Which Publishing Path is Right for You?
People ask me all the time which publishing path is the right one for them.
These are the biggest questions to ask yourself.
When do you want it published?
If you want your book published in a year or less, you will need to publish independently. As in, pay for and manage the process yourself. (This is the method I like best anyway!)
Traditional publishers take 1-2 years to publish from the day they acquire your manuscript. It will take 2-3 years from today to do the whole process — Get an agent, find and sign a book deal, and then get the book through their whole production/editing/design process and actually published out to the world. (Trying to create a manuscript first and then trying to sell that manuscript to a publisher will likely not work. They will always want to put it through their own production process.)What’s your budget?
This is a key question to consider early on. The more you spend, the less you personally have to do. But no matter what, you will always be the one primarily responsible for both writing and marketing. So keep that in mind.
For traditional, set aside $10k for marketing.
For hybrid, plan on $25-$100k. You can get it for less, but the quality (and attention to detail) goes down pretty steeply.
For independent/guided publishing, set aside $5k-$20k
For self-publishing on the cheap, you can do everything yourself for < $5k.
I encourage authors I work with to think of all book expenses as a marketing spend, and to think of the return on your book as a larger ROI than just book sales. Here’s the equation I like to use for a mental model.
BOOK ROI = Book Production (Editing + Design + Distribution + Launch + Marketing Costs) — Book Income (Sales + Speaking Fees + New Clients + Marketing Value + WOM)
Basically, it costs more AND makes you more than you think it will.
In my experience, it’s worth it.
3. What are your goals for the book?
Most people I work with start with pretty vague goals. They know that a book can help them get more thought leadership and legitimacy, but they don’t have clear goals on how the book will do this.
A book is absolutely one of the most powerful marketing assets you can have.
But you still have to do the work.
For example, if you publish a book about leadership on Amazon and sell a few hundred copies, businesses are not going to suddenly come beating down your door to get you to speak at their conference like magic. You’ll need to reach out to them — probably something like 5 or 10 a week, and you’ll need good emails, and a follow up system, and content on your blog and social media that reinforce why you are a good choice, and a speaker reel, etc. If you are publishing to generate business leads, the same applies. The book does indeed have a “magic” to it, but it’s not a silver bullet — it’ s more of a lead generator and a key differentiator when people are choosing who to trust and who to do business with.
But the takeaway here is to understand your goals, narrow them down to two or three, and then really focus all of your time and energy on those. The book will be the greatest catalyst for conversation you’ve ever had — but how you use that power and what you build on top of it is up to you.