Back in the early days of writing and publishing a novel, there was one kind of publishing - the traditional kind. You would write your novel, get an agent, they would reach out to publishing houses on your behalf, someone would buy your novel and provide an advance to you on future earnings and then do the bulk of the work of cover design, editing, printing and getting your novel into bookstores.
However, the industry changed dramatically as the volume of novels being produced increased, and the landscape changed. With the rise of the internet and online bookstores like Amazon, a new type of publishing became commonplace- self-publishing- and with it traditional publishing changed too, often requiring authors to have more skin in the game (attending book signing events, promoting themselves, etc.)
Once you complete your novel, you will have to make the inevitable decision of if and how you want to bring that book to market. In this article, I want to discuss the two primary means to publish your novel (and the variety of differences within them), the third option you should probably avoid, and the pros and cons to each.
Traditional Publishing
When most people think about publishing their novel, this is what comes to mind. In traditional publishing, you provide the publisher your manuscript, and they handle printing, distribution, and some marketing for you.
The important caveat here is that you give up both creative control and many rights for your manuscript when you do this. Your contract with your publisher may include: publishing rights: ebook, print and audio formats, and these may be exclusive. It may also include first right of refusal for film, merchandise, etc.
You also give up creative control; the publishing house might change the cover, the name of the book, and make editorial changes to your manuscript to make the book more commercially appealing.
In exchange for this, a traditional publisher pays you in the form of an advance - essentially a payment against future royalties regardless of whether these are earned through sales. This amount can vary heavily, but on average for a debut, an offer can be a few thousand to six figures depending on the publishing house and the genre.
In terms of payments, traditional publishers typically pay authors 10-15% royalties on print sales and 25% on ebook sales. The remaining revenue covers printing, distribution, and publisher profit. Since a traditional publisher pays an advance to an author up-front, royalties first go toward paying the advance before money is sent to the author directly. This means for many debut novels the advance is the only money an author may receive.
Another consideration with traditional publishing is that it tends to be a lengthy process. From the moment you send your query letter to the moment you see your novel on the shelf, you could be waiting up to three years. Much of this time involves finding your agent, getting accepted, working through edits with your agent, pitching to publishing houses, the manuscript being purchased, and then finally hitting store shelves.
Traditional publishing is the right path if your goal is bookstore placement and you're willing to trade creative control and time for the infrastructure and credibility a major publisher provides. Many of the most successful novels today have been published traditionally, and a big part of their success is the marketing reach traditional publishers can provide. Beyond digital marketing, traditional publishers can place print ads in bookstore windows, local radio, television, and even product placements for novels they feel have a strong chance of success.
When it comes to applying to a traditional publishing house, you don't go to the publisher directly. Instead, start by querying an agent, getting accepted, reviewing and editing your manuscript, and then pitching to publishers. Agents typically take 15% of your earnings in exchange for their representation and expertise navigating the publishing landscape. This may seem like a lot, especially considering the limited revenue share from publishers; however, it is important to remember that an agent is strongly invested in you doing well, as their success depends on it. This means they will negotiate a higher advance, pitch your book to multiple publishing houses to get the best possible deal, and work closely with you to make sure your novel is as good as it can be before sending it out. Many agents also develop close relationships with authors and work with them on subsequent novels.
Self publishing
In self publishing the author takes on the responsibility of bringing their novel to market. Recently this has largely been done through Amazon Kindle, and with the rise of Kindle Unlimited, authors have been finding great success on this platform. It is worth noting, however, that Kindle Unlimited requires authors to publish exclusively on Amazon, which means giving up other storefronts in exchange for access to KU's subscriber base.
The process for bringing a book to market in self-publishing starts with the completion of your manuscript. Once done, authors will edit it themselves several times for continuity and plot, and then finally spelling and grammar before going to beta readers, getting feedback, refining, and then finally being happy with the final novel.
At this stage, the process diverges sharply from traditional publishing. Here you would normally query a literary agent; however, in this flow, the author now has to make decisions on how to get the book ready for market. First, an author may hire an editor who will go through the book, flag issues with the plot, inaccuracies, or potentially offensive passages that may need revision. They can also provide critical insight into improving the novel to be more marketable to an audience. An author will need to pay for these services from their own pocket, and may forgo them entirely. Next an author may hire a cover designer or illustrator. Some authors choose to design their own cover or go with a template; however, in many cases, your book's success lives and dies on its cover design.
Next, an author chooses a platform and gets an ISBN to publish their book online. The two major platforms are IngramSpark and Amazon, and each of these platforms will provide an ISBN as part of publishing your book. At this point, the book is considered published.
The Pros and Cons:
When it comes to self-publishing, the primary thing you are gaining is control - you decide who you work with, what platforms to list on, the cover, the title and critically, the price. In addition to these benefits, you also will see a significantly better margin per copy sold, with most platforms hovering around 70% of revenue making it to the author.
However, in exchange for this freedom, you are taking on 100% of the cost and the risk. You become responsible for the editing, the cover design, the marketing, the ISBN, the distribution. You also risk making little if any money from your book after expenses. Most debut authors' self-published books sell less than 100 copies over the lifetime of the novel. That's not because they're not good; it's because most authors just don't have the reach that larger platforms do. That's why platforms like Kindle Unlimited became so popular.
Amazon, Ingram, or your own storefront?
Distribution for a self-publisher is trade-offs and managing multiple distribution points. The primary places you can list your book are Amazon, giving you access to their storefront and Kindle; IngramSpark, which gives you access to a wide network of retailers including Chapters-Indigo, Barnes & Noble, library systems and independent bookstores; and finally, you can put your book in your own storefront or local stores.
If you do decide to publish on Amazon, you have the option to publish exclusively there on Kindle Unlimited. In exchange for exclusivity, you get paid per page, and this has become a wildly popular way for authors to publish their books, authors who publish frequently in popular genres like romance and fantasy have found significant success on this platform into the six figures. You may also choose to just list on their storefront and in the Kindle library. Amazon does offer print-on-demand services for their physical books, which can be a convenient way to get a copy made for yourself, family, and even for local stores.
Another often overlooked place to consider placing your books is in your local town's bookstores; many small businesses are more than happy to accept local authors' books for consignment with low or no monthly fees and a reasonable revenue split.
Finally, you can list your books on your own storefront through a website built with Shopify or one you get done professionally. This gives you full control over your distribution pipeline and price, and allows you to market your book line directly.
Quill Loop provides author pages which include not only a storefront, but a mailing list too so you can build your own community. If you're looking for a low-cost way to sell your book to your customers, this may be a strong option for you.
A note about ISBNs
While above I mentioned a platform might provide an ISBN for you, it comes at an important cost. With traditional publishing, the publisher issues ISBNs for the formats required for your book (print, ebook, audiobook), and they become the publisher of record. However, with self-publishing, the platform that provides the ISBN not only becomes the publisher of record, but locks that ISBN to it, requiring authors to get different ISBNs for different storefronts, including their own.
To get around this, an author can get their own ISBN. In Canada, an ISBN prefix is free for Canadian citizens and is acquired through Library and Archives Canada. In the US, many providers will issue ISBNs or a prefix for a small fee.
Quill Loop also provides a free ISBN for every novel published through its platform, provided by Quill Press. Unlike other platforms, these ISBNs can be used with any platform in the format they are issued in.
What about Hybrid Publishing?
You may have heard of hybrid publishing as a third option for publishing your book. These companies are supposed to fall somewhere between a traditional publisher and self publisher typically handling things like editing and cover design while expecting the authors to shoulder the marketing and associated costs.
While this may sound like the best of both worlds, the reality is hybrid publishers are frequently predatory in nature, asking authors for thousands of dollars in upfront payment for services of questionable quality, while making promises of placements in bookstores that never materialize, all while contracts are heavily weighted in their favour.
If you do encounter a hybrid offer, research them thoroughly on Writer Beware (writerbeware.com) before signing anything, and have a lawyer review the contract. Legitimate hybrid publishers exist, but they are rare and selective. If they're accepting your manuscript without reading it, that's your first red flag.
When in doubt, ask questions, do research, or pursue self-publishing or traditional publishing - at least in traditional publishing, you have an agent who has your interests first and can vet contract deals before you sign.
Finding an Agent:
While we touched on what an agent's role is in traditional publishing, it's worth understanding more about them and what they will (and will not) do for you in this process.
An agent is, at their core, a person or company that sits between you and the publishing companies (in some ways similar to a broker in insurance). For the publishers, an agent provides a filter preventing low-quality submissions from entering their already heavily saturated pipeline. For an author, an agent provides industry experience, contacts, and a bit of "tough love" not only about the realities of the industry, but also where you are on your publishing journey.
When should you start looking for an agent?
This is the first question you will likely ask yourself, and the answer is somewhat nuanced. You can start researching and understanding what agents are around in your industry at any point in your novel journey; this can be a great way to have a leg up when you're finally ready to pull the trigger.
However, you should really hold off on seriously finding an agent until you are ready for your manuscript to go to a professional editor. That means that you have finished your entire first draft, done the editing of that draft (continuity, cleaned up the prose, and fixed spelling and grammar with your word processor's spell checker and done a round of beta readers and feedback. You should not hire a professional editor first, or get a cover designed at this phase - in fact, this would be wasted money and work, as your publisher will do both of these things if they choose to purchase your manuscript. An agent (when and if they eventually request your full manuscript) is expecting your manuscript as some form of text document (Word, PDF) without any kind of special formatting (beyond headings, bolding, and italic) and will even overlook some typos (again, you should spell-check your document using your word processing tool, but some typos are excusable).
How do I query an agent?
When it comes time to actually query an agent, the first thing you are going to want to construct is a query letter. The format of your query letter is outside the scope of this post; however, generally it will include a summary of your novel and its word count, the genre, a comp title, and a brief summary about who you are. Your query letter should be short and to the point, clocking under 500 words.
Once you have your query letter ready, the next step is looking for an agent who is accepting novels and who is in your genre. The most popular tool for this is Query Tracker (querytracker.net). Once you have found an agent you think might fit your novel, read carefully how they want submissions sent to them and ONLY do EXACTLY what they ask. If they ask you to apply through their website, then do so. If they ask for email, then send an email. Read the exact submission format too - some agents ask for the query letter in the email body, others want it attached. These may seem like pedantic requirements, but remember agents get thousands of queries a day and submissions that do not follow the rules are easy to delete.
What Happens After I Query an Agent?
Once you query an agent, you're going to fall into one of two buckets; the first and, unfortunately, most likely one is that you're going to be declined. It's important that you don't take it personally, and it's important that you understand that this is almost certainly going to be the case OVER AND OVER. Rejection is almost as fundamental to writing as the words on the page when it comes to traditional publishing. In most cases, it truly isn't you; that being said if the agent does provide feedback on the reason they declined, review it carefully and implement their feedback for the next one.
But if you are persistent, and also a little bit lucky, one day you might get a response from an agent asking for your full manuscript. This is the moment you are hoping for: the agent has decided they like your concept and they want to know more. Once you send your manuscript, if they like what they read, they may choose to represent you and send a contract to that effect. At that point, once you sign, you're officially in the next phase of getting your book published.
Now before you get ahead of yourself, your agent is almost definitely not going to just send your manuscript off to the publishing house in its current state. Chances are they are going to ask you to make revisions, have feedback about what's working and what's not, and you're likely going to go through a number of rounds of edits. It's important again to not take these personally - as an author, you're going to have to develop a thick skin and differentiate between attacking you and your book. Don't forget your agent is looking out for you and wants to get you on the shelf; it's how they get paid.
The Road to The Publishing House.
So your agent is finally satisfied with your book; at this point they will start pitching it to various publishers. Here again, you should get ready to hear "no" over and over again. Unfortunately, as a debut author, you are starting at the ground floor. Don't get discouraged here either; agents have been through this process many times before, and they know what needs to happen to get your book from manuscript to published.
Once a publishing house decides to take your manuscript on, you'll be provided a contract to review and sign. This will outline the rights the publishing house will have, and what you will get in return. Generally, this also covers the advance you will get. If you choose to accept the offer, your agent will facilitate payment minus their fee, and your book will go into the publishing pipeline! Congratulations, you're now a published author. Generally in this process you will be sent a number of books you are free to sell or give away to friends and family.
Conclusion
The path you take to publishing your novel is a very personal decision and is all about what set of benefits and tradeoffs you are willing to accept. If you're the kind of person who wants control no matter what, or wants to move quickly, self-publishing might be for you. However, if you're ok with being hands off on the process, being listed in major bookstores is a priority for you, or you don't want to navigate cover art and editing, then traditional publishing is a great option too.
If you take anything away from this post, it should be that you should do your research, take your time, read contracts carefully, and remember if it's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.
If you are looking for a platform that handles not just publishing but helping you market while you retain full control, Quill Loop and Quill Press might be worth exploring.
And remember the difference between a dreamer and an author is the taps of the keys or the stroke of a pen.
