Traditional Publishing Ain’t What it Used to Be

Some of the authors I have worked with have had traditional publishing deals in the past, and have now opted for self-publishing because the game has changed.

In the old days, traditional publishers gave out big advances, sometimes as much as 6 figures. Their authors were treated royally with limousines and the whole nine yards, but that is a thing of the past, except for their top authors-the crème de la crème.

However, with all the hard work they put in, authors only get paid 10–15% on books and have to pay back the advance before pocketing any more money, while self-published authors can make 35%-70% royalties on Amazon, which can double or triple the royalties they could make with a publisher.

And traditional publishers do not understand how Amazon works so they are not very adept at making the most for their authors, especially on digital books. Plus, they tend to over price their books, so they do not sell as well as professionally done self-published books.

In fact, Author Earnings website reports that traditional publishers are “now missing two-thirds of U.S. consumer eBook purchases, and nearly half of all eBook dollars those consumers spend.”

And, it can take up to two years from the time your book is accepted until it is available for sale, so if you have a topic where information changes rapidly, traditional publishing won’t work, you need to self-publish.

In addition, traditional publishers only work your book for the first 90 days, and then they are on to the next project. (Most authors don’t know this.)

And publishers make all the creative decisions about your book, which means they may change the title, the cover, and/or ask for additional rewrites etc. before it goes to print.

If you have a good attorney, you can sometimes get a clause in there to give you some control over creative decisions, but in general you are at a disadvantage.

But, that’s not all, you have to prove you can sell the books or they won’t usually sign you in the first place.

And finally, only about 5% of the books that are pitched ever get published by a reputable publisher.

So, if you have to have a platform, and spend months or even years trying to get published, and they take creative control of your book, but only work your book for 90 days, why would you go with a traditional publisher?

I’ll share why in my next post.