Trad vs Indie Publishing

I have been doing a lot of hard thinking about the direction that I want to go. Do I want to go the traditional route or do I want to indie publish my novels?

A lot of people in my corner encourage me to go the Trad-Pub route. But for the last 10 years, I'd convinced myself, that because I don't write to market, and I want to earn more money than a typical advance, I want to self-publish my novel. Much like my pen-name post last month, a lot of my information is a decade old and stuff changes so fast in the publishing world, that information is basically written on ancient papyrus.

To make an informed decision, I've done a deep dive into the process of each option. I've come out informed on which direction I actually want to do take, but that's putting the cart before the horse.

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I'm going to start with Indie Publishing first.

At the service level, you control everything. The editing, the layout, the book cover. You actually get more of the profits, potentially. But with full control, you have to do everything by yourself. Marketing, finding an editor, finding an artist; and it all comes out of your pocket.

If you're good at marketing, working TikTok, Instagram and know how the algorithm of all these different platforms work, for very little pay off. Granted if you have a lot of books to publish, you are going to sell more over time. There's a big sense of accomplishment when you self-publish a novel, but there's a lot of hats to juggle at the same time, that you need to get intimately knowledgeable about very quickly if you want to do it successfully.

For those who might be curious, unless you go viral, or you spend some serious money, the chances of selling a lot of books to make a six-figure income is are pretty slim. Like in my deep dive and trying to understand the ins and outs of this, the average indie-author only sells about less than 250 books, and on average only makes 18,000 CND (13,000 USD). Outside the major cities of Canada, like Toronto or Vancouver, where the cost of living is significantly higher, a good average yearly income in Canada is about 60,000. (43,00 USD). Of course this number varies depending on the live style you want, where you actually live within Canada and generally what you consider a 'good' yearly income.

Now, how much does it cost to actually self-publish that novel? About 6,000 CND (4,300). Honestly given exchange rates and there not being a lot of Editors in Canada, along with cost of living here, I feel like that number could be higher.

Of course, if you're skilled enough I suppose you could edit your novel by yourself. But I have read a few novels by people who didn't hire an editor (who bragged about it) and there was a lot of missed words, wrong words and a lot of D's missing off the word 'and'; generally a reader can tell when you DIY'ed your editing versus getting a professional to do it. Also in Canada you can get a free ISBN, which I'll talk about what an ISBN is and why its important to 'own' that number, when you are self-publishing, in a later blog. But that does help with the final cost of the novel.

I do dislike talking about money and numbers, but for a lot of people wanting to get into publishing novels, the numbers are important and part of the whole picture.

At this point, self-publishing doesn't look as appealing as it once did 10 years ago. The numbers aren't as good - you used to actually earn more self-publishing than you did Traditionally Publishing. But the cost of printing has gone up, and generally why books are more expensive now, and why mass market paper backs are actually getting phased out. Which I understand why. I picked up a mm paper back, and goodness! Going from larger book sizes, its so hard to read the Mass Market! I mean, the size of the book isn't the problem, is the text! Its small and weirdly faded, like they were trying to conserve ink, or maybe the printer was running out; I don't know!

Generally to really make that high figure yearly income, you need to have a lot of books published and be what is called a Prolific Author - that's dropping at least 2 books a year - which I am not one. I've been working on Cambion Strength for 10 years for goodness sake. Though, Kobold King is coming along well.

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Traditional Publish, the only thing you really have control over, is the editing - and of course the story your wrote. You can do your own marketing, if you want to ensure a certain amount of pre-sales, but your publisher will also do their own marketing. They'll hire their own book cover artist, and they will do everything for you. The publisher will own the ISBN, but you retain your copy-write. That's a rabbit hole I'm not ready to head down just yet. Copy-write and ISBN Blogs coming soon I guess.

So, how do you get paid being Trad-Pubbed?

You get what is called an Advance. Typically given to you in chunks throughout the year. How much of an Advance do you get? About 34,600 CND (25,000 USD). That's the median given the Advance is difference depending on the genre that you're writing. I'm writing Adult Romance so my range is 13,800 -- 41,500 CND (10,000 -- 30,000 USD), that's a large range I know. Here's a neat little thing, if you sell enough books to have paid off your Advance you can start earning a percentage of royalties on books sold. Its hard to do, mind you!

Knowing what I know now, what exactly am I going to do going forward? Am I going to Traditionally Publish, or am I going to Indie Publish? After learning what I have, and that the numbers have shifted the way that they have, I am leaning more towards Trad-Pub. Which is going to be difficult in of itself. There are other ways to earn income that can make up the difference of an Advance, that still revolve around writing.

Thing is, I don't want to wholly commit to Trad-Publishing. I can do both honestly. Some of my book ideas might be better suited for Indie-Publishing.

The main reason I want to try for Trad-Publishing is honestly, what goes involved in Self-Publishing feels overwhelming. There's so much that needs doing to get a well produced book out to the public, that my Nero-Spicy Brain just can't wrap around. Its going to be a struggle trying to grow an Author platform while writing and marketing myself while trad-published. To grow an audience, on top of doing everything that a publisher does? When am I going to have time to do any writing? I'm dizzy just thinking about it.

Besides a well edited book, what do I need to get published?

A literary Agent.

They will do their thing, finding a publisher that they feel my novel might do well with - or in some cases start a bidding war if more than one company wants it. They'll negotiate contract details, like if a movie or tv series deal comes in. Does the Publisher get all the royalties from that, or do I get a percentage? Does the publisher get everything from publishing the novel in different languages around the world, or do I get some of that?

Do I have an agent in my sights? Unfortunately no. Not yet. While I'm writing, I'm researching how to write a Query Letter - this was once all you needed to hopefully get trad-published, but now you need an agent. I'm not very good at writing these so it's an on going process for me. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to Query an Agent, I'll have perfected my letter.

Now a publisher, I have in mind. Toronto Based publisher, Mira Books.

They are an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishing. An Imprint is kind of like a branch and typically publish within a exact genre. Mira Books publishes Romance novels, among others. Some of my fave romance reads this year, have been published through Mira Books, and I'm reading what I'm writing; gotta know what people are looking for.

That's where things stand. I'm gonna try getting traditionally published.