Business Post: Why not Traditional Publishing for LitRPG?

I just saw this question pop-up, realised I never actually talked about this in the business posts and figured, why not? There's a lot of basic ignorance around the why - which is not surprising, since a lot of information I'll be talking about took hours of research to acquire, and sometimes, years before I started understanding things.

I'm going to split this discussion into three paths, just because it'll simplify things:

- Self-Publishing or Indie Publishing

- Small Press publishing (this includes the digital first publishers like Mountaindale Press, Aethon Press, etc.)

- Traditional Publishing (mostly we're talking about Big 5)

Self-Publishing or Indie Publishing Route

Most common route, I'll not go into the why's and hows, but use it as a contrast to the other presses and advantages/disadvantages and issues involved here. In self-publishing, you do it all; whether you end up hiring others to do it for yourself or you do it on your own. The biggest advantage - you (generally) own all the copyrights, and license out whatever you want. What those licenses look like will depend, though in the LitRPG and cultivation sphere, mostly consist of limited term licenses for audiobooks and some minor translation licensing (if any).

Biggest advantage: on-going series sales from backlist that generate a stable income eventually.

Small Press Publishing

Through the digital first publishers, this is the second most common publishing methodology for LitRPG and cultivation works. Now, I should define small press here as independently owned small press and not branches or imprints of big trad 5 press, who while might be run as individual companies; also often have larger resources backing them including print distribution.

I should also add there are two types of small press - digital first (i.e. they are focused on digital releases to digital audiences) and trad pub small press (focused on bookstores). 

Realise that the digital and the bookstore audience are VERY different. Their tastes in books are different, how they access reading material is different and how they decide what to read is different. So you cannot say that a work that works in X works in Y with 100% guarantee, ESPECIALLY in scifi and fantasy.

This is less of a problem with romance for example, but that's partly because romance works off specific plot points and beats, so it's less risky. Scifi and fantasy is.

Now, let's talk about the digital first small presses in our LitRPG sphere. Some are quite large these days (Aethon for example has gotten very large and probably in terms of both releases and revenue could be considered a 'medium' press; but we really don't have that term / type anymore since the Big 5 gobbled everyone else up) but they are mostly, digital first.

What do I mean by that? Their distribution strategy is entirely digital focused, with KU & KDP and audiobooks the major forms of income and print a small % (often in the 1-2% range) of their income via Print-on-Demand. There's many small press who don't even bother with hardcovers, some maybe not even with print. 

With small presses, the focus is fast releases (3-6 months every year) for their authors, with books broken up to fit certain parameters (in LitRPG, often 200k+ if you're a serial) to feed whale readers. That's their focus, that's what they do best. They can (and often do) negotiate with audiobook producers/publishing companies or make the audiobooks in-house, sort out cover design and conduct the marketing. In most cases they do some form of editing (often line & copy, somemtimes proof only). I don't know of any small press in our genre who do developmental editing (maybe Shadow Alley & Mountdaindale but I'm not certain of that). 

Because these are smaller presses in general with limited people, and the more 'work' you do (e.g. developmental editing, line & copy editing, proofing, audiobooks, etc.) the higher the cost. Just basic 'good' covers, line and copy editing and proofing by itself will cost you in the region of $2-3,000 per book. If you're committing to a series, that's likely in the $10-15k range, minimum. Nevermind audiobooks, which can be another $3-8,000 per book by itself. 

So there's a limited capital amount, and not every book will pay back for the amount invested. Also, further recall that the publisher pays out royalties (generally) on gross revenue, so their expenses come out of what is made. If your book grosses $3k, and the publisher pays out 50% royalties, they only 'made' $1500. Which makes it a loss.

Which is why small presses are selective and won't take everyone.

The advantage for an author is that they get all those paid for, they get the headache of launches of and negotiations and learning taken away. Depending on the press, there can also be a significant marketing push involved too (newsletters with audiences, brand name recognition, etc.) that can make a big difference for smaller/mid-tier hits.

The negative? Harder to get in, fewer selections, slower (obviously) as you wait for replies, sometimes having to work around their schedule and you give up anywhere from 50-70% of your revenues (60% I believe is common). Also, depending on the publisher, you might be giving up your audiobook rights which can be highly lucrative.  

A few other things to note - small presses give very few advances (if any) and pay generally every quarter (sometimes every month but that's rarer). You also don't need an agent with most small presses, most especially in the LitRPG genre.

Traditional Publishing (Big 5)

Let's be clear, big 5 publishing almost always requires an agent. Not ALWAYS, you can get in if you do the networking and/or are big enough to get contacted; but it's often the first step. 

Getting an agent takes a very long time - there was a study that showed it was harder to get an agent than it was to get into Harvard. I have friends who have tried for years (2-3+ years) who want to do the trad pub route who are still slamming their heads on that wall. So that's just the first step.

After you get an agent, you have to have a full book ready (write the book on spec) that the agent shop around. In fact, this book has to be ready when you start looking for an agent; so it is possible you will be sitting on this book / series for YEARS while attempting to get an agent and then again for the agent to locate a publisher.

Now, remember, the digital and print audience is very different. So what works for digital might not work for print, not at all. Serial books in particular would not work well (probably) in print, because of the way they are written. Very few have 'finished' arcs, and while you can just pick the next book up in digital, for print; you have to physically go to the bookstore to get the next copy.

In addition, readthrough rates for print books are much smaller as I understand it. In general, digital I recommend a 60%+ readthrough rate. For print, I understand 30-50% book 2 readthrough rates is expected. That's a significant number difference.

On top of all that, print has to concern itself with the PRINT cost. Paper costs have increased, which means that tradpub is leaning towards shorter, standalone books (60-90k is the preferred as I understand it). Most indie authors (and LitRPG in particular) make money on the series with books that are in the 150-200k+ word books. This is because AUDIO makes more money at 15 hours or more and serial writing trends LONG. 

Furthermore, remember that trad pub generally wants series they can 'finish' in decent numbers unless it's a HUGE series. A 15+ book long series that runs forever just won't work for them (see the above readthrough rate drop).

So, there's a significant difference between what LitRPG authors tend to write (at the moment) in multi-book serials that run 200k+ per book and what tradpub is willing to take and print. Along with the very real risk of different audiences reacting differently to the different writing styles.

If you're in a big corporation, taking a big swing and missing can be really bad for your career. Remember the joke about 'no one gets fired for buying IBM'? Well, no one is buying LitRPG (generally) and the results are still in the air. Dungeon Crawler Carl is amazing - but realise that it is it's own thing. No one is taking that as the 'this is what will happen for sure' kind of thing yet. Though deals ARE being made, it's slower (see the entire thing of timelines being much slower).

Furthermore, realise that most (if not all) tradpub wants to do developmental editing on the work coming in. Timelines get long, it can take up to 2 years for a book to get printed because you have to do developmental editing, line and copy editing, have enough time for trad pub marketing to get ready (which is minimum 6 months!) and then push the work out.

And I haven't even touched on the contract side. Some things to know about contracts...

- they're almost always for life of copyright (until author death + 70 years)

- they will try to get all rights (and in most cases, will get them) which means you lost on lucrative audiobook, sometimes foreign rights and sometimes special editions 

- advances for hits are often lower than direct audio advances (especially if you have a track record). So you end up licensing your work for less money than you would get for an audiobook advance....

- and royalties are smaller than going direct. 8-15% (depending on book type, etc.) is common, ebook is 25%, audiobook is 15% I believe, etc. You thus earn less.

- non-competes can be punishing if you're a self-publisher who can (and do) publish fast. Especially if the contract is not worded properly.

- you often have to offer the next book for review (which can lock you in to writing for them). Again, dependent on the contract terms (a good agent and/or IP lawyer will help here). 

I'm sure there are more that I haven't touched on, but it can be tricky. So why would ANYONE go for a tradpub contract as a LitRPG author? Tradpub has advantages, a lot of them depending...

Big 5 has...

- Reach. Seriously, print is still 50% of the market. IF your work appeals to the print audience as well, that's 50% of the market you can reach that everyone else has ignored thus far.

- Good editors. Remember the part where I said they do developmental editing? That can be an education in itself, one that you're getting paid for. Obviously, you need to get a good editor and be willing to learn but it can elevate your craft. 

- Foreign right and ancillary sales - a BIG deal or a big tradpub hit can open doors to foreign right sales (which often can equal if not exceed advances in themselves) and any ancillary sales (TV & Movie rights, audiobooks, special edition sales to bookboxes, book clubs, libraries, etc.) which are closed to most indie authors right now. At the least, it puts you on the radar.

- Audience bleedover - if you have a decent backlist, you could see audience bleedover from a good launch into other series.

- industry & award recognition - important ot some, less so to others.  

- access to other non-public resources. - This can be as simple as invitations to short story anthologies or anthology works but can also include requests to do media tie-in writing or co-author works or being invited to speaker series/etc.

- if you have a good agent and/or good editor - someone who can help guide a new author through the crazy landscape that is publishing. 

- advances can be high (six, sometimes seven digits) if they want your work badly enough

Obviously, by now, I've mentioned many negatives, but here's a few others:

- advances are more often much lower ($5-10k) and even when high, are split 4/5 times these days. So you will NOT get everything paid out, and with timelines being what they are, it can be 3-4 years before you make money. There are numerous tradpub authors who have been caught out because of non-competes and shifting timelines who earn a lot less because of that.

- even when you earn out (which can be difficult); payouts are often only twice a year. You have very little direct information about how well you are doing, so payout / earnings can be a big surprise.

- you often only get one swing at the fence. If you don't earn out by a big number, you can often be 'done'. Even if you do earn out, you can be 'done' because you didn't make enough. Trad pub has shifted away from long-term career establishment for debuts to looking for 'hits', which means midlist authors get the shaft.

Alright, that's the list. I'm sure other people have other comments and thoughts, but for LitRPG (and some other genres that are digital heavy); the math for going trad pub is very different. There are a lot of authors who refuse to do tradpub because of the disparity in earnings, in sales and the timelines, figuring they can do better as indies. There are more who are choosing to go hybrid, getting the best of both worlds (especially if they write fast!); utilising pen names to deal with the non-competes (or just having strict non-compete clauses). 

There is a change happening in trad pub as they realise that indie authors can be good money for them, 'sure' hits; but the extent of that and how fast some of that will happen is unknown. It'll be years before all this plays out, so if tradpub is what you're looking to do, I wouldn't hold my breath.