Publishing, Baby! Let’s Talk Options

Alright, so you’re moving on your book. You might be struggling with your opening, maybe you’ve got a full first draft, or maybe you’re ready to fly with a polished manuscript. Wherever you are, it’s imperative that you know where you are headed so you can plan appropriately. So let’s talk publishing!
What are your Options?!?!

Let’s start with the different paths available to you:

1. Traditional (Major) Publishing
2. Small Press Publishing
3. Vanity Publishing
4. Self Publishing

Traditional “Major” Publishing (also called “Commercial Publishing”)
There used to be six “big publishing” houses: Random House, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillian. With the 2013 merger of Penguin and Random house, the world was left with only five. These five houses publish two-thirds of the “professionally” published books in the US (small presses making up the other third). The big five are often the most sought after publishers because their names lend prestige to an author regardless of sales. Publishers in this arena only accept submissions from literary agents and typical advances begin at $10,000. Non-fiction authors with substantial platforms can demand seven and eight figure sums (Hillary Clinton’s latest book was rumored to command $14M).

Advances are paid against royalties. If an author is fortunate to sell enough books to “earn out” their advance, they begin receiving new quarterly royalty checks. Standard royalties range between 8 and 12 percent of the retail price of the printed book and as much as 20% to 25% of the digital price.
Authors who wish to buy their books from their major publisher can typically do so at 60% of the retail cost.

In the non-fiction world, literary agents use an author’s book proposal to solicit interest from publishers (more on book proposals in a future article!). Once a book is accepted and a contract negotiated, the publisher will typically need twelve to eighteen months to take the book to market.
These big five publishers make their money in two primary ways:

1. Runaway hits with millions of units sold.
2. Many many many smaller numbers of sales of their backlist (referred to as the long tail of publishing).

They rarely invest in or make money off of the typical new to mid-level author. They publish many titles, get them into the bookstore and see what happens. If they sell well in the first three months, they give them attention. If not, they move on. So if you’re lucky enough to secure a major commercial publisher of this magnitude, still expect to do the bulk of marketing on your own.

Small Press Publishing
Also known as independent presses, or indie publishers, the majority of these presses specialize in niche books (poetry, genre fiction, cooking, fine art, regional titles, etc). Typically, small presses run on low margins and are often in business because they believe in their niche, not because they expect massive returns. These presses typically offer no advances (or sometimes very low advances) in exchange for packaging, printing, marketing and distributing the titles they select. The websitePoets and Writers lists 342 small presses.

Where these presses excel lies in their need to make money off of each and every book they publish in order to stay alive. Unlike the larger publishers who can take more risk, this segment of publishers has to operate in a lean fashion. So they tend to care more deeply for each book they select to publish. The bad news is that only a few thousand copies sold is the expectation for most titles and the royalties they typically offer authors are based on net revenues not gross. So most authors don’t earn more than a couple thousand dollars for their books.

Want more info on small presses? Here’s a great article.

Vanity Publishing
Unfortunately, a few bad apples have spoiled the name of the Vanity Press. They have taken advantage of authors and served them poorly, and unfortunately that has created some negative exposure for the overall category. By definition, a vanity press is any press or publisher that supports an author in exchange for a substantial fee. Sometimes they are straightforward in how they position their fees, other times they try to avoid the vanity press label by not charging for the packaging process, but requiring an author to purchase 2,500 or more copies of their book at 60% of retail (still a considerable sum of more than $20k for most books).

Some of these vanity presses are also called “author mills” in that their goal is to churn through a considerable number of authors. Those larger mills often offer limited options, no editorial requirements, and poor customer service. On the higher end of the vanity press are companies like Greenleaf who is highly selective of their projects, charges a sizable sum, but provides a more elite customer experience. Round Table Companies is more on the plane with Greenleaf, though we currently only publish titles that have worked in depth with our editorial department and are in line with creating a heart-centered book.

Vanity presses range in their royalties. On the low side, they offer 20% of net revenue (about 10% of retail) and on the high side, they offer as much as 50% of net revenue (20% — 30% of retail). Vanity presses can often move books through the publishing process more quickly than larger publishers, though their distribution channels might be more limited. They typically make books available to bookstores, but that has little to do with bookstore placement, which is relative to author popularity and the number of customers requesting a title.

Vanity publishers generate their revenue from multiple sources:

1. Editorial support to prep a book for publishing
2. Packaging fees (cover design and formatting)
3. Sales to the public
4. Sales to the author
5. Additional support services to their clients/authors

A vanity press can be a good option for an author who doesn’t want permission from major publishing, is still growing their platform, or simply doesn’t have the patience to wait for the traditional publishing timeline.
It can also be an exceptional avenue for business minded authors who believe in the importance of hiring experts, are willing to invest substantially in their marketing, but who want to retain more control over their book.

Self Publishing
Self publishing is a great option for someone who wants to do it all themselves. The typical self published author has the time or inclination to navigate the layers of editorial, proofreading, cover design, formatting, printing, distribution, marketing, and so on. They are willing to manage their own education into publishing and accept that they will probably fall on their face a few times in the process. I don’t say this to discourage anyone from self publishing. My hope is to clearly paint the picture so people know what they are in for. We were well into our third year as a publisher before we really understood this industry, so don’t expect to become an expert overnight or on your first book project.

Again, if you have the capability to move a large number of units due to a substantial platform (if your website generates 100,000 or more unique visitors a month!), then this is a killer avenue. You do the work on your own, but the revenue could well be worth it. You can publish yourself on Amazon and retain 60% of the retail price of each book sold. If you’re doing all the marketing and distribution work anyway, why give away 90% of the profits?
The good news and bad news: by the numbers, in 2009, 76% of all books published were self published. So this is definitely the growing sector. However, the average self published book earns less than $850 for the author.

Blurred Lines
Because self publishing has become such a dominating force, major publishers have created subsidiary publishers to generate revenue off of authors they decline for traditional publishing. For example, Simon & Schuster offers Archway Publishing, a vanity press. They charge from $1,999 up to $13,999 or more. And they claim their royalties are 50%, but in the example on their website, the royalty used in their sample calculation resulted in a payment less than 10% of the retail price of the book. Ouch!

In Summary
There are so many options available to you and so many decisions to be made. Ultimately, the goal of your book, the size of your platform, and the resources you plan to put into your marketing and brand growth should help determine your path, as should your appetite for managing the process yourself vs. your capability to attract or hire professionals to do most of that for you.

As always, if you have questions I can answer for you about writing or publishing, e-mail me at corey@roundtablecompanies.com.