If you've decided to write that book swirling in your head for years, you must decide whether to self-publish or go the traditional publishing route.

About a decade ago, writers tried their best to be noticed by book agents and publishing companies in hopes of signing a publishing deal. That kind of arrangement increased the barriers to entry. Only a very limited number of writers became published authors, and once a deal was signed, they never had to bother about the hassle of publishing and promoting their books.

The game has changed with the evolution of the internet, technology, and online book retailers. Platforms like Amazon and Barnes and Noble dominated the book market and offered unprecedented opportunities for independent (indie) authors to get published.

With this paradigm shift, authors are becoming noticed overnight without the need to be under the mercy of traditional publishers. With self-publishing, writers are becoming in control of their careers as authors and taking the driver's seat in impacting the world.

Most authors about to complete their manuscript start pondering that question: Shall I self-publish or approach a traditional publisher?

This article will explain both types of publishing routes and which option you should opt for.

Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Two key differences exist between taking complete control of the publishing process and handing it over to a publishing house:

• Your book on the shelves

• Rights and royalties

Your Book on The Shelves

Traditional publishing deals are just now for every aspiring author to pick up. Waiting to be noticed by a traditional publisher or a book agent will take serious time (and rarely happens), which reduces your chances of seeing your book make it to the shelves.

You need to check several boxes to stand a chance of getting a good deal, such as:

• Large social media following and engagement

• An existing client base

• A large and engaged email list

Self-publishing levels the field and gives you a fair chance at becoming a published author, getting your book recognized, hitting the bestseller list, and having full control of the publishing journey.

Rights and Royalties

With self-publishing, you own all the rights to your book and earn more royalties.

On the other hand, traditional publishing will have you transfer your ownership rights to the publisher and earn fewer royalties.

Let's dive deeper into each publishing option and what you can expect from them.

Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is the process of independently publishing your book. In this sense, you become both the book's author and publisher. The tasks of editing the manuscript, designing, packaging, distributing the book, and promoting it fall on your lap.

What Self-Publishing Means for You

If you examine your favorite and famous authors, they were traditionally published for years; however, their latest books are self-published. Why?

• The author decides on the book's content: Gone are the days of traditionally published authors getting permission to live their dream of sharing their work with the world. For those flirting with thoughts such as "A publishing deal is a validation of my book's potential," we disagree. Both Robert Kiyosaki and J.K. Rowling were refused by traditional publishers, which left them the option to self-publish Rich Dad Poor Dad and Harry Potter - both books are all-time best sellers.

• Shorter timelines to get your book to the market: Traditional publishing houses have their schedules, priorities, workflows, and processes. Being at the mercy of working on your book on their own time and in their way could easily take anywhere between one (if you're lucky) and three years to get your book to the market. On the other hand, with self-publishing, you're taking the publisher's role and will multi-task to roll out your book in a few weeks or months. Your timeline will depend on how fast you work or how efficient the small team you build is.

• Earn more royalties: Traditional publishers will keep 80-95% of the book's selling price and pay you royalties anywhere from 5-20% (that's after they've recouped the advance payment made to you before publishing). Self-publishing, however, you will earn as high as 40-100% royalties, depending on the marketplace where your book will be sold.

• Owning the Book Rights: More money and control aren't the only advantages self-publishing offers. It also lets you keep the right to republish and use your work as you please and transfer those rights to anyone in exchange for money. For example, you can earn more income by offering rights to an audiobook producer or a film producer. In contrast, you could give up those rights while negotiating with traditional publishers.

• Retain full creative control: Working with a traditional publisher allows them to edit the content, design the cover, decide on the title, and see fit for their publishing house. While you may think you need their expertise, you will make concessions that may lead to a manuscript and book idea that might make you regret the final published work. On the other hand, self-publishing makes you the master of your book's destiny and keeps the integrity of what you plan to share with the world.

Before we move to the downsides of self-publishing, it's worthwhile mentioning that by simply inverting the positives of self-publishing, you have the cons of traditional publishing.

Let's examine the downsides of self-publishing, which are pretty obvious:

• The writer receives no advance on royalties

• The author pays for all the tasks associated with publishing the book

• No ready support system from different professionals

• Securing print distribution in bookstores is challenging

Steps Involved in Self-Publishing

There are a set of specific steps involved in self-publishing your book:

• Write a Book Worth Reading: With all available book marketplaces, retailers, publishing tools, and the internet, it has never been easier to write and publish a book. This ease of access to being a content creator has opened the door for low-quality publications. You don't want to add more mediocre work to the existing pile, so write what matters.

• Edit your manuscript: Editing is critical to giving readers the best possible experience. It involves structuring the manuscript to clarify your ideas, not to mention weeding out typos and grammatical errors. Once you've done your bit, a professional editor is one of the best investments you could make to end up with a print-ready manuscript.

• Create a cover that fits in its genre and stands out from the competition: The book cover is the first thing potential readers will see, so it has to be compelling enough to get them to take a closer look, read your synopsis, and possibly purchase the book. Getting a professional designer to design your book cover is one of the most important investments you'll make in your book.

• Format your book: For prints and ebooks, formatting involves structuring paragraph breaks, line breaks, indentations, spaces, and more for proper display in the chosen publishing mode. You can outsource the book formatting to a professional or do it yourself using publishing tools.

• List Your Book on Book Retailers' Platforms: There are several options on where to list your book, but the one that dominates the market and is an absolute must is Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). KDP lets you upload your book so readers can get an electronic copy or purchase a printed version. Beyond Amazon, there are other self-publishing platforms where you can upload and sell electronic and print copies of your book (only some offer the latter option). These sites include Barnes & Noble (B&N Press), Apple Books, Kobo Writing Life, Google Play Books, IngramSpark, and others.

Related: 7 Steps for Experts to Publish Their Best-Selling Books and Make A Huge Impact

Everything You Need to Know About Traditional Publishing

In traditional publishing, authors typically sell the rights of their book to a publisher, who takes charge of the entire publishing and distribution process.

In a conventional scenario, the initial step involves seeking out a literary agent who will act as your representative to approach publishing companies. Following this, you must craft a compelling pitch, which your agent will submit to various book publishers, awaiting potential offers.

Once offers are received, you negotiate and ultimately sign the most favorable agreement, relinquishing certain rights to the publisher. In many cases, authors receive an advance payment against future royalties. From there, the publisher takes charge of packaging, mass production, and distribution.

What Opting for Traditional Publishing Means for You

Here are some of the upsides of going the traditional publishing route:

• You get paid and don't invest in publishing and promoting your book: The royalty advance is the main advantage of traditional publishing. This means you get paid an advance, don't pay back that advance if the book performs poorly, and don't invest in publishing and promoting your book. This is the main reason why most writers want to get traditionally published. It's important to note that publishers will only pay an advance based on their estimation of the profit they could make from the book, based on the author's audience size and engagement level. If you don't have that sizable audience, you may not even get a deal, much less a hefty advance. 

• You won't bother about the publishing and promotion tasks: Another area where the publisher's resources will come in handy is packaging, publishing, distributing, and marketing the book. With self-publishing, you'll shoulder the money and time invested in designing, formatting, and marketing your book.

• Enjoy exposure: The biggest publishers usually have extensive industry connections with media outlets, bookstores, and online reviewers. This rich network could be instrumental in getting the word about your book out on a larger scale (or within your niche) than you could manage alone.

• Leverage extensive industry knowledge: Traditional publishers have extensive experience selling books of different genres to different audiences. They know how best to present your work so it catches the attention of your target audience.

• Boost your credibility: Big publishing houses have built a trusted brand over time. If you get a deal from such publishers, your book automatically enjoys the brand's clout with the ripple effects of being associated with such a big-name publisher.

• Get nominated for book awards: Publishing your book the old-fashioned way opens you up to prestigious awards. The game is changing in this arena, with many prestigious awards becoming open for indie authors, too.

Let's speak now about the downsides of traditional publishing, which could be easily summarized as the inverted pros of self-publishing.

• Lower royalties as compared to self-published books

• Loss of ownership rights

• Loss of creative control to a large extent

• Longer publishing timelines (one to three years)

Steps Involved in Traditional Publishing

• Create a Book Pitch: A book pitch is a document to convince publishers (and book agents) to publish your book, promising massive returns on their investment in your work. It's constructed like a business case with sections: title page, synopsis, author bio, chapter outline, sample chapters, competitive analysis, niche or topic, target audience, and a marketing strategy that leverages your (large) audience size and their engagement with your content on social media and email marketing.

• Create a list of literary agents interested in your book's genre: You'll need an agent to represent you, especially if you're eyeing one of the big publishers. You can approach smaller publishers independently, but larger publishing houses prefer to deal with an author's agent.

• Pitch and screen agents: Next, you want to pitch the most suitable candidates. Most agents have varying submission requirements, but here's what you'll typically need: A query letter describing your work and credentials, a book proposal, a book synopsis, sample chapters, and other items the agent's submission guidelines could specify. After receiving some interest from some agents, conduct a brief interview to screen them for their interest in your work, how they work with authors, and their experience.

• Send your book proposals to publishers through your agent: Now is where you let your agent reach out to publishers. Experienced agents will often already have contacts in publishing houses that will get them through the door faster and give them access to the decision-makers.

• Review and negotiate the publisher's offer: Once a publishing contract nears, you sign the deal without doing your due diligence. You must be careful that the contract terms are best for you and the book. Here are the most important elements of a deal to be checked if they fall in your (and your book's) favor: The name and credibility of the publisher, the fairness of their advanced royalty rates, their proposed publishing deadlines, their deliverables are clear with deadlines, rights ownership,

What's Your Decision: Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing?

Preferences aside, certain circumstances might limit your choice.

For instance, traditional publishers are more open to handing out deals to people with a considerable following. They prefer to make deals (in advance) where they win the lion's share of the profits. And see the author's audience as potential buyers. Chasing a publishing deal might prove futile if you don't have such a large audience.

In parallel, many writers of extensive and highly engaged audiences are lately opting for self-publishing. Many writers are better off self-publishing. Gone are the days when traditional publishers were the sole custodians of writing success.

Self-publishing has broken that monopoly and democratized the global reach for writers.

With self-publishing in the picture, the tradeoffs writers had to make when choosing publishing deals are no longer worth enduring.

• Why wait one to three years to publish your book when you can self-publish it in months?

• Why earn meager royalties when self-publishing lets you keep the lion's share of the revenue from book sales?

• Why lose ownership rights to your book permanently when you can retain such rights if you published independently?

And the list goes on and on.

Yes, publishing independently doesn't offer an advance. But it makes up for this with a higher earning potential over time.

How about the seeming prestige traditional publishers offer? That's fast fading out.

Related: Self-Publishing Numbers Keep Climbing While Publishing Giants Consolidate

Today's readers care about excellent writing packaged professionally rather than the company backing it. And luckily, independent publishing allows every writer to make a name for themselves without forming costly ties with a publishing house.

The Author's Sweet Spot: Hybrid Publishing (The Best of Both Worlds)

At the intersection of both options, hybrid publishing offers a unique and advantageous approach. In this model, writers collaborate with a publishing company to take the burden of publishing and marketing off their shoulders while receiving a higher percentage of royalties, distribution support, and marketing assistance.

Hybrid publishing combines elements of self-publishing and traditional publishing, providing benefits without the drawbacks associated with either approach. Like self-publishing, writers bear most of the financial costs and do not receive an advance on royalties. However, it also mirrors traditional publishing by involving a contracted company that upholds professional standards in handling the production and distribution of the book.

One of the main disadvantages of traditional publishing is the loss of control over various aspects, including timing, the book's characteristics, and ownership rights. Hybrid publishing addresses these concerns by allowing writers to have a say in shaping these factors while benefiting from the expertise and support of professionals managing the book's production and distribution. Unlike traditional publishing, writers do not have to relinquish their ownership rights.

In contrast to self-publishing, where authors often have to navigate the process alone or assemble and oversee a team of freelancers, hybrid publishing offers a solution. By collaborating with a publisher with an in-house team dedicated to production, distribution, and marketing, writers can access the publisher's existing network of book reviewers and other industry players. This eliminates the need for authors to manage these aspects independently and provides them with additional support and resources.

Self-publishing is a clear and definite winner over traditional publishing; however, hybrid publishing makes things more interesting. It strikes a delicate balance between traditional and self-publishing that most writers should be looking to exploit.

Would you be ready to give it a try?