Should I Pay A "Self-Publishing" Company?

There are lots of folks who will tell you that using a subsidy publisher is the same as self-publishing. It isn't. Let's examine your options when turning a manuscript into a book. Begin with the 4 kinds of publishers:

• Traditional publishers - they pay you royalties and an advance, and produce the book at their own expense.
• Hybrid publishers - selective about manuscripts they accept, require small up-front payments, help you arrange the publication, and do fulfillment at cost, or nearly so. You pay the bills, and you take any profit.
• Subsidy publishers - you pay them to publish your book (aka vanity presses or POD publishers). Prices are frequently too high to allow you to give bookstores the customary discounts and still offer readers a competitive price.
• Self-publishers - you buy the ISBN from your country's ISBN Agency (RRBowker in the USA), take the financial risk, do or arrange for all parts of publication, and reap all of the rewards.

Which one is right for you? That depends upon:

• Your ability to see your book through the production, marketing and distribution process (both your skills and your financial resources)
• Your goals for the book (commercial success, gift for family and friends, disseminate a message, etc.)
• Your time and effort can be spent other ways: are they more rewarding?
• Your desire to retain creative control of your project
• Your book's commercial potential

Successful publishing requires a large number of different skills. You can supplement your own abilities by hiring outsiders to help in some areas, but that requires more capital. You must be able to manage your company, design a good cover and interior (or supervise the designer who does it), hire a good editor or do it yourself, establish a fulfillment/warehousing relationship, market the book to your readers, and sell it into the outlets in which they can find it, usually through wholesalers and bookstores.

If you want your book in bookstores, you need to examine the things that are necessary to get there. These include discounts to distributors and wholesalers, reviews in the right publications, etc. If you prefer more restricted distribution, and if you aren't particularly interested in financial returns, then your options may be different.

Publishing a book yourself takes a large amount of time and money. You may be better served by writing another book, for example, than by publishing the first one. And that's only one example.

If your book isn't likely to produce large profits, you may not find a traditional publisher interested in bringing it to market. Other aspects of your project may fit it for one option better than for another.

If you haven't any interest in selling your book through bookstores, or in making a profit from it, and if you don't have book production skills, then a subsidy publisher may be the best way to go.

No matter which options you are considering, you should carefully examine the costs, the risks and the potential for rewards in those options.

• Begin with a marketing and distribution plan.
• Compare the prices and other traits of your competition.
• Verify the discounts expected by bookstores, wholesalers, distributors.
• Check to see that you can produce the books, market them and still make a profit at those discounts or find alternate distribution channels.
• Don't accept an interested party's word for market prices and expected discounts. Discount schedules for large publishers' lines are easily available. They aren't giving away more than they need to. Look at them. Look at the prices in your local bookstore. Do the math.

If you find the whole process of assessing costs and profits intimidating, there are many sources of information and assistance available, including Gropen Associates' Do It Yourself Packages, how-to-publish books, and many of the sites in our resource section.

• Re-use of any material on this site requires written permission.
• Opinions presented are based upon our assessment of best practices for the mythical "average publisher." Please use your own business judgment in applying this information.