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Originally Posted by Lemurion
There's no such thing as a "traditional publisher," that's a term invented by a rip-off house in Frederick, Maryland. The proper term is "commercial publisher."
The other thing to remember is that even though the system is grievously flawed, it still does a better job of transferring money from readers to writers than any other system, overall. Commercial publishers pay in advance, and get books into bookstores. For most writers, that translates into more money.
Yes, an independent hit makes the writer far more money; the catch is that it's exponentially more difficult to get that hit.
The authors who really benefit most from independent publishing are those who built up a name with the commercial publishers, then went indie with their backlist. They have the name recognition, which builds demand, so when they do go indie they already have the audience.
Truthfully, there's plenty of room for both approaches and there's no reason to say that one is universally better than the other for all writers.
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Using the term commercial or traditional makes no difference. Most people think of the traditional publishing and distribution of books when using "traditional", long standing practices.
The term commercial to me just indicates you are for profit and there may be a difference in scale of operation. Traditional and Commercial publishing for most people are the same thing, rip off companies like Publish America are not traditional or commercial. Any true publisher doesn't charge you to publish your book. Self publishing services that sell editing, printing, formatting serivices are not publishers though some people seem to think they are.