Traditional vs. Self-Publishing

If you happen to be a writer, chances are you have a deep desire to see your name in print, and not the kind that comes out of your printer at home. Whether you are in business writing, scientific writing, journalism, non-fiction and fiction alike, we writers crave to be published. You are not alone in your desires.

Depending on what kind of a writer you are, there are different avenues of publication. Poets typically submit to literary journals and magazines, journalists submit to magazines, newspapers, or publish on their own personal blogs, and scientific and business writers submit their work to journals in their field. But I’m talking about the big kahuna, the daunting and ever-confusing, book publication.

The majority of authors typically go with big box publishing houses with well-known names such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster, just to name a few. Unfortunately, there are more manuscripts submitted than will ever be read. When submitting a manuscript to any publishing house, big box or not, there are two different methods authors usually take. The first is submitting an unsolicited manuscript directly to the publisher.

An unsolicited manuscript is a manuscript that has been sent to a publishing house without being requested or otherwise fielded through a literary agent. Most large publishers do not allow or accept unsolicited manuscripts, but some do. Here is a link to 20 traditional publishers that are currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Be sure to read about each publisher before blindly submitting; most publishers have a style of work or genre that they are looking for. Reading what they need can be helpful in directing you to the best fit for your manuscript. Even when submitting to a publisher receiving unsolicited manuscripts, many manuscripts end up in the slush pile. This is a stack of unsolicited query letters or manuscripts that have been directly sent to a publisher by an author, or which have been delivered by a literary agent representing the author who may or may not be familiar to the publisher.

An author’s worst nightmare is to end up in the slush pile. Your manuscript could be a diamond in the rough, and no one would know because it’s buried under hundreds of thousands of pages, making it difficult for editors to get anywhere by sifting through the slush. Perhaps one day, after all the coffees have been delivered, spreadsheets made, and mail delivered, a literary intern may pick up your manuscript. Maybe he falls in love and gives it to his supervisor, an assistant of some sort, who also thinks it is brilliant and passes it on to her boss and so on and so on, until one day it ends up on an acquisitions editor’s desk. It could happen, don’t get me wrong, it just doesn’t happen as often as one would like. If it did literary agents would be out of a job.

Speaking of literary agents, I’ve thrown their title around a bit and want to clarify exactly what they do. A literary agent acts on behalf of an author in dealing with publishers and others involved in promoting the author’s work. Think of it like a real estate agent. Sellers hire a real estate agent to make their house is up to spec and for the connections they have in the industry in order to sell their house at a fair price for all parties involved. That’s what a literary agent does with a book; they have connections in the publishing industry that are invaluable to an author.

Traditional publishing is very competitive and has been around as long as the printing press, evolving as most things do, to keep up with the constant technological advancements. But it’s hard, and some writers just want their work to be published to give copies to their friends and families, or to sell as a part of their small business; that’s where self-publishing comes in. Recently there has been a significant rise in the number of authors self-publishing their work. Luckily, to supply for the demand, there are several companies popping up to help authors through the process.

Most of the self-publishing platforms I have come across have several different packages tailored to each author’s needs. Lulu has helped authors publish nearly two million publications and their packages include ISBN registration, cover design and illustrations, editing services (but why use them when you can use us?) author website assistance, internet marketing, promotional materials, publicity, and hosting of different events and reviews. Their all-inclusive package is pretty pricey, coming in at $3,000. But the nice thing is that authors can choose what services they want to save money. Several other self-publishing companies, such as iUniverse and Bookbaby, offer similar packages, and Somerset is currently in contact with them to offer discounts for our clients.

Self-publishing has its perks; the author is in control of their own timeline, is able to customize packages to best suits their needs, print-on-demand, and authors get to keep most, if not all, of the royalties for their book. The biggest downside to self-publishing is the lack of name recognition, which affects marketing. There’s a lot of money shelled out on the front end without any promise of a return in self-publishing, whereas if a publishing house acquires an author’s manuscript they take on the financial responsibility of all marketing and publicity in exchange for a percentage of the sales made off of the book, also known as royalties. There is a risk either way, whether an author chooses traditional or self-publishing, so it is important that authors know as much as they can about their options before deciding which road to pursue.

~M