What is YOUR best pathway to publishing?
It can be quite bewildering to be an author standing at the crossroads of choice in publishing paths.
Traditional or trade publishing is one way to go but you must first “sell” your idea to a publisher. If you are successful in landing a book contract it will likely be 18-24 months before your book actually hits the shelf. You must also give up control of your work to the publishing company’s editorial process and the title may or (more likely) may not be the one you had in mind. And although the publishing company takes on the expense of the publishing process, you will still be responsible for marketing expenses and your return on the book will likely be very small. Traditional publishing can open doors to press on a larger stage and will be the best opportunity to see your book on the bookshelf at Barnes and Noble. If those things are important to your goals, it may be worth the tradeoff. That is, IF (and it is a big IF) you can get the attention of a traditional publisher.
Many authors are choosing to self-publish instead. In fact, some very successful traditionally published authors are choosing this pathway for future projects. The opportunity to retain control, speed to market and larger royalties are some of the reasons to choose this path. There are some tradeoffs though. The author must create a publishing company and take on the expense of publishing. By choosing to take on publishing, the author is venturing into a new industry that they are most likely unfamiliar with. There are many small details that need to be taken care of and the author doesn’t know what they don’t know.
So what is an author to do? There is a new category of publishing that I am proud to be a part of — we are calling it Assisted Self Publishing. This model allows the author to maintain the control and speed of self-publishing without having to learn everything there is to know about the publishing business. Using trained and experienced publishing assistants and Professional Virtual Author’s Assistants to guide you through the process and take on the many administrative details can allow you to produce a professional quality book at a reasonable price point without having to turn your attention away from your other business pursuits.
I am proud to be participating in a project that is an attempt to give you a “behind the curtain” view of what it is like to publish a book under this new publishing model. We have a team of professionals who are all blogging about their process along with the author who is blogging about her experience in publishing in this way. Visit the blog here to watch the project unfold.
Leave a Comment