This is topic Self Publishing vs Traditional in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
I was discussing this with a friend of mine recently. She just finished writing a fantasy novel and she's trying to figure out which is better: traditional (submitting to an agent/publisher) or going straight to self-publishing.

Personally, I think traditional is the way to go, but she's leaning the other way. What do you guys think? Which one is better? She's really stressing over it, so I'm trying to settle her mind a bit.
 
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 
quote:
Which one is better?
Better for what? What is she trying to accomplish?
 
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
 
Traditional, get an editor and what not, you'll see wider publication and more recognition at the cost of less initial profit probably.

If the book is moderately successful then you'll have repeat business and most of the responsibility to find outlets, interviews, etc falls onto them?
 
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
 
My mother self published a "self help" book...huge drain of money and time. Publish with a real publishing house and let them do the publicizing, cover the costs of printing, etc, ad nausium.

Unless your friend has a year to do the work herself and a large war chest to get it done, and lot of fuel in her tank to make it happen.
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
Her first novel? Shop it around to agents the traditional way, keep refining it, and keep writing. If, later, she's kept writing, and is getting good feedback but just not getting a sale, and ideally has at least two or three novels pretty much ready to go, then she should strongly consider self publishing.

edit: and don't bother self-publishing hard copies. Self publish ebooks, and if the ebooks do well, consider hard copies. Much lower investment.
 
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
 
I've been greatly biased by the webcomics and webfiction community, so I vote self-publishing in an electronic format.
 
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by fugu13:
Her first novel? Shop it around to agents the traditional way, keep refining it, and keep writing. If, later, she's kept writing, and is getting good feedback but just not getting a sale, and ideally has at least two or three novels pretty much ready to go, then she should strongly consider self publishing.

edit: and don't bother self-publishing hard copies. Self publish ebooks, and if the ebooks do well, consider hard copies. Much lower investment.

This, exactly.
 
Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
 
You might want to consider booklocker.com
They are pretty cheap and very helpful... much much much cheaper than any of the others. Can't hurt to take a look...
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
I've been backing traditional, too, but she's been reading about how all these people are getting rich off of their ebooks. I haven't done much research into self-publishing, myself, but it seems very high risk. After all, if it was that easy to get paid self-publishing, you'd think everyone would be doing it.
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
She should definitely, definitely not spend money on print self publishing. If she self publishes, she should go with ebooks. A lot of people are making money on self published ebooks; however, far more aren't. That is how it is with any field, after all. The ones who are making money (other than traditional big name authors) tend to be (note: there are exceptions to every one of the things I list, though few if any exceptions to all of them) people with multiple book catalogs for knock on effects, who spend large amounts of time on promotion, who have spent quite a bit of time writing (this doesn't mean they've ever sold a book or short story), and who have identified a fairly narrow genre of specialty that's at least a bit underserved.

If you don't have at least a couple of those things, better to work on getting there first, before self publishing. The "easiest" is to spend a bunch of time writing and use it to turn out a few novels. Then shop them around to agents, because that way you'll get feedback you can use to improve your work, and possibly you'll even get signed with an agent (note: that does not prevent you from later self publishing); perhaps the agent will come back with an offer, in which case maybe that offer will be good enough you won't feel like self publishing is worth the hassle.

That's a good thing to keep in mind, actually: until you've accepted a contract with a publisher (at which point you won't have the time for a while), you retain the option of going the self publishing direction, and by pursuing a traditional publishing contract, you'll at least be giving yourself a real choice (plus the aforementioned feedback and time to refine).
 
Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
 
It depends on how much you want to get that particular book published. Just because you write a book and spend lots of time getting it correct doesn't mean it will ever get picked up by anyone. Perhaps its not what the big publishers are looking for or you really aren't that good. These days where selling any book in the traditional market is a gamble, not a lot of publishers are interested in new authors. Even getting an agent doesn't guarantee a book will be sold and published by a traditional outlet.

A friend of mine who tried a few years of sending to publishers and agents decided he would just do it himself. He didn't know if he wanted to write another book and really wanted to get it out to the public. No money was coming to him (and frankly none right now) by not getting it published. Yes, I am partial to advertising for him as the book isn't that bad, although not a bestseller.

http://www.parkingorbitpublishing.com/
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
That bit of advice you guys gave me about going to agents to start with, because it gives you feedback and let's you know where you stand, was very useful (the whole thread was useful, but this especially), and I've since passed it along. She really took that part to heart and is going to prep some queries for various agents.

I definitely think this is the way to go, although who knows, maybe she'll end up self-publishing. At least this way she'll know where she stands, though.
 
Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
 
There's a podcast about this:

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2009/10/18/writing-excuses-season-3-episode-21-pitfalls-of-self-publishing-with-larry-correia/
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
Wow, that site is really interesting (and the podcast you linked is useful too). Thanks!
 
Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
 
In one of their recent podcasts, they discussed Orson Scott Card's M.I.C.E. quotient. I also enjoy their discussions on world-building and magic systems.
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
Yeah the M.I.C.E. one was really good, and kind of funny. I thought it was a little strange, too, that OSC chose Milueu (or whatever it's called) instead of just 'location' (no doubt because it started with an M), but that would have resulted in L.I.C.E., which I sorta think is better.
 
Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
 
This looks pretty nifty:

http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/home/brandon_w2012/
 
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
 
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=6481

Dean Wesley Smith runs the numbers on book publishing, weighing the costs, benefits and time constraints of traditional publishing vs indie publishing, and unless you're an A-list author the money's coming to indie publishing these days. (With some caveats, which he includes)

When you add in the newer contracts that expect more rights for the publisher and smaller percentages for the author, along with no guarantee of quality (ebook errors rarely get fixes, for example) and no guarantee of promotion, your odds these days are better with self-publishing. If, of course, your writing is good and people notice you.
 
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
 
Adding: Lawrence Block just posted about the changing publishing industry and his success with self-publishing. And this is from a man who has been very successful in traditional publishing but was forced to change as the situations demanded.

http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/all-changed-changed-utterly/
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
Yeah. The winds are changing, and publishers have ways they can adapt, but mostly they're making a very bad go of it.
 
Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
 
Here's another perspective on self-publishing:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=15262
 
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
Great articles on how to publish...

But I'm wondering how to advertise?

Once you put your book out there, on whatever format, how do you actually get people to find and read it? I assume there aren't people out there trolling for random self-published books on Amazon and randomly buy from strangers? So how do you create buzz and interest by yourself?
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
Good question. My friend is having a problem with that. She made a trailer for the book, has a blog and a website specifically for the novel, had a blog tour, and posts on twitter, facebook, and half a dozen other social media sites, and she STILL can't manage to sell that many copies. She has contests, got an entire middle school English class to read her book as part of their lesson plan, and even brought the price down to free the other day.

It could be the fact that so many people are flooding the market with self-published novels. Or maybe it's just bad luck [Frown]
 
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
It seems like so much of it is word of mouth...but word of mouth only travels so far unless you happen to know especially important people. Or unless your parents own a publishing company (coughcoughPaolinicoughcough).
 
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Lyrhawn:
So how do you create buzz and interest by yourself?

Goodreads. [Wink]
 
Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
 
Start giving your book to people for free, whilst writing your next one.
 
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
 
First, an apology - I didn't intend to ramble on so long. ...

I have a friend who has her first book out and is working on the finishing touches on her second book. Both are published through CreateSpace, Amazon's self-publishing site. The books are printed on demand. She can order copies for book signings basically at cost. (She did most of the design and formatting herself, not using all the services on CreateSpace, which saved her a lot.)

I helped her out at her first book signing, which was in conjunction with a ladies' night out in her town. I would say she sold more than 50 books, but it was probably more. (Edited to clarify: I asked her and she said she sold 65 books that night. She also said, "This is the key reason why authors don't self-publish. It's about the cost of marketing.")

I've been trying to get her to help me out to promote her book. I set up two websites - one for each pseudonym (these two books are so different she used two different pen names) as well as Facebook pages. But I can't get her to give me content to post.

(I should point out that she is paying me for these services, as well as for proof-reading her books.)

I can't blame her for being too busy to promote - she's got to wrap up the second book and she's working on a third book, plus working three nights a week at our local paper and being on the historical society board in her town and other projects.

One site that I get a lot of free books for Kindle from is Pixel of Ink. They feature free and very low-cost books and they have lots of followers on Facebook. If an author can get them to feature their book, that's a step in the right direction.

Another thing is to ask people to do reviews on Amazon.com. I often read a description of a book before I order it, but I also read the reviews. And the reviews do influence whether I click or not. So if the author can get people to read the book and come back and give a review, that can help.

This ebook lists lots of resources and websites where an author can promote their own books. It's short, but it currently costs $1.01, which isn't bad considering the information.

[ April 26, 2012, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: CaySedai ]
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
quote:
But I'm wondering how to advertise?

Once you put your book out there, on whatever format, how do you actually get people to find and read it? I assume there aren't people out there trolling for random self-published books on Amazon and randomly buy from strangers? So how do you create buzz and interest by yourself?

There are people doing that trolling. Key: put together a good cover image and good description, and be specific on your categories. Then do some basic promotional work, such as sending out review copies, getting a group of friends to purchase it in a narrow-ish time window so it's much more likely to be seen, and generally establishing an online presence for yourself. But there are a large number of high selling self published people in the kindle store who just put together decent descriptions and cover images at reasonable prices then let people discover them.

For ongoing sales, a key for almost all of the successful self publishers seems to be a decent library. That is, multiple works, and ideally adding works with some regularity. Then their sales mutually reinforce each other.
 
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
So would you suggest not self-publishing a single book, but waiting until you have a couple polished so you launch with a library already started?
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
It depends on how much evidence-based confidence you have in the quality of your work. If you have legitimate, evidence-based confidence in your work's quality, go ahead and self-pub. If you can add another book within a year or so, that'd be great, of course.

But if you're still trying to figure out how good your book actually is, don't self-publish. Shop it around so you either get a good enough offer (don't take a low ball offer -- mid six figures for a two or three book contract is where you start considering) or at least find out if the book is really as good as you hope it is.

And self-publishing might not work out, just like shopping around even a very good book might not. If you do self-publish, you're in for the long haul. Even if it takes you a year or two to come out with your next book, if you're adding a book every year or two to your online library, and they're good and well presented, you stand a good chance of building a respectable long term revenue stream.
 
Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
Personally, I think it would be smarter to go with traditional for your first book. If you don't sell the book to anyone, you can always self-publish it. I'm not saying you can't do well in self-publishing, but if you can manage to get traditionally published with the first book, with the chance to see your printed words in book stores, why not take it (or at least try)?
 
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
I think people heavily invested in self-publishing have a vested interest in making it seem like self-pubbers are raking in dough. For the most part, my perception is that the results they trumpet aren't typical. I think self publishing is a great option under some circumstances: you have the rights to your backlist reverted to you. You are already well-known and have fans. You write extremely niche stories. Most of the self-pubbers I know online aren't actually making any money at it, nor do they have much readership.

I would disagree with the claim that traditional publishing sacrifices profit in the short term in exchange for wider publicity. If anything, I would say that's exactly backward. In my field, a ten or twenty thousand dollar advance is still reasonably common. (They can go much higher or substantially lower, of course. A friend of mine got six figures for her first book. And another six figures for the overseas rights.) Let's be conservative and suppose you only get $5000 as an advance and never see a royalty check. 90% of all self-pubbers will never see as much as you just did.* On the other hand if you're a writer with some exposure and fanbase, self-pubbing ebooks can serve you well because of the "long tail" effect. You can keep your books digitally "in print" forever, earning higher royalty rates than any New York publisher will pay you. So long term, you can make more as a self-pubber, but again, only if you've got something to draw in customers.

DWS's claims run contrary to my experience and firsthand observation. Of course, he's widely published and he makes a living at this, so take that with a grain of salt.

I disagree (and so do pretty much all the self-pubbing advocates out there) with the advice to make a book free while you write the next one. Releasing a book for free as a loss-leader only works if there is a non-free product (preferably more than one) that readers can immediately buy if they like the free product. Otherwise you're just working for nothing.

As for self-promotion, the most effective self-promotion (and again, most self-pub advocates agree) is to write another book. And another. Spending time on Twitter advertising the hell out of your book is counterproductive. Further, if you really want to approach self-pubbing as a viable career strategy, Amanda Hocking-like, you need to be prolific as hell.

The day may well come when traditional publishing is dead in the water and self-pubbing is the venue of choice. I think we're still a decade or two from that, personally.

When reading about all the amazing success that self-pubbers have had, it is worth wondering whether the results are typical, and whether the claimant has anything to gain from making NY publishing seem like no longer the way to go.

*Number pulled out of my ass. But still true.
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
quote:
Let's be conservative and suppose you only get $5000 as an advance and never see a royalty check. 90% of all self-pubbers will never see as much as you just did.*
More than 90% of people shopping around to mainstream publishers will never see as much as you just did, either [Wink] . How many of people who can get a 5 figure advance would do reasonably well as self-pubbers is a much more difficult question, and it's hard to see it not come down on the sign of self-publishing given a few simple calculations based on actual sales by people who are only showing mediocre result as self-pubbers (and yet still earning back $10k to $20k over a five year period, because self-pubbing ebook sales are durable and much higher profit margin -- that's less than 50 sales per month at $5 list price, which a heck of a lot of self-pubbers are managing to reach). Plus they keep the rights to the book, plus it keeps selling beyond that five year period, plus they have the chance to layer on output (as you say, and I've been saying, multiple books is the best bet) and generate more sales.

quote:
When reading about all the amazing success that self-pubbers have had, it is worth wondering whether the results are typical, and whether the claimant has anything to gain from making NY publishing seem like no longer the way to go.
That's not really the question. The question is only how the results compare to the same person seeking a traditional publishing contract, which is also heavily weighted in favor of no profit, even if the author is pretty decent. Of course self-publishing doesn't do so well for the typical self publisher, but that's true of any creative field, whether you try to go through the established gatekeepers or not.
 
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by fugu13:
quote:
Let's be conservative and suppose you only get $5000 as an advance and never see a royalty check. 90% of all self-pubbers will never see as much as you just did.*
More than 90% of people shopping around to mainstream publishers will never see as much as you just did, either [Wink] .
Oh, you're right, of course. But then let's be honest and acknowledge that the majority of people choosing to self-publish right now are doing so because they don't write very well, and are unwilling to go through the years--and the rejections--it takes to hone their craft.

quote:
How many of people who can get a 5 figure advance would do reasonably well as self-pubbers is a much more difficult question, and it's hard to see it not come down on the sign of self-publishing given a few simple calculations based on actual sales by people who are only showing mediocre result as self-pubbers (and yet still earning back $10k to $20k over a five year period, because self-pubbing ebook sales are durable and much higher profit margin -- that's less than 50 sales per month at $5 list price, which a heck of a lot of self-pubbers are managing to reach).
I agree with the first half of this statement. I think it's hard to quantify but I believe that the average writer who can get a four or five figure advance on a first novel will not see similar returns on a self-pubbed first book unless they have a substantial number of other books to back it up soon afterward. And in my unscienctific observation, it is the tiniest minority of self-pubbers who are able to sell 50 copies a month at even three dollars. That's not a mediocre result as a self-pubber; that's an outstanding one. Much more typical in my online conversations is the self-pubber who has sold less than ten books . . . ever. And who contents himself by telling the world he doesn't really want to write "popular" books anyway.

If you have some sort of comprehensive and non-anecdotal evidence of what constitutes standard, I truly would like to see it, because I don't. That's not snark or rhetoric, by the way. I'd love to see some averages, even if they disagree with me.

I think the ideal self-publishing scenario (at this time) is for people who have the popular recognition that having once been mainstream published lends.
 
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
quote:
But then let's be honest and acknowledge that the majority of people choosing to self-publish right now are doing so because they don't write very well, and are unwilling to go through the years--and the rejections--it takes to hone their craft.

Since I've said exactly that many times, and repeatedly underscored that self publishing doesn't make sense unless one can create high quality output (and that people should start by submitting to traditional publishing until they're sure they've reached that quality level), I don't think you'll find any disagreement from me [Smile] .

quote:
what constitutes standard
I never said it was standard, just reasonably frequent. Specifically "a heck of a lot".

The hard part is controlling for quality of work; that basically makes it impossible to get hard statistics without a heck of a lot of effort attempting to do that.

However, it's not hard to see that if you pick many genres on the Kindle store and look at the rankings, self published authors regularly take up a fifth to a third of the listings*, depending on genre and particular section of the rankings. Since most major authors are available in the kindle store (and selling reasonably well, even overpriced), and these authors are competing on the same turf and seeing similar sales, that's thousands of self published kindle authors selling not dozens, but hundreds of copies a month (and most of these authors are charging, most of the time more than 99 cents, and maybe even most of them $2.99 and up, though that varies a lot by genre). The specific odds if you produce a story of a given quality? No idea; but if you produce a solid story, there's a solid chance of success, and at the same level of success as a typical traditionally published author in the kindle store you'll see a heck of a lot higher return.

*I looked at epic fantasy as an example; I did not start with and discard any other areas, I had not looked at epic fantasy before, and I know of several other areas with similar stats. Despite most of them having horrible covers and blurbs, I was able to rapidly find that three or four of the top twenty were almost certainly self published, and I strongly suspect another two or three are, but just doing a much better job of hiding it. Burrowing down to 60+ -- The Way of Kings is selling at number 69 even at just $8.99 -- I found a similar or higher percentage, even a few self published books that are bringing in a higher amount per sale than Brandon Sanderson's making, even if he's all the way up at 40%. And they're selling similarly to his books, so they're making as much as he's making on The Way of Kings or more. I think around a third of high selling books being from self-published authors, many of them with only one or two books linked to that pen name yet competing in sales with established authors, qualifies as a "heck of a lot" of people managing to sell 50 or more copies a month.
 


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