Is self-publishing a threat to traditional publishing?

The self-publishing industry is growing at a fast pace, owing to the several advantages it offers to the author over traditional publishing. Self-publishing spares you from the tedious, months-long (perhaps year-long) process of getting approved by a literary agency and then a publisher. It also offers the guaranteed realization of your dream—seeing your name on the cover of your dream book. From the perspective of the author, self-publishing can be viewed as an egalitarian movement, allowing authorship to those who desire it, freeing them from the tyranny of traditional publishers.

But traditional publishers view this “movement” as a serious drop in the quality of the content. It’s true that there are no gatekeepers in self-publishing platforms to ensure that your content reaches its expected standards. You are publishing your book with your money. Nobody needs to check the quality in this scenario.

But things are slowly changing. More and more stories of successful self-publishers are coming up every day. They are providing the audience with books that are decent in quality which cost only half as much as a corresponding traditionally published one. Self-publishing companies nowadays are giving emphasis on the quality of the content they are publishing through processes like professional editing. Even though you may not find your self-published book on the shelves of the largest bookstores in your city, you will be able to see a handsome number of your book being sold if you manage to write a decent one. This is an unimaginable scenario in the arena of literary agents and traditional publishers where you will be considered only if you have the best stuff.

Does this mean that self-publishing will crush traditional publishers and literary agents, just like how cell phones replaced telephone booths? No. Traditional publishing offers some advantages that self-publishing doesn’t. Every publisher is looking for the next bestseller, but traditional publishers are far more stubborn about it. They will publish your work only if you manage to pass their tests of fire. A traditional publisher will ensure that your book has visibility which is very important in today’s market where a million books are released every year.

If you are looking at a reader who only wants top-quality stuff regardless of the price, his/her wishlist will mostly be comprised of traditionally published authors. Some people even use the name of the publishing house to sift through the millions of books in the market.

The growth of the self-publishing industry took place by expanding the market space, not by replacing the traditional publishers, owing to the several advantages each provides that the other can’t. Let’s say that if the number of published authors before the arrival of self-publishing platforms were 10 (of top-quality), it became 40 (of decent, medium and low-quality) after. It is evident that what self-publishing did is providing the opportunity for authorship to a large chunk of writers who couldn’t reach the benchmark set by traditional publishers.

So, is self-publishing a threat to traditional publishing? Not really. Instead of perceiving them as rivals, both can be considered as two players in a field with different sets of skills.