Is a Tradionally Published Book Superior?

Is a Traditionally Published Book Superior?

I’ve been having a friendly discussions with a traditionally published author on Linked-In. He maintains that self-publishing is bad because it floods the market with poor quality products. The traditional publishing system is designed, in his opinion, to weed out the inferior work because a manuscript has to go through many vetting steps before it becomes a published book. To ignore those steps and let just anyone who thinks they are an author publish a book is harmful to the industry.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

I’ve thought a great deal about what he had to say and I can see where he is coming from, but after all is said and done, I have to disagree.

Self-publishers, especially in the current business climate, are incapable of flooding the market. Big book sellers like Barnes & Noble, and Borders have plenty of inventory to fill up their shelves from traditional publishers. They don’t have to consider self-publishers, and they don’t. You couldn’t crack into that lock with a crowbar and dynamite. It wouldn’t happen now–but it could in the future. If The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors grew big enough, and powerful enough we could change things. But for now traditionally published authors are safe.
I would also like to address the vetting system. Come on now–when faced with the choice of publishing a masterful work by a new author and the next annual piece of junk from a popular author, who wins? My money is on the popular author because like Deep Throat said in the movie All the President’s Men, “Follow the money.” Publishing is first and foremost a business. If the business isn’t profitable it won’t stay in business. My argument is not about the choice, but with the assumption that a traditionally published book is somehow superior to a self-published one.
If Mr. or Mrs. Tiny Book Publisher has an idea that they want to put into book form, tell me again how that is harmful. Maybe they’ve written a 250 page treatise to their hair follicles, how many copies will they sell? The real vetting process is the marketplace. The readers will buy what they want to read, and publishers sensitive to the will of the people will find products that they hope will appeal to the marketplace. You can’t force someone to buy a book, any more than you can force them to read it. They have to be enticed, otherwise why even have a dust jacket? An unappealing book on an unappealing subject will never get through the gauntlet of readers. There is no reason to fear. They aren’t a threat.

Is there anything to be done about this stand-off between the self-publishing upstarts and the traditionally published? I think there is. I believe that The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors is a good place to begin. Self-publishers need to learn the ropes. They have to have support and encouragement to seek good editing, art, and printing. A professional looking product doesn’t appear by accident. Then they have to be shown how to sell the book, and run a publishing business.

Furthermore, if enough self-publishing authors join the cause there is power in numbers. Our voice gets magnified. Perhaps that power will be useful in cracking open those previously closed doors. In the meantime we can explore many other marketing paths and find other ways to promote our books. The intention of the association is to help every market-worthy self-publisher earn a decent living so they can continue to write and not have to keep their day jobs.

If the traditional publishers looked at it like a baseball metaphor, and saw the self-publishers as a huge minor league, or farm team, whose players could be called up to the bigs when they’ve proven themselves, then they wouldn’t have any reason to be critical or derisive. Can’t we all just get along? Our goals are the same. We all believe that the world is a better place because of books. Where would we be without them?

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Tags: All the President's Men, Authors, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Deep Throat, dust jacket, Follow the Money, LinkedIn, Marketplace, printing, Red Hen Association, Self-publishing, Treatise

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:23 am and is filed under Self-publishing, Self-publishing Authors, Traditional Publishing, 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.

Brad Airmet

Bill,
The comment of “flooding the market with poor quality products” brings a smile to my face as I have witnessed self-published books that have sold less than a hundred copies that should have never seen the light of day and conversely, others that have been so thought provoking and fascinating that I have purchased twenty myself just to give to people I love and with sales in the high thousands. As you are aware of, self publishers usually have such a strong passion about their book that makes the book that much more readable than others. Personal stories about actual events that happened to the self publisher usually touch me more than a fiction book off the shelf from the big box store. The market will weed out the worst ones, but I have printed many books that contain so much “meat and potatoes” instead of just fluffy sky writing that I am way on your side here.

One thing that you may want to explore more is the marketing and distribution issues of being a self publisher. While their book may never reach a Barnes and Noble, even getting into an independant bookstore will cost 25% of the retail price, and then the bookstore will take their portion as well. The $15 profit of your $20 book will dissapear quickly. Internet marketing is huge but many book buyers still feel most comfortable going to the neighborhood bookstore where it can be touched and felt.

I also wish that you could spend a blog on returns, one of the most wastful practices I know of. I just don’t get it.
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http://www.booksoundproductions.com Mark Johnson

“Is a Traditionally Published Book Superior?” – I think the short answer is “not necessarily”. It all depends on the book. I don’t think one can make a blanket statement either way and be correct.

I am glad to see self publishing grow so that the so called “vetting” process can be decided by the market in terms of sales instead of by publishing gate keepers that feel the can see around corners. The bottom line is that these publishing gate keepers are sometimes wrong because they are only human. I like the idea of the free marketing voting by sales or the lack thereof. If the market votes with big sales, the benefit to the author is “much” higher royalties per sale than the traditionally published.

I think this question arises from people holding on to traditional views. Put your book on the market and determine the answer to this question from the sales you make.
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Forrest Long

I have one book published traditionally, but for my next one I am considering self publishing. I’m not sure exactly in what form- online, kindle, POD, etc. But I don’t buy the quality argument. I go into B&N or one of the other chains and pick up so many books that cause me to wonder- “How did this ever get published?” and “Who would want to pay money for this?” And with all the deep discount books on shelves there, I would argue that there are alot of books put out by publishers that shouldn’t have been. As you say, the ultimate test is seen in the buying public.
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http://www.familiesfacingcancer.org Anne Orchard

Ooh, there is so much to say that I hardly know where to start. On the quality argument, the fact is that the publishers are more than ever tying into the ‘cult of celebrity’ that we have created by our interest in society. This has nothing to do with quality. I personally think it is sheer laziness on our part – we’d rather buy a magazine about a celebrity wedding than read something thought-provoking by someone we’ve never heard of.
There are also many books which have crossed over from self-publishing to mainstream. A great example is The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans, one of my mentors. Now I believe it’s a great book, but that’s not what made it cross over. Rick could have stuck with his original idea of reproducing a few copies for friends. But he didn’t. He used his marketing know-how and years of hard work to sell enough copies to create a buzz. Then Simon and Schuster got interested – not because of the content but because of the sales.
Now I think that Rick shows that great writers and great marketers can come together in the same person, but it’s not always the case. And ‘letting the market judge’ means judging the quality of the marketing more than the book (if you doubt this consider whether McDs make the best hamburgers in the world).
For those of us who have a book we are passionate about, but who don’t have a marketing background, the test is really how deep our passion is – and whether we will do what it takes to keep going (sometimes against all odds) to get our book out there.
I will, but there are many who run out of either money or energy!
Thanks for the thought-provoking article!
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http://google.com/335 sandra742

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.
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