites like Reedsy. I would also strongly advise a structural editor regardless of whether the book is fiction or non-fiction. You can read about what a structural editor does here.

Once you have published your book, all the marketing, publicity, promotion and selling is down to you. Obviously if you already have a following, you can sell profitably to that ready-made market. (Amazon offers up to 70% royalties if you price your book within upper and lower limits https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200644210 .) If you don’t have a market you can easily sell to then it is a slog. There is no easy fix for this – the number of new books published in the UK was upwards of 250,000 last time I checked and that is growing all the time – so you need to work hard for every book you sell.

As far as the costs are concerned, if you take a look at this blog, you’ll be able to gauge whether this is an option that is realistic for you.

A THIRD WAY

There is another option. Since the explosion of internet-based publishing, a huge number of companies offer what’s called ‘hybrid publishing’. The term is inexact because there are a lot of variations in what you can expect from these companies but the basic premise is that you pay for certain professional services like editing, design, marketing and distribution in exchange for a solid platform for your book. In other words, you should get the experience of being ‘published’ but instead of getting an advance and the publisher taking care of all the production and distribution you pay for it. As with any new business model that has burst upon a traditional scene, authors have had very good and very bad experiences. The Society of Authors and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain published a report in 2022 calling for more regulation and transparency. Their findings of a survey of 240 authors make for less than encouraging reading:

• 94% of respondents lost money, typically in the thousands.

• The average loss was £1,861 with some writers reporting losses as high as £9,900.

• The median cost of publication was £2,000.

• A median of only 67 books were sold per deal, resulting in royalties of only £68.

• 59% of writers said their book was not available to buy in retail outlets

A lot has been written and will contiinue to be written about hybrid publishing Jane Friedman recently posted an interesting review of the area by Joel Pitney pointing out some of the ways to spot dodgy operators. There are some great companies out there, but buyer beware, you need to do your research.

YOUR DECISION – BUT DROP ME A LINE IF YOU WANT HELP!

What you do with your first book is a matter of what you feel comfortable with – emotionally, financially and practically. I’m always happy to chat through options with you when you’re starting to think about your book. Drop me a line!