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You’ve edited your manuscript. Now what do you do? It’s time to publish it. And there are two mainstream means of doing that here in the US: self-publishers and printers.
What’s the difference?
Let’s define some terms, in a more encyclopedic way.
A publisher prepares and issues books. They generally have rights to sales, author royalties, giveaways, etc. They may promote your work (if it generates enough interest). They take care of some edits, formatting, designs, publishing, printing, giving you author copies, minor marketing, sales, and customer service.
This isn’t anything I have used! This is a typical, modern publisher. The kind you might get one of your 1000 rejections from.
Examples: Penguin House, Bethany House, Tyndale.
A self-publisher is a company that issues and prints books. They take already edited and formatted manuscripts and covers, and publish them. Some have autonomy to run sales and do minor marketing. Your book will appear on their site, and you will get minor author royalties.
I have used this kind before. It requires some money up-front, and they are completely open to the public. There is a wide variety of self-publishing companies today.
Examples: Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon), BookBaby.
A printer receives a fully edited manuscript and cover, and prints it. You become the publisher. You do everything except print it. It’s that simple. One thing to note is that having a printer requires you to find a distribution/sales company, or become one yourself.
I strongly considered using a printer in conjunction with my publishing/distribution partner, Humble Shack, LLC.
Good News, Bad News
Self-Publishing Companies
Self-publishing companies (the ones I know) are all based online and follow the same general outline. Most require a book title, series name (if applicable), book number in that series, author name, genre(s), target audience, description, price, and number of pages (some auto generate this).
There are also choices to make in regard to paper thickness, color, cover type, and book dimensions. Self-publishing programs are often equipped to provide you with a personalized account, direct payment method, previewing screen, ISBN, and troubleshooting help page.
After you submit your book for publication, it is reviewed and then accepted. There’s a rare possibility that it won’t be accepted, usually due to lacking information. Just be sure to fill in every blank that applies.
Self-Publishers recognize you as the author in the following ways:
There’s plenty of good news about self-publishing companies. It’s direct, easy, online, legal, and customizable. Naturally, each company has it bad news.
Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon), which I used for my first two books, was prone to glitches. It was extremely particular about how the manuscript needed to be formatted and the size of the cover. It usually took a week of working with the program before it accepted the manuscript and cover PDFs.
There was also very little help for troubleshooting, which made it a trial of patience to figure out the issues and resolve them.
Another logistics issue is that KDP doesn’t give the author full rights to their book. Amazon runs sales on my books all the time without my permission, which dramatically decreases my author royalties. I also have no record of the sales, which means I can’t connect with the purchaser.
That being said, I am grateful for the ability to have published Chained and Trapped, and reached readers with those messages through the medium of KDP. God is good!
I cannot speak for other companies, but there’s good news and bad news about all kinds of things in this life. So keep aware for that possibility of trouble.
Printers
One thing I love about printers is that their job is so simple. Print. After you have put in the work to edit and format your manuscript (and cover), you send it in. For us, we sent in the files via email. They printed. We’re done.
There is so much freedom!
Printers recognize you as the author by giving you full rights to your book. You have complete control of where your book goes, who distributes it, discounts – all of it!
There is some bad news.
Printers are generally more expensive than self-publishing companies. The reason for this is that printers don’t make money on sales, they make money by printing books. So, they require you to print a certain number of books which can increase the upfront cost.
Also, if you print the book, then you must find a sales/distribution company or become one yourself!
I suppose, another con could be that you have to format the book yourself, but some self-publishing companies require that also. Plus, we’re going to go over some of that later in this blog series. So, if you don’t know about formatting yet, don’t worry!
Common Ground
One thing that self-publishing companies and printers have in common is that neither will market for you. You are your marketing agent. We’ll go over some tips and tricks later in this blog series!
Which one is best for me?
Of course, only you can decide which one is best for you. But, while I’m at it, here are a few tips for you while you’re considering:
Neither choice is better than the other necessarily. One is best for you, and God will make it clear if you seek Him. Whichever one God leads you into, rejoice in the ability to publish and share your work.
So, publisher or printer? Comment below!
If you have any thoughts or questions, you can put them in the comments below or email me. I’ll be happy to chat!
Commenting on these blog posts is one of the ways you, my friend, get to give to me. Your comments encourage me that I’m not writing to nobody. Also, I often learn something from other Christians who write and take the time to answer the questions or say something simple. Please, feel free to give.