I thought a lot about my next upcoming book, How to Win Friends and Influence Magicians, and what I was going to do about publishing. It was long enough to be accepted by publishers, so should I go Traditional? I was feeling pretty bummed about my lack of success with my indie sales, and wondering what to do about it. Also, we are dipping into our personal finances to pay for editing, etc. but I’m not paying that back.

Pros for Traditional Publishing:

• I could conceivably put in $0 for writing and submitting to publishers, with the right group. (no editing ahead of time, which is risky, and with one that accepts digital submissions).
• I would get their expertise and possibly their sales channels.
• I would get paid so I could be not sucking money out of our finances.

Cons for Traditional Publishing:

• I would lose all rights to my manuscript
• I would have to wait until accepted, then wait until they published it–delayed gratification–possibly years.
• I would have to change the book to their specifications.
• I would have to accept their terms and would be limited by the deal I originally made.
• My work would be priced by them, not by me, so I would have no say in how much it would cost my readers to read my work.
• I might be required to do more than online promotion, which would take time away from my family.
• I really want to self-publish because I enjoy it.

So after talking to my hubby, we decided to keep self-publishing for now. Money speaks loudly but not more than time and convenience.

I was feeling really moody about the decision still until I read an article by another self-published author who said that she wasn’t really getting steady sales until 2 or 3 years after she started. That opened my eyes a bit. I have been “published” for only 6 months! I’ve been blogging for only a year, and really my whole platform is only a year old. I don’t need to be fretting about low sales yet. So I’m not going to.

How to Win Friends and Influence Magicians will be published by me this summer!