what made you go with a publisher rather than self-publishing? i ask because i've often heard that publishing houses give you like 10% of the profit and that was why self-publishing was the better choice for some people.
Haha, yeah, royalty rates are hilarious. Not going to say the specific ones in my contract, but according to Google, here’s the average:
Typically, an author can expect to receive the following royalties: Hardback edition: 10% of the retail price on the first 5,000 copies; 12.5% for the next 5,000 copies sold, then 15% for all further copies sold. Paperback: 8% of retail price on the first 150,000 copies sold, then 10% thereafter.
This is a big question, though. I decided traditional publishing was my dream for a few reasons:
I’m paranoid. The traditional publishing system is a series of quality controls (well, and market controls–functions of demand etc.–which can make it hard for niche genres, but hey, I’m writing commercial YA, so). The fact that my book’s been threshed through heavy edit after heavy edit makes me far more secure in the fact that it’s, you know, decent enough. Not saying there aren’t awesome freelance editors! But also, in traditional publishing, you don’t have to pay for top-notch edits. And since I’m a college kid with zero income, that’s important.
The package. I know there are fantastic freelance cover artists and formatters out there, and I also know there are some covers in tradpubbing that leave something to be desired. That said, the covers from the imprint that’s publishing me are fucking stunning. Here’re a few examples. A beautiful book I can hold in my hands is the dream, and always has been the dream.
Marketing and distribution. I’m awkward. Yelling into the void to promote myself to y’all on social media is weird enough – trying to get my book placed on actual bookstore shelves? By myself? That would be horrifying. In today’s day and age, I know the author is responsible for a lot of marketing regardless of whether they’re with a house or not. Buuuut in self-publishing I would be responsible for 100%, and I would probably just have a mental breakdown, heh.
I’m just a stubborn motherfucker. When people tell me, “No,” my instinct is to work and work until it turns into a yes. Before I signed with my agent for this project, I queried like three or four others, and racked up over 150 rejection letters for my writing. The reasoning was all over the place: relatability, pacing, marketability (and oh boy was that frustrating) … the list went on. And every one of those rejections motivated me more to stick with traditional publishing. Hey, maybe I’m a masochist! But it was making me better, and I want to be better.
And as for money … In self-publishing, you get higher returns, but there’s also no advance. You win some, you lose some. And in the end, the money thing is last on my list. Shrug. I’ve written for writing’s sake forever.
So that’s it in a nutshell!
