Many people still hold the belief that, as purveyors of “the greatest literary works,” traditional publishers will do (and have always done) all the work for their authors. The same people believe traditional publishers carefully select only the “crème de la crème” of writers to work with—the sure sellers that will guarantee a profit—so those authors will never have to actively sell their own books. Many also believe they’ll earn more money publishing through a traditional publisher than they will if they self-publish. These are falsehoods, plain and simple. I’m unsure why these beliefs persist to this day. But here are 2 important details about traditional publishing that every author needs to know.

Important Detail #1: Copyright Ownership

As the original creator of your manuscript, you own 100 percent of all the rights to reproduce, publish, sell, and distribute your words in whatever manner you see fit. Your manuscript belongs to you and you alone—from the moment you write it. It’s only when you publish the work that some or all of your copyright ownership may shift to someone else. It depends on which publication method you choose. In other words, you can take a few different routes toward having your work published. Each of these publishing methods affects your copyright ownership a little differently.

Unfortunately, many authors unwittingly grant all their exclusive rights to a publisher without understanding the implications of doing so. As a result, these individuals usually retain only basic rights. They are recognized as the author of the work, and they are paid only a small percentage in royalties. The publisher keeps the rest of the profits because the publisher owns the copyright.

Download the above book free of charge for more details on how to protect your copyright and improve your own profit margin. It’s more important than you may realize.

Important Detail #2: Book Retailing

You may think that the major publishing houses with the larger budgets are able to spend more money on promoting and selling all their books. In fact, they watch their spending very closely:

As soon as a book shows signs that it’s going to take off, the sales, marketing and publicity operations mobilize behind it and look for ways to support it with extra advertising, trying to get more radio and TV appearances, extending the author’s tour or putting together a new tour to cities where the book is doing particularly well, and so on.

…the sales, marketing and publicity operations are geared and resourced in such a way that, when they see that a fire is starting to ignite, they are able to pour generous quantities of fuel on the flames. … But if further appeals fall on deaf ears and sales fail to pick up, then the marketing and publicity effort will be wound up pretty quickly – ‘In two to three weeks we might pull the plug,’ … So how long does a book have out there in the marketplace to show signs of life? How many weeks before it becomes a dead fish that will be left to float downstream? … I would say the life of a book today is about six weeks. And quite frankly it’s even shorter than that, but you probably have six weeks and that’s it. (Merchants of Culture, 2012)

So, your book has a mere six-week shelf life with the corporate trade publishers? Yikes! There must be a better way, right? I believe there is. Download the above book free of charge for more details on that better way. It’s also important to your success.

2 Important Details About Traditional Publishing

To succeed in this industry, it’s important to educate yourself about how the system works. The above two books can be downloaded free of charge from your choice of three different ecommerce sites. Download and read them for a better understanding on how this industry operates.

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