Blog: Traditional Publishing - yes or no?

The question of Traditional Publishing.

When talking about ‘being a published author’, it often conjures up a vision of a successful writer, reaping endless financial rewards whilst their agent and/or publisher busy themselves, producing and marketing a book (or books) on the authors behalf. The perception is also that a publishing deal is something of a ‘holy grail’.

So is this true?

To an extent, yes; but also no.

Due to the sheer volume of submissions agents and publishers get, a deal can seem practically impossible. Yes there are writers who have submitted once and managed to get an amazing deal, but for every one person who can tell this tale, there are thousands who have received rejection after rejection.

So yes, holy grail isn’t far off the mark.

A Traditional publishing deal is what most writers aspire-to. Successfully submitting a manuscript to agents to seek representation and ultimately scoring a deal with a publishing house is what dreams are made of. But why?

The validation that comes with a traditional publishing deal is worth its weight in gold…metaphorically and occasionally, literally. The fact that professionals think your work should be on book shelves is generally enough of a compliment and reassurance for writers to overcome their self doubt and continue down the publication path.

Publishing houses also have the power to get your books on actual book shelves. This sounds like a given; and traditionally, that’s where people got their books from, but in this day and age, how many of us actually make it to the high street, let alone have hours to peruse the shelves of a bookstore? Don’t most of us shop from the comfort of our sofa these days?

Having a competent and experienced team around you is also a very big plus point. The Editors, Typesetters, PR & Marketing experts within the publishing house, who all know what makes a great book, can make all the difference when it comes to sales.

However, all this comes at a price. The experts don’t work for free and agents and publishing houses need to pay their bills too! After publishing costs and all that entails (paying the experts, printing and distributing the book), the author is lucky to see 15% of the sales of their literary creation.

Another downside is the fact that you are literally handing over control of your book. They are the experts, so they will want to make the decisions and call the shots. Don’t agree with the editing suggestions? Don’t like their idea of a front cover? Unfortunately, the decisions are not yours to make, unless your decision is to walk away from your publishing deal, that is.

This industry is a busy one. Agencies and publishing houses are inundated with applications. Nothing happens quickly. Agents and Publishers are incredibly stretched and the number of writers wanting a deal far outweigh the number of deals to be had. Publishers don’t have the time to commit to marketing like they used to. Their focus is on getting books produced and ready for sales and that means they don’t have the big budgets and staff available to meet demanding marketing schedules. Even if you score a deal, you are likely to have to invest your own time into marketing.

So if its almost impossible to get a deal; you lose decision-making power, it takes forever, you have to market the book yourself, and you get a tiny percentage, then why do it? Kudos. It’s the O.G. route. It’s how everyone becomes an ‘author’ isn’t it?

There are options if you feel that traditional publishing is not for you. In our next blog, we’ll take a look at independent publishing. Come back soon.