To self-publish or not self-publish…that is the question.
Well, for some of us it is!
When I completed my first book and felt it was ready for publication, I was faced with a choice: go through the process of trying to find an agent to sell my book, or learn how to publish my book myself! Both seemed equally daunting at the the time, so I weighed the pros and cons, dipped my toes in the waters of traditional publishing, and ultimately felt that self-publishing was a better fit for me right now.
Below, I’ll share a bit about the different types of publishing, my personal pro/con list for each, and then what cemented my decision to self-publish.
Types of Publishing
Traditional publishing
To the layperson, traditional publishing is likely what they think of when they think of books. They probably only know about books published by big houses like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, etc. Perhaps they even recognize some of the smaller imprints (for example, in the romance community we’re familiar with Berkley Romance, an imprint of Penguin Random House and Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins).
This is because traditional publishing houses have the biggest marketing budgets, so the books that come from them get the most visibility! This is starting to change with the rise of indie authors gaining popularity via social media (particularly TikTok).
In order to become traditionally published, one must secure a literary agent, who will then attempt to sell your book to an editor at one of the major publishing houses. Occasionally you can submit a manuscript directly to a publishing house, but most often you need an agent to be the middleman (and, really, you’re going to want an agent for your own protection).
Securing an agent typically requires a good amount of time and effort. You go through the process of querying, which essentially means researching which agents may be a good fit and sending a package of materials to them (including things like a query letter, synopsis, certain number of chapters/pages, etc.) Agents will either reject, request a full manuscript if they are potentially interested, or you may never even hear from them! If they’ve requested a full, they may then reject or accept based on the full package they’ve now received.
Securing an agent is only half the battle. Once you’ve found someone to represent your work, they will then submit your book to editors at major publishing houses for consideration. After a period of being “on submission,” a house will either pick up your work, or no one will choose to pursue it. If the latter is the case, the author and agent must decide how to proceed—do they try to find new editors to submit to, ditch that manuscript and start a new one, or part ways so the author can find a new agent who may be a better fit?
Self-publishing
Self-publishing, on the other hand, is like the wild, wild West of book publishing. Many people do what I did and self-publish using a service like Kindle Direct Publishing (another popular one is IngramSpark). You have no publishing house or service backing you—it’s just you (and any professionals you may hire) chucking your book into the void.
With self-publishing, you are the author, editor, formatter, cover designer, marketer, and everything in between (except for what you hire out). All decisions are on you, all money comes from your pocket, etc.
Independent publishing
Like with so many things in life, there is also a whole gray area in between. Some people may go through independent publishing houses, which are smaller houses that aren’t part of a larger corporation like the Big 5 publishing houses. These “indie authors” receive the support that a larger publishing house would give in terms of editing, marketing, etc. but tend to maintain more control over the process.
Just like with traditional publishing, you need to either get an agent to connect you with an indie publishing house, or you can potentially submit to the house directly. They must accept your book in order to publish it.
Vanity publishing
There are also “vanity presses,” where authors pay to have their book published. A vanity publisher will publish anything an author is willing to pay for—you do not have to submit materials and get approved/accepted. In exchange, you receive some degree of services like editing, cover design, and marketing.
Traditional vs. Self-publishing Pros and Cons
Since independent publishing and vanity publishing are kind of a gray area, I’ll be focusing on strict traditional and self-publishing for the rest of this post.
I made this handy dandy chart to show the main pros and cons of traditional and self-publishing:
And in case you’re not a handy dandy chart person, here’s the same list in bulletpoints:
Traditional publishing pros:
- Author pays nothing
- Support from agent
- Established team (editor, cover designer, formatter, marketing)
- Book gets higher reach/visibility
Traditional publishing cons:
- Author only makes a percentage of profits
- Must get an agent
- Less control over story, title, cover, release date, etc.
- Long process (can publish 1, maybe 2, books a year)
Self-publishing pros:
- Author makes all/most of profits
- Don’t need an agent
- Total control over all aspects
- Can publish books as soon and often as you want
Self-publishing cons:
- Author pays all costs
- Must find own support
- Must find and hire own editor, cover designer, formatter (or do it themselves)
- All marketing up to author and book likely gets less visibility
Why I Chose Self-publishing For My Romance Novel
My Querying Experience
As I mentioned briefly above, I did dip my toes into the waters of traditional publishing by querying some agents. As a brand spankin’ new author, I thought having the support of a whole editorial team would be really nice! I’ll admit, the prestige of being published by a major house was also a draw.
I’m glad I went through the querying process because it forced me to get really clear on what my book was about to write a query letter and synopsis (which later helped with blurb writing, marketing, etc.). I got mostly rejections and one full request (which was ultimately rejected).
During the process I used Manuscript Wishlist to find agents in my genre and Query Tracker to keep track of who I had queried and the status of the query. Although I didn’t ultimately go this route, I’d be happy to write about the process one would take to find an agent if that is something folks are interested in! Just drop me a comment below.
After receiving those rejections, I went back and revised my manuscript a bit, but ultimately decided not to do another round of queries. See, the thing about traditional publishing is: it’s not always about the quality of the book. It’s about what will sell in the current market. There might be an agent who’s a perfect fit for your book, but they already have one with the same tropes/location/story arc on their docket. Or your plot is something that would have been “hot” last year, but this year there’s a new hot plot in town. Getting rejections doesn’t necessarily mean the agent hates your manuscript, but that they don’t think they can sell it to an editor right now.
Turning to Self-publishing
At this point, I dove into research about self-publishing. I followed self-published authors on Instagram, read blog posts, watched videos, etc. and learned all about how to publish my book on my own! I realized that it would take more of my money, time, and energy, but it would also mean my books were 100% MINE.
The biggest selling point for me was the CONTROL that self-publishing offers. I am a bit of a self-professed control freak. I would hear things from traditionally published authors like they weren’t allowed to put a content warning at the start of their book, they didn’t get the final say on their cover art, or they didn’t know their own release date until the entire world knew. These things turned me off because I want to be in charge of everything that has to do with my work!
Now, I am in no way bashing traditional publishing, because it’s obviously a fantastic way to publish your book, the support you get is incredible, and it’s something I would definitely consider for my career in the future! (Hybrid authors like Tessa Bailey and Katee Robert, and more recently Sarah Adams and Chloe Liese, write both indie and traditionally, which I think is so cool!).
However, at this point, self-publishing felt right for me. As a brand new author, I chose to use Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which is a free service on which you can publish e-books and paperbacks. It makes things ridiculously easy, and also allows you to enroll your book in Kindle Unlimited if you wish. This is a subscription service people can pay for monthly that gives them “unlimited” access to a huge library of books.
Again, as a newbie, I wanted my book in KU right away. You’ll find that many/most self-published authors enroll their books in KU because it’s a great way to gain a readership. Many people aren’t willing to drop $3.99 on a book written by someone they’ve never heard of, but if they can read it for free, they’re much more likely to take a chance on it.
I hope this post gives you some clarity on the different types of publishing and why I chose self-publishing. You can purchase my debut self-published novel 😉 Beauty In The Details here!
