Interesting Facts about The Self and Traditional Publishing Industry

Part One

Previously, writers had fewer options to get their manuscripts into print. Mostly their choices were either traditional publishing or self-publishing. Self-publishing was considered by some to be "not real publishing," and could be the kiss of death for an author wishing to be taken seriously. Some traditional publishers were reluctant to accept their work, some literary agents wouldn't represent them, and some sales outlets wouldn't stock their books. Some called it "Vanity Publishing" to marginalize their work. Writers were left with few options, and had to do their own promotion and marketing. Some simply sold their books out of the trunk of their car, or to anyone who expressed an interest.

Authors submitted a manuscript directly to traditional publishers, hoping to find one who had an interest, and was willing to invest in publishing it. As those publishers became more risk adverse and less willing to accept unsolicited manuscripts, writers were forced to search for agents to represent their work. As agents became flooded with manuscripts, they also became more selective, accepting fewer manuscripts. Writers were now left with even fewer options. The process then became more difficult, as writers had to find an agent, and the agent now had to find a publisher.

The landscape has certainly changed over the last few years. Regardless of what you're told, the days of back room deals in smoke filled rooms with an agent using their influence and insider contacts to get a book published, are long gone. Professional relationships are still extremely important, and good agents may have more access because of their reputation for handing quality, but the days of wheeling and dealing with graft and corruption are gone.

Authors today have several options to get their work into print and be successful. What's happening in the book publishing industry today is comparable to what happened to the music industry a few years ago. The music industry was similar to the book publishing industry today. An artist could have the greatest song in the world, but if they couldn't find an agent who could sign them with a record label, they virtually had no chance of it ever being heard. The option was to produce their own record and try to sell it themselves. This was rarely successful.

As technology changed to digital, it became a viable option for artists to establish their own record labels. Service companies came into existence providing everything the artist needed to make their work available to the public. Some major record labels and agents ignored the new options and fought to brand self-recorded artists as "not real recording artists" with non-viable records. Eventually they lost the battle. In the recording industry today, artists no longer have to rely on major record labels to get their music to the public. The term “self-recorded” is no longer used nor has any meaning.

When self-publishing was in its infancy, the quality of the books were generally not on par with commercially published books. Many books were obviously self-published. With cheap construction, inferior typesetting, poor interior design and amateur covers, the books looked “home grown.” With today's technology, self-published books can be identical in quality and design to books produced by the largest firms. There are numerous examples of successful self-published authors who strongly advocate this method of publishing.

The greatest validation that subsidy publishing offers is the fact that some of the largest publishing houses have established subsidy imprints, providing writers with additional options. The houses of Thomas Nelson, Harlequin, Lifeway, Hay House, and Random now own all or portions of subsidy imprints. Some traditional publishers and agents still condemn subsidy and self- published authors for a variety of reasons. A subsidy or self- published author doesn't need an agent, thus cutting them and their profits out of the loop. They also no longer need the traditional publisher, cutting them and their profits out of the loop. In self-publishing, authors can reap most of the profits from sales while retaining full control of their work. In subsidy publishing the author maintains more rights and has more control than in a traditional format, but fewer rights than in self-publishing. Subsidy publishing is not necessarily the right option for everyone. It generally requires more author participation in addition to an author investment of funds. It's a partnership, which each partner investing in the potential success of the book.

Stay tuned for Part 2