Traditional Publishing


Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing is the most familiar process. First you write a book. Then, you get a major publishing house to publish your book.

Sound easy?

To take advantage of traditional publishing, let’s go over what is a long, multiple-step process.

  1. Come up with a fantastic idea for a book.
  2. Explain how you are uniquely suited to write this book, and how you plan to market it. (Yes, you will have to market it yourself, unless you’re already hugely successful.) This is the first step required by the book proposal you will have to create.
  3. Define your target market.
    • How large is the market for your book?
    • How much can you sell the book for?
    • Is the target market large enough and the price of the book high enough to generate profit? This issue is very important. Traditional publishers only care about how much money they can make. I repeat, they are in it to make money. The days when large publishing houses existed to add great literature to our culture are over. (There are some small houses attempting to do this, but their financial strength is not good.) In fact, your book must have a perceived market large enough to be highly profitable to the publisher beyond costs, or they will not sign you to a contract.
  4. Thoroughly research and evaluate your competition.
  5. Write an outline and at least two sample chapters.
    • If you can, complete the whole book.
    • Have several copies printed up to send out to publishers and agents.
  6. Now you’re done. Right?
    • Not so fast. Now you need to find an agent to represent your work to a publisher.
    • And not just any agent. You need one who is excited about your book and is willing to represent you. Again, will your book sell? Make lots of money?
  7. You’re one of the lucky ones: you got an agent. Now you need to find a publisher. Now begins the negotiation process. And success means you sign a contract giving up most of the rights to your book!
  8. If you have not done so, finish your book, and then complete the editing process with your publisher. This alone can take up to a year or more.
    • You have to hope the marketing department and your editor like your title, your plot, and your characters. If they don’t, they’ll “suggest” changes.
    • Don’t plan on making suggestions of your own for the book cover. It’s possible but unlikely that your ideas will be of interest to the publisher.

Great. You’ve gone through all the steps. You’ve done everything you were told to become published. Now comes the excruciating wait for your book to be published. Again, this could take a long time.

Let’s face it, the entire traditional publishing process can take an extremely long time. And realistically, you’re bound to face major obstacles along the way.

Traditional Publishing Pitfalls

To start with, there’s the classic Catch 22 scenario: many agents won’t represent you unless you’ve been published. And most publishers won’t publish you without an agent. This alone is an insurmountable obstacle for most aspiring authors.

However, if you succeed in getting both an agent and a publisher, you now have to deal with editors. Editors go through your book and make their changes. Sometimes extensive changes. And not always for the better. Remember: Editors get their paycheck from the publisher. Not you.

But congratulations, you’ve passed! You’re published!

Reality Check

If this is your first published book, you likely signed away your rights—you can’t sell the book in other formats (audio or ebook), or with another publisher, or in other languages. (If your publisher chooses, they’ll do these things for you, but it depends on your reputation, the subject of your book, etc.) In exchange, you received a small advance ($1,000-$2,500). Your royalty rate is most likely 8%-12%. But you won’t receive a royalty check until your advance is paid back in full. After all, the publisher wants to recoup all its costs of publishing your book.

Now, if your book sells well, you may get it published a second time. However, if it does not sell well, you’re out of luck. You will not likely get a second chance. Your book has a very short time—three to six months—to make an impression on the world. The publisher is constantly coming out with new books for bookstores that have limited shelf space. Your book is likely to be swept away in the tide of the new books from your publisher, and you can’t do anything about it.

As a company, we understand that traditional publishing is a familiar choice. It is a goal for many writers. If this applies to you, Simplie Indie can and will help you reach that goal.

However, keep reading. You are about to understand how easy Independent publishing is. You can realize your dream of being published through a comparatively enjoyable, easy, and profitable process.

But first, let’s take a quick look at one of traditional publishing’s alternatives.