The first kind of publication is, of course, traditional publication. From what I understand, they once had a stranglehold on what did and did not come into the spotlight. In order to come to the attention of a conventional publisher, you first research through Writer's Market , Google, or some similar resource for specific publishers and their requirements. Writer's Market (online) is a wonderful resource full of the most recent information, including the name of agents and publishers. For a lot of publishers, they only accept agented manuscripts, but there are some smaller or lesser known presses that will accept you without an agent. Know your genre. Know the publisher, including specific names, and how to submit before you just start sending your manuscript everywhere. The drawback of traditional publication is that they can be incredibly picky. It's wonderful if your piece fits squarely into a niche that they're looking for. If not, you need to send it to one right after another, researching and obeying their rules exactly, or you will get nowhere. If you find a publisher, your standard cut is about 10%, give or take, often split with that agent, but you pay nothing up front. My pieces are a little more niche than most, so I haven't had a lot of luck going this way. If, however, you've just written something that squarely fits in one of these markets, this is a great way to go. They do usually gain the rights to your book, unlike all the others on this list.
The second kind of publication is vanity press. Vanity presses are eager to find your manuscript. They will take just about anyone and will, indeed, help you get your piece published. But you pay for everything, piecemeal, to do it. They get their income from you and often charge a high premium in the thousands of dollars and beyond to produce something you may or may not be happy with. Many of them are predatory, so you'll want to be sure to do your research in advance. They often do little to nothing to market your piece without more money from you. It's easy to get published here, but then you'll often be in the same boat as you would have been indie publishing and for a lot more money. Sometimes, getting published with one of these presses does nothing or something negative with your reputation as a writer. Do a lot of research before you go forward with one of these. I've periodically bumped into one of these and researched it, but I hesitated because they said I had to pretty much market myself unless I wanted to pay thousands on top of their base price.
Hybrid presses can, at first blush, look like a vanity press. They do charge up front but not nearly as much and often take a much smaller cut of sales than a traditional publisher, if they take one at all. They are more selective than vanity presses because they want to protect their reputation, which means they also want to protect yours. They often include marketing in the fees you do pay. They may limit their services but are clear about what they will and will not do for you, which may include marketing as part of the original fee. I have found a hybrid publisher with which I will be working to produce my chapter book series. Chapter book series are a very niche market simply because a lot of publishers don't want to occupy their space on short, cheap books on short paperback books. My hybrid publisher will charge up front and will help me with marketing as part of the fee, but they will not take a percentage out of my sales. I will be publishing my chapter books, at first, anyway, because producing one short chapter book would involve the same costs as publishing a set of books, so it makes a lot more sense to publish them in collections. If you're looking at niche markets, this may be a good way to go if you can afford the up front fee and find one particular publisher that works for you.
My latest experience has been with indie publishing. You keep all the rights and make all the money, above and beyond the fees that, say, Amazon might charge (30-70%, depending on the option you choose). What you will pay up front here is the individual aspects of producing the books, including editing, marketing ads, covers, illustrations, etc. It can be hard to get a lot of sales this way because you are your own marketer. It is easy and fairly quick to publish your piece on KDP (Amazon's self-publishing wing) and Draft2Digital, which can make your book available worldwide, but getting reviews, readers, etc. can be a challenge. It helps when you do have a writer's platform, an email list, etc. Next time, I will spend longer on what I have learned and the classes in which I have learned this information, so you can consider pursuing a course like this to walk you through all of the steps of going from writer to indie published and (hopefully) successful writer. If you're interested, you can look at my indie published short story to see what it looks like. You can even publish paperbacks through the route I will talk about next time.
Regardless of the route you elect, you will need to do research and make sure you have selected the publishing method, which is right for you. A lot of people have found success through all of these routes. Just know what you're doing before you pursue any of these routes.
Hybrid presses can, at first blush, look like a vanity press. They do charge up front but not nearly as much and often take a much smaller cut of sales than a traditional publisher, if they take one at all. They are more selective than vanity presses because they want to protect their reputation, which means they also want to protect yours. They often include marketing in the fees you do pay. They may limit their services but are clear about what they will and will not do for you, which may include marketing as part of the original fee. I have found a hybrid publisher with which I will be working to produce my chapter book series. Chapter book series are a very niche market simply because a lot of publishers don't want to occupy their space on short, cheap books on short paperback books. My hybrid publisher will charge up front and will help me with marketing as part of the fee, but they will not take a percentage out of my sales. I will be publishing my chapter books, at first, anyway, because producing one short chapter book would involve the same costs as publishing a set of books, so it makes a lot more sense to publish them in collections. If you're looking at niche markets, this may be a good way to go if you can afford the up front fee and find one particular publisher that works for you.
My latest experience has been with indie publishing. You keep all the rights and make all the money, above and beyond the fees that, say, Amazon might charge (30-70%, depending on the option you choose). What you will pay up front here is the individual aspects of producing the books, including editing, marketing ads, covers, illustrations, etc. It can be hard to get a lot of sales this way because you are your own marketer. It is easy and fairly quick to publish your piece on KDP (Amazon's self-publishing wing) and Draft2Digital, which can make your book available worldwide, but getting reviews, readers, etc. can be a challenge. It helps when you do have a writer's platform, an email list, etc. Next time, I will spend longer on what I have learned and the classes in which I have learned this information, so you can consider pursuing a course like this to walk you through all of the steps of going from writer to indie published and (hopefully) successful writer. If you're interested, you can look at my indie published short story to see what it looks like. You can even publish paperbacks through the route I will talk about next time.
Regardless of the route you elect, you will need to do research and make sure you have selected the publishing method, which is right for you. A lot of people have found success through all of these routes. Just know what you're doing before you pursue any of these routes.
