on The Write Life:
You’ve penned a book you’re proud of, and now you’re ready to share it with the world. But first, you have a question: Should you self-publish or get a publisher?
Maybe you want to become the next Sarah Dessen of YA fiction, or perhaps you created a series you know will rival the book-to-movie successes of “Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter.”
Either way, you should know that no road to authorship is paved with gold. It doesn’t matter which road you choose — there are pros and cons to both routes.
While authors who self-publish boast the wonders of creative control and higher royalties, they also bemoan the uphill climb it can be to reach an audience. Authors who publish traditionally say mainstream success is the only way to go, all the while they relinquish the ability to have a say in final book decisions and lose creative control.
That means the answer to this age-old debate: “traditional vs. self-publishing” is inconclusive. The right path for you depends entirely on what you want from your author experience.
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
I think the lack of control is a big issue, having publishers make changes that can change the direction or even the feel of the book – sometimes to keep it more “on trend”. But then, self publishing requires so much out of pocket cost and a hell of a lot of work to boot in order to get into peoples view
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I’m struggling with this question myself. One thing holding me back is thinking my book isn’t good enough to go the traditional route. Interestingly, that doesn’t show up on your list of questions. I’ve realized that having a high-quality book doesn’t preclude you from self-publishing. Thanks for the post!
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Reblogged this on Kim's Musings.
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Hmm…no mention made of the elephant in the room – i.e. agents. You don’t just ‘get traditionally published’. First you have to convince an agent that your book is PROFITABLE enough for said agent to spruik it to a publisher, usually for 15% of whatever the publisher pays. Then there’s the lottery of whether said agent can, in fact, convince a publisher to publish. Oh and no publisher will do the marketing for a debut author. That means the branding and marketing still has to be learned and put into practice by the author.
To me, those are the most compelling negatives to even /attempting/ to be traditionally published.
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Reblogged this on wordrefiner.
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