[Keryl Raist]

I'm also an indie who never went the trad route. For me it's a simple cost benefits analysis. I already know I'm not the next JK Rowling or Charlaine Harris. The book's too big, too R-rated, and the ending isn't happy. So, given that I already know I don't have a mega bucks market, what value does a publisher offer me?

Hmm... Well, the ability to get reviewed in more places. "Free" editing and cover design. Brick and mortar store presence.

The review thing has some value. But once again, I already know the New York Times, the New Yorker, Oprah, and the rest of the big players aren't going to review my book even if I was traditionally published. And while it would be nice to get into the second tier of reviewers, they aren't the kinds of reviews that drive tens of thousands of sales.

"Free" editing and cover design is really a loan. The publisher loans you x number of dollars, plus edits, plus a cover. You then pay it back at whatever percentage of your earnings the publisher keeps. And unlike most loans, where, once you've repaid your loan you're done, with the publisher, you're never done. They keep taking their percentage until your book goes out of print. Now, granted, it's possible to end up with the book not earning back the money the publisher gives you, but that's not precisely the ending anyone is hoping for.

Brick and mortar is certainly of value. That value dwindles each day as ebook become a larger and larger presence on the market, but it's still valuable. However, that value can be easily over-estimated. I've read in numerous places that the average trad published book sells 3000 copies. With the number of blockbusters out there, that means there's a huge number of books that sit on a shelf in a bookstore for six weeks, no one picks them up, and then to the remainder table they go.

Now, onto the costs side: Time, royalties, rights, and control.

Time: Time breaks down in several ways. First off the time spent finding an agent, then finding a publisher, then getting the book up to their specs. That's very possibly four years, maybe even more. Maybe less. As an indie I can take four years and get four additional books out. (Two novels, two novellas)

Time is also the time spent publicizing the book. I'll have to invest the same amount of time on marketing my book either way, so I may as well get a greater return on my time by going indie.

Which gets us to royalties. Hmmm... 35% on my creatspace physical book, 60-85% on the ebook depending on where I'm selling it. Versus, what 5-10% on a physical book and 25% on the ebook? Since I already know I'm looking at a smallish market, this is a no brainer.

Rights. I write fantasy, and though it's unlikely to happen to me because I've got a small market, it's still possible that if you sell your rights to the publisher, they can do whatever they like to your characters. Especially in fantasy you see this happen. You create characters that take off, and next thing you know there's a huge pile of other books based on those characters doing things you don't want them doing. Now, I've got no problem with fan fiction. Everyone knows it isn't part of the cannon. I've got a whole different set of issues when your publisher decides to farm your characters out to other writers.

Control over the project. I don't have golden word syndrome, more than 20% of the first draft got cut out, and all of it was significantly modified by the time the final draft was ready. But I do want control over my project. I didn't want to try and shoehorn it into a happy ending. I didn't want to tone down the sex. I didn't want a cover with a brooding hero looking longingly at the heroine and some sort of Loins of Passion title. I really didn't want to have to try and shove it into one genre or another.

So, by my calculus the benefits on indie publishing outweighed the benefits from going trad.