There are so many options for publishing a book now and days. The original advice from many brand name authors is to get an agent, and your book will be everywhere.
Now we have small presses, self publishing and traditional, but now there are small presses who can get your books into the bookstores. There are so many options for publishing, and many of these small presses are in fact succeeding in many ways. I think one of the reasons a person will self publish is simple, they don't want to wait for the amount of time it takes to see their work out there, they want to see their books out there now.
If you look at the way the traditional publishing model works, it can take you six months to a year or longer to find an agent. Then depending on if your agent is editorial, you and your agent might go through several rounds of edits to make sure your manuscript is in tip top shape before sending it out to editors for publication. Then depending on how good your agent is, there are agents who can sell books within a week and some who can take about a year to sell your manuscript. Then between covers, edits, the publisher sending you an ARC copy to make sure everything was caught, then the books being printed, promoting your book while writing the next one. Following the traditional model a writer can expect for it to take about two years to see your book in the stores. Then when the author receives the advance, their books have to sell enough through that advance. In some cases, if the books don't sell through the advance, there are some cases where the publisher will have the author give back some of the advance. There are independent publishers who can get the books into the bookstore who give you high royalties or a small advance. They are a new take on those who wish to publish the traditional route.
Most small presses take roughly around six months for each book to be published. Some don't have the best editorial staff, but they have been acquiring more experienced editors. What is better about the small presses is how they are strictly royalty. The author doesn't have to worry about their book selling more over their advance. The author gets to have input on how they want the cover of their book to look.
Self publishing is quite simple, all you have to do is just upload the book to Kindle Direct Publishing (minus the costs of finding a graphic designer to design the cover of your books and finding a qualified editor) and within a few hours your book is live for everyone to buy. I think one of the reasons an author will self publish is the patience. They don't want to wait two years for a targeted audience to read their work, they want to put their work out there now. I have one trilogy I wrote that is dystopian, since most publishers aren't taking dystopian books anymore calling dystopian a dead genre I will have to investigate more into self publishing the trilogy.
YA adult Elana Johnson wrote a blog post from a made some valid points in which I happen to agree with one hundred percent about reading a book not showing prejudice against which way they were published and released to the public.
Here's my view, I don't give a crap whichever way a person decides to publish their book; self, small press, or traditional, I don't really care I just want one thing when I choosing books to buy, curling up with a cup of coffee and reading a good book on my e-reader, which I'm pretty sure many other readers out there in the world want. If an author writes and publishes a book that deals with the things I like to read about. Which ever way a person decides to publish their book shouldn't matter. Readers want only one thing to read a good book. It shouldn't matter which way we publish, we are all authors, friends with each other, and want the same thing, to see our books succeed.
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