From Self-Published to Traditionally Published?

It's a shame people have no patience today. They want it all and they want it now and that's just not how it works.

 

I can certainly write at that pace. I usually take about four days to get to first draft of a 10K word short story, then spend months polishing it because my writing skills aren't what they should be. Shortening the draft period isn't the difficult part, it's honing my writing skills so I don't need the lengthy revision period. Also, having three weeks to write continuously would be nice. Unless my wife left me somewhere along the way, which wouldn't be nice at all. :|

 

@JDRay - late reply, sorry, just saw the question (I pop by social media and forums maybe once a month, pretty busy these days).

I have been investing in attending lectures with publishers for a couple of years now, and this question does come up in the Q&As a lot.

The overwhelming answer is that trad publishers will probably not want to pick up a self published title *even if it has done very well* for a couple of reasons.

1. most books do well at launch, and sales after that decline over time. the future prospects for an old title are diminishing at best

2. for reasons i have never fully understood, publishers seem to want to sign new authors rather than established authors. something to do with it's easier to get behind an exciting breakout author. (reference: [https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-issues-report-exploring-the-factors-leading-to-the-decline-of-the-writing-profession/])



I want to address one of the points directed against traditional publishing, which is the belief that their role is reduced to getting dead tree copies in brick and mortar stores. This is only half true. Their salespeople are pitching to the chains as a whole, which means their online stores too. I had a friend who was confused about this, frustrated that only 2% of his sales were from bookstores.

However, I pointed out that almost all his ebooks were sold through the same chain's proprietary tablets (Kobos - he was selling through Chapters/Indgo, we're in Canada). Which meant that almost all his sales were through the publisher's channel after all. Plus, they paid for the boosts within the recommendation engine - readers of books similar to his were pitched his titles right in the Kobo at the publisher's expense, he didn't have to pay a nickel.

You get a smaller cut through a publisher (10% ish) but if the volume is larger, and your promotional costs are lower, the net revenues in your bank account could end up higher. Not to mention time. If they're doing the monkeywork, we have more time for writing the next book or personal brand promotion.

I can't say what works best for any author, and I'm personally undecided about my future marketing strategy, but I do want to clear up misunderstandings, as they can be pretty career impacting.