As a young woman who has had aspirations of being a published author since…well, probably since I was in the womb, the current shift toward a digital market for books is rather interesting. I’ve always considered success as a writer as having a hard back copy of your first novel, but I’m starting to realize that there are other outlets for writing. One of them is digital publishing.
During my search for some clarification about the differences between traditional and online publishing, I stumbled across a rather useful article on TopTen Reviews: Publishing: Traditional vs. Online (clever title, no?). And inside it, I found some rather interesting facts.
Aside from differences in royalties (individual authors make more with online publishing), retention of rights (your book is actually your book), and time it takes to get published (it apparently doesn’t take the grueling two years traditional publishing houses take to print a book), the entire set up of online publishing seems more streamlined and efficient. Copies of books are printed as they are needed (determined by consumer demand), and authors don’t have to fret about any monumental changes being made to their work.
That being said, online publishing isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. According to Suite 101, writers can expect to make less money on their books since they aren’t paid an advance for their work, but rather receive royalties for every book ordered. Since the market for ebooks is still fairly small, writers also cannot expect to sell as many copies of their book and any desire for advertising and publicity rests on the author.
Honestly, I can’t really say which one is preferable. On the one hand, I like the security of maintaining the rights for my work and the certainty that it won’t be muddled about with. On the other hand, the knowledge that my words would have a wider audience and the ease of not having to worry about advertising suits me just as well. It’s a tossup at the present. We’ll have to see what changes happen in the market and the publishing industry in the coming years.
Good job with the comparison in this post. Internet publishing is a very new thing, and I have a feeling it's going to dramatically change the book industry, because now authors don't have to go to publishers to be "published". I liked how you pointed out that although individually authors make more through online publishing (because there's no royalty percentage as with a publisher), they only get paid when books are ordered, instead of right up front. I think the hardest part would be marketing the book without a publishing company to do it for me. Anyhow, great post! It was very insightful.
ReplyDeleteI have never really thought of online publishing at all, but after reading your blog I began to think that it is an up and coming market. However both tradition publishing and online publishing seem to both have pros and cons. It seems like a better deal to do online publishing, but the market has not really picked up yet.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting topic that I can only imagine will only become more prevalent as the online market continues to grow and evolve. I wonder though how many authors really are choosing online relative to traditional, I feel like that would be an interesting question to pursue.
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