Publishing options, Part II

This is the second part of a three-part series on things to consider when deciding how to publish one’s novel. All parts come with a warning: I have next to no personal experience with any form of publishing besides the traditional sort. So read the comments; there are a bunch of people there who have actually done some of these things.

Part 1 of the series covered the current two most popular options: Trade publication and e-book self-publishing. Today I’m looking at a similar breakout, only for things on a smaller scale. Next week, I plan to talk about things to consider on the writer’s end when it comes to making a decision.

So the next publication possibilities people think of, after trade/large house publishers and e-books, are these:

3. Small press publishing

Small presses come in various sizes, from university and regional presses that reliably publish multiple titles every year (though they have fewer resources than traditional/trade publishers) to micro presses that one title or a couple of pamphlets every so often. Most of them produce hard-copy books, possibly with an e-book (see below); there are also some that do mainly e-books, with just-in-time hard copy.

Pros: These places sit in between large trade houses and self-publishing. They have some of the advantages of the large houses—i.e., you don’t have to do all the grunt work yourself—and some of the advantages of do-it-yourself, in that they’re usually much more open to authorial suggestions about book design, covers, etc. You may or may not get an advance, but you don’t pay them anything. If you write for a niche market, you are more likely to find a small press that is interested in it than a large trade house (but if they’re specialized, they are less likely to find room for anything that doesn’t fit their specialty, even if it’s brilliant). Small presses can be either much faster or much slower at producing a physical book than trade publishers, depending on whether they’re a largish house with several employees or a micro-press that somebody is running in their spare time out of their basement. Like trade publishers, they should get the ISBN; they may or may not register copyright, depending on the size of the publisher. They may or may not handle e-book publication.

Cons: Quality varies. Some small presses are known for beautiful leather-bound editions with acid-free paper; others are known for books that fall apart. Small presses have less money and fewer people, so things like advances, and distribution/sales are usually smaller (unless, again, we’re talking about a specialized niche market in which they have specific expertise). Small presses can point you to local or regional publicity opportunities, but they don’t have the money or staff to make a lot of arrangements for you. Contracts are, again, a potential issue, but this time because small presses don’t have battalions of lawyers making sure everything is covered and legally correct. Small presses may or may not handle e-book publication (and again, yes, this can be either a pro and a con, depending on whether you want one-stop-shopping, or whether you would prefer to handle the e-book part on your own). Some small presses are prestigious and well-respected, and some are…not…but none of them provide an author with the same general prestige as having been published by a large trade house (meaning, your relatives will be happier to brag about your success if they have heard the publisher’s name before and can easily find them on the shelves at Barnes & Noble).

4. Self-publishing in hard copy

This is the ultimate do-it-yourself version. You find the copy-editor, the printer, the binder, the distributors; you get the ISBN and register copyright; you stay up until midnight packing books to mail to distributors and bookstores and individual customers; you pay the postage; and you collect all of the income from the sales (and pay all of the taxes on it). Essentially, you become your own publisher. (There are vanity presses that still purport to do this for people, but do not sign up with one unless you have checked them out very, very carefully with multiple people who have been in the business for a good long while.)

Pros: You do everything to your own exacting standards, so the result can be precisely what you want. You also do all the sales and publicity to whatever level you want. And you collect all the proceeds. It’s not as fast as e-book self-publishing, but it is a lot faster than traditional or small press (and it feels faster, because you are making decisions and doing stuff to get the book out, instead of just waiting for someone else). You don’t have to worry about wading through pages about sub-rights (e.g., movies, audiobooks, etc.) in a book contract (though you may still have to deal with contracts with the printer, binder, cover artist, etc.).

Cons: Self-publishing books is a lot more work than you probably think. You not only have to find a printer, cover artist, binder, distributor, etc., you also have to do (or arrange for) copy-editing, proofreading, and publicity, as well as keeping track of expenses and inventory, storing and shipping copies, and so on. You can really lose a lot of money if you get carried away with leather binding, acid-free-paper, full color illustrations, and other options available to produce beautiful books. You can also price yourself out of the market; few people are going to buy a book by an unknown writer for $250.00, even if it has beautiful full-color illustrations and is leather-bound. You need space to store your inventory until you sell it. You will have much less time for writing anything new because you are busy running a micro publisher. You are unlikely to make much money unless your book somehow catches a publisher’s eye (which has happened at least twice that I know of, so it is possible). Unless you have contacts, really know your stuff, and sink a lot of time and effort into selling subrights you aren’t likely to sell movie rights, audiobook rights, or any other subrights.

Note that the last three publication options—self-published ebooks, small press, and self-published hard copy—are not mutually exclusive. You can do a self-published e-book, opt out of the just-in-time hard copy printing, and self-publish a small run of a lovely hardcover version, or sell to a small press that doesn’t do e-book versions and then do the e-book yourself, or self-publish the e-book and sell the hard-copy version to a small press (though this last is only likely to work for authors or books who already have a following). This kind of mix-and-match can be really useful, but it multiplies the number of decisions and considerations. I’ll talk more about that next week.