Publishing Paths
So I know that many of my blogging “friends” are also published authors and I also realize that some of these works have been self-published. I am not going to ask the pros and cons of both, I think anyone that has looked into any sort of publishing of any kind knows the whole list. There is one question that I am so perplexed by because I see it so frequently…
People often ask: Should I go the Traditional Publishing route or should I self-publish?
So what is my question? Well, I have tried to submit many different transcripts to many different traditional publishing companies and I have yet to be offered any sort of publishing contract. Am I missing something? Can anyone really choose between traditional and non-traditional procedures? Is this question seemingly only hypothetical?
This may or may not make sense to anyone, as my question is vague.
Please share your thoughts and comments.
Stine Writing 
You’re not missing something … traditional publishing has been dying since the advent of the internet, and went into its death throes during Covid …
…
It’s true that many self-published books are, let’s say, ‘less than stellar’ in the editing/proofing sense … but these days this also true of trad publishing, where small to middle sized publishers are struggling to remain afloat and the large publishers are only interested in their backlist, (of books they’ve already published and are re-releasing) and engaging in corporate mergers to boost their flagging bottom lines.
The truth is, with traditional puiblishing and self-publishing you are going to do exactly the same amount of work to see your book on the shelf, (a physical or digital shelf) but with trad publishing you will see a fraction of the sale price show up in your bank account and with self-pubbing you’ll see up to 70% of that sale in your bank account. (depending on how you publish and who with)
… at best a traditional publisher will format your manuscript for you and upload it to their platform of choice, and depending on your contract will provide your cover art, (which isn’t guranteed to have a single thing to do with your story, but more to do with what someone in their ‘marketing dept’ thinks will sell in your genre at any given moment)
All it takes to get your finished manuscript into your readers hands is time, your time, your willingness to learn new skills, which with the plethora of tutorials/software out there, will cost you nary a cent.
I suppose it all comes down to whether you, (and not just ‘you’ in a personal sense, but ‘you’ as in everyone out there who asks themselves these questions) want to play someone else’s game or play by your own rules.
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From what you say and what I have heard I think you are 100% spot on!
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I have no experience with publishing, but I will say that, on multiple occasions, I have read self-published books that were riddled with typos and mechanical errors that made them very difficult to read. I suspect that traditionally published books go through a more rigorous editing process.
(It also makes me wonder if my writing is like that, and I just don’t see it because it’s all going on in my own head, or if I’m really a better writer than I thought…)
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From my experience reading your writing you don’t have errors at all. I am now doing book reviews for Booksprout and I had to turn down a book last week because it had so many typos. I left a message to the author and she said it was because of the transfer of documents from one format to another. Maybe…but I don’t know many computers that actually move words around. I know that for the most part I read and reread what I write so many times it is only when I’ve read it too much that I find errors.
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From what I can gather following the”traditional” route is heavily reliant on publishers willing to take a chance on a new writer. In the current climate that is a problem. Even with an agent who supposedly knows what they are doing you will get a pink slip more often than not.
I know quite a few writers who self-publish or started out self-publishing. The advent of the internet has made self-publishing a viable alternative. It certainly is worth thinking about
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That was what I thought too. I just didn’t understand why so many people ask about whether or not they should publish traditionally when the chances are so rare. I don’t know. I have seen some newly published children’s books that are atrocious!
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That’s because so many authors still believe the myth that a traditional publisher means you have ‘made it’, and you are a ‘real’ writer – the whole ‘I’m a published author’, bit.
Indeed it’s in traditional publishing’s best interests that so many writers still believe that.
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