Skip to main content

Internet Surfing Leads Me to Traditional Publishing Pros and Cons


You click one link after another after another, and so on and so forth, and before you know it's four hours later and you have conceded that you probably won't accomplish much today. Well I had one of those days but it was very positive experience because I learned a lot. I was researching self-publishing. I came across the authors Brenna Aubrey and HM Ward who turned down traditional publishers to self-publish and of course their success stories intrigued and inspired me. More intriguing was the fact they broke down everything they went through. Their experiences and opinions on the subject prompted me to put together some more CONS about traditional publishing.
 
Signing with a Traditional Publisher CON list:
  1. Little to no control of rights for 35 years (print, e-book, audio, film, etc.) which means no control over re-print runs, movie/TV casting, scripts, budget, etc. Courtney Milan breaks down costs here.
  2. Little to no creative control/freedom (title, cover, edits, marketing and placement, pricing) which means you could end up with a cover you don't like or a marketing plan that does not work to your novel's strengths.
  3. Authors do not know the budgets and marketing plans "of any given book before agreeing to sign a contract" per HM Ward.
  4. Little to no control over release date/timetable, since you are working with publisher who has other books and priorities.
  5. Little to no advance for debut authors. Any advance is against royalties. Usually one half of the total advance is delivered upon author signing. The remaining amount divvied into payments distributed upon delivery of edited manuscript and again upon publication. Once you sell through advance the royalties diminish to about of 7% on print books and 25% of the net on eBooks.
  6. If there is an advance, you don't see any cash flow until the advance is repaid, this is a loan by another other name.
  7. Amount of royalties paid are very little with traditional publishing, especially for debut authors.
  8. Possible lower involvement in editing/revising of book.
  9. Non Compete Clause means that you cannot publish or authorize publication of any book-length credited under your author name. People have gotten around this by publishing under pseudo names.
  10. Require rights to print and ebooks which means you can't reprint excerpts on blogs or in articles without permission.
Bottom line is control here. Relinquish control for possible success and money? Or keep control for possible success and more share of money? This is a personal decision of course, so do your due diligence and make informed decisions.

References:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice for Writers

The Best advice I can give to writers can be summed up in five tips and is partly what I've read, heard or learned on my writing journey.    First  – Keep writing and be ready. Write as many novels (and short story, poems, essays, etc.) as you can. Learn how to write a synopsis and query if you plan on submitting to agents and publishers. Learn the mechanics of writing and structuring a story. Take classes, enter contests, find mentors, work with beta readers, critique partners and editors - all with the goal of improving your skills and making your novels better. Second  – The road to getting published is not for the faint of heart. If you can’t learn to live with constant rejection then you might not want to publish your work.   Writers must grow thick skin. We are going to be judged by our work constantly and must remember why we write in order to overcome haters, trolls or simply people who don't like our work/style. Not everyone is go...
2 comments
Read more

What's Up with Diversity in Color in the Publishing Industry

In the last few years, there has been a big push for diversity that seems to have gone hand in hand with the Black Lives Matter movement. According to a  2019 survey , 76 percent of the people who acquire and edit books are white.  When agents who are the gatekeepers within the publishing industry — in most cases the Big 4 publishers and their subsidiaries won’t consider novels without agents attached — are white, finding diverse voices they connect can be a problem.   Human nature dictates we are all ruled by our biases, morals, and experiences. How can someone who hasn’t faced similar life circumstances because of their color or “otherness” judge our books and the messages within them? via GIPHY Zora Neale Hurston  wrote an article in 1950  called, “What White Publishers Won’t Print” (over 72 years ago, people!)—let’s pause to take in this fact. This thing that happened for this exceptional black woman author so long ago that is still relevant today. via ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Query Wins for Me

I am getting ready to query again after about a six-month hiatus and looked back through my records of responses and was quite pleased.  In the past, I’ve had many close calls. I’ve had full requests from publishers and agents alike for a few different books I queried. I could have given up with the mounting rejections but the rejections I’ve gotten over the last year and a half have MOSTLY been inspiring. This might not make sense to anyone who hasn’t been through the querying trenches but there is such a thing as a good rejection. A good “no” per se. In posting this I want to say that if you are a writer seeking publication, you need to keep writing, revising and editing…but especially keep submitting. Here are a few of my rejections: “I loved the concept and was riveted by the world you have created, but ultimately I just didn’t fall in love with the voice. It’s not for me, but I wish you the best of luck in your search for representation.” ‘There was so muc...
Post a Comment
Read more