Self Publishing Vs Traditional Publishing
Last evening we got a call at our office, it was from a writer who had a complete book in his computer, ready to be published. He asked our consultant a question hundreds and thousands of writers ask everyday.
“Should I Self Publish or should I go for Traditional Publishing?”
Self Publishing Vs Traditional Publishing
Traditional publishing has been around for centuries, whereas self publishing is a relatively new term that’s gaining its momentum in the market of book writing and book publishing. There are a lot of areas in which traditional publishing is better and then there are things in which self publishing wins by a margin and the author has to chose himself what he deems fit for his work more appropriate as both offers quite a unique number of features.
Self-Publish Or Publisher
Here is list of differentiations between self-publishing and traditional publishing:
- Finance : According to our research and data, getting your book published under traditional setup of book publishing results in more costs than self publishing because of one main reason: there are quite a lot of dedicated teams and professionals working with you on your book. Also, most traditionally published books are in physical copies, so the printing, designing and distribution costs can add on. Self publishing, on the other hand could both be online or offline and because you publish the work yourself, you don’t have to contribute in anyone’s salary.
- Professionalism : Self-publishing takes time to understand and especially to master, without any help. Even if you hop on to Kindle Direct Publishing, aka Amazon KDP, you’ll see that it has a format that has to be followed. Proper designing with alignments are very important to use so as to provide a professional book for the reader to buy and to read. Whereas in traditional working, all you need is to have a book to publish and money by which the services of designer, marketer, editor etc. could be paid.
- Control On Creative Freedom : In self publishing, you’re the King or queen of your own world. It simply means you can decide everything about your book publishing yourself, like time in which it is going to be printed, it’s price, the designs, cover page, market, everything can be controlled by the author, whereas in traditional publishing, the author often times has to give in to the suggestions of the team.
- Presence & Coverage : Traditional publishing gives a better offline media coverage and presence. There could be book launches, book reading and signing sessions, or your book simply could be placed in various bookstore. In self-publishing, the online presence of the book is better.
Is Self Publishing A Good Idea
Writers ask, “Is Self Publishing Worth It?” and we answer why not? Thousands of authors are successfully finding readers and selling their books and earning by self publishing their books on various platforms, biggest being Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Writers and authors, especially the new ones can learn quite a lot about publishing and career in writing by opting to self publish their books. Traditional publishing works more successfully for authors who readily have a market to sell in whereas new authors would profit more in self publishing.
All in all, self publishing is a great option if you’re a new writer looking to build your market or a professional author who has a market already!