Many people ask me the difference in self publishing, vanity Publishing and traditional publishing and the pros and cons of using them.

We will start with True self publishing.

True self publishing is where the author does everything themselves, they do the proofreading/ editing, layout of the book and design, organise the ISBN, barcode, listing with the National Library, getting the CiP from the NL, doing the legal deposit, plus responsibility for all printing, marketing and promotion of the book.

The pros. For this method the author has 100% control over their book, the book is in their name as publisher. They can market the book where ever they like and retain all proceeds from sales.
Many non-profit writers groups tell authors this is what they should do.

The Cons. Contrary to popular belief this is not free to do, and can in fact cost many thousands of dollars. Unless you have great English skills, have a knowledge in using book building platforms (books are not build in MS Word), you will end up with a below standard book that will go nowhere.

90% of Publishers and Agents will not deal with individual authors; bookshops will not take books from self published authors, with the exception of some local shops. Many other book selling platforms on and off-line will also not deal with authors directly.

Of course you can shop around and find people with the skills you don’t have, but this costs.
Proofreading can cost 2 to 5 cents a word; book design can cost $1500, cover design $600 to $700 to do, plus the ISBN, barcode and the time to figure all this out etc. Then the marketing costs, plus where do you market to?
Where do you get your book printed at a competitive price that allows you to compete with books in the book shop?

Vanity Publishers. Vanity publishers are companies who will normally over charge for their services as they pray on the author who is desperate to get their book out. You will normally find them on Google Adwords, those little ads on the right hand side of your computer screen.

Pros. Most vanity publishers will product a reasonable book, do all the library listings you need and save you heaps of time. Get you printed copies of your book and can list to Amazon and some book selling sites.

Cons. Vanity publishers are more interested in taking your money than producing and marketing your book. They over charge outrageously for what they supply, they promise the world and deliver very little.

They overload your retail selling price of the book so they can tell you your royalties are X amount and this looks really good to the author. The problem being that your book will not be competitive against a similar book selling in a shop. Why would anyone buy a book at say, $29.95 when a similar book in a shop sells for $19.95? They will not, so you sell nothing.

They have ridiculous book printing options, like buy 100 books and get 10% off the retail price, buy 300 books and get 25% off retail, buy 500 books and get 40% off retail. Now, if you are lucky enough to find marketing outlets like a bookshop on or off-line, how can you supply them? Shops take 40% to 45% commission for selling books and if you are only getting 40% off, then the maths speaks for itself.
But the biggest thing is they keep the copyright to the cover and layout design of the book. They do not supply the high resolution files and if they do will charge you for them.

Without the high res files you are stuck buying over priced books from them and you can’t print anywhere else. You can’t print an up to standard book from a low res file they give the author.

Traditional publishing: is where a publishing house takes your manuscript and does everything for the production of the book. They pay an advance and then a royalty to the author.
Pros. This is what most authors look for as it seems they have to do nothing but write their book. The publisher handles everything from design to getting the book in the shops. Sounds good?
Cons. The author signs away all rights to their book. The publisher can and does change whatever they like with the book. It can take 12 to 18 months to publish the book and it is at the total discretion of the publisher. They control world rights including print and eBooks. Publishers will only do 1 week book promotion for the book in most cases, unless you are a well-known author.

The author must do promotions them selves after this free and on their own time if they want the book to sell.
85% of all authors never get more royalties after the advance. To get more royalties the advance is paid back first which rarely happens. The advance payment can be $1500 to $2500 for the unknown author with an 8% net royalty roughly 50cents a book. This 50cents is applied to the advance first to pay it back to the publisher. Workout how many books have to be sold at 50cents before you get a royalty payment?
Contrary to what most authors think a traditional publisher is not there to make the author feel nice and warm inside because they have printed their book. The publishing industry is all about making money for the publisher, not the author. It is the same as any industry and all about profits.
Also nowadays it is extremely hard for an unknown author to have their book picked up by a publisher unless you are famous.

The large publishing houses are now applying a global method as it gets harder for them to maintain their previous profit margins. This means they would prefer to publish a second rate book by a known author that the best book ever written by an unknown author. It is all about return on investment, they don’t have to spend much on advertising a known author who has a following. But they have to spend lots on an unknown author just to get them known.

The advent of the Internet and the eBook has certainly levelled the playing field for the unknown author, who with the correct knowledge can more than compete with the big publishers. Just look at E.L. James, 50 Shades of Grey fame, she was knocked back by every publisher on the planet, so instead of giving up, did it herself by using the Net. The results were the big publishers banging on her door cheque books in hand, waving 6 figures at her for the rights to the books.

But there is another way for authors to get published and to cover their costs, it is called Cooperative Self Publishing. Sure it does costs money, but what doesn’t? The difference is the author keeps 100% copyright to their whole book, all the fiddly stuff that authors don’t want to do is done for them: including producing a book that is to international publishing standard. Also marketing and promotion is available to real outlets, not pie in the sky ones. Books are printed at a cost that lets the author become competitive even with the big publishers for shop sales, if they wish.
Also the author with the ability to push their own barrow can recoup all costs of production in a few weeks, using the correct marketing methods.

Basically it is up to the individual authors to self publish all by themselves and lose 80% of their marketing avenues and still cost big dollars.
Pay through the nose to the Vanity publishers for nothing and lose their copyright.
Keep banging their heads against the traditional publishers door for the very small chance of being picked up and be paid the handsome sum of 50cents a book?

Or use the tried and true method of Cooperative Self Publishing where you control your own destiny, control 100% copyright and the chance to cover all your costs and make a big profit with the correct marketing.
Plus Cooperative Self Publishing allows the author to use both Self Publishing and access to Traditional publishers for translation rights and publishing in other countries, where you don’t have to give away your whole world rights to the book.