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Hellooo, everybody! A few weeks ago, I covered covered the pros and cons of self publishing a novel.
And today we're flipping the script! I'm covering the pros and cons of going the
traditional publishing route. Because sometimes having a publisher is awesome,
and sometimes it makes you want to die. First things first, I wanted to say a huge thank you
to my friends over at Skillshare for sponsoring today's video. I've been partnered with Skillshare
for a while now because I adore their platform. It's an online community specifically for creators
with over 17,000 classes in design, painting technology, but I’m personally fond of their
classes in creative writing, marketing, social media and business. I love this platform because
not only does it have a wealth of information, but it's super easy to use. All of the classes
are broken up into these easily digestible five to ten minute chunks. Plus, it's super cheap.
Premium Membership gets you unlimited access to thousands of classes, and an annual subscription
is less than ten bucks a month. I do have a little somethin-somethin for you guys. Maybe a way to
save even more money using Skillshare, but you gotta wait until the end of this video to check
it out. Next thing I wanted to mention, full disclosure: I am a self published author. That
means the information I'm presenting today is not based on firsthand experience. Instead it's based
on years of education and research, as well as through interviews with a number of traditionally
published authors. Additionally, just because I decided to self publish, does not mean it's
the right decision for you. There are pros and cons to both options, and you need to make your
choice based on your individual skills and needs. Lastly, just like with self publishing, there are
a number of misconceptions about traditional publishing, and I think it's time we sort them
out. So let's do that. Misconception Number One - The best part about going traditional is that
your publisher will handle your marketing. Guys, I don't know how many times I have to save this.
Unless you're famous, whatever amount of marketing you're expecting from a publisher, decrease it by
about 90%. Marketing is expensive. So if a publisher is gonna spend that kind of cash,
they're gonna do it for an author who's already proven that they're worth the investment. No
matter which publishing path you choose, whether it's self or traditional, you'd be wise to brush
up on your marketing education, because you're probably going to be doing a bulk of the promotion
on your own. Misconception Number Two - If you signed with one of the big five that's it, you've
made it. Signing with one of the big five does not guarantee you fame, just like getting into college
doesn't guarantee a career. I'm sure you can think of a bunch of famous authors who are signed with
major publishers, but there are thousands of other authors out there who are signed with the exact
same publishers, and you've never heard of them. It takes a lot of variables to make a book famous,
most of which rely heavily on marketing. You know, that thing you're probably gonna be doing on your
own. Plenty of books get killed after two years, plenty of series go unfinished. And there are
lots of authors out there with decent sales who never become household names. Only a fraction of
authors become famous, and no publishing path is a guarantee. And Misconception Number Three - Your
publisher has the same goals as you. Whoever tells you this is either lying, or really stupid. Your
publishing house is a business. Their goal is to boost their bottom line. It's not to make
you famous. “But Jennaaa, making me famous will boost their bottom line, right?” I mean sometimes,
but other times letting an author fail is an even bigger boost because they're cutting their losses,
they're decreasing their marketing expenses, they're handling opportunity costs, or they're
allowing room for another author to blossom. I'm not saying you should fear your publisher,
but you need to be realistic about the industry. They're not a charity. They're not here to make
your dreams come true. They're here to make money. And believe it or not, their goal to
make money won't always align with your goal to succeed. Now that we've covered misconceptions,
let's break down the pros and cons shall we. Pro Number One (1): Limited financial responsibility.
It doesn't matter how awesome your story is, your book does not stand a chance without a
professional cover, professional formatting, and a half decent editor. Fortunately for you, your
publisher is gonna pay for all of that, along with the copyright, the proofread, and a bunch of other
shit you would have had to pay for on your own if you had decided to self publish. Putting out
a quality novel is expensive, but traditionally published authors only have to fork out a fraction
of the cost that self published authors do. It's important to mention that as I already covered,
publishers don't offer a ton of marketing, so it's common for traditionally published writers
to pay for their own promotion. But if you're super strapped for cash, traditional publishing
might be a worthwhile option. You'll still have to pay for marketing, but a lot of the other release
related expenses will be handled. Con Number One (1): Limited creative control. Your publisher has
the right to dictate your title, your story, your cover, whatever. They get the final say
on anything creative. Sometimes changes are made because the original idea sucks, so they're making
it not suck. Other times they're just making it more marketable so they can boost their bottom
line. That's a positive thing in some ways, unless it kind of ruins your overall vision for
the novel. ‘I was trying to write about a man’s struggle with loss, not a young adult vampire love
triangle.’ It's also become increasingly common for publishers to sign authors specifically so
they can write a story the publishers themselves have created. It's similar to ghost writing,
except the author's name will appear on the cover. The public will see it as their work,
and it is their work, except for the concept. For some writers, this is a great option. For others,
it's their worst nightmare. Number Two (2): A guaranteed paycheck. If you sign your novel
with a major publishing house, you will most likely receive an advance which is a paycheck
toward the start of the process that typically covers the first two years of your novel's life.
That means you are essentially given a guaranteed lump of money. No matter how your novel performs,
you have the right to that cash. This is something self published authors don't get, because they
publish themselves. So unless they want to pay themselves an advance, it's not happening.
With that said it's important to clarify that a lot of smaller independent publishing houses
do not pay their authors an advance. So this particular pro does not apply to all traditionally
published authors. Con Number Two (2): Your guaranteed paycheck probably sucks. Writing isn't
exactly known as the most lucrative career, and boy to those advances live up to the reputation.
In my self publishing pro and con video, I cited that the average advance for a traditionally
published debut novel is typically between $10,000 to $20,000. However, my recent research indicates
that it might actually be between $5,000 to $15,000. So for the sake of keeping things easy,
let's just say it's between $5,000 to $20,000. For some people, this is sufficient, but a lot
of writers wanna make their art form a career. You can't support yourself off twenty grand over a two
year period, let alone five grand. Not to mention the fact that a lot of traditionally published
authors never start earning royalties, and if they do, their rates are typically a lot lower
than the average self published author. Pro Number Three (3): You're not alone. Publishing a book is
hardest fuck, and if you're self published, the entire burden rests on your shoulders,
but if you're traditionally published, you've got someone else handling the complicated
business shit. Someone else is dealing with the copyright, the production, the pricing—not you.
And if you have questions along the way, you can ask your agent, or someone within your
publishing house. There are different people you can turn to to provide insight during the process,
and that is a huge comfort, especially during a book release. Con Number Three (3): You're
not alone. Sure it's comforting having someone else oversee all the business stuff, until you
remember that your publisher’s goals don't always align with yours. Did you know that your publisher
has the right to pull your book from production after the first two years of distribution? You
might think this won't happen to you, but it happens to a lot of writers. “But Jennaaa,
that's because they don't sell, right?” Depends on who you ask, because publishers and authors can
have very different definitions of selling and not selling. Additionally, we've already talked about
the fact that a lot of authors are signed for the sake of writing a concept the publisher created.
Did you know that in these cases, the publisher often retains the rights to the novels since
it was their idea. The author may have written the words, and their name may be on the cover,
but it's not their story. Let's talk book releases. There are a bunch of different
ways a publisher can go about your book release, depending on how they predicted it to perform. If
the publisher doesn't believe in the longevity of your book, they may skip on the editing, rush the
publication and release it during a dead month for a quick buck. Or maybe since you're not their top
priority writer, they'll delay your release again, and again, and again. The last example I'll get
into is probably the most complicated to explain. So bear with me. Say publisher X has a famous
author assigned to them, their big moneymaker, and she's known for her werewolf fiction. Suddenly a
newcomer is out and about and he writes werewolf fiction too. This could be a huge issue for
Publisher X because this werewolf guy is legit. His book could totally rival their special author
which means rivaling their profits. Because of this, Publisher X decides to sign the newcomer,
so no other publisher will get ‘em. Then they don't promote his work so that their money maker
can continue to hold the spotlight. To put it simply a publisher might sign an author with
every intention of neglecting them, simply to eliminate perceived competition. You might be
thinking this sounds paranoid, but this is a really common practice in a lot of businesses.
I'm talking industries all over the place do this shit. This is basic business 101. Bottom line is,
you and your publisher are not always gonna have the same goals, and this can be tricky for a lot
of authors since you're awarding them significant power. So that's all I got for you today. Choosing
a publishing path is a really important decision so you should probably have all the facts first.
There are a ton of benefits to both traditional and self publishing, but there are also some major
downsides. So you need to be honest with yourself and choose the path that best suits your needs.
Again, thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring my video. I really appreciate how supportive they've
been of my platform and of The Savior's Champion. And of course Skillshare is back at it again
with the goodies right now. They are offering two months of Skillshare premium for FREE to the first
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