Publishing vs. Self-Publishing

I got an email earlier this week from Nick Barnard, who asked an interesting question about publishing:

I've been following your blog recently, and I noted that you were working on submitting pieces to publishers and those were rejected. On the other hand, I know you've got a few books via Amazon that are essentially self published. I'm kind of struck by the dichotomy that you're publishing the books via print on demand, but you're looking for the music to be picked up by a publisher.

I've had folks tell me that part of this is because of the promotion...  Is this all of it?  From what I see, most publisher's promotion really consists of a mailed catalog twice a year or so.  Am I missing something?

It was a good question, and one I had already thought long and hard about, especially as I was planning on self-publishing The Coming of the Heroes.  It comes down to three factors: the submission and evaluation process, the available market and promoting to that market, and my own personal goals and desires.

• Submission and Evaluation -- The submission process for nearly all of my music is a very straight-forward affair: send an email to the editor or the submission department with my contact info (a nice greeting and thanking them for their time are a good addition), and attach PDF or Finale files of the manuscript, as they wish.  Some of the publishers also want a recording of the piece, but a simple MIDI recording almost always does the trick.

Submitting a novel is a whole other beast.  It usually looks something like this: A cover letter (in which if you can't sell them your novel in about one paragraph, they're no longer interested), a 2 to 3 page summary of the novel, a longer 5 to 15 page synopsis of the novel, and the first couple of chapters.  The problem is, no two publishers or agents want exactly the same thing submitted -- some want a longer summary, others want a Statement of Purpose, and still others want to know your thoughts on the last five books you read.  Every time I would submit some writing, it took anywhere from a day to a week to get it ready, mainly because I had to sweat and fret over the submission packet as much as I had over the actual work being evaluated.

When a music publisher is evaluating a submission, they're evaluating the work itself; when a fiction publisher or agent is evaluating, they're evaluating your ability to sell yourself in a tiny package that has only limited relation to the actual work you've submitted, and if you can get past that hurdle, then maybe -- maybe -- they'll actually evaluate part of your work ... but only part.  Imagine a music publisher evaluating Beethoven's 5th symphony based on the first four bars: "Well, I like that da-da-da-DUH part, but then you just repeat it again.  Didn't you have anything new to say?  No, sorry, we'll take a pass."

The final consideration here is the amount of time it takes a publisher or agent to respond.  There are some music publishers who take six to nine months to get back, but they're in the minority.  Most take four to six weeks, and many are faster than that.  Some (especially Doug Wagner at Lorenz and Kevin McChesney at Jeffers) seem to make it a point of pride to respond yes or no within twenty-four hours.  With writing, hearing a response within a month is almost unheard of; half a year is not at all uncommon, and there are times where your submission will simply be lost (as happened to me with one agent), and their advice in such a case (after having waited a good nine months to find this out) is to resubmit your work, and they'll add it to their slush pile.  Not exactly a strong vote in favor of going the traditional route, at least in my book

• Available Market and Promotion -- Part of my decision to self-publish my novel was the available market for it: depending on where you look, the literacy rate for the US is anywhere from 77% of the population on up.  Now true, not every one of those Literate Americans is in the target market for my novel (though I like to think it has a wide appeal beyond just young adults), but if I talk to five random folks on the street, odds are good four of them can read, and at least one or two of them will be at least slightly interested in the book, enough to at least check out the sample chapters or mention it to someone else.

With my music, it's a different beast.  A far smaller percentage of the population is what I'll call musically-literate (around 17% according to the folks at ChaCha), meaning they can read music and reproduce what is on the page.  Add to that the fact that a flautist really has no interest in piano music and a violinist probably has no interest in handbell music, and the market for any given one of my compositions is now frightfully tiny.  Factor in that, at least with an ensemble like a handbell choir or a string orchestra, while a dozen or more folks may play the piece, there's a much, much smaller number of people who actually buy the music for them to play. 

To me, that's the advantage to putting my music out with a traditional publisher -- they have already identified the people who are most likely to buy the music they publish, and they have well-established methods for getting new music in front of them.  If I were to try doing this with my music, it would be an unmitigated disaster (and heaven forbid I should try my five-random-people experiment as I did theoretically with my novel -- I'd have to talk to at least three or four-hundred random people to find one who might be interested in buying one of my handbell pieces).  In this case, though the amount I make per copy is pretty small (10% is standard, but it's still just 10%), most of what I'm giving up in royalties I'm making up for in the publisher's knowledge and legwork in getting the music into the hands of the people who will buy it.

• Personal Goals and Desires -- Despite all my time and energy put into my writing, I still really view it as no more than a hobby.  I enjoy writing my Sadonian Chronicles books; I love interacting with the characters and seeing them come to life on the page.  Would I like to make some money from writing the books?  Absolutely.  Am I expecting these novels to be my bread-and-butter in later years?  No, not at all.

Don't get me wrong -- I think the books are good, well-written, and have a lot to say.  My own personal goal in writing them, however, is not to try to make a living; it's to write a good story.  Getting the book available for people to read is enough of a reward for me.  If people share it with others, that's so much better.  Since I'm not trying to earn a wage from these books, I opted to go the self-publishing route where I do make more money per book, but I also don't sell nearly as many books as I might otherwise.

On the other hand, I do see myself at some point in the future being able to survive on what I make from my composing (with my wife's salary as a teacher added in, of course), and so going the traditional route there makes more sense with me.  Add up the number of copies of handbell music sold in this country in a year, and stack it up against the number of books sold in this country in a single day -- it's no contest.  Music buyers look to this small handfull of publishers to provide them the music they need, and so being part of that makes it possible for folks to find my music.

As with anything, the decisions I made (and continue to make) are personal and based on a number of factors.  For me, the ease of submitting music and the enormous benefits that come from being part of an established publisher's catalog make the decision easy; the arguments go the other way for writing publishers and agents.  Now, if my life-long dream had been to write novels, then I'm sure I'd be putting up with that system and jumping through all the hoops, trying to become a "real" published author.

I'm happy with the choices I've made, and I hope that some of what I've talked about here will help those of you facing the same decisions.  Realize, though, that intermingled with the few facts I've put in here is a whole lot of opinion and preference -- making the same choices as I have won't bring you happiness if they're not the right ones for you.  Good luck with your choices, and no matter what route you follow, remember to keep creating ... otherwise all these questions are moot.