Traditional vs Indie vs Self-Publishing

A printing press. Image from Wix.

I recently published my contemporary women’s fiction novel, What’s Left. I went through self-publishing, which has been a crazy and very rewarding experience.

Previously, I sold two travel guides to an Indie Publisher.

And I’ve been rejected multiple times by Traditional Publishers, so I feel I have some ground to talk about my experience.

First, everyone’s favourite to discuss: Traditional Publishing.

I’m from New Zealand and because this country is so small, we’re lucky enough to pitch our work directly to the publishing company. Last year I received a very kind rejection email from one publisher in NZ and got ghosted by the rest.

Next, Indie Publishing.

I joined a freelancing website, Upwork. I had just arrived back in NZ after travelling for 12months. A publishing company called CZYK Publishing was looking for freelancers to write travel guides about places they had lived in for more than 3 months.

I had lived in The Netherlands for much longer than that.

They hired me to write the guide book. They gave me a very detailed description of how they wanted the book to be written and formatted.

I complied and they paid me a one off fee.

No royalties, nothing like that but I did get paid up front.

A couple months later, I contacted them again and wrote another guide all about where to eat in The Netherlands.

Again, one upfront cost only.

I found this to be a great way to earn a bit of money as a freelancer and to build a portfolio for publishing.

Great for the short term.

Last but not least, Self Publishing.

I self-published my e-book on 30th October and my paperback on 1st of November.

And I’ve enjoyed the experience way more than I thought I would.

My expectations included: a lot of hard work; no one caring about my work; people being offended that I self-published.

Quite the opposite happened. It’s been harder work than I thought.

Overall, the feeling around self-publishing can be summed up like this: A muddle.

A week prior to hitting publish, I was ready for everything to turn into a disaster and completely flop. I lost my proof copies, formatting was making me pull out my hair, and uploading my beautiful cover was a nightmare.

I felt like Amazon hated me and I believed that was just the start. If I could get through that, I could get through anything.

I hit published and bought a few books to help with rankings — I didn’t buy enough and Amazon didn’t notice. My mum was kind enough to update the extended family who all claimed to have bought one (very kind).

I was prepared for that to be it.

But after all the hours I’d put into editing and rewriting, I was a bit bored sitting idle. I was too traumatised to start writing my next manuscript so I decided I would do some contacting and let people know my book was released.

I wrote about it here, on Medium, I posted on Reddit, and I emailed book clubs; book stores; book subscription services; and local markets.

I basically pretended I was my own publishing company (I don’t why I would pretend when I literally am, but it feels more accurate to say pretend), and I just did what I assumed a traditional publisher or distributor would do.

It’s been a lot of hard work, and overwhelming at times but I can now say I have a few achievements to share:

My book is on Amazon in paperback, e-book and kindle unlimited.

It’s available on Fishpond.co.nz — but my editors name is down as the author. That’s my bad, she actually picked it up and I’m working to change that.

It’s registered with the library services (but not in a library yet — I’m still trying to navigate this)

It’s gone to a book subscription service and a bookclub. It’s also been requested by a brick-and-mortar store! Details to come once everything is finalised.

I recently took it to a market, which you can read about here:

Selling My Book At The Market

I was sooooo close to selling out. Thank goodness I didn’t as I wouldn’t have had any stock for this next market on Sunday! — And I’ve even had to steal the copies my mum bought!

My next goals are to:

Continue contacting stores and companies about taking my book — it sounds like February is a good time as it’s after the holiday sales.

Keep selling my books at markets, and encouraging sign ups to my mailing list.

Get better at writing interesting and engaging monthly emails — any advice would be muchly appreciated!

Write book #2

Rinse and Repeat.

Also a holiday would be nice — I’m exhausted!

Do you have a preference or opinion regarding different ways to publish? I’d love to hear your thoughts!