Now I know what self-publishing is all about. So, what next?
Next is to understand the difference between Self-publishing and Traditional publishing. Remember that each has its own share of pros and cons and the decision on which type of publishing to choose depends on your preferences on what works best for you.
Traditional Publishing
Now, traditional publishers are like investors. What do investors do? They find great opportunities and invest. As investors, they cannot have too many failed products in the market. The same goes with publishing. As far as traditional publishing is concerned, publishers invest their time, resource, and money into publishing your book. They take care of everything from copy-editing to promoting your book. From a business perspective, their job is to invest in your manuscript, publish it into a book, market it, and make money, or profits, from its sales. Similar to the concept of dividends, the publisher pays you, the author, royalty in exchange for copyrights to your book. Again, the royalty you receive varies from publisher to publisher. For instance, if publisher A offers you 10% of royalty to you, publisher B may offer you 12% or even 8% royalty. One of the important things you need to understand here is that royalty and other deals on your contract depend on factors like your stature as an author (if you are an established author or if you are a celebrity and the likes). Here, the publisher decides the fate of your book.
Self-publishing
On the other hand, self-publishing is like running a startup or an enterprise. As we mentioned previously, you are an entrepreneur as far as publishing your book is concerned. In self-publishing, you, the CEO of your book, invest time, money, and resources into publishing your book by taking care of things yourself or by approaching a self-publishing company to help you in getting your book out in the market. When it comes to royalty, you would receive more than what a typical author who has got his book published through a traditional publisher, would receive. The primary reason why you receive more royalty than a conventional author is because it is you who invests in the publication of your book. Here, it is you who decides the fate of your book.
