Traditional vs. Self Publishing vs. Vanity Publishing

Once I had my book illustrated and written to a point where I was ready to look for a publisher it was a task. I did a lot research on the topic and sent a lot of emails. When I began I did not truly know the difference between all of them, but in time I was made aware. Here is what I took away from each of them., this post will be longer than the others.

Traditional Publishing - To help me start this daunting task I would look at the publishing companies of the books which are in the classrooms. By the way, there are a lot! From there I would look each one up to see the requirements to submit my story. On the sites they let you know the subject matter in which they are interested in and if you need a literary agent. Once I narrowed down the list I started sending emails, here is where you wait and wait. Some will get back to you within a month, while others will never respond at all and they will tell you this too. As I was researching about traditional publishing, I did find out some interesting facts. The amount of royalties is less than 20% AND you do not own the rights to your book. The fact that I would own the rights to my book did not sit well with me, especially after all the time I spent on it. Even though I felt this way, I still tried.

Vanity Publishing - There are many of these publishers out there to help you publish or book. Here is the catch, in order to publish your book you have to pay them. The cost is on average $3500. With this they will be able to help you get a copyright license (sometimes), library of congress number, ISBN numbers for paperback and eBook, literary edits, page design, and books cover. Now they do help you with promotion of your book but in order to get a little more out of it you will have to pay extra. Here comes the catch, they dangle in front of you the fact that you will receive 95% of the royalties. To many this seems like a wonderful offer, but you have to think about why you are getting so much in return. With my research I found that they offer you so much because they make their money by having you publish with them. When they do marketing, it is very little.

Self Publishing - I did a lot of research on this area, and you still end up spending a decent amount of money. The only thing is that you do it at your own pace. You will need to get your own Library of Congress Number, Copy Right, 2 ISBN numbers, editor, an app to help get the pages to look right, illustrator (if need be), and cover design. Yes, you can cut the cost by doing some of it yourself, like illustrating the book. I found out that since I illustrated my book I saved about $4000. That right there is a big chunk of change. The upside is that you get 100% of the proceeds, but you will have to pay the supplier where you are getting your book printed and any other fees you may acquire after the fact. Also, all of your marketing is done by you, that is hours of work, especially if you have a fun time job.

With that being said, what road did I choose? Read my next Blog Post to find out.