I'm about 85K words in to my first novel so I've been thinking about this recently. In my case I don't know that I have much a choice since my novel contains some elements that would probably make it not really a good fit for traditional publishing. But even if I were writing like a pretty standard fantasy or mystery novel or something like that the reality is IF I ever become a professional writer I don't want to deal with having a boss and deadlines and editors who I have to appease to keep the publisher happy. I want control over my own work, full control, so I'd probably indie publish no matter what. Edit: As I watch the video, there's one thing I want to comment on. This notion that with traditional publishing you don't have to pay for the editor or the cover art or the proofreading and stuff like that is just not correct. When you're published traditionally you get to keep a much smaller percentage of each book sold. THAT is where the cost for all of the services that the publisher is providing for you comes from. You may not be directly paying for it by cutting these people checks, but make no mistake you ARE still paying for it in the form of reduced royalties, the cost is just hidden from you.
Thanks for the great comment! And congrats on your writing progress. I agree about preferring to have full control and independence, which is why I’ve always self-published personally. If that’s important to you then it pretty much determines which approach is best. And yes, as far as overall income goes the royalty percentages mean you’re definitely “paying” for everything you get from a publisher in the long run, so that’s a fair assessment at one level. But there’s a large difference between making less money from sales down the road vs needing to budget for hundreds or thousands of dollars in production costs before you know how well the book will sell, so I do still think it’s worth talking about them as different issues. Essentially with self publishing you shoulder all the risk but stand to fully benefit from your success. With traditionally publishing you don’t have to assume as much risk up front but you give up some of the rewards for success in the future. As I said I don’t think there’s a “right” answer universally, just what’s best for you.
@@justinfikestorycastle I agree the cost is "different" in the sense that in indie publishing it's front loaded whereas with traditional publishing it isn't and you can get it all done before you know how well the book will do. And that's a totally fair thing to take into consideration. In the video though you kept using phrases like "the publisher covers that" or "you don't have to pay for that" and I just found that to be imprecise. You aren't paying for it up front but you are paying for it in the long run. But defraying the costs until down the road can definitely be a big deal to a new author, we're definitely agreed there, it's something people should take into consideration. Right now I'm trying to scrimp and save so that I can accumulate cash from my day job so that I can pay for those services myself and the mindset I have to have is that I'm investing in this because it's important to me and it's worth doing even if the book only sells 10 copies. The reality is that I don't have any illusions that I'm going to be the next big hit and make the money I'll be paying for this back. I'm expecting to lose money. I'm doing it anyway because it's important to me that I publish and do so in a way where I'm satisfied I did everything I could, but the up front costs are a source of mental stress for me right now and it's definitely worth pointing that out to people.
I'm about 85K words in to my first novel so I've been thinking about this recently. In my case I don't know that I have much a choice since my novel contains some elements that would probably make it not really a good fit for traditional publishing. But even if I were writing like a pretty standard fantasy or mystery novel or something like that the reality is IF I ever become a professional writer I don't want to deal with having a boss and deadlines and editors who I have to appease to keep the publisher happy. I want control over my own work, full control, so I'd probably indie publish no matter what.
Edit: As I watch the video, there's one thing I want to comment on. This notion that with traditional publishing you don't have to pay for the editor or the cover art or the proofreading and stuff like that is just not correct. When you're published traditionally you get to keep a much smaller percentage of each book sold. THAT is where the cost for all of the services that the publisher is providing for you comes from. You may not be directly paying for it by cutting these people checks, but make no mistake you ARE still paying for it in the form of reduced royalties, the cost is just hidden from you.
Thanks for the great comment! And congrats on your writing progress.
I agree about preferring to have full control and independence, which is why I’ve always self-published personally. If that’s important to you then it pretty much determines which approach is best.
And yes, as far as overall income goes the royalty percentages mean you’re definitely “paying” for everything you get from a publisher in the long run, so that’s a fair assessment at one level. But there’s a large difference between making less money from sales down the road vs needing to budget for hundreds or thousands of dollars in production costs before you know how well the book will sell, so I do still think it’s worth talking about them as different issues. Essentially with self publishing you shoulder all the risk but stand to fully benefit from your success. With traditionally publishing you don’t have to assume as much risk up front but you give up some of the rewards for success in the future. As I said I don’t think there’s a “right” answer universally, just what’s best for you.
@@justinfikestorycastle I agree the cost is "different" in the sense that in indie publishing it's front loaded whereas with traditional publishing it isn't and you can get it all done before you know how well the book will do. And that's a totally fair thing to take into consideration. In the video though you kept using phrases like "the publisher covers that" or "you don't have to pay for that" and I just found that to be imprecise. You aren't paying for it up front but you are paying for it in the long run. But defraying the costs until down the road can definitely be a big deal to a new author, we're definitely agreed there, it's something people should take into consideration.
Right now I'm trying to scrimp and save so that I can accumulate cash from my day job so that I can pay for those services myself and the mindset I have to have is that I'm investing in this because it's important to me and it's worth doing even if the book only sells 10 copies. The reality is that I don't have any illusions that I'm going to be the next big hit and make the money I'll be paying for this back. I'm expecting to lose money. I'm doing it anyway because it's important to me that I publish and do so in a way where I'm satisfied I did everything I could, but the up front costs are a source of mental stress for me right now and it's definitely worth pointing that out to people.