Four Ways to Get Your Book Published
If you’re a new author ready to venture out into the world with a just-completed novel, congratulations! It’s a big accomplishment. Only a tiny percentage of people who start writing a book ever finish it.
Now you’re about to face a new challenge: a crowded marketplace with over four million new books coming out this year alone, adding to the thirty million already on the virtual shelves.
You’ve probably seen scores of posts on social media from self-published authors trying to break through the background noise. Self-publishing is doable but challenging, and isn’t the only way to get your book out there. In this article, we’ll look at your options.
Your choices, and some expectation-setting
There are four main ways to get a novel published:
A large publisher. At the top of the publishing heap are the “Big 5”: Random House, Simon & Shuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan. Other notable large publishers include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and John Wiley.
Self-publishing, either digital-only or through a print-on-demand service such as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
An independent publisher. This category includes small, royalty-based (i.e., no-fee) presses such as Lake Eerie Books and fee-based publishers like BookBaby and Blurb.
Serialization of your story on a site such as Wattpad or Radish Fiction.
You may be thinking, “I’ll try to get an agent, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll look at other options,” in which case you’d be in good company. Each year, thousands of authors start their publishing journey by sending out query letters. There is no reason not to. You have nothing to lose by querying agents, and the payoff can be substantial.
That said, it’s estimated that less than two percent of agent queries lead to a positive response. And a positive response does not mean you’ve landed an agent. It just means the agent has asked to see more of your manuscript than the few pages or chapters you were allowed to send in with your query letter.
No one knows what percentage of initial positive responses eventually result in a book contract, but the data on QueryTracker.com suggests that it’s way below five percent. Let’s be generous and go with five percent.
So on average, an agent who gets 1,000 query letters might ask twenty authors to send more chapters, and eventually offer to represent one of them.
Hope springs eternal, but it’s tough out there.
Of course, if you have the right book at the right time, and send it to the right agent with the right query letter, your odds could be much better than one in a thousand. That’s why it is important not to dismiss traditional publishing out of hand.
Large publishers
There’s no denying the prestige that comes with a large publisher, and especially a Big 5 publisher. Every author would like a book with “Random House” on the spine.
Large publishing houses have the most clout and will get your book into the most stores and distribution channels. Your book will be well-designed and well-edited. You’ll get an advance (although these have been in decline for years and are rarely life-changing).
The main challenge is getting an agent, since most large publishers don’t accept direct submissions. As noted, agents are picky. Some won’t even consider a new author who lacks a strong social media presence.
Another issue is that a large publisher may not do much to promote your book. Years ago, even newer, less established authors got to crisscross the country on publisher-sponsored promotional book tours, but those days are gone with the wind. You’ll probably have to do the same marketing and self-promotion as if you’d self-published.
A large publisher may own the rights to your book for years, and you will have little or no say in its design. Large publishers move slowly and are not known for flexibility. It can take a couple of years for your book to appear in a bookstore and six to twelve more months before you receive your first royalty check.
Finally, large publishers provide impressive services, but those aren’t free. Author royalties are usually ten percent of a book’s list price; the rest of the proceeds go into production costs, shipping, marketing, and the publisher’s profits. Your agent will then take a 15 percent cut of the royalties. You’ll have to sell a lot of books for the remaining 8.5 percent of book sales to add up to something substantial. Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn’t.
Self-publishing
As of 2022, self-published books account for over thirty percent of e-book sales. That is an incredible growth story, considering that this category barely existed before 2007.
Self-publishing can be a good option if you’re willing to put in the time and effort to do it right. You’ll have total creative control, will own all the rights to your work, and will keep up to 70 percent of your book’s sales revenue. You can also get a book to market much faster than a big publisher.
But you’ll also be responsible for every aspect of the publishing process, from editing, book cover design, and interior layout to distribution, marketing, and promotion. These are not small tasks and are not easy to learn on the fly. The difference between a professionally designed book cover and a DIY cover is usually apparent and can severely impact the sale of a self-published book.
“The good news about self-publishing is you get to do everything yourself. The bad news about self-publishing is you get to do everything yourself. —Lori Lesko
A big challenge of self-publishing is the extremely crowded market. Over 1.7 million self-published books will land on Amazon this year. Unless you’re already a successful author with a following, the odds of getting noticed are low. As a result, most self-published books sell fewer than 250 copies. Even books that are promoted aggressively across social media channels and at offline events tend to languish, due to the sheer number of books competing for readers’ attention.
Promotion can be costly. You can post for free on Facebook and Twitter to let people know you wrote a book, but as soon as you get into real promotion, costs add up quickly: an advertisement on Amazon or Bookbub here, a paid review by KirkusReviews.com or Publishers Weekly Boolife there. You can easily spend two or three times as much on promotion as you will ever earn in book sales.
Independent publishers
Independent publishers are a middle-ground between large publishers and self-publishing, offering some of the benefits of both.
Credible independent publishers offer similar services as larger publishers while being more accessible. They are more likely to take a chance on a new author, and you can submit your manuscript to one without an agent. At the same time, they have more expertise and experience than most self-published authors in editing, design, publishing, distribution, marketing, and promotion.
While independent publishers go by various (and too many) labels, the bottom line is that they are either no fee or “pay to play.” In other words, they either follow the model of larger publishers in investing their own money in a book’s success, or they charge fees to their authors to cover their costs and make a profit.
No fee: Small presses don’t charge fees, but also rarely pay advances. Otherwise, their services can look similar like a large publisher. Being smaller, they don’t take on as many projects, so while they can be more tolerant of books outside of mainstream boundaries—too long, too short, cross-genre, etc.—they are selective.
Pay to play: This category includes hybrid publishers, vanity presses, and assisted publishing. These are very different models, but the upshot is that you will be writing a check to get your book published.
(Here's a great link for learning about small publishers).
A hybrid publisher offers most or all of the services of a large publisher but on a cost-sharing (i.e., paid fee) basis. The cost can range from a few thousand dollars to much more. In return for taking on most or all of the financial risk, you’ll get a higher royalty percentage than you would with a large publisher. It goes without saying that you may or may not get a return on your investment -- hence "risk".
Vanity presses, like hybrid publishers, provide fee-based services, but have a reputation for high-pressure sales tactics and, sometimes, shoddy services. Some are scams and have rebranded themselves as “hybrids,” so you have to do your due diligence.
Assisted publishers are different than hybrids or vanity presses. These are (often) a form of self-publishing, in which you outsource tasks such as editing, design, and layout. Some assisted publishers also include publication, marketing, and promotion in their services portfolios, so depending on which company you go with, and how much you want to spend, this option can include anything from a bit of editing help on the front end to the comprehensive suite of services you'd get from a traditional publisher. This can be a good model for writers with more money than time on their hands.
As far as prestige goes, no small press or pay-to-play publisher has the clout and cache of the Big 5. However, this is often a moot point. Most authors would go with an agent and a large publisher if they could, but can’t get past all the layers of gatekeeping.
In the end, the choice for most new writers comes down to self-publishing vs. an independent publisher. Do you want to do all the work yourself, or have an experienced team do it for you? Many authors would like someone else to do the work. Independent publishers aren’t charities, though. As noted, hybrid, vanity, and assisted publishers charge hefty fees, and small non-fee presses usually pay a royalty rate of 40-50 percent. That’s much higher than the Big 5’s ten percent but less than the 70 percent you could earn if you did it yourself. There’s no free lunch.
Serialization
A final publishing model to consider is serial fiction, in which you publish your story a chapter or scene at a time.
This is a relatively new model for self-publishing on the Internet, but not a new approach. It was pioneered by Charles Dickens in 1837. He published The Pickwick Papers in serial form in a cheap weekly paper, opening up the floodgates for everyday people to read his work, since novels were, at the time, an expensive, upper-class pastime. Tarzan (1912), Dune (1965), and The Green Mile (1996) all started out in serial form.
Serial self-publishing on the Internet is still evolving. One thing that’s missing is a dominant site where the vast majority of serial fiction lands, a role that Amazon.com serves for whole books. Sites such as Wattpad, Radish, Leanpub, and Amazon’s Kindle Vella are vying for that coveted role, but the competition has left serialized authors unsure where to place their bets.
The economics of serial publishing are quite good; authors can expect to keep 70-80 percent of their sales. And serial publishing can be a good model for writers who enjoy incorporating reader feedback and suggestions as they develop an ongoing story.
Could publishing in serial form generate higher financial returns than self-publishing a whole book at once? Does it require more or less promotion than a self-published book, and how would that be done? These are some of the unknowns.
A potential obstacle is that good serial fiction is not just a novel chopped into bits and pieces; if you’ve already got a completed book, it may not lend itself to serialization. The best serial fiction is plot-forward, with great cliffhangers and hooks to end every installment—hooks are what keep readers coming back for more. Novels with a lot of backstory, character development, atmosphere, and other elements that take time to develop, may require a lot of revision to succeed in this format.
Finally, serial publishing may not be what you want for your novel. Publishing a story one chunk at a time is different than putting a book out there for the world to see. It isn’t for everyone.
Some concluding thoughts
So there you have it: the pros and cons of the four main publishing models. Which one you go with will depend on your goals, the nature of your book, whether an agent will take you on, and the amount of time, effort, and money you can put into it.
Since this post is on the Lake Eerie Books blog, it probably won’t be a surprise that we have a favorable view of small presses. With a small press, authors retain more control over their work and a much higher percentage of their earnings, while avoiding some of the challenges of self-publishing or having to pay fees to hybrid or vanity presses.
Ultimately, it comes down to finding the right strategy for your book and your needs. No two books or authors are alike, and there is more than one way to be successful. Let us know if you have any thoughts or questions in the comments.