(Continued From Pt. 1) Traditional Publishing houses started reaching out to Jennifer. They wanted to see if they could help her on her new/old venture. The calls went something like this.

“Hey Jennifer.” - Traditional Publishing Agent Person.

“Hey.” - Jennifer still a little salty about them turning her down a few months ago.

“Yeah… uh…congratulations on your success. Looks like your book is #1. That’s awesome!” - Trad Pub Agent Person.

“Yeah… It’s been quite the journey. I’m just glad that people like my stories.”

“Yeah… that’s great! We were wondering if you would be interested in having us work with you on your book.”

I’ll spare you the rest, but basically they wanted to move her book under their imprint. Pay her once a year on future royalties earned, still have her do the marketing, and all for the low low price of a 10k advance. (Recoupable against future earnings of course)

Jennifer was getting paid four to five figures every month with her self publishing print on demand model. Plus, she was already doing her own marketing and the book was already finished and selling.

Didn’t seem like a win win proposition to her.

• Write The Book. (Done)

• Edit The Book. (Done)

• Launch/Publish The Book. (Done)

• Market and Sell The Book.(Done)

Doing the math that you are probably doing in your head right now she politely declined.

So To Our Original Question…

Can you save Traditional Publishing? My gut says no, but the answer is more complex than that. Here’s my one cent opinion.

1. The Traditional Publishing Model Isn’t Broken. The system isn’t broken. It’s working just like it was designed to. Question: How can you self publish a book and get monthly payouts like Jennifer of thousands of dollars and still most traditional authors get a yearly payout of royalties against earnings and never see a payment after the initial 10k advance? (Talk Amongst Yourselves.)

2. Marketing your book MUST be something that you learn or pay someone to do. It really is all you got as far as reaching readers. Plus, publishers have said time and time again that they aren’t going to do that for you. As a large publishing house, I think that should be THE one thing that you do help your new authors with. However, marketing is a gamble and they aren’t willing to take that bet. So no matter what you should learn how to market.

3. All Authors have to change their mindset from I’m lucky to work with a publisher to I’m lucky to write and market my own art no matter what. Until we make that shift we will continue to “need” the model that isn’t broken. See #1.

What You Can Do Now.

Learn how to do it yourself. 

I know that’s hard to think about, but it really is all we got. Nobody is coming. Your author career is up to you. So…

Learn how to self publish your book. Do what Jennifer did, and learn how to reach thousands of readers who need to hear from you. They need your help. They need your guidance, and they need your stories.

Learn how to build your own author brand. Learn how to publish your own books. In today’s world it really is a possibility. Stop allowing yourself to be brainwashed into thinking that you need any of these people or organizations to get your story out there. All you need is your idea and a little internal conviction. (and maybe a 21 day challenge made by yours truly)

Trust me. Your voice is needed and wanted. You got this my friend. You really do!

P.S. Want to get a jump start on how to find your readers, write your non-fiction book or memoir. Just click here and join the 21 day Best Serving Author Publishing Challenge. It’s filled with all the things that I used to reach and serve over 260,000 readers. Hope this helps you friend.