Blog Post #2: Introduction to the Comparison

Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing: What's The Best Route For Entrepreneurs

This article details the beginning steps of an author's journey once the manuscript is completed--to self-publish or not. Pimsleur starts off by discussing a familiar tale of how one man decided to write his own guitar lesson book, and then compares it to her own. Unlike Dan, the author of the lesson book, Pimsleur decided to acquire an agent. Note here, however, that she had a connection, another author named Paul Greenberg, who put her in touch with an editor who knew a few literary agents. This sort of leg-up on the competition will be discussed in a later blog, but it allowed Pimsleur to shop her manuscript around and eventually be picked up by a traditional agent.

Comparatively, Dan did not decide to go the traditional route. Instead, he chose to take hold and publish his lesson book himself; and Pimsleur notes the sort of power and control Dan had over his project, from the design of the book to what sort of weight of paper it was printed on. Dan likens his work to an art piece, and claims that traditional publishers want their authors to already have an audience. He then goes on to explain that if the author can build their own audience, the publisher may not be needed.

Pimsleur concludes her article with a helpful chart, detailing the pros and cons of both self-publishing and traditional publishing. This chart, though rudimentary compared to some of the others available on the Internet, does a great job of spelling out the good side and the bad side of each. Traditional publishing, for example, will often take care of many of the design aspects, the distribution, and a little of the marketing for your book; this route also helps with editing. Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows the author complete control. They can design the book how they like, hire whom they want to edit, and design their own marketing campaign. Some of these are also cons to self-publishing. A self-published author may spend more money on hiring an editor, marketing their work, and hiring a graphic designer to create a great cover than a traditional author would. However, the royalties of a self-published author can, in many cases, be greater than those of a traditionally published author.

SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/juliapimsleur/2014/11/04/traditional-publishing-vs-self-publishing/

Are There Still Pros to Traditional Publishing?

The author of article, Brooke Warner, tackles one of the major issues in publishing today--is there still a reason to attempt traditional publication? Warner navigates the answer with tact, describing the dilemma most authors face in great detail. With the electronic publishing boom, is there any reason one should even attempt to be published traditionally?

Warner gives five fantastic reasons authors should consider a traditional publisher for their project. The first is a big one--Partnership. A traditional team can offer you more than just a lucrative contract. They can offer an author an entire team, who will get behind that author's work and push them to the top of the charts (well, potentially). The author won't have to search for and hire an artist or editor or marketing team out-of-pocket. The second on Warner's list is Quality. People read traditionally published works and associate them with the quality and the Legitimacy the company has built up over years of hard work. People read something by Harper Collins and know that book will be (mostly) free of errors and not be of poor quality writing. Fourth (after Legitimacy) is Distribution, which means the publisher is responsible for getting the author's book out to the public. This is something most self-published authors rely heavily on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com for. Traditional publishers help with spreading word about an author's work and get it onto shelves faster and without as much effort or cost as an independently published author would. Finally, Advances play an enormous role in why some authors choose to be traditionally published. Advances, though, usually have to be paid back if the book doesn't sell as many copies as the publisher initially thought it would. This is why it's called an "advance."

Warner finally notes that the choice is up to the author, and that there are many, many other options open to the author, including hybrid publishers, small press publishers, and small eBook publishers. Each one has its pros and each has its cons.

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-warner/are-there-still-pros-to-t_b_5564672.html