Is there a good reason to go through a publisher these days? At least assuming that you’re not certain you’ll get a big publisher who’s really enthusiastic about marketing you?
Yes, if you manage to find a publisher they’ll get your book in bookstores and maybe do some marketing for you if you’re lucky, but as others in the thread have indicated, getting through the process and into print may take years—and unless you manage to get a big publisher who’s really invested in your book, the amount of extra publicity you’re likely to get that way will be quite limited.
Instead you could put your books up on Amazon as Kindle and CreateSpace versions: one author reports that on a per-unit basis, he makes three times more money from a directly published ebook priced at $2.99 than he would from a $7.99 paperback sold through a publisher, and almost as much as he would from a $25 hardcover. When you also take into account the fact that it’s a lot easier to get people to buy a $3 book than a $25 or even a $8 book, his total income will be much higher. As a bonus, he gets to keep full rights to his work and do whatever he wants with them. Also they can be on sale for the whole time that one would otherwise have spent looking for a publisher.
One fun blog post speculates that the first book to earn its author a billion dollars will be self-published ebook. Of course you’re not very likely to earn a billion dollars, but the same principles apply for why it’s useful to publish one’s work that way in general:
Prediction #1: The first B-book will be an e-book.
The reason is that you can’t have great sales without great distribution. There are roughly a billion computers on the planet connected to the internet and all of them can read e-books in numerous formats using free software. There are roughly four billion mobile devices, and most of those will soon be able to read e-books.
The sales channel for e-books is growing rapidly and has global reach. That’s why the first B-book will be in e-format. [...]
Prediction #2: The first B-book will be self-published.
Self-publishing is the best way to get the royalty rate high enough and the retail price low enough to make the B-book a reality.
The fact is that most publishers aren’t going to price your e-book at $2.99 or $3.99. They’ll want it at $9.99 or $12.99, which is probably too high for the market. And they’ll pay you only 25% royalties on the wholesale price, which is too low. If you want an aggressively priced e-book and a high royalty rate, you’ll almost certainly need to publish it yourself.
I feel like if you want money, you should go for self-publishing. If you’re more interested in getting a lot of readers, you should again go for self-publishing. Of course the most likely outcome for any book is that you won’t get much of either, but at least self-publishing gives you better odds than a traditional publisher. (Again, with a possible exception for the case where you get a big publisher to put up a massive marketing campaign for you.)
I don’t have links handy, but I’ve seen essays by authors which say that self-publishing and using a publisher both have advantages and drawbacks, and those authors are using both methods.
Book stores do have professional editors most self published books don’t have editors. It seems like the post that motivated DataPacRat to start this thread was partly about editoring.
Is there a good reason to go through a publisher these days? At least assuming that you’re not certain you’ll get a big publisher who’s really enthusiastic about marketing you?
Yes, if you manage to find a publisher they’ll get your book in bookstores and maybe do some marketing for you if you’re lucky, but as others in the thread have indicated, getting through the process and into print may take years—and unless you manage to get a big publisher who’s really invested in your book, the amount of extra publicity you’re likely to get that way will be quite limited.
Instead you could put your books up on Amazon as Kindle and CreateSpace versions: one author reports that on a per-unit basis, he makes three times more money from a directly published ebook priced at $2.99 than he would from a $7.99 paperback sold through a publisher, and almost as much as he would from a $25 hardcover. When you also take into account the fact that it’s a lot easier to get people to buy a $3 book than a $25 or even a $8 book, his total income will be much higher. As a bonus, he gets to keep full rights to his work and do whatever he wants with them. Also they can be on sale for the whole time that one would otherwise have spent looking for a publisher.
One fun blog post speculates that the first book to earn its author a billion dollars will be self-published ebook. Of course you’re not very likely to earn a billion dollars, but the same principles apply for why it’s useful to publish one’s work that way in general:
I feel like if you want money, you should go for self-publishing. If you’re more interested in getting a lot of readers, you should again go for self-publishing. Of course the most likely outcome for any book is that you won’t get much of either, but at least self-publishing gives you better odds than a traditional publisher. (Again, with a possible exception for the case where you get a big publisher to put up a massive marketing campaign for you.)
I don’t have links handy, but I’ve seen essays by authors which say that self-publishing and using a publisher both have advantages and drawbacks, and those authors are using both methods.
Smashwords is pretty nice; it lets you quickly spray your self-published book to various digital ebook stores all over the internet.
Book stores do have professional editors most self published books don’t have editors. It seems like the post that motivated DataPacRat to start this thread was partly about editoring.
You can always purchase editing services separately.