The current book-publishing market is a learning experience for us all. It is so constantly changing and growing.

Ten years ago it might have been true that your best bet would be to get a contract with a traditional publisher.  As an alternative you could self-publish, and that realm was taking off, but to many authors self-publishing was definitely second-best.

Today it would be hard to prove that traditional publishing is the best way to go public with your book, because the advantages of self-publishing have become so strong. And they seem to strengthen monthly.

One of the leading advantages of traditional publishing once was that after you had been chosen by a publisher, the publisher would market and sell your book. For a new author, who might be shy and retiring (and who might also have a day job) this was no small benefit. But today, even with a traditional publishing contract in your hand, you will be required to promote your book yourself.  We all have to get used to it: we will be marketing our own books.

Given that change, the other advantages of self-publishing begin to look awfully good: ownership of all rights, including e-publishing, foreign, and audio rights; much higher income from each book sold; and a shorter runway to publication.

I couldn’t say exactly when the balance tipped to make self-publishing so strong an alternative. But this is a sea change that now affects everything in book publishing, including what the public has available to read and how soon. And it has a lot of bearing on the decisions of authors and aspiring authors.