Ask ten authors how they got published and you will get ten different answers, most of them delivered with a slight wince. The two main routes — traditional and independent — end in the same place: a finished book in a reader's hands. What differs is who pays for it, who decides how it looks, and how long you wait before you hold a copy.

Neither route is the virtuous one. Good books have sold modestly through big houses, and self-published titles have found serious audiences. The useful question is narrower: which route fits this book, your bank balance and your patience?

What Each Route Actually Involves

Traditional publishing usually means finding an agent, who submits your manuscript to editors. If a publisher buys it, they pay an advance, assign an editor, commission a cover, and handle production, distribution, sales and subsidiary rights such as audio or translation. You keep the copyright but license the publisher the right to publish, normally for a set term and set territories.

Independent publishing means you are the publisher. You commission the editor, proofreader, cover designer and typesetter — or do some of those jobs yourself — and arrange distribution through print-on-demand, ebook platforms or a short print run.

The term covers a spectrum, from an author with a laptop and a well-thumbed style guide to a small press with a proper list and a warehouse. There is also a middle path worth knowing: small presses that pay little or no advance but offer genuine editorial and design input and leave the author a larger share of each sale.

Advances: Money Early, Earned Back Later

An advance is not a signing bonus. It is a payment against royalties: the publisher recovers that sum from your future earnings before you receive anything else. If the book never earns out, you keep the advance — that is the publisher's risk — but most contracts will not pay you further royalties until you pass that point.

Advances vary enormously, from a few hundred pounds to sums that make the news. Two things hold true regardless. An agent's commission, typically 15 per cent, comes out of what you are paid. And an advance is not a salary; treat it as a lump sum, not a reason to hand in your notice.

On the independent route there is no advance at all. You carry the upfront costs, and the money arrives later and more slowly — but it arrives without a publisher taking a share first.

Royalties: Where the Difference Compounds

This is where the arithmetic gets interesting, because a bigger advance is not automatically a better deal. What matters is the royalty rate, the basis it is calculated on, and how many copies actually sell.

• Traditional print: the royalty is often a percentage of the retail price, frequently in single figures. Check whether it is calculated on the price the publisher receives or the price the reader pays.
• Traditional ebook: usually a percentage of net receipts rather than the cover price, so the headline figure can mislead.
• Independent ebook: retailers commonly pay between a third and 70 per cent of the list price, depending on the price you set and the territory.
• Independent print: you receive the list price minus printing costs, so your margin depends on page count, trim size and where the book is produced.

Trade publishing pays more to fewer people, and pays it later. Independent publishing pays you more per unit, but only on the copies you manage to sell.

Timelines: Two Very Different Clocks

Traditional publishing moves to a seasonal rhythm. Querying takes months. Submission to publishers takes months more. From signed deal to publication date, expect a year or more, because your book is being slotted into a catalogue alongside everyone else's.

Independent publishing can compress that to a few months, and the temptation to compress it further is real. Resist it. A realistic schedule still includes structural editing, a professional cover, a proofread and a properly formatted interior. Skip those and readers notice, quietly, in the form of a sample download that never becomes a purchase.

Creative Control — and What It Costs

In a traditional deal, an editor will ask for changes, the cover will be designed without you, and the marketing budget will be decided by someone you have never met. In exchange you get experienced collaborators, a sales team, access to bookshops and reviewers, and a shot at rights deals you could not negotiate alone.

Independently, you make every call: cover, price, blurb, release date. That control is genuinely valuable, particularly for genre fiction, niche nonfiction and books the trade has decided are hard to sell. The cost is that you also own every mistake, and there is no gatekeeper reassuring a reader that the book has been through a process.

Costs, Rights and the Small Print

One rule is worth stating plainly: a legitimate publisher pays you. Anyone asking for a contribution towards publication is selling a service, not offering a deal, and you should know exactly which one you are being offered.

Traditional contracts hand over specific rights for a specific term. Look closely at reversion clauses — the terms under which rights return to you if the book goes out of print — and at any option clause committing you to offer your next book to the same publisher. Independent publishing means you keep your rights, which matters if a book finds an audience years later.

Publishing contracts are legal documents. Before signing anything, take advice from a solicitor with publishing experience or a trade body such as the Society of Authors, which offers contract guidance to members.

Deciding: A Practical Checklist

Work through these before you commit to either route.

1. Do you want to be published, or to be a publisher? They are different jobs, and only one of them involves writing.
2. Can you fund editing, design and production without stretching yourself? If not, the traditional route may be the wiser first attempt.Photo: Suzy Hazelwood / Pexels