Navigating Traditional vs Self-Publishing

As an author with 25 traditionally published children’s books and four self-published passion projects, I’ve navigated the publishing world for almost 30 years. It’s been a journey with two distinct paths. Both have their own unique charms and challenges, and my experience has shown me there’s a place for both in an author’s career.

The Traditional Path

My publishing journey began the traditional way, working with both big national houses and smaller, boutique publishers. Each brought a different flavor to the process, from their editorial vision to their marketing muscle.

With traditional publishing, the publisher handles most of the heavy lifting. They take care of editing, cover design, formatting, printing, distribution, and often a big part of the marketing. This is fantastic for authors (like me) who want to focus on writing and let a team of experts manage the rest.

The trade-off, however, is that you give up some creative control and, notably, a larger chunk of your royalties.

The Indie Adventure

My self-publishing journey through my DBA Plumbago Press started because I wanted to bring my passion projects to life. Books like my anxiety guide for teens and adults, Ease Your Anxious Mind, my young adult novel in verse, The Complete Book of Aspen, and my poetry books, How Do You Haiku and Born of Orange Blossoms , were stories I just had to tell. Self-publishing gave me a direct route to do just that.

For these projects, I’ve primarily used Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark. My clear preference is KDP, mainly because it’s so easy to use and cost-effective. The platform is straightforward, making the whole process, from uploading my manuscript to setting up my book’s details, surprisingly simple.

When it came to creating covers, I’ve had a mixed approach. I’ve used the Pro version of Canva (a worthy annual investment of $114.00), which gives me a ton of creative freedom. You can create a book cover (front, back, and spine for print books and just the front cover for e-books) using a template, but you need to know the exact number of pages of your book so the spine will fit. This is a good link to a website that walks you through the process. For others, I’ve invested in professional covers from a book cover company that has premade covers that you can alter, or they can create something especially for your needs. Just do a quick Google search and you’ll see that there are many wonderful book cover companies available. I use bookcoverzone.com. Their prices are reasonable and they are easy to work with. A book needs to have a compelling visual that grabs a reader’s attention.

If you decide to go the self-publishing route, it’s worth the effort to make your book look as professional as possible. This means having a well-edited manuscript, a professionally designed cover, and proper formatting. First impressions matter, and a polished book signals quality to potential readers. Your hard reader’s hard-earned money and time deserve that.

Set your price by researching similar books in your genre to remain competitive. Avoid “vanity publishers” that require payment—legitimate publishers do not charge authors. If you need illustrations for a picture book, you can hire illustrators on a flat-fee basis instead of sharing royalties.

Royalties

This is often the biggest question when comparing publishing paths, and for good reason! It’s how we get paid for our hard work. Here’s a quick look at the difference:

• Traditional Publishing Royalties: You typically receive a smaller percentage of each book sale. For illustrated children’s books, this can range from about 5% to 15% of the book’s retail price (sometimes net!). The publisher takes a larger cut to cover their costs for everything from editing to distribution. You’ll often receive an advance, which is an upfront payment against your future royalties. Once your book sells enough to “earn out” that advance, you’ll then start receiving royalty payments.
• Self-Publishing Royalties: This is where self-publishing really shines. On platforms like Amazon KDP, you can earn significantly higher royalty rates. For many e-books and print books priced between $.99 and $9.98, KDP offers a 60% royalty rate (minus printing costs). And around 70% of the retail price for books over $9.99. IngramSpark also offers competitive rates, but I’ve found their upstart costs can be pricey (KDP is free to download a book cover and text file), which impacts your final take-home pay. Plus, with IngramSpark, if you want to edit your text or change your cover after the book is published, you’re going to have to pay extra (Platform prices change periodically, so don’t hold me to these figures.:) )

Simply put, with self-publishing, you keep a much larger slice of the pie because you’re taking on the publisher’s role. This means that if you want your book to be successful, you are the one who has to get your book in front of an audience through events, social media, and word of mouth. You can choose the option on any of these self-publishing platforms to obtain “wide distribution,” which means, for a lesser royalty rate to you, they will make your book available to libraries and book distributors. However, that doesn’t mean the the libraries or distributors will pick it up for their shelves it means that libraries and books stores CAN carry your book and they want to, your selecting “wide distribution” gives distributors the option to do so.

Why I Choose Both

My publishing journey has shown me there’s no single “best” path. Traditional publishing offers the prestige, professional support, and broader reach into physical bookstores and libraries that can be harder for an indie author to achieve. It’s truly wonderful to have a whole team behind your book. And because of this, my traditionally published books make me more money.

However, self-publishing offers creative freedom, a faster route to market, and much higher per-book earnings. It’s perfect for those passion projects, niche topics, or experimental works that might not fit a traditional publisher’s list.

Ultimately, the choice between self-publishing and traditional publishing depends on an author’s goals, their comfort level with managing the process, and the specific book itself. For me, it’s about leveraging the strengths of both worlds to bring my stories to as many readers as possible.