Quite a lot is written (by the minute, it seems) on publishing. What's tough is sorting through all of it, to compare and contrast and decide what will work best for you.
While there are numerous variations, you've got basically three viable options for getting your book into
print. Having done all three, I'm positioned to give you the low-down on each. You can take it from there, deciding which way to publish is best for you and your book.
Let's start with traditional (legacy) publishing, which involves placing the
book, usually with the help of an agent, through a publisher that restricts
acquisitions based on quality and their best guess at sales potential. The
exchange of money is strictly from publisher to author (via the agent, assuming
there’s one involved), generally in the form of royalties (though some projects
are contracted on a flat-fee basis), including (usually) an advance on
royalties. Royalties vary, but in general you might expect between 5 and 10
percent of the retail price (the best arrangement) or net (after the publisher
subtracts expenses). The agent’s share of the author’s share is generally 15 percent.
The publisher
typically prefers to acquire all rights (print, digital, foreign, audio, film,
etc.), though if the agent has the wherewithal to place some of those rights,
she may negotiate to keep some of those and attempt to place them on the
author’s behalf. In all cases, rights may revert to the author if a title goes
out of print, but with the advent of digital publishing, books need never go
out of print, so rights may in fact remain indefinitely with the publisher.
The benefits of
traditional publishing are many. You get the confidence that comes with passing
through an increasingly narrow gate—agents typically receive hundreds of
queries per day; of those, an individual might take on two or three new clients
a year. If your agent places your book with a traditional publisher, you
generally get money up front. Your book benefits from professional (those not
always top-notch) editing, design, production, marketing, and distribution.
It’s more likely (though not guaranteed) to get noticed in the traditional
ways—through reviews and other industry “buzz.” The publisher’s sales team will
work to get it into bookstores and libraries, though shelf space is limited, so
again, there are no guarantees.
But there are downsides,
too, beginning with that narrow gate. In all but the rarest of cases (my first
book was a happy exception), expect much waiting and disappointment as you work
to acquire an agent and then as the agent works to place your book and then
again as it gets queued up in the publishing cycle, which in most cases is at
least a year or two out. And while your publisher cares about all its books,
some books and authors are pre-selected each season to get a lot more attention
than others; statistically speaking, odds are that your book will get less
rather than more.
This can be especially frustrating once you realize that if
your book doesn’t make a big splash before it enters the market, in the form of
pre-orders, you’ll be relegated to the dreaded category of “midlist,” meaning
that your book wasn’t a bestseller; thereafter, you’ll find it harder to
publish the next book and the next, because those average (or less than
average) sales figures will hurt your prospects. In general, publishers are a
lot more excited about discovering a brand new author with bestseller potential
than continuing to publish an author whose sales record is mediocre.
Except in
those rare cases of instant success, you’ll find a fair amount of
disappointment among published authors: they expected more marketing, more
books in bookstores, a longer attention span from their publishers, larger
royalty checks, more accurate sales data (because of the traditional system of
returns, publishers themselves can’t really tell for a year or two whether the
pre-orders actually resulted in sales).
Another option is
independent, or self-publishing, done with or without the assistance of an author
services company. In any case, the author generally keeps all rights, but she
also bears the responsibility (and cost) for all editing, design, production,
marketing, and distribution of the book. Editing, design, marketing, and some
aspects of production (such as generating validated e-book files or professional
recordings for audiobooks) are generally handled on a fee-for-hire basis,
either through the author services company or through independent contractors.
In exchange for certain aspects of production (physical printing, for instance)
and distribution, authors split royalties with distribution companies like
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Lightning Source, with the author’s share
generally in the 60 to 70 percent range for e-books, depending on cover price.
For print books, independent publishing can be accomplished either through
print-on-demand, in which books are printed as they’re ordered, or through
offset printing, in which the author orders and warehouses a large number of
books. Print on demand arrangements involve a set fee for printing and distribution
(the cost varies greatly depending on the physical format of the book) that’s
generally paid on a book-by-book basis (though there’s also a set-up fee). In
an offset arrangement, the per-book printing price will be cheaper, but keep in
mind that there’s no distribution, and to get the best prices, you’ll need to
order thousands of copies up front. In either case, if you’re able to get
bookstores to carry your books, they’ll expect a 40 to 55 percent discount off
the cover price.
By publishing independently, you'll receives more revenue per book sold, and you'll retain control of the
entire process, bypassing many of the frustrations of the traditionally
published author. Your rights are always yours, to place as you like—if you can
generate interest. But independent publishing also has its drawbacks. There’s
no money up front; in fact, unless you’re doing the barest of bare-bones
efforts, or you’re amazingly talented in every aspect of publishing, you’re
going to have to pay - sometimes handsomely - for professional editing, design, production,
marketing, and distribution.
Unless you already have a large and devoted
following, you’re going to have to work (and work and work) to get your book
noticed among the 3000 or so books that enter the market each day. You'll have no professional sales team to
encourage booksellers and librarians to order your book. You’ll get reader
reviews, but good luck getting traditional reviews, because there’s
still a stigma to self-publishing, a stigma that won’t go away completely until
the truly fine books released every day outnumber the bad ones. Figuratively speaking, your book is swimming in an ocean of crap. And unless readers reward you with glowing
reviews (no, your momma’s review doesn’t count) and you get the sales figures to match, your
confidence starts to feel false.
The third way to
publish is less common and harder to pull off: the hybrid arrangement,
where some rights are handled independently and some are placed through
traditional avenues. My novel Cold Spell
is one example. Without an agent, I sold the print English language rights to a
traditional publisher. I contracted with an agent to represent the foreign
rights. I produced and marketed the e-book through my own press, independent
author cooperative Running Fox Books. For the audiobook, I contracted a royalty
split with a producer.
A cautionary note: when it comes to publishing, there's a lot of choosing up sides - authors who advocate strongly for the avenue they've chosen. While it's natural to defend one's position, the noise isn't all that helpful when you're trying to make up your mind. Shut it out, study the pros and cons, and choose what's best for you and your book.