Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: Which is Right for You?

If you’re interested in publishing a book, there are two routes you could pursue: self-publishing or traditional publishing.

With traditional publishing, a publishing house takes over your book's rights and oversees the whole process — from editing to distribution — while providing you with a share of the royalties. Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows you to retain all rights and earnings but requires you to manage everything and sell the book yourself.

Each comes with its benefits and drawbacks, so which should you choose? In this post, we look at some pros and cons of self-publishing and traditional publishing and help you decide which path is right for you. 

Should you self-publish or traditionally publish?

Self-publishing has experienced a boom in recent years, and it's no wonder. It lowers many of the barriers traditional publishing puts up and allows anyone to put their book out into the world. But that doesn't mean it's the best choice for every author. 

The table below breaks down who self-publishing would work best for and where you might want to look into traditional publishing. 

You should self-publish if you:	You should traditionally publish if you:
Can manage non-writing tasks like editing or marketing on your own (or by hiring freelancers to help you)	Prefer publishing professionals to manage formatting, cover design, marketing, etc., so you can solely focus on writing
Want full creative control over every aspect of your book	Can accept relinquishing creative control over the book’s contents or look
Prefer 35%–70% royalties on ebooks and 40%–60% on prints, but no advance	Prefer an advance (typically $5k–$10k), as well as 25% royalties on ebooks and 5%–15% on print books
Want to retain publishing rights across all channels and mediums	Can accept potentially giving up subsidiary and foreign rights
Want to be 100% sure your book is published	Can tolerate potentially multiple rejections from agents and publishers
Want to choose the publication and launch date	Can wait for your publisher to find a spot for your book in their seasonal calendar
Can crowdfund or invest your own money into this project	Prefer not to crowdfund or invest your own money into this project
Favor sales from online retailers as opposed to bookstores	Dream of seeing your books in bookstores
Don’t have a large following to leverage for marketing purposes	Are a celebrity or influencer with a good following you can market your book to
Aren’t interested in submitting your book to literary prizes	Care about literary prestige and prizes

Overall, if you're an author with an entrepreneurial spirit, ready to invest both time and resources into every facet of publishing — from writing and editing to marketing — self-publishing is your ideal route. The success of your book will rest largely on your shoulders, offering you greater control and the opportunity for higher earnings. 

On the other hand, if you are averse to investing in your book upfront and value the structured support and recognition that come with a traditional publishing house, despite the trade-offs on creative freedom and future financial returns, then traditional publishing might be the better fit for you. 

Let’s take a deeper look at the pros and cons of both self-publishing and traditional publishing. 

5 great reasons to self-publish

Being a self-published author means that you’re in charge of the production process — which comes with the following advantages: 

1. You retain full creative control

Going down the traditional publishing route, you’ll have to consider the opinions of many professionals from various departments. You often won't have much say over parts of the process involving market research and technical knowledge, like designing the book cover or creating marketing material. 

By contrast, self-publishing allows you to be involved in every aspect of the book’s production. You should work with and take in the feedback of expert editors and designers who understand your genre and target market, but they’ll work towards realizing your vision and no one else’s. At the end of the day, you get to make the final call over everything, from the book's contents and blurb to its cover.

2. You’re 100% guaranteed to be published

Traditionally published authors are subject to the tastes and whims of gatekeepers. Before they can even get their book into a publishing house, they need to find an agent. Then, the publishing house must accept their manuscript, submitted by said agent. In both stages, authors compete with thousands of other writers who also dream of a publishing deal. 

For this reason, many authors may wait months, if not years, before they see their books published — if they succeed at all. Certain genres, like poetry and short story collections, are tough to publish traditionally as most publishers don't see their market appeal, especially when they come from debut authors. 

However, with self-publishing, there's no question as to whether your book will be published since no one can tell you "no." From poets like Rupi Kaur to novelists like Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice (which was adapted into an award-winning film), many authors have gone through the submission-rejection cycle and decided that it’s better to take matters into their own hands. 

3. You can publish your book more quickly

A big part of a book deal is having a team of professional editors, designers, and marketers working on your book, making it a top-notch title. Although this is great, a collaboration of this scale can be frustrating and time-consuming, with many emails sent back and forth between you, your agent, and the in-house professionals.

More importantly, a small publishing house works on at least a handful of titles a year, and bigger ones work on hundreds of them. Your book must be fitted into their wider publication and marketing schedule, meaning you’ll likely have to wait longer than a year before your work is published. 

On the other hand, if you choose to self-publish, the timeline only depends on how quickly you and the professionals you hire to edit, design, and market your book can get things done. Communication between each party is much simpler and more efficient this way. And the sooner you finish, the earlier you get to publish!  

4. You keep more of the royalties

An obvious pro of self-publishing is the royalty rate. Traditional publishers tend to give 5%–25% of the book’s selling price after an advance (usually, several thousand dollars paid once a manuscript is acquired) has been accounted for. This rate also varies based on the format: hardcovers have a higher author royalty rate than paperbacks, though they’re expected to sell fewer copies in general.

On the other hand, self-published authors often get 50%–70% royalties, depending on book format and the printing or distribution platform they use. Which is only fair, considering that they’re doing all the heavy lifting! 

5. You retain future publication rights

One other important thing to know about self-publishing is that you get to keep the right to publish your book in all formats. When a publishing house acquires a manuscript, they’re essentially buying the rights to publish that manuscript. These may include:

• primary publication rights (being the first to publish a book in the market);
• subsidiary rights (to publish the book in other formats, like audiobook or film); and
• foreign rights. 

While most big publishers with hefty bargaining powers will want at least some subsidiary rights, good literary agents will advise that you give up as little of these rights as possible. You can sell these rights to other, more suitable publishers and studios yourself if you want to publish in different formats and markets. 

If you self-publish, you won’t have to worry about signing away any of these rights. Once the opportunity comes (as it did for Andy Weir’s The Martian audiobook), you can sell subsidiary rights to the highest bidder and earn more for your own hard work and creativity. 

But, to quote Spider-Man's wise uncle, with great power comes great responsibility, and that takes us to the cons of self-publishing — or rather, the pros of traditional publishing.

4 reasons to publish traditionally 

Here are some of the things that traditional publishing offers that you simply can’t get with self-publishing:

1. You won’t have to pay for production

The book market is a big and busy one, meaning that to make the best decisions regarding content, design, and marketing strategies, you need to have an experienced team working with you. Experienced professionals will expect fair payment for their expertise — and as an indie author, you will have to foot that bill. 

As opposed to bearing the production costs, traditionally published authors aren’t required to pay anything. The publisher will take on the financial responsibility of editing, designing, producing, and marketing your book — in fact, they’ll pay you an advance on the royalties (usually $5k–$10k). This advance usually indicates how well they think your book will sell. The advance also depends on the publisher’s size, the competitiveness of your genre, and your existing author platform, among other things. 

All that said, what’s most important to remember here is that when working with a publisher, you don’t have to shoulder the financial responsibility by yourself, unlike with self-publishing. 

❗ Beware: If a publisher asks you to pay, it is probably a vanity press.

2. You’ll have more mainstream exposure

This benefit comes with a caveat — it can be effective depending on your target audience and whether they’re part of the mainstream audience. 

If you’re not writing in niche sub-genres like science fiction romance or techno-thriller, you can benefit from a publisher’s more expansive reach. Publishers have both the budget and the connections with bookstores, online reviewers, and media outlets to get your book in front of more people than you typically would on your own. 

The specifics of what a publisher would do for your book also depend on their priorities. Typically, the big marketing guns (special edition designs, submission to book boxes, pop-up stalls, etc.) are reserved for lead titles — books that the publisher thinks will likely become hits. Whether your book comes close to being a lead title depends on how it appeals to the market: having a great authorial reputation can be a plus. However, factors like your book compatibility with recent reading trends matter a lot, too.

In other words, it’s not guaranteed that mainstream exposure is what your specific book needs. If you’ve identified that you’re on par with recent trends, traditional publishing can give you a big boost. But targeted marketing to a readership that is loyal to your subgenre — and who is likely to grow loyal to you personally — can be just as effective in many cases. 

3. You can access prestigious awards

This is the only area where it’s virtually impossible to compete as a self-publishing author. Sadly, prestigious literary prizes and respected lists tend to reject independently published works. 

While an award is always great recognition, remember that it might not matter so much whether your historical romance is a Pulitzer Prize winner or not! There are also tons of worthy indie prizes, including the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award, and Independent Publisher Book Awards. You won’t be excluded from the Best Seller list on Amazon either, which arguably has more sway over readers than the New York Times Best Seller list.

4. You can solely focus on writing

A self-published author isn’t just a writer. They’re also a marketer, designer, and production team. While total creative control is a big benefit of self-publishing, it also comes with its downsides. Mainly, since you’re in charge of everything, you’ll have to split your time between writing your story and arranging the actual publication process. 

The entire job of a traditional publisher is to take your book and package it in a way that is appealing to readers. They’ll take care of all the details surrounding interior design and editing, which will leave you with all the time you need to craft the best story possible. 

If you want to traditionally publish, our publishers directory is a great resource to help you compile a list of places to submit to.

If you’ve decided that self-publishing is more for you, that’s great, too! It’s an increasingly viable and personally satisfying option for many authors — you can get plenty of support from the indie community and dedicated professionals when you go down this path.

For the next part of this guide, we'll get down to brass tacks and show you how much it costs to self-publish a book to a professional standard.