Tags: hyder, Kabani, publishing, Shama

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Self Publishing Vs. Traditional Publishing”

1. Sue Collier says:

   July 6, 2010 at 1:17 pm

   Great interview, but I have to disagree with what you’ve said on many points. =)

   First, I want to point out that e-publishing and self-publishing are not interchangeable terms. Plenty of authors self-publish without e-publishing. Not to quibble about vernacular, but I just wanted that to be clear.

   I also don’t agree with the implication that being accepted by a traditional publisher is somehow giving your book a stamp of excellence. There is plenty of junk out there sitting on the bookstore shelves—all published by traditional publishers. Some of it is written by bestselling authors or celebrities—and the publishing companies know it will sell. To imply there is some rigorous high standard that always goes along with book publishing is untrue. It’s about money, pure and simple.

   Furthermore, it’s become tougher and tougher to get signed as publishing companies merge and decrease opportunities. Authors—especially those of nonfiction—who have a message to share with the world should share it. And if their books are done well (see the following paragraph), it can indeed boost their credibility.

   If you self-publish, you do not have to do it alone. In fact, I recommend authors not do it alone. You should have your work edited and designed by professionals. There are plenty of service providers and book shepherds around who can make sure you put out a top-notch product, both editorially and from a design standpoint.

   As far as publishing companies helping with marketing and promoting—they really don’t do much if you are a midlist author. Yes, they’ll get your hooked into the proper distribution channels, but you can do that yourself as a self-publisher. And yes, they’ll put your on their website and list you in their catalog, but beyond that, it’s primarily up to the author. Most trads, in fact, will insist that you already have a platform and a following before they’ll sign you.

   I highly recommend that authors who don’t want to wait around to get picked up by a traditional publisher do their homework. Because self-publishing can be easy and cheap, there is a lot of junk out there, unfortunately. But those who do it “right”—invest some money to put out a high-quality e-book or p-book and own their ISBN and imprint—can reap big rewards.
2. Janet Goldstein says:

   July 6, 2010 at 2:44 pm

   Hey Shama – This is a “hot” issue very time it comes up! And Sue, you’ve jumped in with two feet. As you know from the video and post, Shama did launch Zen of Social Media Marketing initially as a self-published pdf ebook. For *her* goals, stage, market, etc., it made sense to work with a traditional boutique publisher for a new revised and expanded edition. In terms of the bigger picture, I don’t believe there is one “right” approach, and the different publishing pathways can work together. I highly recommend self-publishing when it’s done well, and done at the right time and with the right idea. It can be a great way to go public with one’s work instead of playing a waiting game of being discovered and never really testing one’s work, voice, ideas, story. I call the traditional route the “conferred status” pathway–as it still is to many people! Perception isn’t everything, but it’s something and one piece of the equation.
3. Sue Collier says:

   July 6, 2010 at 3:39 pm

   This is a subject about which I always feel compelled to provide my two cents, Janet. =) I just hate to see authors with an important message shy away from self-publishing just because they think they cannot earn credibility that way. But absolutely–self-publishing needs to be done right and it needs to be done well (for the most part I am not talking about the “POD self-publishing” services that do little to no editing and offer only templated design). If it’s not, it will undermine an author’s credibility to be sure.

   Shama took a route I recommend to some of my client authors–putting out an ebook first, then pursuing a traditional publisher. Of course, Shama has a great following already, so she definitely had a step up when it came to getting a contract. Not every author has such a powerful platform already, which is what publishers these days really like.