Publishing Options

Hi I'm Suzie Carr. Thanks for tuning in to my Writing Insights video series. In this video, I'm going to discuss four different publishing options. First there is the traditional publishing route which includes the big six traditional publishers and Independent Publishers. One of the big six traditional publishers To publish with one of these mega publishers, a writer will most likely need an agent, as they rarely accept unsolicited manuscripts. An Independent Publisher is a smaller publishing house who are nurturing and work with a writer to gain as much success as possible. The win for both of these is most of these books have a great chance of getting into major booksellers like Barnes and Noble and Books a Million. The publisher takes on the costs of production, distribution, warehousing, editing, design, etc. The drawback: A writer doesn't retain full control over her work. Also a writer gives up a significant portion of her royalty to agents and the publisher. Second there is Self-Publishing Many writers have found great success with this path, provided they invest in creating quality content and presentation. The author's cost for this can be zero to thousands to pay for specific things that many aren't able to do themselves such as editing, layout, and cover design. The win: This route grants the writer full control over her work, as well as full share of her royalties. The drawback: Most large bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million only stock books that are returnable. Self-published books generally use print on demand companies to print their books and these companies generally don't have a cost-effective method for returns. Third is Vanity Publishing I will never endorse this avenue as long as self-publishing is an option. They are costly. These companies make their money from the authors, not by selling books. They set premium prices on their books. And unfortunately, readers will not pay premium price for a book from an unknown author. In my opinion, a writer is much better off going the self-publishing route and investing funds to take care of the things she can't do herself like editing, then pay a vanity publisher tons of money to set a book up for commercial failure. Fourth is eBook Publishing This is a huge market that continues to grow thanks to devices like the Kindle and Nook. Win: eBooks currently have high profit margins because they are not tied down by production, distribution and warehousing costs. Drawback: Not sure drawback is the proper label for this... but just as with print books, a writer needs to invest in editing services, cover image, marketing jargon for the book blurb, and, possibly even layout services if not familiar with this. A writer also needs to work hard at promoting ebooks as the market is emerging with new writers by the minute it seems. If you found this video helpful... I have 19 others videos in this free writing series as well. To get more go to authorinsightsbysuzie.com. Thank you for listening. And please feel free to comment below to let me know how you made out. Good luck!