What do tradpubs do…and can you do it?
When I did a recent analysis of the top fifty bestsellers in the USA Kindle store, 22 of them (44%) weren’t from the big traditional publishers (tradpubs).
That’s an astonishing number…six years ago, pre-Kindle (although e-books were around, they weren’t having much of an impact on sales), it was very hard for a book to be a bestseller without going through one of the big tradpubs.
Unlike some people, I am not convinced that Random Penguin (as I like to call the proposed result of the merger of Random House and Penguin, even though they aren’t going to call it that) and the other publishers can’t survive and even thrive.
They do have to make changes, in order to adapt to the changes that the world has made…that’s the way for anything that wants to survive in any environment.
There is no reason for us, as authors, to want to duplicate what the tradpubs did to be successful in a world that increasingly no longer exists. The success of indies is due, in part, to being different and better suited for a new environment.
However, we are talking about institutions which have been doing business, in some cases, for more than a century. Adapting to digital delivery is a challenge, but so was adapting to the airplane. 
The question for you as an indie is what do the tradpubs do, can I do it without them, and yes, should I do it.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the things that tradpubs do for their authors, and what the alternatives might be. Many authors are still choosing to stay with tradpubs, and it’s likely not to all be just inertia.
Editing
- What it is: another person works with you on the actual content of the book. They recommend changes, tell you when you are being too wordy or not explaining things well enough, suggest keeping characters, dumping them, rearranging chapters, and so on
- The alternative: you can have your work read by friends, by a writing group of other authors, even by your readers through social media. You could hire a professional editor. You could edit the book yourself
- Should you do it? I think many brand name authors would tell you that their editors (and they may have worked with the same one for decades) have been an integral part of their commercial (and sometimes, artistic) success. When someone gets to be really big, it may be harder for an editor to challenge them, and that sometimes results in books that are called “bloated” or “self indulgent” (we see the same thing with movie directors). I think that editing will tend to produce a better book: you don’t have to take the editor’s suggestions if you feel they violate your artistic integrity, of course. My feeling is that books will benefit from editing, although it does appear to me that people are more tolerant of less tightly-written books than they used to be
Proofreading
- What it is: a proofreader goes over a book to correct errors (not to suggest content changes). Those are going to be spelling errors, grammatical errors, word substitutions, that sort of thing
- The alternative: you can have somebody else review your work, try electronic techniques like spell check, proofread it yourself (sometimes reading a book out loud or using text-to-speech can help you get a different perspective), or send it out with errors
- Should you do it? I am sure that more books with more errors are making money in the e-b00k era than did in the p-book (paperbook) era…perhaps this is the “Error Era”.
I do find errors in tradpub books, but I only find books absolutely riddled with errors which come from indies. I have also found the most exquisitely proofread books from indies. I’m a good proofreader (I’ve done it for other people), but I find it more difficult to go back and re-read my own work. I already know what it says, so I think my brain tends to skip ahead past the errors (it sees what I intended to say, not what I said). I can do it for myself, but it’s an effort. I have read books, though, where I wished the author had just given it to someone moderately literate to go over it first. I think it’s easier to find good amateur proofreading help than it is to find a good amateur editor. Great editors are as rare as great authors…probably quite a bit rarer. I would implore you to have your book competently proofread, but I think it’s hard for me to argue that it makes a big difference to your sales
Design
- What it is: the editor helped you write the book, the proofreader polished it free of errors, and now the design team will make it look good. Certainly, the cover is a large part of that: you can’t judge a book by its cover, the old saying goes, but you can sell a book with its cover;) It isn’t just a question of depicting what’s inside: a great cover artist also knows what the current trends are, and whether going with them or against them makes sense. What should the cover cover reveal, suggest, or conceal? Design also is layout, the way the words you wrote, the editor edited, and the proofreader corrected look. How should the chapter titles appear, for example? What font is right?
- The alternative: if you don’t provide a cover, a retailer like Amazon will do a generic one, but that doesn’t typically help your sales. Either you go without design, or you get somebody to do it (unless you can do it yourself). You may be able to find a public domain image for the cover, and that could help…but there might be other books with the exact same image
- Should you do it? You could have a friend who is a good artist do a cover, but do they understanding the marketing elements? Do they know what upcoming blockbuster books will have as a design? I’m sure my own books’ sales are hurt by my lack of design
Marketing
- What it is: marketing is representing your book in the market, and getting buyers interested in it. That could include things like print (or web) ads, but also things like book signings, getting the book reviewed, social media promotion, and arranging media appearances. This can all be getting into things based on the original book: movie deals, and in one of the increasingly lucrative areas, lecture tours. That could be handled by your agent, but a traditional publisher is definitely a contact point for someone looking to market things based on your book (including toys and t-shirts, if appropriate)
- The alternative: having the book not sell. A book can sell through word of mouth, but even that is marketing. You simply won’t get big sales numbers without some sort of promotion. That doesn’t mean that no one will buy it, but the numbers won’t cross into the general population. Power listens to power: you will have a very hard time getting booked on The View or getting a People Magazine mention if you are an unrepresented independent. The publishers have the ear of the bookers
- Should you do it? If you want to be a professional author than yes, promotion is part of that. I like to say that “old media sells paperbooks, new media sells e-books”, but that’s changing. The tradpubs are using more social media, and the old media are promoting more indies
Legal and administrative services
- What it is: all that non-writerly stuff: paying the taxes, getting the copyright filed, cease and desist letters for infringement, accounting
- The alternative: hire your own professionals, try and do it yourself, or roll the dice
- Should you do it? Copyright is automatic, but you don’t have the same ability to recover in court if you haven’t filed. Not paying proper taxes could land you in jail. What happens if somebody sues because they say a character is based on them, or they followed advice in your non-fiction book and got hurt? If you don’t have a tradpub, consider an insurance policy and some sort of legal entity for your publishing efforts
Advances
- What it is: tradpubs can pay an author royalties before the book has sold, to provide a person they think is a good bet with the necessary investment capital to get the book written. A brand name author can afford to write full time if there is constant money, even before the book is written:
- The alternative: one choice is to “keep your day job”. You write outside of whatever else you do to earn a living. You could also ask friends and family to stake you some money in some way…maybe your Significant Other works two jobs while you write. Another growing method is “crowd funding”. You go on a site like http://www.kickstarter.com/ and ask for money from the public. You give them something in return…it might just be updates on how the book is going at a certain low level, and maybe a personal phone call from you at a higher level. Even very well-known authors/artists are using crowd funding
Those are some of the main attractions to being with a tradpub. It’s important to note that not every author gets equal access to these services. Especially as a new, unproven author, you may not get much of this. They probably aren’t going to book you in as many places as they would book Stephen King, and you may not be able to get any advance at all.
So, what do you think, WG2Ers? If you’ve been traditionally published, what was best and worst about that? If you were and now you are an indie, what do you miss the most?
Recent posts in the I Love My Kindle blog which may be of particular interest to WG2E readers:
- Can you replace a desktop with a Kindle Fire?
- January 2013: Around the Kindle store
- Books, my Significant Other, and me
- Snapshot January 1 2013
- The Year Ahead: 2013
- The Year in E-Books 2012
- Eddiecoms #4: “I am gonna watch out for brussels”
- Baen comes to the Kindle store
- A Kindle Carol, part 1
- Should strangers get to know what you are reading?
Bufo Calvin is the author of the popular I Love My Kindle blog and several titles in the Kindle store, including the #1 bestseller Love Your 1st Generation Kindle Fire: The ILMK Guide to Amazon’s Entertablet, and the best-selling The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations. Bufo is proud to be a part of the WG2E family.
As a formerly traditionally author, I was highly appreciative of the line editors who went over my work, correcting grammar and contradictions and other errors, and I never objected when I picked up on things they had missed because it’s so hard to retain everything. I also appreciated being asked about how I envisioned the cover concept (which happened occasionally, but not every time). I never got much in the way of marketing, and my agent was (and is, although there’s really nothing for her to represent anymore) an attorney, and I would discuss with her whether I could take real-life incidents and place them in my books.
Now that I’m indie published, I *still* appreciate the hard work done by the line editors I hired. I *still* appreciate the cover designer I hired listening to my concept for my covers. As for legal services, it only takes me about ten minutes to file for copyright electronically by filling out the application and attaching the file. I *always,* even when receiving advances and royalties through the publisher via my agent, set aside 20% in a special savings account to be sent in on estimated tax filing days. As a novelist, I don’t give advice. My agent is still available to answer legal questions, although this is generally not necessary. As for advances and royalties, I’m perfectly content to be paid my earnings (less the cut the retailer takes) on a monthly basis 60 days later. This has actually been the biggest change between trad and indie publishing for me (along with the higher percentage of earnings)…and I’m fine with it!
Thanks for writing, Bettye!
I appreciate you sharing your experience! It sounds like you are pretty comfortable with being an indie.
I’ve not been trad pubbed before, although my first children’s book was print published. I had the editor, designer (although didn’t agree entirely with their choice) but I didn’t have the marketing. They gave me no idea how they were marketing it, and I felt I was doing it all. With indie publishing, you know that you have to do the marketing yourself. I hire an editor, who also proofreads, and a cover designer who works well with me on my YAs. For my romances I have a writer friend who edits for me and does the covers cos she signed an contract to do that for me when she was going to be an epublisher. She’s no longer a publisher but didn’t go back on her word with me. We are good friends.
All of what Bufo makes good sense to me, but here are some things to think about:
Most published authors, epub or tradpub, don’t make enough money to hire anyone. But, yes, the first hire should be a good editor.
Good editor? I’ve read tradpub books where the authors praise their editors, yet the books are full of grammar and word usage mistakes, not to mention huge plot holes. And there was the decades-long successful author who said that his tradpub gave him a new editor who started “correcting” the grammar in his characters’ dialog. And many editors do not proofread, and will not check your “facts” or research.
YOUare the one most responsible for your book. Learn to self-edit whether you have an editor or not. When you can afford and find a good editor, remember they will miss things, too.
The easiest part is letting a variety of people read your drafts, if you can find people willing to give you their time. Hear them say, “I don’t understand this part.” Usually it means, as Bufo says, you’re too close to your own work and are seeing in your head things that are not on the paper/screen for the reader. Thanks, Bufo.
Thanks, Bufo! I’ve been published by a small press and indie, and one thing a publisher did for me that I really appreciate is get print books into stores, saving me a bunch of time and energy. That being said, with fewer and fewer bookstores and more and more ereaders, there’s a challenge for publishers. I recently was at a conference where an agent said something to the effect of, “I know you all are wondering why you should go through an agent, and here’s the answer: so I can keep my job.” She said it as a joke, but not many of us writers were laughing!
Great post! I agree with all of your insights here. Right now, I’m loving the indie life, and hire out , in kind swap, or DIY all the things I need to make my work competitive. There are a few things that agents/publishers can do: connections outside the industry (film and foreign publishers) as well as still ruling the print channel. The thing that’s different now is that the advantages that publishers offer often truly only benefit authors that do extremely well; whereas indie offers a competitive advantage for new authors and midlist.
Thanks for an extremely level-headed look at the state of the industry!
I’ve noticed this is the time of the working author. Not just among Indies, but traditionally published too. A few of Rachelle Gardner’s post have included advice to not give up the day job just because you get a deal.
I’m about to publish my debut novel (1 March) and chose to use a publishing services provider to edit, proofread, design and set the book. And the cover they designed to my brief is beyond fabulous.
They are thoroughly professional and experienced have given me support through the entire process. With an excellent reputation in the UK small press world, they really are focused on books and authors. Obviously, I retain all rights and make all decisions; as it should be, of course!
No, I have not become Pollyanna, nor am I wearing rose-tinted glasses; I ran my own successful business for over fifteen years. I count myself as pretty cynical, but a consistently high standard in the publishing services I’ve used, a relationship built on trust and getting service far beyond what I paid for work for me.
I know my book will be a fabulous product. With their support, I’m hoping to sell a respectable number of books – ebooks and paperback. Oh, and they’ll distribute for me and I won’t lose 30% withholding tax, nor do I have to get an ITIN.
They’re not one of these horrid vanity presses – they are totally at my beck and call.
Enough of this – I’m off to write the next book.
Even the unknown, smallest author can now get foreign sales. Maybe not in paperback, but in ebook format. Sales they would have never gotten with a traditional publisher because they weren’t ‘big’ enough. Though I’m still trying to crack ‘Japan’ with a sale.
Thanks for writing, Pepper (love the name, by the way!)!
Yes, that’s true. When you publish with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, you get exposure in many countries. Not only does your book appear in the localized stores (Japan, UK, to name two), but people in other countries can commonly buy from Amazon.com (that doesn’t tend to be true in the Middle East, though).
One of the hardest things for me to decide when I knew I’d be indie publishing was how much to spend and what I should spend it on. Indie publishing cannot be a hobby for me. It has to be a business and, as a business, must show a profit within a reasonable timeframe.
I opened a business bank account and funded it with a set amount of money. I can’t cannibalize the income from my day job to support my writing addiction, so when this money is gone, the only source of funds for business expenses will be income from writing. If there’s no income, I’ll either stop self-publishing or learn to do everything myself the best I can.
I opted to use two people from my local chapter of Sisters in Crime to do a content edit in exchange for doing the same for them. For my first book, I thought it was mandatory that I hire a copyeditor, since I’d never worked with one and wasn’t aware of my own bad habits. Well worth the money. Proofreading I’ve done myself. I also hired a cover designer. Formatting I’m in the process of doing myself.
It would have cost me less money had I gone with a traditional publisher, but there’s no guarantee I could have found one who was interested in publishing my book. And, as many are fond of pointing out, I don’t want to wait years to see my books in print. I’m finding the whole process of learning to indie publish fascinating and exciting.
Fabulous post, Bufo, and thanks sooo much!
For me, after being represented by one of the Top 20 Publishers’ Marketplace Agents for three years with no TradiPub sale, it came down to one thing that my agent kept telling me: “it’s great that you’re building up your brand and following, but you’ve got to get a product out there.”
The TradiPubs couldn’t do and didn’t appear to want to do any of the things – editing, covers, formatting, marketing, etc. – for me that I needed to get a product out there. BUT…I certainly could hire them done and do the rest (the marketing) myself. So, that’s what I’ve done.
Over 100,000 sales (all in Ebooks, no print copies) and $100,000 later, and after just two and half years as an Indie Epublished Author, I now have not just one or two products out there, which is more than likely where I’d be if I’d finally gotten a TradiPub deal, I have going on 30 products (around 24 Ebooks and 3 Audio Books).
And I definitely, as a debut TradiPub Author wouldn’t have made the cash I’ve now made.
Bufo! You are boffo! But I’m sure you’ve heard that bad pun before, so I won’t say it.
I’ve tweeted and FB’d this blog. I think it’s so important for anyone who’s thinking of being an Indie to know what’s in front of them. I know so many authors who “just want to write” and “why do I have to do all of that”. And I must admit, I am one of those writers and I have to give myself a talking to about certain parts of becoming an indie author. You explain all of that very well.
Thanks,
Mitzi