The Biggest Misconceptions About Publishing a Book
- Jenna Moreci
- Mar 17
- 7 min read
HelloOoOo everybody!
Today we're doing a topic request. One of my patrons over on Patreon, Serron, wanted me to cover the biggest misconceptions about the publishing industry. So that's what we're doing.
Before we get started, a few definitions for clarity. Traditional publishing refers to publishing a book or novel through a publishing house. That means an institution like Penguin Random House or Macmillan Publishers acquires your book and publishes it for you. Self-publishing or indie publishing means that the author is publishing the book themselves. They are utilizing platforms like IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, or Amazon KDP to make their book available for purchase to the masses.
I’m a hybrid author, which means some of my books are self-published, and some of my books are traditionally published. So I'm speaking on this topic based on research and personal experience. A vanity press is a company that charges writers thousands of dollars to publish their book for them. Everything I cover in this video will be in regard to either self-publishing or traditional publishing. I will not be covering vanity presses because they're essentially a scam.
On to the publishing misconceptions!
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Number 1: If Your Book Didn’t Sell at Least a Million Copies, It Wasn’t a Success
According to data from 2018, out of the over 500,000 books that are published each year, fewer than 20 of them will sell a million copies. That means it's technically possible to sell a million copies, but less than 1% of authors do this. When I first began researching the publishing industry ten years ago, the average book sold 5,000 copies in its lifetime, and the average book's lifetime was two years.
Data today shows that this figure has gone down. Now, the average book only sells 3,000 copies in its lifetime. That means that by industry standards, if you sell over 3,000 copies of your book in two years, you're doing better than the average author. And the standard figure the industry uses to define a very successful book is selling 10,000 copies. As you can see, this figure is nowhere near 1 million copies because that almost never happens.
It's also important to note that success is subjective. Some authors feel they're successful if they're able to make a profit from their book. Some define success as hitting a bestseller list, and other authors define success as being able to support themselves off their earnings. But if you're basing success on a single book selling a million copies, you're probably never going to be successful. At least statistically speaking.
Number 2: Self-Publishing Is a Backup Option if You Can’t Land a Traditional Publishing Contract
Before the year 2005, this might have been true, but for the last 20 years or so, self-publishing has become a viable option that has yielded major success for a lot of authors. Self-published novels are hitting the New York Times bestseller lists. They're selling hundreds of thousands of copies, and they're making some authors millionaires. As of this year, self-published authors have a lot of the same opportunities as traditionally published authors, as well as a greater range of decision-making freedom.
And while I'm not going to break down the pros and cons of self-publishing versus traditional publishing, the biggest benefit of self-publishing is that authors can potentially make a lot of money. They receive up to 70% royalties per e-book sold, compared to the usual 25% royalties per e-book sold in the traditional publishing route.
This is not my way of saying self-publishing is better than traditional publishing. I like them both for different reasons. What I am saying is that self-publishing is a calculated business decision, based on your goals as an author, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. Writers aren't self-publishing because they can't get a publisher. At least smart writers don't do this. They're self-publishing because they believe it's the best publishing route to suit their needs. Basically, if you’re turning your nose up to self-published books because you think they just couldn't land a contract, you're about 20 years behind. The odds are that the author's choice to self-publish was a well-thought-out business decision.
Number 3: Self-Publishing Is Easy
“You just write a book and throw it online, right?”
I mean, technically, you can do that if you don't care if anyone ever reads it. But the biggest negative to self-publishing is that it's a lot harder than traditional publishing, at least if you're doing it right. If you want to properly self-publish a novel that's of good quality and that will reach the correct target audience, you're going to have to go through roughly a million steps. Including, but not limited to:
Writing the book
Enlisting beta readers and critique partners
Hiring at least one, but most likely 2 or 3 professional editors
Formatting the book for e-book, paperback, and hardback
Hiring a professional designer to create covers for all of those formats
Copywriting the book
Researching publishing and distribution platforms
Choosing the ones that best suit your business needs, and then uploading to said platforms
Blurbs
Keywords
SEO
Price selection
Ordering and approving proof copies
And so much more.
This is not an exhaustive list. I haven't even touched on marketing or audiobooks. But my personal self-publishing spreadsheet has 47 steps. If you'd like a post on self-publishing steps, let me know in the comments below.
My point is, if you're doing this with the intention of being seen and regarded as a professional, self-publishing is hard. I have done both self-publishing and traditional publishing, and I can honestly say that self-publishing is way more work. This is not my way of saying traditional publishing is better than self-publishing. Again, it totally depends on what works best for you.
Number 4: Writers Have To Pitch Their Books to Publishing Houses in Order To Get Published
If you send your book to a publishing house, there's a 99% chance that they won't even read it. That's because that’s not how pitching works. And if you can't follow simple instructions, especially instructions that have existed for decades, you're probably not a good investment. If you want to land a traditional publishing contract, you first need to query agents. This basically means that you will research and contact literary agents and ask them to represent you.
Querying is a whole song and dance. Every agent has a list of steps for you to complete in order to contact them. So read that list and do what it says. Once you find an agent, they will contact the publishing house on your behalf. And they'll usually do this by submitting your work to editors who work for those publishing houses.
Is this a long and often tedious system? Yes. But it exists to weed out bad writing or, more commonly, unmarketable writing. Billions of people want to publish a book, and most of those books suck. And the ones that are decent aren't always marketable. Publishing houses can't sit around and read billions of manuscripts. It's just not feasible. But if an author lands an agent, that means someone credible believes in either their talent or their marketability or both, and that means something. Of course, like every industry, there's built-in gatekeeping and systemic biases, but that's a topic for another video. The point is, if you submit your manuscript to a publishing house without an agent, the odds are heavily stacked against you.
Number 5: It’s a Publishing House’s Job To Market Your Book
I've said it once, and I'll say it a thousand more times. Going traditional doesn’t guarantee marketing power. Only two things will guarantee you marketing power. One is if you're already a famous author or celebrity, and the other is if you market yourself. And no matter which publishing route you take, you are going to have to market yourself if you want to sell your book.
Here's the deal. Publishing is a business, and marketing costs money. Publishers are going to allocate most of their spending on assets that are low risk and high reward. That means if you’re “Brando Sando” or Sarah J. Maas, you are going to get a ton of marketing power. Because they could write a book titled Poop from My Butt, and people would buy it solely because their name is on the cover. But if you're a complete unknown, you're probably going to get very little marketing because there's been very little indication to show that you’re marketable or sellable. Ultimately, unless you're someone like Stephen King, a publishing house is going to expect you to market yourself, at least in some way.
I have almost 300,000 followers on YouTube, and I was still expected to market myself. Yes, my publishing house did provide me with more marketing power than the average writer, because I have a larger platform than the average writer. But I marketed my traditionally published book just as much as I marketed my self-published books.
All this means is that if you are getting into the gig thinking that you are going to publish your book, sit back and watch the sales roll in, you're delusional. You're going to have to market your book no matter which publishing route you take because your odds of getting the Nora Roberts treatment are slim.
So that's all I've got for you today!
If you'd like me to cover even more publishing misconceptions in future videos, let me know in the comments below. And if you’d like a topic dedicated to you, check out my Patreon tiers!
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Self-published my first book two years ago thinking a good cover and some ads would make it take off. Reality hit hard—marketing is endless, sales trickle in slowly, and most "overnight success" stories hide years of quiet work. Jenna's post nailed those myths I fell for myself. While shopping for better home internet to handle large file uploads, skimmed some xfinity reviews. Realistic take; publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. Worth the grind if you love the process.