Traditional Publishing
Newsweek Magazine recently ran an article that said the stigma on self publishing has vanished. E-books are available all over the internet and Kindle has led the way in offering digitized, downloadable books that you purchase and instantly download to an electronic reader. Even well known, established authors are taking advantage of the easy availability of the process, and have started publishing their own books.
Print on demand allows an author to upload a manuscript, and within a week or two, have a hard copy of the book delivered to their front door. Self publishing has become easier and traditional publishing has become more difficult.
Traditional Publishing does have it’s benefits:
You gain creditibility, distribution chanels and a business partner in a publisher
Your book will be professionally edited
They will design your cover, and make sure it is formatted correctly
They will write the cover copy and your bio
Established authors will sometimes get a cash advance before the book is published
But Traditional Publishing also has it’s negatives:
Even after you give the publisher your manuscript, it will still be a year or more before the books makes it to the book store shelf
Your book will be edited and rewritten
You will have no input on the cover design
The author is still responsible for marketing the book
Just because you have a contract with a publisher does not mean that your second or third book will be published
If your book sells for $20.00, you still pay $10.00 a copy for your own book
But the biggest difference in Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing is in the Royalties or Profits.
If you are a published author, have a contract with a publishing company, have several successful books that you have already published, your publisher may give you a generous royalty or commission of 15% on the books sold. This means that a book selling for $20, you earn $3.
On the other hand, a self published book generally costs $10 or less to publish. If you sell the book for $20 and it costs you $10, your royalty or commission is 100% or $10 on each book sold.
To make $1,000, you would have to sell 100 self published books. You would have to sell 334 traditionally published books to make $1,000.
For more info, give us a call:
Mickey Mixon
New Media Consultant
832.443.8881 cell
281.491.0342 office
800.291.1004 toll free
800.988.8178 fax