Great question! Here’s a longer answer than you ever cared for.
I’m open to traditional publishing if the deal is right, but I’m wary. I have several friends, professors, and coaches who have published traditionally. There are positives, certainly, but also a lot of negatives. Once you sign, they own the book, not you. They can make decisions about your book you have no control over. Your profitability drops to about 5% of the price of any book sale, because there’s such a vast chain of people being supported by its sale price. Your ability to give copies of your book away is no longer up to you.
I’ve published five books so far. I’ve learned a lot about the writing world in the process.
The tools for publication have been so democratized that anyone can publish a high-quality book these days, if you’re willing to put the work in. This is especially true if you are connected to editors and designers who are industry-trained.
Of course, if you just upload a Word doc to Amazon, it will look terrible, and the quality will be terrible.
But if you work with editors and designers and put in the work to produce a quality product, you can.
I’m much more a fan of doing that. One of the biggest reasons is the time. Traditional publishing can take up to two years before your book sees the light of day.
So, I just realized another good reason for self-publishing, especially on Amazon/KDP. I was looking through a previous book manuscript for reference on another project & found a few typos, which I corrected. Once I finish reviewing for typos, I can upload the corrected copy free of charge. Even trad published books have typos (I find them more often than I'd expect), but you can't change them so easily. Anyway... just another reason to self-publish.
Very true! I've had that experience where I proof my own books carefully, multiple software programs proof it, editors work through it, I get feedback from early readers, everything seems good, it's published.... and then the first time I open a printed copy, there's a typo on the page I opened to. Being able to fix such occurrences easily is certainly a blessing.
Yeah, I agree with you. I don’t have the platform to go the traditional route although I could see it as status thing, but I prefer the control of self-publishing. I don’t have the bankroll to get top level editing & design but have found a few ways to accomplish most of that.
Kyle, will this book be self-published or through a trad publisher?
Great question! Here’s a longer answer than you ever cared for.
I’m open to traditional publishing if the deal is right, but I’m wary. I have several friends, professors, and coaches who have published traditionally. There are positives, certainly, but also a lot of negatives. Once you sign, they own the book, not you. They can make decisions about your book you have no control over. Your profitability drops to about 5% of the price of any book sale, because there’s such a vast chain of people being supported by its sale price. Your ability to give copies of your book away is no longer up to you.
I’ve published five books so far. I’ve learned a lot about the writing world in the process.
The tools for publication have been so democratized that anyone can publish a high-quality book these days, if you’re willing to put the work in. This is especially true if you are connected to editors and designers who are industry-trained.
Of course, if you just upload a Word doc to Amazon, it will look terrible, and the quality will be terrible.
But if you work with editors and designers and put in the work to produce a quality product, you can.
I’m much more a fan of doing that. One of the biggest reasons is the time. Traditional publishing can take up to two years before your book sees the light of day.
So, I just realized another good reason for self-publishing, especially on Amazon/KDP. I was looking through a previous book manuscript for reference on another project & found a few typos, which I corrected. Once I finish reviewing for typos, I can upload the corrected copy free of charge. Even trad published books have typos (I find them more often than I'd expect), but you can't change them so easily. Anyway... just another reason to self-publish.
Very true! I've had that experience where I proof my own books carefully, multiple software programs proof it, editors work through it, I get feedback from early readers, everything seems good, it's published.... and then the first time I open a printed copy, there's a typo on the page I opened to. Being able to fix such occurrences easily is certainly a blessing.
Yeah, I agree with you. I don’t have the platform to go the traditional route although I could see it as status thing, but I prefer the control of self-publishing. I don’t have the bankroll to get top level editing & design but have found a few ways to accomplish most of that.
Thanks