We are switching gears today. I love to share the things I know and am passionate about. Today I am super excited to share with you what I know about the world of publishing.
First, some backstory. Way back in 2012 I finished my first fiction book that I had spent two years writing while raising a baby and a toddler and recovering from brain surgery. Yay!
When it was done, I shared it with two people initially. My mom and my brother. My brother was the one to say: you should publish it.
“What a fun challenge,” I thought.
So I spent years trying to do just that. And after two years, 51 rejections, tons of research, almost getting roped into a vanity publisher scam…I got my yes with a real publisher.
Let’s go over publishing 101.
Routes of Publication
- Traditional
- Independent
- Self/Indie
- Vanity
- Hybrid
Traditional publishing is publishing a book with one of the top five publishing houses in the world or their subsidiaries (owned by them). These include: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Livre, and Macmillan Publishers. Traditional publishing requires an agent. The traditional publishing house is given all rights to the written work and handles nearly all aspects of design, editing, production, marketing, and distribution of the book. In turn the author is often given an advance toward future royalties (a percentage of sales) and then once that is met a percentage of royalties after that. The agent also gets a percentage of sales.
Independent publishing is working with a publishing house that is independent or separate from the traditional publishing houses. An agent is not always required to work with these publishing houses. The process is similar. They own rights, you are given a royalty (although rarely an advance) and are responsible for much of the same aspects of publishing your book. However, each has individual offerings. For example, they may offer only one type of editing (there are many more types). Some may offer better quality than others. Also, marketing is typically more on the author when working with independent publishers as their reach and budget are less that traditional publishers.
Self or indie publishing is publishing your work yourself. Anything you post online is considered self-published. Even this blog post. (Never put your complete work online if you intend to pursue any other route of publication.) Books are often published with publishing websites. Some examples are Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) which is Amazon’s publishing platform, Draft2Digital, IngramSpark, Kobo and more. It is free to publish your book this way (with some optional costs they offer). They pay you a royalty at a set amount you choose. You can get your digital e-books printed at an additional cost and sell these as well.
Vanity publishing is anytime you pay a publisher to publish your book. It is unethical and often a scam. They may be very sneaky about it as well. For example, one vanity publisher I almost fell for had a royalty, however, they also had in their contract that you are required to purchase two hundred copies of your own book at $10.00 a piece. Luckily, I read my contract and caught this. Many do not. ALWAYS READ YOUR CONTRACT with a publisher or better yet hire a lawyer to do it.
Hybrid Publishing is when you are published by more than one route of publication. For example, I started with an independent publisher, have self-published and then signed with an agent working to traditionally publish a book for me. Although controversial in certain circles, it’s a great way to get your name out there, build a platform, and keep getting your work into the world while waiting on routes that take longer than others.
There you have it. This is publishing 101. Each route has its pros and cons. Each route has specific rules and routes to get into.
If you have ever considered writing a book, go for it! If you already have…wow…congratulations!
In ten years I have written ten books, have eight published from two routes of publication, and have loved being a writer and author. Writing is my happy place. I will share more on the writing world in another post.
Thank you for learning with me today. Let’s see what we learn next week.
The Sides to a Story 
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