Publishing

Hello and welcome! If you're reading this page, I'm going to assume you're here because you have an amazing novel that you've been working on- and all your work has paid off! Congratulations! You finished a novel!

Heyo guys, it's A.G. Silver.

Now you're probably like me when I finished writing my first novel- I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. But never fear! I've done most of the hardwork of researching for you (and that research took eons ahaha). All you have to do is decide what works best for you and your book!

Selfpublishing V.S. Traditional Publishing

Well so here is the writer's worst nightmare- the controversial topic of selfpublishing (aka indie publishing) and traditional publishing (working with a large publishing company). Every site you look on is going to tell you one thing or another. Some will say selfpublishing is the only to go while others say going with a company will really get your book out into the world. And to be quite honest, each side of the argument is right.

Now I know that sounds confusing, but the only difference for these publishing options is your book.

When it comes to publishing a novel, it all comes down to the nitty-gritty of your novel, and you. If you're like me when I was young and first writing, you don't have any money to publish a book. Just the thought of editing and a book cover was overwhelming. So that's where traditional publishers come in. Big publishing companies pay for EVERYTHING in the process of publishing your book. You don't pay a single cent until after you get the first paycheck.

Now two disclaimers to traditional publishing:

1. You have to find an agent in order to even be considered by a publishing company.

Publishers won't even look at your novel if you don't contact them through an agent. And at first, that doesn't seem so bad. But once you realize how tedious it is to get an agent, you feel the real struggle. Most authors get rejected by about 30-50 agents. And that rejection can be down-putting sometimes. BUT DON'T LET IT GET YOU DOWN. Some of the most famous books and authors were rejected by soooo many agents and publishers, and now look where they are!

2. Big companies take a large part of the profit.

There is something called a 'royalty' in the publishing world, which is pretty much your paycheck from the book. When publishing with a big publishing company, the publishers keep like 68% of the profit. And to be quite frank, that's quite a hefty bit of money. This part is normally what turns people away from publishing with companies. They don't want the company to keep so much of their money. But think about it. You're publishing with this huge company who advertises your book as the new best seller in almost every single store they can get their hands on. With how much publicity your book is getting, the book is raking in a heck of a bunch of money. So even though the company is keeping most of it, you are still making quite a tidy sum.

Onto indie publishing! In today's modern world, so many more people are self-publishing because of Amazon. I mean, the entire world has access to your book from one site, and its incredibly cheap to publish your book through Amazon. Sounds like a dream, right?

Well, there's a bit of this downside to this dream. In order to make money publishing, you already have to have a bit of money so you can publish your book. In self-publishing, you have to pay for editors (which gets pricey really quickly), typesetters/interior formatters, and a book cover artist. And that's not even counting trying to do marketing for your book.

So you can do either form of publishing, and both are good options, it's just up to you to choose which option best suits you and your book.

I really hope this helped, and feel free to reach out if you have any other questions!