Your Path to publication: Understanding traditional Publishing…
The publishing landscape has been undergoing a fascinating transformation for a number of years now, bringing with it a whole new range of publishing options available to authors. Where once there was only the traditional option to publish, now many options to publish exist. The first step to success in your publishing journey is to understand the different paths you can take towards publication.
If you've ever felt bewildered by the choices, we're here to shed some light on the different avenues of publishing. In this edition, we'll provide an exploration of the traditional publishing industry. If you would like to what more about the five main models of publishing, please pop over to the 5 Models of Book Publishing article. We will explore each in more depth in coming articles.
The Time-Honoured Route of publishing…
Traditional publishing, often seen as the gold standard, involves renowned publishing houses that handle everything from manuscript selection to marketing and distribution. Authors submit their manuscripts to publishers, and if accepted, they may receive an advance payment and will be paid a percentage in royalties based on book sales. We'll explore the inner workings of this model, helping you understand what it takes to secure a traditional publishing deal.
Traditional publishing…
What do we know – or think we know – about ‘the trads’?
· They only accept submissions and carefully select books/authors who meet their criteria for an ‘offer’ (True)
· Publishers only publish great books (so if mine doesn’t get picked up, it must be rubbish) (Not so true. Commercial viability also comes into it and not all that is commercial is necessarily good)
· Books get the royal treatment in terms of design and production standards (Generally pretty true … but your involvement in this process is another story)
· All their books are edited and polished for publishing (Hmmm… not entirely true but not altogether false either)
· Marketing and publicity teams are so excited to sell books that every book will get the full marketing and publicity treatment (Sadly, not so true)
· All books are made equal and are equal in the eyes of the publisher (This would be nice if it were true)
· I have a publishing deal so I will be selling my book in a couple of months (this depends on how long you count in months, I mean, if you say 12-24 months rather than 1-2 years then you’re right!)
· All authors get whopping advances and stand to make a lot of royalty $$ from being a published author (Oh, dear – insert facepalm)
Let’s dive deeper and explore the myths
These are the publishers that everyone wants a publishing deal with. They’ve been around for an age and have a great track record. They publish with quality in mind and only publish what they feel will sell because they’re footing the bill! They generally have years of experience behind them and publishing titles that sell – theirs are the books we see gracing the shelves of bookstores. They offer validation to the author that their book is worthy of publishing … but at what cost?
Before I go any further, I have to say that I am a huge fan of traditional publishing. Growing up I longed to work in a publishing house (which is weird for a seven-year-old child) and my dream came true. I loved being a part of the machine that is traditional publishing, working on books and having the reward of walking into bookshops and seeing them on shelves … it was love! But there’s another side to the traditional space that made me feel uneasy … and it is the sad fact that the author is not truly at the heart of all that they do. Not in the cosy way the movies like to depict. No longer do publishers and authors enjoy comfortable long lunches where they discuss the author’s work at length, it is far more a commercial relationship now of supplier and distributor and you’re lucky if you even get a face-to-face meeting with your publisher and the publishing team.
Publishers only accept submissions and carefully select books/authors who meet their criteria for an ‘offer’
There’s not a lot to say here, a publisher’s reputation is on the line when they choose to publish a book and therefore they will only publish books they feel passionately about or that they’re confident will sell. They need to know that your book will enhance the reputation of the publishing house and/or make money in order for them to make an offer.
You’re not paying them any money in advance so they have no ‘incentive’ to sign you unless they believe in your work. Traditional publishers will only offer deals to authors who they feel they can work with and whose book they feel confident they will be able to sell.
Publishers only publish great books (so if mine doesn’t get picked up, it must be rubbish)
Publishers publish what they think they can sell. They sign books that are similar to books that they already have a good track record for selling. Conversely, though, they won’t take your book on if it is too similar to something they’ve already signed because they don’t want their titles (that are being released at a similar time) to be in competition with each other.
What sells and what is good are not always the same and what actually sells depends on the market and their current tastes (remember the vampire book craze?!). A publisher does their best to gauge the market, but they can’t always get this right. Publishing is a fickle friendship between the reader and the publisher. The publisher tries to keep ahead of the trend (and set the trend, if possible), but the market often has other ideas!
There are so many reasons why a book does or does not get accepted by a publisher and it doesn’t all come down to whether something is good or not.
Books get the royal treatment in terms of design and production standards
This is one area I feel that most good publishers do a great job of. They generally have access to top-quality designers and typesetters, as well as better paper stock and more interesting embellishments than indie publishing houses do. There’s often a team of people working together to produce a book that is commercial and appealing to readers.
The big publishers put a lot of time and energy into producing great books. The myth that needs to be busted here is that not all books get the same treatment in terms of embellishment options. Don’t hold your breath that your book will get the option of embossing, debossing, foiling etc unless they expect your book to make these expensive embellishments worth their while!
The myth that needs to be debunked here is that you, the author, will get to be heavily involved in the look and feel of your book. It is a point of contention for many authors that they, in fact, don’t get to be very involved in the design process or get a say over how their book will look.
All their books are edited and polished for publishing
These days, publishers are looking for books that are structurally sound. They’re not interested (or as interested as they were) in developing narratives that have ‘potential’. They will, however, make sure your book is copy edited to their house style and try to ensure it is error-free.
Marketing and publicity teams are so excited to sell books that every
book will get the full marketing and publicity treatment
The majority of publishers survive on a handful of ‘hits’ and they back a few books that they expect to be hits. Publishers don’t expect all their books to be big and therefore the investment across the books varies.
Only a select few books are backed for the full marketing/publicity treatment. In fact, the expectation for most of the smaller titles is that the author will do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of marketing and promotion to keep their sales ticking over. For which they are rewarded with less than 20% of the royalties (generally less than 10%, realistically)!
FYI: It will be entirely realistic to expect your publisher to lose interest in your book within 6-12 months of publishing if it doesn’t make its mark, then the marketing and publicity will fall entirely to you. The average book is lucky to sell 2000 copies in its lifetime…
I have a publishing deal so I will be selling my book in a couple of months
Many authors still believe that once they have a publishing deal their book will be released within a couple of months. This isn’t the case. Most publishing timelines are 12-18 months long. Some might be shorter but many are longer than this. It is important to be prepared that you won’t have a book in your hands for at least 12 months after signing that red-hot deal.
All authors get whopping advances and stand to make
a lot of royalty $$ from being a published author
The days of large author advances are gone. And as thanks for ‘putting up the cash’ for the book, the publisher takes a large chunk of the royalties for the whole contract period – whatever is negotiated (it is often years, so that the publisher can ensure they make back the money they spent). Generally, authors are left with only 5-15% royalties for the printed book which, sadly, isn’t a lot when you break it down. Not all books are meant to be bestsellers either…
I have no intention of bursting any bubbles…
The publisher takes control…
When you get a publishing deal with a traditional publisher, the book is ‘acquired’ which essentially gives them rights to determine all aspects of the book’s future shelf-life – what it will look like, where it will sell, how it will be sold, what price it will sell for, how much of those profits will go to the author… Once you sign a contract with a trad house you give up most of the control of your book. In fact, they own the copyright to your work during the contract period and often they’re not even obligated to actually publish it (and they’re in control of how long it takes to publish).
Now, many decisions need to be made by the publisher; they know what they are doing and they make these decisions to help the book succeed in a commercial sense. After all, they want to sell the book and make back the money they spent on it! And, really, most of the books that come out of the traditional publishing space are second to none: they are quality, they are memories, they give us a whole other world, but the industry itself is, perhaps, not as well setup for the author as it could be.
As I said earlier, I still love the traditional publishing space, but it definitely isn’t perfect and it helps to move into these spaces with your eyes wide open. The days of having a team of publishing professionals working with and for the author are simply not real anymore. Authors often approach publishing houses with these great myths in mind, only to be disappointed. They think that once they get a publisher then the big old cogs that move that machine will move the same way for each book and author who come through the door, but this is not the case.
There’s a certain magic to the traditional publishing industry, but there are some great shifts it needs to make before it is an industry that works well for all involved. I will never stop authors from seeking out opportunities with these publishers, but be careful with what you sign and be aware of what the reality of the industry is, this way you’ll have a wonderful publishing experience if you’re lucky enough to get that elusive publishing deal!