Traditional versus Self-Publishing: My Experience

In 2018 I started my journey to write my first sci-fi novel, which ended up being Blanchland Blues, book 1 of the John and Alvis Sessions. I had just spent nearly 10 years self-publishing a gigantic 280+ page sci-fi graphic novel (Marooned), followed by two other graphic novel projects. Two were successfully Kickstarted. But I wanted to tell deeper stories, and I was burnt out by the art demands.

Cue to 2020—just as Covid is getting started. My novel is done, and I had spent months querying agents hoping to land the elusive “trad contract.” Even though I had come from successfully self-publishing my graphic novels, the allure of the traditional remained.

I was fortunate enough to have an agent sign me. Kimberly Cameron of Cameron and Associates, a very experienced agent with years in the game – especially in sci-fi.

Long story short: with the pressures of Covid on the industry, things go tough. It’s hard to say ultimately how much of a factor that was, but the publishers I was interested passed. I got two small offers from very small companies, but I could see then that I could do better myself.

Three books into my self-publishing journey, I believe I made the right choice. I’ve built a small, but loyal following. I’ve sold over 11,000 ebooks to slightly less than 200 paperbacks (which later we’ll see is quite meaningful!) I have over 2 million page reads in Kindle Unlimited. By all means, that is a success. And I control my whole writing life, make my own decisions.

More and more, you see self-publishing come to the forefront. Big names have jumped on, either moving their catalogs, Kickstarting (Hello, Brandon Sanderson), or starting new series on their own. But the names you don’t hear about – the everyday writers pushing out long runs of series – are making a killing in the self publishing world. There is indeed a sort of formula. In short, put out consistent books and smartly market to your target audience. Write a series, and be consistent. Sure, there’s more – but that’s it in a nutshell.

For more on this, I suggest checking out 20booksTo50k on Facebook. This is in my experience the best, most qualified and expert group of people in the self publishing industry in the world. There is transparency on what people are spending and making. It is worth your time if you are thinking about it.

Doing that, more writers than you can imagine are earning a living and more from their writing. And they are avoiding the problems of traditional publishing.

But what are those problems? Trad used to be the gold standard, it meant you were a “real writer” — but that is no longer true. While there is still some allure, the gold has rubbed off. Self publishing has caught up and in ways surpassed traditional publishing – maybe in the most important metric of all. The money you can make. Because outside of the big players, most traditional books don’t do so well.

Much of this came to a head in the last year with the Penguin Random House Trial due to monopoly concerns, highlighted by this article on authormedia.com with Thomas Umstattd Jr., interviewing Jane Friedman (who reports on the book publishing industry and has over 25 years experience). Here are the key issues:

• Most books (the percentage is a bit up for debate) sell less than 12 copies, and that most books, some 85%, fail.
• Publishers are not willing to spend money on marketing, and about 2% of revenue goes toward that. There’s more to the story, but the gist was they wait and see if the book sells on its own first. Even then, they may not put much behind it.
• Publishers want the ebook rights at a 25% royalty rate – indie publishers are doing WAY better than that.

There’s a sense that the author is responsible for pushing the book first, which an indie author would argue – then why do I need you?

And that royalty rate – remember when I said I’ve sold 11,000 ebooks? Ebooks are how books move now, so of course the publisher is going to want the lion share. Yet we do better than that on Amazon. Why give that money away — especially if they won’t market the book until it “proves itself?”

And if a book languishes, how do you get it back? That goes into reversion of rights, which is not easy to negotiate and can be tricky to trigger and get your book back. More and more, traditional does not look good. Especially when you hear the big signing checks are a thing of the past, unless you are really somebody.

But of course, self-publishing is not perfect, either. To self-publish means you do all the work outside writing. You must market and promote the book, which takes time, expertise, and money. You must learn to be a jack-of-all-trades. It’s not easy. But it IS doable. There is so much help out there for you nowadays, you just have to be willing to put in the work.

And going the self-publishing route doesn’t mean you can’t ever try traditional again. In fact, it might help you there, too.

I wrote a standalone sci-fi novel that is not part of my series. It was something I started years ago before my series got rolling. I thought now was a good time to see if I could spread myself into both lanes. Kimberly, my agent, agreed to read it, so I am once again dipping my toe in trad to see where it will go.

Assuming she agrees to represent it (which is NO guarantee at all), I will be much more circumspect about what I will accept. Most importantly, I will want a clear revision of rights that states the moment my book is not selling, the rights revert to me. Rights reversion is a clause in a literary contract that allows authors to work with their publisher to regain some or all of their book rights after certain conditions are met. For example, a contract might state that if a book sells fewer than 100 copies in a year, the rights revert. Some clauses say “X years” – maybe even something like 7. I can’t imagine signing like that, especially when they may give up on your book in year 1. It seems copies sold is the right way to go. But right now, it’s all speculation.

There’s still some value and merit to a trad publishing deal. I’d still like to see a book I write on a shelf somewhere but a science fiction publisher I respect. That would be neat. And it might help me to cross marketing efforts. But it will not define me as a writer—I’ve already done that myself.

I hope this high level look helps in some way. There are so many more resources out there on the subject, but this is one writer’s experience.

Now get back to writing!