Traditional publishing vs self-publishing for your non-fiction book

When you’ve written a book, you’ll have learned so much and (hopefully) enjoyed the process. But for all your hard work to finally pay off, you need people to read your book! And that means choosing how to publish it.

In this blog, we’ll look at traditional publishing and self-publishing, their relative pros and cons, the alternatives, and how to choose the best method for you and your book.

Things to consider before publishing your non-fiction book

It’s crucial to ensure your book’s content aligns with your business goals. Our tried and tested approach involves the 3 P’s of position:

• The person: who are you writing for?
• Their pain: what is their problem?
• Your promise: how can you help?

By knowing your target audience and their problems, you can showcase your expertise by identifying solutions, firmly positioning yourself as the go-to expert in your field. You should keep this positioning in mind throughout your book’s journey: when you’re planning, writing, and choosing how to publish.

Traditional publishing explained

Choosing the traditional publishing model means finding a publishing company – often via a literary agent – who agrees to produce and distribute your book. They will usually deal with the cost and process of editing, designing, printing, and marketing the book. In exchange, you sign over some of your rights to the book, and you’ll receive a percentage of the book sales (‘royalties’) and sometimes an advance payment.

Pros of traditional publishing

• Kudos. Being taken on by a well-known publishing house lends your book a lot of authority and credibility: for many authors, this is key to their positioning strategy.
• Distribution. Established publishers have access to extensive distribution networks, meaning they can get your book onto bookstores’ shelves (at least for a limited time) more easily than you can through other publishing options. This is no guarantee of success, especially as more sales are going online. You’re likely to make more sales than through other methods, although not necessarily more profit.
• Marketing. All big traditional publishers, and some small ones, have in-house marketing and publicity teams who provide authors with professional support to raise their media profile.
• Focus. A traditional publisher manages the project of getting your book published, allowing you to concentrate on your main job, whether that’s running your business or writing your next book.
• Risk aversion. Using a traditional publisher means you don’t have to spend money to get your book published – although many authors pay to have their book professionally edited before submitting it to publishers or agents.

Cons of traditional publishing

• Loss of freedom. A traditional publisher will ensure your book fits their brand, and they’ll have their own ideas about things like the book cover, the title, the ways it’s marketed and even the content. If you’re paid an advance, you may have to return it if you don’t meet certain conditions, such as deadlines.
• Loss of control. Depending on your contract with a traditional publisher, they might have the final say on how you use content from your book, the marketing campaigns you can run, and even whether you can write another book via another publisher or self-publishing.
• Loss of ownership. Many large publishers will stipulate that they own the rights to your work in other languages, territories and formats. Again, it depends on your contract - be careful what you’re signing, and ensure you know your rights.
• Lack of marketing. Authors are expected to do more and more work themselves to promote themselves and their books. Many publishers prefer an author to have a big social media following, to give talks and workshops where books can be sold, and maybe even to have their own marketing plan for their book which the publisher will want to sign off on.
• Loss of profit. Royalty rates are generally much lower than in self-publishing: as the publisher has taken all the financial risk to get your book published, you will be paid only around 8% to 10% of the proceeds from your book. If you’ve used an agent, which is often the only way to get your book to a big publisher, you will have to give 10% to 15% of your income to them.
• Lack of speed. Many publishers are large organisations, which means it can take a long time to get anything done due to bureaucracy, set processes and often even internal politics. It typically takes at least a year from delivering your manuscript for your book to be on the shelves – and that’s after all the time you’ve spent finding a literary agent, then finding a publisher and negotiating a contract.
• Loss of time and opportunity. In any business, there’s an opportunity cost to anything that takes up a lot of time. Who knows how many opportunities you may miss while going through the process above?
• Expensive author copies. As an entrepreneurial author, you may want to sell your book at events, or even give it away to build leads and relationships. This doesn’t work with the business model of traditional publishers: their aim is to maximise profit on books sold, so you can only expect a small discount on your author copies, even if you’re ordering thousands.

DIY self-publishing explained

Opting for the self-publishing route means managing the entire process of producing, marketing, and distributing your work yourself, without involving a traditional publishing house. That means paying much more of the upfront costs associated with publishing a book, but as a result it means earning more of the sales revenue. This has become much more common in the last 15 years or so due to the increase in online book sales and the availability of self-publishing platforms like Amazon KDP and IngramSpark.

Pros of self-publishing

• Freedom, control, and ownership. Your book is your own, and no publisher can tell you what they want in it, how it should look, where it should be positioned, and how much you should charge for it.
• Maximum profit. You’ve put all the work and financial risk into getting your book published, so you’ll get 100% of your profit from sales.
• Time and opportunity. You are working to your own timescales, not a publisher’s or agent’s. Getting your book planned, written, and published can take as much or as little time as you choose.
• Low risk. You can choose how much or how little money (and/or time) you want to invest on editing, cover design, interior design and typesetting, proofreading, converting to e-book format, distributing, and printing copies.

Cons of self-publishing

• Less kudos. In some areas, there is still lower status associated with a self-published book, especially if your book’s content and/or production values seem amateurish. A badly written or badly presented book is likely to do your reputation more harm than good.
• Distribution. You’re unlikely to be able to get your book into mainstream bookshops as a self-published author.
• Technical know-how. There’s a lot to learn when you’re self-publishing: buying ISBNs, choosing POD or print-then-sell approaches, billing and accounting, not to mention creative skills (see below).
• Hidden costs. Particularly if you want to print physical books – which most business authors do – there are a lot of skills involved in making a book look professional, from editing to typesetting to cover design, and you’ll almost certainly need to pay someone to do that.
• Project management. Although you can hire someone to do the tasks listed above, you’ll still have to manage the project, unless you hire someone to do that too. It’s a lot of work!
• Lack of marketing support. As we said above, all publishing methods involve a lot of marketing and promotion work on the part of the author – but with self-publishing, you’re 100% on your own.
• Post-publication hassle. You’ll be responsible for sending invoices and chasing payments, sending books for legal deposit (which is a legal requirement in the UK and some other countries), shipping your books to distributors or directly to customers, dealing with insurance, collating royalty information for tax purposes and much more.

An alternative publishing route: hybrid publishing

Something you might not have considered is hybrid publishing. This combines elements of both traditional and self-publishing: a hybrid publisher provides the same full service to the same high standard of a traditional publisher to produce your book.

In this model, authors pay upfront fees (or by instalment) for professional editing, design, publication and distribution. As a result, they’ll retain a higher percentage of royalties than in traditional publishing.

The hybrid publisher’s distribution network is broader than anything an individual self-publishing author has access to. As experienced publishers at Rethink Press, hybrid publishing is our recommended model because it allows the author to benefit from the credibility, quality, and logistical support of a professional publisher, and the creative control and profit potential more usually associated with self-publishing.

However, the publishing world is rife with scammers and disreputable publishers: it’s essential to know what you’re looking for to ensure you partner with a hybrid publisher that delivers what they promise.

Pros of hybrid publishing

• Freedom, control and ownership. Your book is your own, and a reputable hybrid publisher will work with you on content, design and positioning – not to change the book to suit them, but to help you publish the book you want.
• Professional, high-quality production. A hybrid publisher will have experienced editors, designers and typesetters to give your book a professional look and feel, without you having to source these contributors yourself.
• Project management. The hybrid publisher will do the time-consuming and intensive task of managing the professionals listed above, as well as handling royalties and post-publication admin. That means you’ll be free to do the work only you can do, whether that’s marketing the book, working on your core business or writing your next book.
• A real publisher. Your book will be produced and branded by a real publishing company, with all the benefits that brings in terms of distribution and credibility.
• High royalties and fixed costs. Your hybrid publisher should be paying you much higher royalties than you’d get from a traditional publisher. For example, at Rethink Press we pay authors a royalty of 60% of net income on retail sales. What’s more, all professional hybrid publishers will tell you exactly what the cost of your publishing package is before starting work, and will allow you to pay in reasonable instalments.
• Easy access to stock. A good hybrid publisher will be transparent about the cost of ordering author copies to sell direct, and usually enable you to order very small or very large quantities at a decent price.

Cons of hybrid publishing

• Financial risk. With a hybrid publisher you will always have to pay some upfront costs to get published. A good hybrid publisher will help you create a book that will easily return your investment.
• Lack of marketing. Some hybrid publishers offer PR and marketing support at a cost, but otherwise, as with self-publishing, marketing and promotion is your job.
• Distribution. Your book may be listed with the wholesalers from whom physical bookstores order stock, but it’s unlikely to end up on physical bookstores’ shelves unless a supportive store or customer orders it.
• Predators. Watch out: there are ‘self-publishing’ companies out there who take money from first-time authors and deliver poor services in return, often up-selling additional services which offer low or no value. Do your research into any hybrid publishing company before you sign or pay anything.

Traditional vs self-publishing vs hybrid: Which one is right for you?

The best choice of publishing route depends on you, your book, and your business goals. For most entrepreneur authors, we’d always recommend hybrid publishing to avoid traditional publishing’s barriers and gatekeeping, and DIY self-publishing’s pitfalls in terms of professionalism and credibility.

Offering professional production and project management of a quality product alongside high royalties and access to author copies, hybrid publishing offers the best of both worlds.

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