In a recent post I took a pretty big swing at the marketing value of traditional publishers. I softened that by saying that I believe traditional publishers still provide a great deal of value to authors. I feel I should back that up, especially since betaing still has a stronger association with indie publishing.

What are the benefits of going traditional?

Traditional publishers have their supply chain locked down. When it comes to physical books, they are the masters of the manufacturing and distribution model that humans have been using for over a century. This includes printing, distribution, storage, and inventory management.

Production

True understanding and mastery of the printing process is a deep skill set. Take interiors, for example: knowing about paper stocks, brightness and thread count, being able to pull out a book full of paper and ink samples and know where to get them, and then slipping into talking about binding and ink options and how it will all affect the price per book? That’s impressive.

Covers are a complicated beast of their own. For paperbacks there are card stocks, varied printing methods and different types of coating before you get to things like embossing or special inks. Essential tools, ones normal people rarely see, like the pantone color guide are expensive to buy and specific in their usage. Print on Demand services limit the number of options because it would be too much for normal people to effectively use.

Then there is the complicated process of setting initial print runs and getting them where they need to be. Most books are printed outside of the US. The books have to be printed and ordered months before they are released, because the books get put on a boat then have to get through customs and finally split up between storage, retailers, and distributors like Ingram before they arrive on shelves.

Distribution and Money Matters

Once a book gets onto the shelf and starts selling, tracking those sales, making sure you have copies ready for restocking, and watching to know when to reorder requires careful observation and planning. This is no small task.

So it is no surprise that all of the above requires tons of cash, and the timing of all those bills coming due is also something that most authors need traditional publishers for. Printing, international and domestic shipping, customs brokers, all usually have to be paid for before the books hit the shelves.

This all requires mountains of paperwork that have to be handled just right to make sure all the books get to where they need to go.

The final thing that has to be mentioned is that bookstores buy books on a returnable basis. That means if they like a book they may commit to 800, 1400, 5000, or more copies and pay the publisher for those books. The books arrive and the bookstore gives them some time on the shelf. Based on their internal practices they will assess the book’s performance and one of two things will happen: reorder or return.

After multiple reorders an author may start to exceed their advance and make more money off their book. When books are returned they go back to the warehouse and the publisher sends the bookstore back whatever money is owed for the returned copies and the author still doesn’t have to return their advance. In the best case scenario those books sit in the warehouse and other sales avenues pick up and the print run sells through into a second run. But that doesn’t always happen.

Final Thoughts

Notice something about everything I just mentioned? It is concerned exclusively with the manufacture and handling of physical books. It isn’t surprising that traditional publishers are great at that and at having the funds to manage the system they created to serve their business. They still lag behind indie publishers in the digital space because, at least for the time being, they see digital as a secondary market they can add on to their primary business of physical printing.

There is no judgement associated with that observation but it should be said that at this point indie and traditional publishing remain such divergent models that it might be more helpful to think of books as the “natural resource” that two different businesses use to make money.

Why mention any of the above? The oppositional attitude between traditional publishing and indie publishing seems to be shrinking but it still exists. I still wander into conversations where people are snooty or dismissive of certain publishing paths. The internet being the natural habitat of the indie author you get a lot of talk that leans that way, and there are certainly great opportunities for authors who decide to self-publish. It is not the only path for an author.

For a huge number of writers, the experience of walking into a bookstore and finding their book on the shelf is far more valuable than any amount of money. If that is you, then the traditional publishing route is not something you should dismiss. It is also not without support and financial benefits. I would still urge you to read our recent post about the current state of marketing in traditional publishing but if trad is for you there is nothing wrong with that.