Self Publishing vs Traditional Publishing: Which one is better?

The creation of a book, which involves a lengthy, tedious process, is collectively known as Book Publishing. In India, book publishing first started in 1800. This was controlled by officials and missionaries. They mostly published books on grammar, and dictionaries. Later, Fort William College in Calcutta was founded with the purpose of teaching Indian languages to the colonial administrators and to carry this out, Fort William College started publishing simple prose works. These books were used as reference by the language readers and this is how the journey of book publishing started in India.

Let us now try to understand the two different types of publishing houses:

What is Traditional Publishing?

This offer means that the rights of the book is shared between the author and the publishing house, and so is the profit. After the deal has been struck, the in-house editors will work on the script and if necessary, will make not just make corrections to the grammar but also make changes to the plot line. They take most responsibilities involved in the process, mainly cost of printing, marketing, designing and formatting, distribution and other such activities. Once your work is selected and you accept their offer, you can pretty much relax and earn your royalties, and the Publishing House will take care of all the other aspects

What is Self Publishing?

After the completion of your work, when you choose to get your book published with a Self-Publishing House, you will have to first contact one. They will then provide all the information regarding the process of self-publishing and how a Self-Publishing house works. The next step would be choosing the packages for getting your book published. Here, after you have struck a deal with them and finalized your package, you invest in the services they offer where on they will take care of everything included in your package.

How to write and publish a book in India? 

Read: A complete guide to self-publish a book in India

Let us now try to understand the difference between Self-publishing and Traditional-publishing 

The time taken in getting your manuscript published and making it available for the audience, is comparatively higher in Traditional Publishing Houses than Self-Publishing Houses. The reason behind the same, frankly, is that the process of getting your book published with a Traditional Publishing House is is a lengthy one. After the submission of your manuscript, you might at times not get any response from the Traditional Publishing House. On the other hand, a Self-Publishing House will not only reply sooner but they will also help you choose the kind of services you should opt for.

The amount of money the author invests in Self-Publishing is more than that of Traditional Publishing because Self-Publishing Houses charge the author for each service of the publishing phase, while Traditional Publishing requires the Publisher to make the major investment. This is mainly why Traditional Publishers earn a major chunk of the profit earned from the sale of your book.

The control that you have over your own book isn’t much when you publish your book with a Traditional Publishing House. The reason behind this is that once you sign the deal with them, the rights of the book is shared, whereas with Self-Publishing, the author owns all the rights of the book and has total control over every aspect of the book, from designing to release date to materials used in the book.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to make about which Publishing method you prefer, but looking at the trend lately, authors are more inclined towards Self-Publishing, majorly because of the simple reason of owning all the rights to their book. For a first-time writer, a Self-Publishing House is far better than a Traditional Publishing House, since the latter always looks for maximum profit from any book it publishes, hence they very rarely entertain people who are unknown to the literary world.
The first step towards your dream determines the entire process, therefore, it is very important to take into consideration all the perspectives before venturing towards the publishing of your book. So, good luck and choose wisely!

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