Self vs. Traditional Publishing

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

I'm doing some research for a class and the subject is traditional versus self-publishing. I wanted to have a topic about it and see what some thoughts are from people who may have personal experience with it.

I've seen some of the basic ideas for why traditional publishing works better for some and self-publishing for others, but I want to see if anyone here had any thoughts. 

I'm not sure how great the poll is I made, but any insight you have would be welcome.

Edited May 21 by Lord Gregorio

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Lord Gregorio said:

I'm doing some research for a class and the subject is traditional versus self-publishing.

Your question three needs a third option: Situationally Dependant.

If you need/want research resources, I recommend "Think Like a Publisher" by Dean Wesley Smith for insights into Indie Publishing considerations and information. 

Also, recent articles/interviews with Matt Dinniman may yield insight as he has just transitioned after over a decade of self-publishing (primarily Kindle Unlimited); so his stand-alone Operation Bounce House was Traditional-Publishing-only while his series Dungeon Crawler Carl was Self-published and recently reprinted under Ace (PRH) with traditional publishing (see below):

Spoiler

Hope that helps

Edited May 20 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Your question three needs a third option: Situationally Dependant.

If you need/want research resources, I recommend "Think Like a Publisher" by Dean Wesley Smith for insights into Indie Publishing considerations and information. 

Also, recent articles/interviews with Matt Dinniman may yield insight as he has just transitioned after over a decade of self-publishing (primarily Kindle Unlimited); so his stand-alone Operation Bounce House was Traditional-Publishing-only while his series Dungeon Crawler Carl was Self-published and recently reprinted under Ace (PRH) with traditional publishing (see below):

  Reveal hidden contents

Hope that helps

That definitely helps, thanks. I'll look into that book and some articles/interviews. I was trying to think of self-published books that I've heard of without just Googling it, and forgot about Dungeon Crawler Carl. 
I agree that I probably should have put a third option for my last question, or change the question. 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Lord Gregorio said:

I agree that I probably should have put a third option for my last question, or change the question. 

You should be able to edit the poll by editing the first post. 

[Frustration]

Personally I've looked into both.

Traditional publishing has a great deal more marketing potential, however I've become more concerned lately with the amount of influence they can have on the book and its success. I recently spoke with another church member who works as an editor, and they warned me that if you go with traditional publishing you have to beware the cultural Babylon that's dominant there.

Self-publishing avoids a lot of these issues, but as a result you have to fight for marketing the entire time.

 

I'm still not sure what I plan to go with short term. Long term I want to start an independent publishing company, which will give me a lot more control over the process while also helping to break the stranglehold the big companies have on the industry.

Edited Friday at 01:41 AM by Frustration

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

11 hours ago, Frustration said:

Personally I've looked into both.

Traditional publishing has a great deal more marketing potential, however I've become more concerned lately with the amount of influence they can have on the book and its success. I recently spoke with another church member who works as an editor, and they warned me that if you go with traditional publishing you have to beware the cultural babylon that's dominant there.

Self-publishing avoids a lot of these issues, but as a result you have to fight for marketing thr entire time.

 

I'm still not sure what I plan to go with short term. Long term I want to start an independant publishing company, which will give me a lot morr control over the process while also helping to break the stranglehold the big companies have on the industry.

Those are some valid thoughts, thanks.

[Frustration]

13 minutes ago, Lord Gregorio said:

Those are some valid thoughts, thanks.

Anytime.

What're you working on?

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

Just now, Frustration said:

Anytime.

What're you working on?

I'm writing for one of my college classes. We're basically supposed to discover what we want to do with ourselves (career-wise). I've been debating whether to do self-publishing and do writing as a "side-gig" or to focus more on it. This essay on self-publishing versus traditional is supposed to help with that decision. It's a persuasive paper of sorts, so my thesis is basically, "self-publishing is a better option for me" generalized to "self-publishing is a better option for people who don't want to focus entirely on writing because of risks...etc". It's a little bit of an odd essay.

[NameIess]

On 5/28/2026 at 9:45 AM, Frustration said:

Personally I've looked into both.

Traditional publishing has a great deal more marketing potential, however I've become more concerned lately with the amount of influence they can have on the book and its success. I recently spoke with another church member who works as an editor, and they warned me that if you go with traditional publishing you have to beware the cultural Babylon that's dominant there.

Self-publishing avoids a lot of these issues, but as a result you have to fight for marketing the entire time.

 

I'm still not sure what I plan to go with short term. Long term I want to start an independent publishing company, which will give me a lot more control over the process while also helping to break the stranglehold the big companies have on the industry.

What are you writing?

[Frustration]

Just now, NameIess said:

What are you writing?

All sorts of things. Right now a short story about ninjas, and despite what my writing group calls it, it isn't a Ninjago rip off. They have lightsabers. The rules for the contest I'm working on submitting it for say it has to have a maximum of 9 pages, I think it'll probably be closer to 12 but I'll look into cutting it down later.

At the same time I'm outlining a mesoamerican inspired epic fantasy, but that one has a lot of problems still.

[Mint11 she/her]

On 5/28/2026 at 9:45 AM, Frustration said:

Traditional publishing has a great deal more marketing potential, however I've become more concerned lately with the amount of influence they can have on the book and its success. I recently spoke with another church member who works as an editor, and they warned me that if you go with traditional publishing you have to beware the cultural Babylon that's dominant there.

what do you mean by cultural Babylon? I'm not familiar with that expression

[Frustration]

6 minutes ago, Mint11 said:

what do you mean by cultural Babylon? I'm not familiar with that expression

It's Church lingo.

Basically in the Old Testament Babylon is used as a symbolic representation both for the glory of the world, and for the sins of the world, due to the city of Babylon being one of the wealthiest as well as most morally bankrupt cities in the world at that time.

Used as I did it means that there is a culture that permits and spreads moral impurity, greed or has a corrupting influence.

Edited Saturday at 02:05 PM by Frustration