Self-Publishing Vs. Traditional Publishing: How Technology Is Changing The Game

Is self-publishing the new slush pile? Are publishers going out of business?

Writers will be all too aware of the rapidly evolving world of getting a book published. I have worked as a journalist and writer for three decades, but apart from some self-published short stories, I am not all that experienced when it comes to publishing. But I have some friends in the publishing industry, including one who had to read the slush pile when she started out.

I am now writing a book, so my interest in the scene was piqued. Consequently, I did some reading on the matter and made a few calls to see what I could learn.

The publishing industry, like many others, is being forced to change by the unrelenting advances of technology and the internet. The way authors are discovered has undergone something of a transformation over the last decade or two. The traditional method of getting an agent or a book published is in a state of flux. Is the ‘slush pile’ still a thing, or has it been transformed into eBook rankings? And if an author finds huge success with an eBook, do they even need a publisher?

What is the traditional route?

Self-publishing and ‘vanity publishing’ have been around for a long time but have nearly always had something of a stigma attached. For a new author, the traditional and respected route for the last couple of centuries was that you were supposed to write a book and send it to an agent or publisher, who then added it to what was known as the ‘slush pile’.

It would eventually be looked at by a hard-working, low-ranking member of the publishing team, along with dozens of other books. Of the twenty or thirty they would look at that day, one or two may proceed to the next stage — which just consisted of the next person above them reading and possibly rejecting it. If your work is rejected, it will be sent back in the self-addressed envelope you provided with a polite rejection note. The thud of it hitting the floor under your mailbox is a depressing one. (I know from experience.)

Then repeat.

If you were one of the lucky/talented ones that caught the interest of the person reading the slush pile, your magnum opus would need to impress a few others before you are considered for publication. Nearly all authors went through this, and nearly all of them have been rejected at some point- some dozens or even hundreds of times. It is generally a painful experience.

Once the book has been accepted, the author must then negotiate a deal. This is where an agent is helpful, as the publishing house at that point is often the one holding all the cards.

Then, around 15 years ago, the dynamic started to change.

The rise of digital self-publishing

Digital self-publishing arguably took off with the Kindle. It began around 2009–2010 when both the Kindle reader and Kindle Direct Publishing really started to gain traction. The platform, along with others such as Apple Books and Barnes & Noble, allowed people to publish work and be read almost immediately. With the traditional route, even once past the slush pile and with a deal in place, it could still take a year until publication. The digital world made it nearly instant, and the authors kept a lot more of the cash.

This proved immensely appealing to many budding writers, lots of whom had been rebuffed or frustrated by the usual publishing process and the dreaded slush pile. Self-publishing exploded in popularity, with authors such as J.A. Konrath, E.L. James, Amanda Hocking, Andy Weir, JD Kirk, and Hugh Howey finding incredible success with the platform, racking up millions in sales.

These successful authors changed things. Or at least they sped the changes up. They had the publishers coming to them with offers of huge advances and publishing deals. The stigma of vanity press was disappearing, and the publishers started losing some leverage.

Agents and publishing houses were forced to adapt

Once success had come knocking, many of the self-published writers accepted traditional deals, but it was not as straightforward as it seemed. Some flat-out rejected the publishers, while others managed to negotiate beneficial blends of physical/digital deals which changed the scene still further.

Amanda Hocking

Ms Hocking was publishing YA books at a phenomenal rate and, at one point, was selling 9000 eBooks a day. She was young and became overwhelmed with all the peripheral work that went along with the writing, such as editing, proofreading, marketing, and cover design. She had already made over $2 million through eBook sales and was happy to sign a deal with St. Martin’s Press in the US and Pan Macmillan in the UK for a further $2.1 million.

E.L. James

To say 50 Shades of Grey was a huge success would be understating it by quite a lot. She was soon selling the book through a small publisher in Australia. Then, a year later, after a lot of circling publishers had been rejected, Ms James settled on Vintage and Anchor Books for, allegedly, a seven-figure sum. She was also the co-producer of the films that followed and turned it into something of a business.

Hugh Howey

When he wrote the first short story that was to become the bestselling Wool trilogy, Mr Howey published the tale on Amazon and went back to his job. When it suddenly started to go viral, he hastily finished the others to complete book one of a very popular trilogy, by which time the publishers were hounding him. He was so popular that he and his agent managed to negotiate a deal that was unheard of at the time. Having rejected a seven-figure offer from Simon & Schuster, he negotiated a six-figure deal where he kept the rights to the digital work. This new hybrid offer was a huge deal when it happened.

J.A. Konrath

A best-selling eBook author with hundreds of thousands of eBook sales, J.A. Konrath is outspoken in his dislike of publishers. Over the last decade, he has had considerable success with a few platforms, but the vast majority of his sales are on Amazon. Given the vehemence with which he dislikes the publishing houses, it is highly unlikely he will ever accept a deal.

Self-publishing is now a full-time career for many, and new platforms are bringing opportunities

As the market has matured, increasing numbers of writers are finding success and making a living self-publishing their work. The big names above may have brought legitimacy to self-publishing and changed how deals are done, but many authors are doing incredibly well and aren’t interested in deals or traditional publishing.

Writing eBooks is arguably more viable and achievable as a career than traditional publishing methods. Even successful authors gripe about the tiny slice of profit they receive from publishers, whereas self-published writers get most of whatever a book sells for.

New platforms and ways of sharing work are increasing the viability and democratisation of the industry. Substack’s fiction is thriving (although some discoverability options need tweaking), with writers serialising work reminiscent of how Dickens and Conan Doyle found fame. Other places like BookTok, Royal Road and Wattpad are changing how work is shared and popularised.

As discussed, if huge fame is achieved, some writers might be tempted, for various reasons, to pursue a more traditional route. However, others reject that path because it is more viable to go it alone.

Additionally, new options are appearing, such as online publishers and smaller digital publications that help with all the hassles some dislike, such as marketing, editing, and formatting. Many of the jobs done by publishers can now be more easily outsourced, meaning that after an initial outlay, authors keep more profits.

So, is digital self-publishing the new slush pile, an alternative viable route for a writing career, or the death knell of traditional publishing?

Is it replacing the slush pile? Yes and no. It is probably best described as a new additional pile that benefits writers who want a book deal and publishers.

When a publisher comes across a new author, they are taking a gamble that the writer will be a success that recoups the outlay of editing, printing, marketing, etc. So they are justified in being cautious with a writer neither they nor the public knows. That guesswork is removed if a rising writer does well in eBook sales. There is an established readership. The publisher and writer can then work together in more of a partnership, hopefully benefitting all parties.

For a writer, the process of having your book discovered has become more democratised with eBook rankings and reviews. That sneaking suspicion that whoever was reading the slush pile the day your book joined the twenty or thirty other hopeful manuscripts was feeling ill or not in the mood is now removed. If people like your work, they will say so. If you do well and hit the digital best-seller lists, an agent or publisher will likely approach you. Now you’ll have more leverage for the upcoming deal, should you want one.

Traditional approaches are no longer the default and aren’t for everyone.

But many no longer want that kind of deal and are happy to be more in control. And that is now a totally viable option that wasn’t really there a couple of decades ago. Some will see the benefit of the traditional author/agent/publisher dynamic, while others are trying new approaches and platforms and see publishers as a hindrance.

Whatever you think of either path, there are now more options.

As for digital publishing being the death knell of traditional publishing – no, it isn’t. Journalists have to make a living, and predicting the end of publishing houses sold a lot of articles back in the day. However, the articles have mostly dried up as the industry reached a new equilibrium. Some prefer print books, some eBooks, and some don’t care. There is some evidence that digital reading is on the rise and print is in decline, but publishers are still a major force in both.

Personally, I buy around 40% print, and the rest is digital. Publishing houses will benefit from both, as will authors.

The industry is adapting, and publishers have lost some of their power – a situation most people would see as a positive. There is still no ‘best route to publication’ – there are just more options. That can only be a good thing.