The truth about traditional publishing…
Is traditional publishing better?
An op-ed by Staffer at New Book Authors Publishing
(updated January 20, 2024)
There are still many old-fashioned views about the publishing industry and old publishing models. Namely, the belief that traditional publishing is the only legitimate way to publish. This is false.
“Publishing today is a business, dominated by stockholders and profit margins, run entirely according to the hard, cold numbers. Investors in the major megacorporations that own nearly all of the New York majors want profit, and lots of it. In a business that traditionally makes maybe 4-6 percent profit in a good year, today’s stockholders are demanding 15-18 percent. Gone are the days when a publisher could nurture a writer with potential through several lackluster efforts. Today’s editors can’t afford a single flop.” (Source: Salon)
— Jeff Kirvin, “What’s Wrong With Publishing,” January 2002.
Is traditional publishing better?
Whether traditional publishing is the better option or not is for you to decide. But if by chance you are in fact seeking a traditional publisher you may have already sent your manuscript to dozens of literary agencies or traditional publishing companies and have yet to receive a response. If you’re lucky, you might even receive a rejection letter six months later, or in rare circumstances, get the greenlight from a well-meaning but struggling small press with nonexistent revenue. It may take years to realize that finding a traditional publisher willing to take an interest in your manuscript may not happen, especially with thousands of other writers submitting manuscripts to the same publishing companies each month. Traditional publishers are looking for authors who can guarantee book sales and massive profit. For the midlist author, traditional publishing may not be the best option. We explore why a few paragraphs below (also see, The confessions of a semi-successful author).
” A 2023 survey of 2,000 self-published authors by the Alliance of Independent Authors found that almost half exceeded $20,000 in revenue and 28% earned more than $50,000 – far more than the vast majority of traditionally published authors. ‘If you can write a book that people want to read and you package it well, you can make £25-30,000 per book,’ says Butlin. ‘It’s really not an unreasonable expectation.’ Meanwhile, traditionally published authors will receive an advance payment, usually paid in instalments: on signing the contract, after submitting the final manuscript, and on publication. Advance amounts vary a lot depending on the author, but typically a debut author can expect to receive between £5,000 and £10,000 in total. After that, many authors never see any money again – royalties are only paid after the advance amount has been made back through book sales.” – The Guardian
James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes and Noble who saved the bookstore chain from liquidation, recently disclosed that one of the circumstances that nearly led to B&N’s downfall was accepting payments from traditional publishers in exchange for promoting certain books (Axios). Publishing is a returns-based industry. If a book does not sell, it is returned to the publisher or manufacturer. Someone has to cover the costs of those unsold printed books and it’s usually the publisher and by extension, the author (who doesn’t get a royalty if the book fails to make a profit.) 70% of traditionally published books that were promoted by Barnes and Noble were returned. This devastated the bookstore chain, leading Barnes and Noble down the path to possible bankruptcy or liquidation by its investors. In 2019, the new CEO of Barnes and Noble brilliantly turned this around by putting an end to the practice of allowing trade publishers to pay for a more prominent place on their bookshelves, placing responsibility for ordering and placement in the hands of local managers who now decide what to carry at each chain store. This led to a resurgence and Barnes and Noble is no longer in danger. Returns are now down to 9% from a staggering 70%. The moral of the story is that, publishing through a traditional publisher model doesn’t necessarily translate to sold books or success, even with a major bookstore chain promoting the books. In 2009, over 77 million unsold books were returned. Today, that number is estimated to be 320 million destroyed unsold books.
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“Traditional publishers spend most of their marketing budget on the books that have received the largest advances and almost nothing on the books that don’t – so most books don’t really get a chance,” she says. “You can make a relatively sensible guess on what will sell but it’s still essentially gambling.” Publishers will end up with a few enormous hits that cover the losses, but what it means is that many authors end up feeling like it’s their fault when their books don’t sell. – The Guardian (‘More are published than could ever succeed’: are there too many books?)
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Is New Book Authors Publishing a vanity publisher? No.
We publish all genres and offer books in paperback, hardcover, and digital eBook formats.
No. New Book Authors Publishing is not a vanity press. But we are also not a traditional publisher, so if you are seeking an outdated or antiquated traditional publishing model, we may not be the publisher for you. Our publishing company is designed to serve authors who know what they want and have chosen an alternate path to publishing a book. Whether you are publishing with a goal of becoming a successful author or you’re writing a memoir to establish your legacy for loved ones, there are many reasons why authors choose an alternate path to publishing a book.
At New Book Authors Publishing, our goal is not to publish manuscripts simply because they are submitted to us. We strive to publish great books. New Book Authors does edit, format, design, consult (educate), market, and provide the same services that a traditional publisher provides, but we use a different financial method for publishing books. Our publishing fee is $550. Authors have their own author dashboard where they can monitor sales or run reports. Our process is collaborative, which means we work as a team with the author. This includes bringing the author’s ideas and concepts to fruition and offering feedback in areas where some ideas may not be in the best interest of the book.
We specialize in empowering authors who want to publish their book with a great publisher while retaining their rights and creative control of their work. Authors who publish with New Book Authors Publishing are authors who are specifically seeking a publisher with our unique business model. These are authors with clear objectives about what they want to achieve when they publish a book. Many of our authors are attorneys, hall-of-famers, journalists, politicians, law enforcement, teachers, educated everyday people from all walks of life. The benefits of working with us is an experienced publisher who creates beautiful books and has an exceptional understanding of the publishing industry and marketing, as opposed to an author choosing to self-publish without the support an experienced partner can bring. Some authors seek advice from self-publishing blogs where the information may be critically limited, incorrect, or grossly outdated. However, once the book is out there, it’s out there, so you’ll want to avoid making mistakes that often befall authors who self-publish. Work with New Book Authors Publishing where you will have an experienced publisher guiding you throughout the process. There are no call centers or sales staff engaging with authors. We are a real team, with real people, exchanging genuine dialogue about books. We are providing this information to give potential authors an idea of who we are. In the end, you’ll want to choose a publisher who you are comfortable with and is compatible with the vision you have for your book. Whether you choose a traditional publisher or a nontraditional path, we support you.
What is a vanity press?
According to industry trade journal Publisher’s Weekly, there is a thin line between nontraditional hybrids and vanity publishing, but with some clear distinctions. The article points out, “What defines a hybrid publisher is not being made clear, and I am not sure that it can be, [but] when I look at what defines a hybrid publisher, [I see] a level of curation,” publishing industry consultant Jane Friedman says. “Not everyone who walks through the door can get published.” A vanity press is a printing company that prints and distributes books without editing, design or marketing. A vanity press will publish any manuscript regardless of quality or lack thereof.
Traditional publishing:
Only 1 to 2% of manuscript submissions are accepted by traditional publishers. Acceptance rates are low. Traditional publishers publish roughly 58,000 books annually. Of those books published by traditional publishers, a debatable 50% of those books sell less than 12 copies, a detail recently acknowledged in the publishing anti-trust trial brought by the Department of Justice.
Only 2% of traditionally published books are successful. According to the New York Times, “…in 2021 fewer than 1% of the 3.2 million titles that BookScan tracked sold more than 5,000 copies.”
The biggest misconception is where the money flows. Traditional publishing is a for-profit corporation. It is not a nonprofit and money isn’t flowing to the author. It’s business, and it’s not altruistic. Traditional publishers are there to make money, just like vanity publishers and that’s why they have a low acceptance rate. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, because traditional publishers are genuinely invested in the book’s success (the goal is a win for both the publisher and author), while vanity publishers are exploitive.
In the end, publishing is a business and money doesn’t just flow from the publisher to the author since many books fail to turn a profit, resulting in the author not making any money from their hard work. The publisher must recoup its costs before the first royalty check is paid.
A book is considered a bestseller if it sells more than 10,000 copies. Unknown authors are referred to as “midlist authors.” Some publishers don’t offer as much marketing or support for books by midlist authors since the traditional publisher may not expect the book to make a profit. If you receive an advance, it is recouped by the publisher out of future royalties…if any. Midlist authors who publish through traditional publishers will rarely, if ever, earn a royalty from their books if the company doesn’t recoup its costs first. In traditional publishing, the publisher doesn’t pay royalties until the publisher’s investment pays off. This investment includes any advancements paid, costs for the editing, copyediting, marketing, and the cost of mass printed books. This process is called “earning-out”. Most books don’t earn out. Source: AP NEWS Source:VOX . This is the nature of traditional publishing rather than the TV movie version where the public believes that money is moving rapidly from publishing companies with bottomless pockets into the hands of authors. The upside of traditional publishing is that brand-name traditional publishers have the resources and connections to market the book. The problem is that they have a low 1-2% acceptance rate so the average writer will never get a traditional publishing contract. A small press may not have the same financial resources as a larger publisher, but often have credibility and reputation as a resource.
Since 2006, 950,000 titles published out of 1.2 million titles published annually, 80% of those books sell less than 99 copies. Source: Publisher’s Weekly New Book Authors Publishing empowers authors. Our authors don’t share their royalties with us. They get to keep their royalties and it is paid directly to the author. This means, authors don’t have to wait for their books to “earn out” (i.e., for the publisher to recoup costs) before authors are paid a royalty. Authors can also monitor their sales as they come in, rather than receive a quarterly report. Authors can check their sales daily. Some of our authors have great sales, and perform well, and some books may not resonate with readers. That’s the reality of publishing.
On traditional publishing:
“The industry is not broken,” he says, pointing to the extremely healthy profits of the big five publishers. “But the model does rely on the imbalance between the author and publisher share. That’s one reason for the growth in self-publishing. It can feel like you get a fairer share, especially when advances and royalty rates are so low, and traditional authors are doing much of the marketing anyway.” – The Guardian
Are you better off with a traditional publisher? Let’s start with a few sobering facts and data on the success rate of authors who publish with traditional publishing companies:
Source: BookScan and https://medium.com/writers-blokke/do-most-books-sell-less-than-12-copies-per-year-9361f2131aa1
“…During the [Department of Justice vs. Simon and Schuster and Penguin RandomHouse anti-trust) trial, the DOJ pointed to the figures that more than half of the 58,000 trade titles sold less than a dozen copies. Kristen McLean, an analyst from Bookscan, provided a more in-depth breakdown of the frontlist sales of big publishers (over a period of 52 weeks that stretches until 24 October 2022) in a comment:
- 0.4% or 163 books sold 100,000 copies or more
- 0.7% or 320 books sold between 50,000–99,999 copies
- 2.2% or 1,015 books sold between 20,000–49,999 copies
- 3.4% or 1,572 books sold between 10,000–19,999 copies
- 5.5% or 2,518 books sold between 5,000–9,999 copies
- 21.6% or 9,863 books sold between 1,000–4,999 copies
- 51.4% or 23,419 sold between 12–999 copies
- 14.7% or 6,701 books sold under 12 copies
Thus, among the frontlist titles of the ten biggest American publishers, around 66,1% [of traditionally published titles] sell less than a thousand [books] over the course of a year…”
We hope this information has been helpful to you.