Elf's Random Musings

I've personally always viewed traditional publishing to be superior. The reward can be great and the risk is minimum.

However I would say it depends largely on how confident the author is in their own abilities. You may very well have a shot to become known and further your career, giving a spring board to further non-traditional publishing or if it is successful enough, a boot in the door with traditional publishing should you later lean toward it.

Now if you are confident in your own abilities and the work that has come from them I would recommend traditional publishing. While it has happened before, if something is released and while good doesn't get much exposure (For instance due to poor or inexperienced promotion.), it is unlikely to ever get the chance for a more traditional and profitable release.

So do you think you can compete in the traditional system? If not, why? Mind you their is no shame in just not being ready or taking what you view as an easer path but it will likely never be as profitable for much more work, while putting at risk what could be a great work.

Part of the thing is that traditional publishing, due to the current market, is slowly dying. Waldenbooks and Borders died. Barnes and Noble is actually in trouble.

Then there's stuff like "Wool" and the Fifty Shades Series getting a bunch of sales and they were published on line and e-book form first.

Self-publishing doesn't carry the stigmata that it did ten or even five years ago. In this current age of consumption, people are wanting more entertainment now. Not to mention traditional publishers can't keep up with that demand.

And traditional publishers generally don't do shit in promoting a new author. They really don't. They pay that sort of money for big names and best sellers. If you're just starting out, even with a traditional publisher, it is up to the author to promote their work.

I mean, I'd love to be published by a big publisher like Tor or Penguin. However, no matter how good my story is or the fact that it has an audience, won't even get in the door unless I have an agent. That's the tricky part; nailing an agent is really freaking hard to do.

And can cost a lot of money. (Most genre authors admit that they got their agent by meeting them at a convention after being denied several times through paper communication.)

While I will give you that you are correct on the things you've said. You wouldn't be asking the question if you were going for a sure bet and I'm sure you know that a thousand different criticisms can be thrown every which way.

I will give one thing to tradition publishing that self doesn't have. If you fail at traditional publishing for whatever reason, from being unable to get an agent to bad politicking, you can always go self publishing later. However the reverse isn't always true and I could only recommend it wholly if I knew the person was 100% confident in their work. Are you? Go for it if you are.

to be very honest, I would not mind investing into your book, but I'd have to see what kind of figures, and the timing of it.