Let's look at both of the options here.
Self-publishing:
1. Market yourself
2. No rejections
3. Set your own royalties (in most cases)
4. Oftentimes sold through major online retailers still, like Amazon
5. Design your own cover work
6. No agent/editor fees (you're doing everything YOURSELF)
7. And lastly, you retain all of your rights to your work.
Traditional approach (sending queries to major agents/publishers):
1. You still market yourself in most cases, but have the help of the agent/publisher as well.
2. Chances of a lot of rejections before acceptance- so there could be quite the waiting period before you are actually ever published, if published.
3. The publisher sets your royalities. Chance of a sign-on bonus as well.
4. Sold in stores and online chains.
5. Agent and editor fees.
6. You may get some say in the design work, but there's a design team so usually your cover and book is designed for you and may not be to your liking.
7. You lose some rights to your work as you are in a contract with the publisher.
I honestly do not have a problem with either form of publishing. In fact, I would even go as far as advising to use BOTH options. There's no harm in it. Self-publishing can be very successful nowadays with all of the social networking (and sites like GoodReads) but at the same time, an aspiring author who also wants to break into the major publishing world could look into the traditional approach- perhaps after even using self-publishing as a form of experience.
What do you think? Would you agree or disagree?
~The Bookaholic
