Book Publishing Options: Traditional Publishing Vs. Self-Publishing
The field of publishing offers two options to authors - traditional publishing and self-publishing. To know which option one should go for, one must understand the difference between the two and their pros and cons.
Traditional publishers do not take unsolicited manuscripts. They accept manuscripts only through literary agents. The rights to the books are also withheld by the publishers in such a case and the royalty earned is not enough compared to the option of having an almost complete claim over earnings from book sales in the case of self-publishing. Authors can get direct access to their work and own the rights to their work. Authors can have complete control over the process of publishing. They are assigned editors, proofreaders, designers, and other services according to their choice. Therefore, they can either do it all by themselves or choose to get their draft manuscripts turned into books through self-publishing companies.
One must also understand that the stigmas and negative stereotypes and conceptions related to self-publishing are nothing but myths. Self-publishing is never necessarily just a short-cut method of publishing a book. A self-published author might be taking the route where chances are more and competition is absent but the success of a book, in this case, depends upon the authors and not just the goodwill of the name of traditional publishers. Moreover, with the arrival of self-publishing companies, the authors who want to self publish can enjoy the benefits of an entire team working on their books while enjoying the freedom to have complete control over their work.
From the Director’s desk
Navsangeet Kaur