Three Ways to Approach
Book Publishing
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
For many writers, going through the book publishing process with their creative opus is a dream come true. But it can be difficult to know where to start if you're unfamiliar with the book publishing industry. The good news is that there are lots of options available for aspiring authors to get their work out into the world. In this article, I’ll take a look at the various routes you can take to approach book publishing, and what you should keep in mind on this journey.
Traditional Book Publishing
The traditional book publishing route involves submitting your manuscript directly to publishing house editors (in the case of smaller publishers) or to literary agents who can get you seen by the major book publishers. This route offers the most stability as well as a larger readership potential than other methods of book publishing. Why?
A major publisher will likely pay an advance or offer royalties on the project. They will also take care of elements of book production, sales, and distribution that are tough or expensive for writers to do themselves. Major houses tend to have pipelines to outlets like bookstores and libraries.
While agents and publishers might not be a magic bullet—there are a lot of problems and issues with traditional book publishing, as there are in any industry—a lot of writers dream about traditional book publishing when they first start to write a book. Traditional book publishing is also highly competitive and true success depends on having a literary agent or publishing editor who believes in your work and is willing to fight for it.
Self-Publishing
Self-publishing involves taking control of your own writing career by releasing your book directly onto digital platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or IngramSpark. This route allows you to retain full control over all aspects of the book publishing process, from design to editing, distribution to marketing. However, self-publishing requires more effort on your part since you will be responsible for all aspects of the process. A traditional publisher pays lower royalties because they have massive overhead. Self-publishing pays higher royalties in most cases, but you will also have likely spent more money to replicate all of the services and functions of a traditional publisher (cover design, layout, printing/production, distribution, book marketing, etc.).
There’s also the investment of time and energy into learning how to effectively self-publish. And, finally, the distribution question. It’s simply much tougher to get a self-published project into libraries, big name and indie bookstores, and other outlets (airport markets, anyone?). The learning curve is steep and some of the odds are long, but there are many writers who swear by self-publishing and wouldn’t go about book publishing any other way.
Hybrid Model Book Publishing
For those who want more control over their writing career but don't want to go through the trouble and skill development inherent in self-publishing, there's always the hybrid book publishing model—a combination of traditional publishing and self-publishing that allows authors greater control over their manuscripts while still taking advantage of services provided by traditional book publishers, such as editing, design, printing, marketing, and distribution.
In the hybrid model, authors typically publish their books with a small press that specializes in providing all of the above services (whether bundled together or a la carte) while retaining full ownership rights over their work and benefiting from some degree of support. The issue, really, with the hybrid book publishing model is that it’s expensive, and results aren’t guaranteed. There are also quite a few publishing scams and bad actors in this area of book publishing.
In fact, if you look up “book publishing” on Google, hoping to find some traditional publishers, you will likely end up with pages of hybrid publishers. That’s fine if you’re looking for a hybrid publisher, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Remember that traditional publishers will offer an advance or royalties. If a publishing house asks for money, they’re either a scam or a hybrid publisher.
Breaking into the book publishing industry can seem daunting, but with a bit of research and dedication it's possible for any writer out there—whether they choose traditional publishing, self-publishing or hybrid book publishing—to move forward with their book project.
Whether you decide to go down one path or another depends on your goals as an author and your goals for your particular project. No matter how you choose to publish your work, there is no better time in the history of book publishing to be exploring your options and learning the process.
Click here to purchase Irresistible Query Letters, my book on query letters, including over forty examples with comprehensive notes on each one. There’s a ton of submission advice, best practices, and insider information in these pages, and you’ll really enjoy seeing what other writers are doing in the slush.