Why bother getting a publisher?

There are a lot of talented authors who decide to self publish for many reasons. Some want all the profits for themselves. Some are not interested in playing the painful games required to get an agent and/or publisher. Some just want the book to support their business ventures/speaking engagements and self-publishing is quicker and lucrative.

Publishers do more than just print a book. Some are better at marketing than others, and frankly, being a lower rung author at a large house can sometimes leave you wanting for more attention. But merely by accepting a book for publication, a press has put their name behind your product and made it eligible for lines of distribution that self-publishing simply cannot do.

I will talk more of distribution later, but essentially it is how your book gets put out there. Where have you seen a book outside of amazon? How it got there is distribution. And publishers have relationships that get your book noticed.

There is also the quality issue. I had a private editor work with me through the writing process. I had talented people read it for me for further edits. And yet, once the publisher's editors got their hands on it, it was riddled with errors. When a book is professionally published, the quality improves. And so, it is worth more than the .99 or 2.99 price tag of straight to kindle self-published books.

This is not a criticism of self-pub books. Many are of high quality, as Goodreads reviews have shown. However, as a reader, a professionally published book means it is has been selected through a rigorous process, and is much more polished. I would not ignore the self-pubs but as in all things worth having, you get what you pay for.

Schizo: Hidden in Plain Sight