Andrew Hallam's Advice on Publishing: The Three Routes of Publishing

    In September, I had the opportunity to talk with Andrew Hallam, a successfully published author of personal finance books. Although our genres are quite different, he is an expert in the field of publishing books. So, when I got to ask him all about the publishing world, I was far from disappointed. 

    The first thing we talked about was the three different publishing routes: Traditional publishing, self-publishing, and a mix of the two he called hybrid publishing.

    Traditional publishing is, in Mr. Hallam's words, "the prestigious route." To get your book published traditionally, you need to be a good businessman. You need to know how to market, which means knowing your competitors and explaining why your book stands out. The publishers don't care about how good or bad your book is; they care about how much money they can make off you. Obviously, it needs to be good enough for other people to buy and recommend it, but it doesn't need to be anything legendary or even noteworthy. This also means that you would want to have a following to prove that you have a readership. The more people you have wanting to buy your book, the more money the publishers would make from you, which gives you a higher chance of getting your book published. The downside to this method of publishing is that it isn't enriching financially. At least not at face value. According to Mr. Hallam, he guesstimated that if they price your book at $15, you might get a dollar out of it, which isn't a lot compared to what you would be making if you went the two other routes of publishing. However, the huge benefits of traditional publishing are international selling and selling in different languages, which are important for getting more publicity, which is crucial in the writing world. It also gives you more resources for a cover and an editor.

    Another route you could take for publishing your work is self-publishing. This form of publishing is quickly becoming the most popular, which makes sense. It's easier, faster, and it gives you more royalties than traditional publishing. However, it does not give you international readership, an editor, or a cover. You would need to figure all of that stuff out yourself. This is the publishing route Hallam recommended for me and any other author just starting off, and there are a ton of different places for new authors to try and get their work published. Hallam told me about the site called KindleDirect, where you can set a price, put in how many pages your book has, and it will show you your monthly royalties. KindleDirect can also make a print on demand, which means there isn't really an inventory, which means that if your work flops, you don't really need to worry about being in debt, which is a problem with traditional publishers. 

    Finally, the last route he told me about is an interesting mix between the two that he called the hybrid route. You need to have an established following to work out for this route, but if you already have a devoted audience, this route gives you most of the perks from the other routes without the setbacks. It's a lot like self-publishing because the royalties are the same as if you went the self-publishing route, but you give money to publishers upfront to get cover designs, editors, audiobooks and other perks you could get from traditional publishing. According to Mr. Hallam, the hybrid route for publishing can also make your work go international, but for something around seventeen grand. This route isn't exactly for newer authors like myself, but once you are a bit more experienced, this route is the goldilocks route for publishing.

    The interview with Andrew Hallam was beneficial and beneficial for me as an aspiring author, and I am beyond thankful that I got the chance to learn all of this from him. I hope if you're reading this as an aspiring author learning about the writing world like myself, that this helps you on your journey to becoming a world renowned writer. If you aren't, I hope you learned something anyway!