Before we get to the results of this year’s poll, first, the caveats.
This is unscientific, the poll audience changes from year to year and, because I’m a former literary agent known for my advice on query letters in particularly, the traditional crowd is probably over-represented relative to the book world as a whole.
Still… it’s an interesting snapshot!
Here’s the history, followed by my analysis:
2013:
2014:
2015:
2016:
(Forgot the poll this year)
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
And, finally….. 2021:
So how to make sense of these results? One of the best ways to think about this is to look at the people who are trying traditional first, either because they’re only considering traditional or will try traditional and then consider self- or hybrid publishing if they don’t find a taker.
Here are those results broken out by year for the traditional first crowd:
2013: 67%
2014: 66%
2015: 67%
2016: oops
2017: 70.8%
2018: 71.3%
2019: 67.1%
2020: 63.4%
2021: 68.6%
It’s… pretty stable, with last year being an exception where there was a dip in people who were traditional first.
This tracks my anecdotal experience, where I feel these ebbs and flows around publishing paths. People get excited about new developments around self-publishing and hybrid publishing, and they maybe go through the process of self-publishing a book or three, but traditional publishing continues to retain a strong gravitational pull, similar to the way print books keep holding on even after the hype around e-books.
What do you make of these results?
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Art: Printers by Abraham Bosse
Neil Larkins says
Even with the results possibly being skewed because of your specialty, Nathan, I’m a bit surprised that traditional has kept its lead. There are so many companies pushing self-publishing, and there seems to be hundreds of successful self-published authors doing blogs about it, and seminars to teach how to do it, that one (me) would think that self was king. Interesting.
Ernie Zelinski says
I recall about 10 years ago many crackpots on the so-called “indie” publishing blogs and websites were ranting and raving that “Print Is Dead!” and professing how their eBook publishing ventures through Amazon were going to drive traditional publishers out of business.
In fact, at the time there was a program being sold for around $299 by one of the so-called books experts and the enticement was for authors to create their own self-publishing empires through Kindle. Around 6,000 people signed up, including me but I got a refund within the 30 day period. One of the taglines used in the marketing was “Print Is Dead.” I challenged these delusional deadbeats about print being dead and their ability to drive traditional publishers out of business. Interestingly, most of these CFGBs (Certified Full Goose Bozos) have fallen off the radar screen, never to be heard from again.
Even though my books (which have sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide) are mainly self-published, I am pleased to see that that traditional publishers are still doing fine and print sales are holding their own. I am also pleased that the vast majority (at least 97 percent) of those “cool” indies and newbies were total failures at the game of self-publishing, never having made more than $100 in their writing careers.
The key to success whether through self-publishing or traditional publishing, is to have great books, ones that are better
than the competition. Another secret is to do many things related to marketing that the competition is not doing.
Fact is, there are no short cuts to being successful at the game of writing and self-publishing. Near as I can tell, most book writing/publishing/marketing “experts” have never had a true bestselling book (one that has sold at least 100,000 copies in print). For the record, I have three true bestselling books (out of 17 that I have written).
I offer these words of wisdom from other knowledgeable people who have inspired me to attain the personal freedom and financial independence that I enjoy today because of my self-publishing ventures:
“Good isn’t good enough.”
— Mark Coker (owner of Smashwords)
“Very Good Is Bad — It’s Not Good Enough!”
— Seth Godin (My favorite Marketing Guru)
“Even the most careful and expensive marketing plans cannot sell people a book they don’t want to read.”
— Michael Korda, former Editor-in-Chief at Simon & Schuster
“The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.”
— Jean de La Bruyére
“The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.”
— Aristotle Onassis
“You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you.”
— Rajesh Setty
“In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.”
— Aristotle
“Books work as an art form (and an economic one) because they are primarily the work of an individual.”
— Seth Godin
“Writing is the hardest way to earn a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.”
— Olin Miller
“Your success and prosperity are too valuable to depend on crowd funding or lottery tickets.”
— Seth Godin
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”
— Christopher Morley
“The amount of money you make will always be in direct proportion to the demand for what you do, your ability to do it, and the difficulty of replacing you.”
— Earl Nightingale
Lady J says
I suspect books are still being printed for the same reason people still buy vinyl or CDs. People just want to hold something tangible in their hands. Holding that book, or cd, or record IS part of the enjoyment of the story or the music. Digital just doesn’t offer the smell of paper, or the satisfaction of physically turning the pages, or the thrill of the hunt. People find reading to be relaxing, and for many people relaxing involves putting the devices down. The book in your hands will never go bing and gnaw away at you until you finally give in to check your messages, because it could be important, but no, it was just someone liking someone else’s picture of their lunch.
I put little stock into what people say will go out of business. The internet was supposed to put the post office out of business, and it is still going strong. If anything, the internet has kept the post office busy. I am sure people will still be getting their mail from the post office and reading physical books long after I am gone. Now if only we could get video rental stores working on a comeback! There’s just something about wandering a rental store on a Friday night and hunting for a movie to watch that streaming services just can’t touch. People who prefer going to libraries and book stores over downloading digital copies of a book know what I’m talking about.