Is Traditional Publishing Worth Your Time in 2023?

Or are we playing into our own vanity?

I have a question.

It sounds simple. The answer should be a resounding YES. But once you start digging into it, it’s not so clear.

If you have a book in mind or a finished manuscript, it’s time to face the big question. Should you self-publish or traditionally publish?

Odds are you should self-publish. Save yourself the trouble. Write multiple books and raise an audience or fan base around your work. And because you get a much higher royalty percentage if you self-publish, you don’t need to sell as many books to earn a living compared to traditional publishing. In fact, for the vast majority of writers, self-publishing is the way to go.

You can keep up to 70% of royalties in self-publishing compared to 15% from traditional publishers. You get to keep the rights to your intellectual property. The distribution channels are basically the same for both. It’s harder to get your book in bookstores if you self-publish, but it is also problematic if you traditionally publish, not even guaranteed.

That’s right, even if you score a contract with a major publisher, odds are your book won’t be in bookstores. Bookstores have limited space, and they would rather have Stephen King there than an unknown writer.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You have a better chance of earning a living if you self-publish because you control everything and you can do it at your own pace.

Keep in mind that if you self-publish, you must have a proper product to sell. But I have already covered that topic.

The most significant drawback of self-publishing is the sheer number of books being dumped into the market. There are way too many. However, many are pure rubbish and won’t get much traction.

Remember, there are no regulations on who can self-publish or on how good the quality is. Another huge chunk is non-fiction books from businesses or people showcasing their knowledge in their fields. So, it’s hard to rely on self-publish statistics. I couldn’t find statistics of specific genres for example.

Most self-published books sell less than 200 copies on average. In 2022, about 4 million books were published. According to Wordsrated, commercially published books accounted for 500,000 to one million of the total. So that leaves us 3 to 3.5 million books published with zero supervision.

How many of these are from committed authors who take pride in selling professionally-looking and edited novels? It’s hard to tell. There’s a lot of noise out there.

So here’s my question:

Imagine you landed an agent. And that agent convinced a publisher to buy your book. That sounds amazing, right? “A dream come true,” most would say.

But is it, though?

The Case Against Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishers can take forever. Right from the start, landing an agent isn’t easy. Querying is very stressful, and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get an answer. Once you do, you might have to write a book proposal. They are incredibly hard to craft.

After that, your agent will take even more time to find you a book deal. If ever. Once you have a book deal, rest assured it’ll take at least a year, at best, before your book is published. Traditional publishers are so fast glaciers often overtake them.

Once you sign a book deal, you’ll lose the rights to your story — even creative rights. You won’t have any say in what art goes on the cover. Or what kind of cuts and edits to your story the publisher will want.

The advances publishers give new authors these days are between $5k to $15k. There are some outliers, of course, but don’t get your hopes up. And you’ll get 15% royalty in the best of scenarios, while books sold in bookstores will earn you a lot less because bookstores need to make money somehow. On top of that, you’ll have to share 15% of your earnings with your agent.

Traditional publishers these days don’t offer significant marketing help. This means that if you want to make it as a new author, you’ll still have to market your novel as if you self-published it. But now, you have a ball and chain attached to your ankle because you can’t control all aspects of your marketing strategy. Here’s an article from literary agent Chip MacGregor talking about advances and marketing:

It bears repeating. There will be limitations to how you wish to market your novel. It’s not up to you if you want to make a book sale or not, for example. If you want to run ads, they’ll have to approve them (it’s not your book anymore; it’s their book).

The online distribution channels are virtually the same as self-publishing. Online publishing accounts for the vast majority of book sales since 2018, and the number keeps growing.

When you sign a book contract, be careful. You may end up losing more rights than you bargained for. This is one of the reasons you must have an agent when dealing with legacy publishers. Part of an agent’s job is to look out for your best interests (and his).

As I said before, it’s not guaranteed that your book will be in bookstores. In fact, you’re not guaranteed sales at all. According to a study conducted in the UK in 2018, the top 10% of published authors took 70% of total earnings in the profession. And then there’s this big drama that blew up on Twitter last year and was expertly covered by the BBC podcast More or Less, along with US Fantasy author Cat Rector. According to them, 86% of books published by Penguin Random House were not commercially viable (sold less than 5k copies), and 15% sold less than 12 copies. It’s only 8 minutes long. You should give it a listen and take your own conclusions.

Here’s my last stone against the Big Five legacy publishers:

According to this Reedsy article:

There were more high-earning self-publishing authors than Big 5 authors at every single publishing “age”. Whether an author debuted in the last century, the last decade, or the last 3–5 years, they were more likely to have a higher income as an indie.

The gap was much wider among new authors (those who’d published in the previous 3–5 years). Even looking at authors earning $50k+/year, indie authors outnumbered recent Big 5 authors by a factor of three (see the right side of this next graph). — https://blog.reedsy.com/how-much-do-authors-make/

A factor of three. The probability of you earning a living wage as a new author is three times higher if you self-publish. That’s pretty significant.

One more tiny detail: most readers don’t care who published the book. They just want a good, well-presented story.

The Case For Traditional Publishing

But don’t throw the towel just yet. There are upsides, too.

It’s easier to get our books in bookstores. I know what I said earlier, but it’s way harder if you self-publish. In fact, if you want your book to be in fancy bookstores, you might have to pay for your slot and won’t make any money. Bookstores need to earn a living somehow. So, if you dream about casually wandering in a bookstore and hanging out around your book, hoping someone will notice you and ask for your autograph, well, trad-pub is the way to go.

A team of professionals will help you edit and format your novel, making it dazzling (maybe). Publishers work with some of the best artists and graphic designers available, so you can be confident that your book will look amazing. Plus, you won’t have to spend a dime.

Trad-pub offers an advance, and that money is yours to keep even if your book sales fail to cover the initial payout. That’s a nice perk.

If your book has promising sales, not only will publishers invest in real advertising but also broker deals with foreign markets and facilitate the translations of your novel into other languages. That is not so easily done if you self-publish. Not to mention that translating an entire manuscript is very costly.

Your book is more likely to be eligible to earn prizes like the Nebula Award or Hugo Award, for example. You can win a Bram Stoker, maybe. But listen to this: In 2016, Andy Weir won the John W. Campbell Award (now known as the Astounding Award for Best New Writer) for a book he self-published in 2011, The Martian. However, the book was re-released by Crown Publishing in 2014, so it’s no longer a self-published novel. In fact, the Astounding Award only accepts books published in a professional publication. See their criteria.

But that’s not all, let’s not forget vanity

There’s a sense of validation involved in professional publishers. Because when all is said and done when you self-publish, it can feel like you cheated somehow. But if you have a publishing house name to back you up, that has got to mean you’re the real deal. It gives you credibility. There’s prestige and bragging rights that come along with it. It doesn’t affect book sales, but it matters much more than one might assume.

This vanity keeps hooked on the dream. To become a published author. No buts. No doubts. A professional author who made it all the way to the big houses like all the big names we follow and read.

You want prestige and validation. There’s nothing wrong with that. If I were given the chance to publish traditionally, I wouldn’t say “no” right off the bat. I’m vain, too. I’d love to win an award. The odds are slim, but at least they are there. Getting my books translated into several languages. Yes, please! Plus, there are the other upsides that I mentioned.

For most authors, I think the answer is obvious. In this day and age, considering all the tools at our disposal, self-publishing seems mighty appealing. Just take your time and do it right. If you have the funds, pay a professional to do it for you.

For a lucky few, it’s a no-brainer. Like if you are famous. Trad-pud has got you covered. They’ll pander you all the way through. You’re a freaking star.

But for those unsure of what path to choose, you must ask yourself some critical questions. Do you wish to have the best chance of succeeding and earning a living writing? Or do you prefer the prestige associated with trad-pub?

Either path you choose offers no real guarantees. But thoughtful self-pub seems to have the edge. Trad-pub takes care of business but comes with huge caveats. It’s all a probability game until you set out and see what happens.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you turn your back on a book deal, or is that just madness?

Because, even after all I have said, I would undoubtedly have a hard time saying no.

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