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Commercial publishing is preferable to self-publishing for a variety of reasons. There are some occasions where self-publishing is a good option, but in most cases, commercial publishing is better.

First, commercial publishing is selective; while it is not true that every book commercially published is a great work of literature, nor that every self-published book is awful, there is a definite tendency for commercial books to be of higher quality-simply because there is a relatively objective selection process, besides the author's (often inflated) self-esteem. If you can't make it into a commercial publisher, that may be a sign that your book just isn't very good!

Second, there is a LOT more money in commercial publishing. Vastly more. The reason for this is simple: marketing. Self-published books are hard to get into bookstores, hard to get reviewed. In some cases it's even difficult to set up book signings. Publishers have deep pockets to cover these expenses, and in some cases, even large-scale promotional deals and advertising programs.

To show the advantages of large-scale marketing, here's a bit of math.

Suppose that on each copy of a self-published book, you make $10.00. That would be quite good; usually you only make about half that. But I'll be generous.

Realistically, you only have so many hours in a day; so you can probably sell about 1,000 copies in a year. That's $10,000 per year. Not too unreasonable, but not enough to quit your day job.

Now, suppose that you have a commercially-published book; on each copy you make $0.50. Sounds like a lot less, doesn't it? It is; in many ways, publisher's fees are a tad unfair. But here's why they can get away with it.

That publisher has millions of dollars to spend on marketing, so if it thinks you're good enough to be worth spending on, you can easily sell 100,000 or even 1,000,000 copies in a year. That's $50,000 to $500,000-in other words, a darn good salary.

Don't think 100,000 people would want to read your book? Think again. There are about 2 billion English speakers in the world today; if even 1 in 10,000 of these buys your book, you've sold over 200,000 copies and made six figures. (On the other hand, hawking it around your hometown of 100,000 would result in only 10 sales.) Authorship is an economics of scale.

A third reason for going commercial is simple credibility. Literally anyone, of whatever ability, can self-publish. Commercial publishers have standards to be met, and even the most shady require at least basic literacy skills. Having the imprint of a major publishing house is like having a diploma from a prestigious university; it shows that you were good enough to be selected over many others. Credibility improves reviews and draws readers.

Give commercial publishers a chance; it sucks to be rejected, but it's usually worth it in the long run.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Julius.
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