5 Myths about Traditional Publishing VS Indie Publishing.
Five myths of traditional and indie publishing busted!
Being an indie writer is tough. I have found it to be slow, arduous and difficult for pretty much the entire time I have been doing it. I have often wondered if I should just try to get an agent and get my work published traditionally. I mean, that’s how real writers get their name out there, right?
Being an indie writer is essentially being a business person too. It’s finding the current trends, how the algorithm works on the platform you publish on, and also finding alternative places to put you work, and lets face it, people will always take things form you for free rather than spend their money.
Places like ‘Royal Road,’ or ‘Wattpad,’ are great for getting your work out there for nothing, but ultimately (and sadly) free doesn’t put food on the table or pay the bills. So I can see the appeal as to why this sort of business venture would put someone off who essentially just wants to ‘write the book and be done with it.’ However, I would like to share my thoughts below –
Reasons why being an indie is better than being a traditionally published author –
This is very subjective. We only hear about those that end up on the New York Times best sellers list, or those that make the front of Forbes. These are anomalies, and authors like JK Rowling and George RR Martin aren’t your everyday writers, and you also don’t see that they spent the last thirty years trying to get somewhere in their craft before they made it to the top of their game.
For most other writers, the literary world is a struggle. They don’t make much of a living, and they are tied to contract that can be very difficult to try and get out of.
Through traditional publishing, when you are signed you will earn an advance of maybe a few thousand, but then you earn nothing until that advance is paid back by way of book sales. Then when you eventually do earn that back, you are likely to get between 5 and 0% of the price the book is sold for.
Where as if you make it as an indie, that amount massively ramps up to 35 – 70% if you sell on Amazon or through other mediums. In a nutshell, you earn as much as you work, research and market yourself.
Wrong. In this day and age, as well as the publishing company owning their authors work, they still have to do a lot of self-promotion and marketing themselves. Granted, probably not as much as indie authors, but they still have to do a good chunk. So, traditional authors get their books published, earn a fraction of the list price AND still have to market their own work? Hmm.
Myth 3 –
Indie Authors don’t get into book stores.
Wrong. Sorry to break this to you guys, but book stores are sadly on their way out. Unless it’s a huge store like Barnes and Noble or Waterstones, then your local indie book stores are really struggling to survive with the introduction of Amazon and other online book retailers. That said, when you walk into a book store, you are met with thousands of books at your fingertips. Do you really think that every one of those books is traditionally published? Plenty of indie authors state that they have managed to get their books into brick-and-mortar stores.
Fifty Shades of Grey anyone? Exactly. One of the biggest books of the 21st century was an indie published book and it was everywhere. So, that my friends, is a myth completely busted.
Myth 4 –
The indie publishing market is saturated.
No, no, no!
I don’t believe this. I believe that the indie publishing world is filled with writers that think they will become an overnight success, or, they publish the book with the intention of being an indie, and don’t realise that it’s is mostly about the business of writing as much (or if not more so) the actual writing of the books.
With being an indie writer, you are not just an author. You are a business too. You are the owner of your craft, and you are trying to sell products to customers. It’s that simple. You create a product and you’re trying to sell it to customers. Now, is there a lot of competition? Fuck yes. But those people that want to write a book probably never do, and those that write one book will not write a second. So, if you manage to get a few titles under your belt and build a small following, then my friend, you are ahead of 95% of the rest of the kerb. So, you’ve gone from having 100% of the market against you, to only 5% in competition, and that’s not to mention the markets and the niches out there available. So, when you think about it, not much competition and saturation there if you keep working and keep producing. But that’s the thing with this game – You CANNOT expect to be an overnight success, and you must know that this takes a lot of hard work and graft before you see any kind of results. But, stick with it. You will get there, you just have to want it enough.
Myth 5 –
Traditional published authors have the freedom over their work
Wrong.
If you are a big name like Stephen King or Michelle Paver, then yes you can pretty much go wherever you like in the publishing world. For us first time authors though with little or no following, we must take what we are given. Essentially, you become a product to a company. Your book is now an asset to be sold and marketed. How many times have you had a publisher or an agent turn around to you and say something like ‘we loved the book, but its not the market right now.’ That’s because these agencies are companies are businesses. They are in to make money and to survive.
If you go against what the publisher says, you can be dropped and they will own your book. If you write something that they don’t want you to write, then they can drop you. If you don’t want to write crime or sci fi anymore but the publisher wants you too, then you better look for a new publisher.
You have much more freedom as an indie. You can literally write and sell whatever you like and however you like. You can dance around the living room on ticktock if you desire. You can go start a channel on YouTube, you can secrete your bookmarks and stickers in the backs of other books in bookstores if you wanted too. It’s down to you to establish what will benefit or harm your brand, and you have only yourself to answer too if it all goes wrong. Freeing, isn’t it?
So that’s it everyone. I hope that was useful to you and hopefully busted some of those myths that you have heard floating around the writing world.
If you want to check out some of my work, then head over to Amazon and search Jay Darkmoore. Alternately, click the link here.
https://linktr.ee/Jaydarkmoore
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Thank you for your time –
Jay Darkmoore.