Why I Prefer The Traditional Publishing Route

I have listened to several authors wondering about traditional vs self-publication. I have done both, and for me, there is no question. I prefer traditional. Not just because of the advance, which is admittedly a nice deal. If you self publish, the writing in only step one. Either you perform every additional detail yourself, or you project manage people you hire, and pay, yourself to do those details. Or you can engage with someone calling themselves a publisher and pay them the big bucks to get things done.  Doing things yourself is the only low cost option, but it does require the kind of person who loves managing a bunch of tasks.  

I have never been a controlling person (unless you talk to my daughter). I hate the tiny details, so to me, taking the slow but steady option of having a publisher take control from me once the writing is done is basically a godsend.  

Some observations on how fiction and non-fiction is treated by publishers.

Editing is very different. In both fiction and non-fiction, the editor choses to buy the rights to publish your book largely based on your writing voice and your knowledge of the subject. But in fiction, my editors were always ready to suggest changes, sometimes down to individual paragraphs or even sentences. Lots of changes, all the while telling me my work only needed a “light edit”. I’d really hate to see a heavy edit. 

Some writers worry that a traditional publisher might want them to change their work into something they don't want.  In my experience the editor's only make suggestions, and when I look, they make sense and end up making the story better.  With Courage, for example, the editor suggested I change the last few chapters. Mind you, she did not tell me what to change things too, just stating that she found the ending confusing.

Frankly, she was right. My ending kind of confused me too. Fortunately, months had passed since I first wrote the manuscript, and I was able to look at it through new eyes and see an alternative. If you have ever read Courage, well, just trust me, the published ending beats the original one hands down. There was a chase through an abandoned warehouse while being pursued by a group of thieves and a SWAT team lead by Mr. Cho who had only pretended to be a parole officer, the better to conduct a sting on the criminals and handle his confidential informant, the heroes’ older brother. Like I said, confusing. I really bless the editor for suggesting that be changed.

ALSO - if you are, or know of a teacher, let them know ASAP that WNDB (We Need Diverse Books) is currently doing a back-to-school giveaway. Winning classrooms and organizations will receive one set of books, and Courage is one of the books in the Elementary School / Middle Grade / YA Bundle. They can find more information, and enter to win, at http://ow.ly/tmOG50KcFW4, The giveaway deadline is only a few days away.  

This year, my first non-fiction middle grade book, Unlawful Orders, has been traveling the long and winding road toward traditional publication, a journey that will end when it hits bookshelves in October.  With non-fiction, I think my editor assumed I really was subject matter expert, or an all-knowing wizard. She suggested so few changes I was amazed, mostly only grammar and misspellings. In fact, she let stand something I expected her to change. I used it as much for shock value as anything else and was so confused when she let it slide that I wrote to ask if she was really going to leave that in. I couldn’t believe they were willing leave something so inflammatory on the pages. Since I never really expected that to hit the final version, I ended up editing it out myself. (And no, I won’t tell you what it was.) The fact-checkers did come after me on a few things. Fortunately, most of the time I was a able to tell them, “I know things are different here in the twenty-first century, but back in the 1940’s…” and then point them to references they had missed. That always felt good. Maybe I deserve those wizard robes!

That is an area where traditional publishing makes me happier than self-publishing. Yes, the traditional route takes longer, but they also add value extras like fact-checkers that act like goalkeepers to ensure the information on the pages is accurate. They also handled the book illustrations. In addition to finding the right cover artists, I discovered that my publisher employs people whose job descriptions involve getting permissions to use the dozens of photographs included in the book. No wondering if I can or cannot include the great pictures we chose together.  Plus, the publisher hired someone to format the chapter notes and bibliography once I demonstrated my utter helplessness in that area. They made a good book so much better.

People talk about how little the publishers do for marketing, but that’s not always true. My publisher interviewed me for a group of librarians, the interview is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hlLlI3Y4PA  

In April they had me on an online School Library Journal panel to discuss the book with librarians. They also arranged to send me to the National Council of Teacher’s of English Homecoming conference in July, the first in-person event the organization has held since Covid descended on us. There was no stipend or honorarium, but the company did pay my transportation and lodging.  I had an audience of educators that I hope I thrilled with my talk. They did line up for me to autograph their ARCs, and many stayed to chat with me, a true ego boost.

As an unanticipated plus to the visit, the NCTE Homecoming event was held in Louisville, Kentucky, close enough to my home in Chicago, Illinois for me to drive instead of fly. After everything I have been seeing about airports and flying these days, it was not a difficult decision, although the hours long drive down highway 65 was no picnic. But as I headed south of Indianapolis, I found the name of a town that somehow seemed familiar. Seymour. I wracked my brain trying to figure out why that word kept rolling around inside my head, then suddenly it hit me. Seymour, Indiana was the location of Freeman Field air base during World War II. That is where the unlawful and illegal orders were given to the characters in my newest book.

 

I literally felt like a fangirl. Even though the airfield itself is long gone, I had to leave the highway and enter the town. It was almost a pilgrimage to a place I had not even known existed only a few years earlier. The location where a hundred Tuskegee Airmen took a stand against discrimination in the military and said no to an illegal order. They were willing to risk their lives by that act of mutiny a decade before Rosa Parks refused the order to give up her seat on a bus.

PS, Seymour also happens to be John Cougar Mellencamp's hometown, so I got one extra treat during that detour.