Modern book publishing is broken

Mel Torrefranca: 00:00

Traditional publishing versus self publishing versus publishing with an indie press. There are a lot of opinions on which path is the right path, what the pros and cons are of these different paths. The biggest problem when it comes to this debate is that people are romanticizing these different options. No matter what path you take, it’s kind of going to suck. And I’m going to unpack that in today’s episode.

Mel Torrefranca: 00:26

I want to give you an honest understanding of what you’re getting yourself into with these different paths, because it is much more complicated than “I have creative control” or “I don’t have creative control” or “I pay for the assets like the cover design” or “I don’t pay for the assets”. So let’s start with traditional publishing. Let’s just dive right into it. First off, how does traditional publishing work? I’m just going to give a brief rundown.

Mel Torrefranca: 00:48

The first step is to get an agent. “What are the odds of getting an agent?” you might ask. According to Words Rated, it’s one out of three thousand to one out of six thousand. Now that’s per query letter.

Mel Torrefranca: 01:01

Obviously, you you send out a lot more query letters than that. Typically you don’t just send out one query letter and call it a day. So your odds are going to be higher. But as you can see, the odds are not really playing in your favor. You have to put a lot of time into making sure your book is really, really darn good and that your query letter is really good and that it’s personalized for the agents that you’re sending them to.

Mel Torrefranca: 01:22

You want to increase your odds as much as possible, but statistically per query that you send out your odds are one out of 3,000 to one out of 6,000. So let’s say that you fight against the odds. You get yourself an agent. You work with that agent to improve your book a little bit. The next step is to get a book deal.

Mel Torrefranca: 01:41

So at this point, your book is going to be on submission. The agent’s going to be pitching your book to publishers. What are the odds that the publishers say yes and sign you and give you a deal? That’s going to be two out of three. So 66% if you have a top-class agent. If you have more of a rookie agent, your odds are looking at more like 10 to 30%. Some authors, unfortunately, who have agents don’t even get a deal, but let’s say that you get that deal. The third step is to earn out your advance. So most of the time when you sign with a big traditional publisher, they’re going to give you a lump sum of money upon making that deal.

Mel Torrefranca: 02:21

That is not really a payment to onboard you or anything like that. That is an advance against your royalties. Meaning until your book makes enough money to earn out that advance, you’re not going to get another check. This is kind of the crazy part. What amount of authors earn out the advance and actually start making money from their books beyond that first check?

Mel Torrefranca: 02:44

20 to 30%, which is pretty insane in my opinion. The fact is that even big publishing houses have flops. So obviously that is a ton of work and there are a lot of risks involved and a lot of unknowns. So I am going to cover the pros of traditional publishing in just a moment. But first I want to briefly touch upon social media.

Mel Torrefranca: 03:06

A lot of writers online have this misconception that traditional publishers will sell your book for you. And this is really not true. Traditional publishers are looking at your audience these days. And so are agents because they know that that’s what traditional publishers want. If you have an audience, that’s going to greatly increase your chances of being able to land a deal.

Mel Torrefranca: 03:31

If you don’t have an audience, it is still possible, but the odds are stacked against you even more. You’re going to have to have a much better book, one that, you know, cannot be ignored. But I mean, think about it. This is a super competitive space where they’re getting tons and tons of books. And a lot of times, if they have two books of equal quality that they both like the same amount, it’s gonna come down to you as the author and your social media presence.

Mel Torrefranca: 03:54

Unfortunately, that’s just how it is. A lot of times you don’t even need a huge social media audience, but the publishers want to see that you are putting effort into getting readers to enjoy your book and to interact with readers because that’s a huge part of the author lifestyle as well… is showing up and doing press stuff. And they wanna make sure that you are engaged and that you’re not just going to disconnect from this project the moment that it’s launched. They want a team player at the end of the day. They want you to be as invested in the success of your book as they are.

Mel Torrefranca: 04:26

So what are the pros of traditional publishing? Traditional publishers are going to cover all of the expenses that go into creating the book. They’re going to get you editors. They’re going to get you a beautiful cover design. I mean, there are cases of traditional publishers with bad books, but in general, they have professional cover design.

Mel Torrefranca: 04:44

But one thing that is kind of glossed over, which is related to the fact that they invest in your project, is the fact that they have a team. They have tons of different people who are involved in making your project a success. You are going to end up with a better book in comparison to a lot, not all, but a lot of self published books. And then another thing is the prestige that comes with signing with a traditional publisher. Readers don’t really care, but to other writers, it is somewhat of a flex to say, hey, I just got signed with Penguin Random House with a 6 figure deal.

Mel Torrefranca: 05:18

But it’s not just an ego thing because this also has implications for media coverage. Traditional publishers, they have connections. They’re able to get you awards for your books more easily and blurbs for your books, testimonials from big names more easily. Another thing is that traditional publishers, they handle all of the logistics. So they’re going to do everything for you.

Mel Torrefranca: 05:38

They’re going to manage the whole process. They’re going to tell you what your deadlines are. You’re not going to have to figure out what those are for yourself. They’re going to put the time into hiring the right people or bringing the right people on board for the project that are already on their team. This is a lot of time, a lot of effort.

Mel Torrefranca: 05:55

They’re going to do that all for you. You don’t have to worry about it. And then the last is that they have better library and bookstore distribution. Some of the cons? Well, yeah, you lose some creative control.

Mel Torrefranca: 06:05

This is not as big of a deal as authors make it. And I’ll talk about that a little bit more later. Before we move on, here’s a brief word about our sponsor. Bookvault is a print on demand company that allows you to sell books directly on your own online store. When a reader shops on your website, their order is sent to the nearest Bookvault facility where it is then printed and shipped on your behalf.

Mel Torrefranca: 06:28

This means you earn more per sale because a retailer like Amazon isn’t taking a cut. Plus, you won’t have to spend hours managing inventory and driving to the post office. It’s really a lifesaver. Trust me. I used to do all of that myself.

Mel Torrefranca: 06:42

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Mel Torrefranca: 07:28

This is a pretty empowering way to publish in my opinion. I first discovered this when I was, I don’t know, seven years old. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Like no way people can just make books and publish this. I’m starting right now.

Mel Torrefranca: 07:40

There are some downsides though. You have to pay for everything. You have to do all of the coordination yourself. You don’t have a team doing this for you. And if you do want a team, you’re going to have to pay money for them.

Mel Torrefranca: 07:52

You’re going to have to fund everything. The biggest pro, however, is that there are no gatekeepers. This is THE biggest pro. Think about how much time goes into the querying process and the waiting around. It is a huge game that you have to play with a lot of unknown factors and a lot of stuff that’s out of your control.

Mel Torrefranca: 08:12

And so it’s empowering to say, actually, you know what? I’m going to publish my own book and I’m not going to deal with these people. Now, this is one thing that is brought up a lot and it’s the full creative control. I think people use this as a cope, a way to justify why they’re not querying. They’ll say that they want full creative control over their book, or they’ll say that their book is just not quite what traditional publishers are looking for.

Mel Torrefranca: 08:36

It doesn’t quite suit the current market of trends. I kind of call BS on that. Full creative control is overrated. I mean, I put a lot of effort into giving up control over my work. And sometimes I feel resistance to certain changes, but I do it anyway because I trust these people.

Mel Torrefranca: 08:54

I know that sometimes my gut reaction is not right because the numbers prove me wrong. People disagree with me en masse. And so I will make those changes anyway. Perhaps there are rare cases in which this is abused and publishers want some crazy change that’s just ridiculous.

Mel Torrefranca: 09:11

But in a lot of cases, you probably shouldn’t be publishing the book exactly the way that you want it. And it’s not a combative thing. It’s more so that you need some friction. You need more people getting their eyes on your story and telling you what sucks. You need people to say, no, actually this cover gives off a different vibe than what the story actually is.

Mel Torrefranca: 09:33

Don’t publish it with that. And actually, I think a lot of writers really don’t care about creative control as much as they think they do. With Lost Island Press, I’ve received a lot of book submissions and most authors in response to the question about deal breakers they have or creative control, they’re very open to making changes. They’ll say stuff like, no, I’m totally up for anything that’s going to make the story better. That’s a very common response.

Mel Torrefranca: 09:59

And so I think a lot of people do know inside that they should have a little bit of friction and they should have ideas pitched to them about what might be a better option for the character development and stuff like that. I think that the biggest reason why people pursue self publishing is because of the lack of gatekeepers. And I don’t think we should be ashamed of that. I mean, that’s part of the reason why I was into self publishing is just this idea that I don’t have to play the game. You can opt out and you can publish it yourself.

Mel Torrefranca: 10:29

And it’s not a shameful thing. It’s not a sign that you’ve given up. It’s actually a pretty powerful thing in my opinion. And you don’t have to cloak it behind this idea that you want creative control, or your book isn’t trendy.

Mel Torrefranca: 10:40

It’s not marketable. I think a lot of times self published books could be picked up by big presses, but it’s just a different choice and it’s a different game that you have to play. And it’s not like self publishing is easier. People seem to think that traditional publishing is the hard way, the right way. And if you self publish, you’re kind of taking the easy path.

Mel Torrefranca: 11:02

It’s not the easy path. It can be easy if you do it wrong, but if you do it right, it’s going to be pretty hard. A big con of indie publishing is that you have to invest time and money, but also the fact that you don’t have the team of a publisher. So like I mentioned earlier, you are going to be managing all of these different things yourself. And you probably, if it’s your first book that you’re self publishing, you don’t have any experience doing this.

Mel Torrefranca: 11:31

You are going to make mistakes. Just being honest. I mean, when I published Leaving Wishville, I put so much time into making sure I was doing everything right. I still made mistakes and I screwed up. I paid for things that I didn’t need to pay for.

Mel Torrefranca: 11:46

I had files uploaded that were low resolution because I didn’t double check things. I mean, there’s a lot of mistakes that you can make in the self publishing path, but you can go back to old files and revise things over time and improve it to eventually bring it up to the same par or even exceed that par of traditional publishing. So I think if you do pursue self publishing, you just have to accept that it’s not going to be perfect, but you’re going to have to put a lot of work into making sure that you get as close to perfection as you can get. Cause you don’t have a team with years of experience behind them. There’s just a lot that goes into it and to do it right, you really have to give it your all.

Mel Torrefranca: 12:25

I will say that unfortunately, because of all of the work involved and because of some of the costs of formatting interior pages and formatting covers, there are a lot of self published authors that take shortcuts. I’m seeing a lot of books that are formatted by the author who doesn’t have experience with this and the margins are all off. Of course, one of the biggest pitfalls of self published books is a lack of editing. Like I said, if you don’t have any friction and you’re not allowing opportunities to work with editors or to work with beta readers and to get feedback on what sucks about your book, you’re going to end up publishing a book that you think is great, but maybe a few years down the line, you’re going to regret that you didn’t give up some of that creative control. And that brings us to our third publishing path category that I wanted to cover in this episode.

Mel Torrefranca: 13:13

And that is independent presses. Lost Island Press, my own publishing house is an indie press. So what are the pros and cons of this alternative path? One of them is that it’s typically going to have an easier barrier of entry. So it’s going to be harder than self publishing because you get to green light your own book if it’s self published.

Mel Torrefranca: 13:35

But it’s not going to be as intense as this whole process with traditional publishing, where you need to get an agent. A lot of independent publishers accept submissions directly, so you don’t need an agent. Take this as a pro or a con. There’s typically no advance or they give out a small advance. So for example, with Lost Island Press, when we sign a new author, we don’t give them any money upon, you know, getting that deal.

Mel Torrefranca: 13:58

As soon as their book starts making money, they start making money. But it also means that they don’t get, you know, a lump sum of money. So that can be a pro or a con depending on how you see it. And then sometimes you’ll get higher royalties. And sometimes you’ll get better quality than if you were self publishing.

Mel Torrefranca: 14:15

The reason I say sometimes is because you really, really have to do research on independent presses. And that’s one of the cons of indie publishers is that there is no universal model. They all operate in their very unique ways. Sometimes they don’t even have information on their website about how their publishing model works or how their royalties are paid out. With Lost Island Press, we do a fifty-fifty royalty split, which ends up being a lot more for the author than if they were to sign with a traditional publisher.

Mel Torrefranca: 14:43

So sometimes the royalties can be in the author’s favor, but some publishers may not have that as a pro. They might be more aligned with the traditional publisher royalty payment model. So you have to really do a lot of research. And that is one of the cons of being with an indie publisher is you need to vet them and make sure that you trust them and that you actually want to work with them and their team. Because there are some indie presses that, you know, go out of business.

Mel Torrefranca: 15:11

Whoever’s running it, it was more of a passion project. And then someday, you know, it just kind of dies off or they decide to shut down the company. Austin McConnell made a YouTube video all about his experience with publishing a book through a small press that later kind of just vanished. He actually wanted to unpublish a book that they had published for him. He eventually got in touch with one of the owners and was able to buy that publishing company in order to unpublish his book.

Mel Torrefranca: 15:38

So you are giving up some control over the distribution of your book and that can get messy if the people you’re working with are not absolutely dedicated to this company. You know what I mean? Going back to the idea of social media. Obviously, if you’re self publishing, you’re going to have to do social media. And I also earlier busted this myth that if you are traditionally published, you don’t have to do anything.

Mel Torrefranca: 16:04

No matter what path you take out of these three, it’s going to be in your favor to build a platform online. That’s just the honest truth. Am I saying that you can’t get published without a social media following? No, but it’s only going to play in your favor. I see a lot of posts online where people complain about having to market their book.

Mel Torrefranca: 16:26

I still empathize with it because I was definitely feeling that a lot a few years back, just frustrated about how much work goes into it and how confusing it is to market a book. But lately I have come to terms with the fact that this is just the state of the publishing industry right now. This is the game that you’re playing. If your goal is to publish a book, that’s easy. You can self publish a book.

Mel Torrefranca: 16:52

It can be your hobby project, and then it’s done. Goal completed. But if you expect sales, if you expect that people are going to read your book and share it, that’s an extra project of its own. That’s an extra mission. So I think if you are not that dedicated to writing and it’s more of a hobby for you, it’s totally valid to just self publish your book and not worry about social media.

Mel Torrefranca: 17:18

But if you want sales and you want your book to do well, you’re going to have to play the game. So that’s my take on the matter. If you like this episode and found the information helpful, I invite you to join my private newsletter where I share even more behind the scenes updates about what I’m working on at Lost Island Press. Plus, you’ll get a free book as a thank you. Please give this video a like if you’re watching on YouTube.

Mel Torrefranca: 17:40

And if you’re listening on Spotify or another platform, consider leaving a rating, perhaps a five star review if you’re feeling generous today. Lost Island Press. Get lost.