Do you go with traditional, non-traditional, or REALLY non-traditional publishing?
For a long, long time, the only way to make any money as a fiction writer was to go the traditional publishing route.
Along the way, you could submit short stories to magazines, lifestyle sections of newspapers, and anything else that might help you land an agent and/or a contract from a publishing house.
This was the only way to earn money as a professional fiction writer for a long time.
Then, eBooks and ePublishing became a thing. Whole new avenues of possibilities were open. And you could still create more traditional paperbacks via self-publishing.
This has been both a boon and a negative. A boon because many authors who couldn’t get past the gatekeepers of traditional publishing gained an outlet. What’s more, you also get all the profit, rather than having to share it with your agent and/or publishing house.
It’s a negative because there are no gatekeepers. Anyone can publish anything, even if it’s factually bullshit. You can publish without editing and you can publish utter garbage. Once, I was hired to record audiobook versions of some truly awful, poorly edited books that may or may not have been badly translated to English and/or plagiarized in some way.
Because of this, nontraditional self-publishing puts you in a pool with a wide variety of both amazing and abysmal writing, stories, and so on.
And now there’s some really non-traditional publishing options coming up. These revolve around web3 and the Metaverse.
There are reasons both for and against each option. Knowing – as GI Joe cartoons of my childhood told me – is half the battle.
The traditional route
There are usually two ways to publish traditionally.
The first is to get a literary agent. All the big authors out there, whatever the genre, have an agent.
Literary agents are super picky about with who they’ll work. They are, as such, the first gatekeeper to getting anything fiction that you write published.
When you land a literary agent, they become your first cheerleader, as well as the contact to get past the gatekeepers of the publishing houses. Your agent has this power because they have pre-vetted you and your work and are trusted by the publishers to only bring them viable and good works of fiction.
But – that’s no guarantee. I had an agent for 2 years – and for lots of reasons, he was unable to get my work through to a publishing house.
This brings me to the second way to publish traditionally. Submit a query – or whatever a publisher asks for – when they’re open to submissions.
From time to time, a publisher will have a call for open submissions. When they do – you have carte blanche to send your work to them.
But – you must follow their guidelines to the letter to even get considered. And – some inexplicable combination of timing, luck, alignment of the moon and stars, and other unknowns to get in the door.
Traditional publishing is not for the faint of heart. You will be rejected. A lot.
And there is something to be said for non-traditional publishing today.
Non-traditional publishing
Let’s start with the best-known and largest option – Amazon.
Via their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), you can publish an eBook, paperback, or hardcover to Amazon. You can do the formatting, insert a cover, and decide on pricing based on print-on-demand and eBook upload/download costs.
Amazon is not the only option. Barnes and Noble is another. There is software you can download for eBook formatting and publishing, websites for eBooks you can publish to, and other small print-on-demand presses available for non-traditional self-publishing.
The biggest positive to this is all profit made is yours. You don’t have to share with the publishing house or an agent.
The biggest negative, however, is that you must pay for everything. And if you want to be on the amazing end of self-published authors, rather than the abysmal end, there are costs involved.
The biggest of these is editing. You cannot be your own editor. Yes, you can and should edit your work when finished. But then, it should be sent out for proofreading, and at least basic content, grammar, and like edits. This can run in the neighborhood of $300 for around 50,000 words (and considerably more, depending on numerous factors.)
If you are not an artist or graphic artist, then you’ll need cover art, too. One of the biggest lies out there is that “nobody judges a book by its cover.” Not true. People totally judge your book by its cover. So, if your cover is crap – you’re not at all likely to entice readers to buy your book. This can cost in the same neighborhood as your editing (and likely more).
But if you can do the work, you can potentially generate good income with non-traditional publishing.
Now there is a new, still developing option.
REALLY non-traditional publishing
You may or may not be aware of Web3 and the Metaverse.
Web3 is, for many, the direction the internet is presently heading. But what is it? The best explanation I can offer you looks like this:
Web1 was the internet at its inception, a source of knowledge and information for anyone and everyone. Web 1 was in the hands of the many.
Web2 is the internet today. Controlled by corporations, full of gatekeepers doing both good and bad things to maintain control and limited as such. Web2 is in the hands of a few.
Web3 is decentralizing the internet as it is now, putting the power back in the hands of the many. Opportunities for creatives to come together and share a new virtual landscape (welcome to the Metaverse). Web3 will be back in the hands of the many.
With the Metaverse, there are new means to get online and earn money (including crypto and NFTs) available to a wider audience. Publishing books in the Metaverse is not outside the realm of possibility. But it’s still being worked out – and fighting existing Web2 entities trying to maintain control like Facebook (i.e. Meta) and Twitter.
Web3 will probably be where the next social media app will come from. Likewise, new options for writers and publishing that give you increased agency and profitability might be here, too.
But it’s a big gamble – because it’s full of lots and lots of unknowns. You can just as easily go bust as break big. But if you like a challenge, you could potentially be part of the next online revolution.
Different people, different options
If you have a story to tell, and you’re looking to publish, there are lots of options available. Only you can know what’s best and most right for you.
But if you’re a storyteller like me – it’s great to know that there are numerous options available.
You do you and keep creating what you’re moved to create – and share it however best befits you.
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