What is Partner Publishing?

In a complex digital world, authors can stand out with a little help, without giving up their book rights and profits.

When it comes to publishing, there are two kinds, self publishing and traditional publishing, right? Actually, that’s not the case. In fact, there are FOUR different kinds of publishing. These are self publishing, traditional publishing, vanity publishing, and partner publishing. What are they, though, and what is the right option for you?

Vanity Publishing

Let’s start with vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is pretty much the same thing as buying something out of the catalogue – what you see is what you get. That’s it. There are several different pre-packaged versions you will get. You’ll know what your book will look like. You pay the money it takes to publish it, the books show up at your door. And you are done. Good luck getting that book out there into the world! Chances are, they will collect dust in your garage and await better days.

Self Publishing

Have you ever tried building a house yourself? How about starting your own business? Self publishing can feel like something of a combination of both. It’s incredibly tricky. You have to come up with the cover design yourself, figure out a book layout, figure out where your book will be distributed and so on. Not to mention editing your book (an incredibly difficult feat) will suck a lot of the joy out of your otherwise carefree life. However, self publishing grants you control, and profitability. In a world where book deals are rare and margins thin, self publishing makes the most business sense. If you can handle the complexity of publishing your own work.

Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing isn’t all about fists full of dollar bills. Although getting published by a big publishing house has its perks, the world of traditional publishing can look just as murky as vanity publishing. Only, in some ways, worse. Seedy publishers lurk around every corner of the internet promising writers fame and fortune if they only sign the rights away to their hard work. Sure, top-notch celebrity writers can make a killing. But apart from these publishing superstars, even top-tier writers can expect to only make a meager amount for their hard work.

I’m really passionate about warning writers about the dangers of traditional publishing, simply because there is such cache attached to the idea of being published by someone other than yourself that writers today will go with just about anybody. In most cases, however, you’d be better off not taking that publishing deal and just going with yourself. Unless they’re offering you a six-figure deal, then why not take it? Your odds of getting that kind of a deal, however, are slim.

Partner Publishing

Now, there is one more way to publish. And that is via partner publishing. Partner publishing is somewhat new, and basically it is a way to empower writers to create the books they want to make, even if they don’t have the business skills or design skills needed to create compelling, competitive content. Now, no two forms of partner publishing look the same. For some, it might look more like traditional publishing. But to me, partner publishing is more similar to self publishing than traditional publishing. It means helping writers produce the book they have in them by giving them a solid marketing plan, and even picking up the slack.

A Few Benefits of Partner Publishing

Take the Fear Out of Self Publishing

It can be really scary to self publish your book. Most self published authors, in fact, will hardly sell a copy of their book outside of their immediate circle of family and friends. This is not because self publishing is ineffective, however. It’s actually because most writers lack critical knowledge to self publish effectively. A massive number of skills must coalesce to be able to build a successful self publishing business. You must be a digital marketing maven, design genius, writing master, and publishing powerhouse. Simply put, most people aren’t all of these things.

In fact, many people who publish books are just fans of writing.

This is where self publishing can help. Partner publishers assists writers from every background with getting their work out there. We show our clients how to market their books, and even have graphic design team members able to create a compelling, marketable cover design from your clever ideas.

Get Actionable Marketing Insights

What does it mean to get a book out there? Why do so many self published authors fail at it? Well, it’s simply because most self published authors don’t understand that they also need to be their own publishers, not just writers. Pause and think about it for a minute – for the first time in history, the entire world is at your fingertips. Anyone can read your book, and you yourself can place your book up there on the list besides the greatest books in history. However, doing this takes a ton of work. And you probably don’t even know where to start.

This is where a partner publisher comes in. A partner publisher will direct you in how to start your author brand and platform. We empower YOU to become a real publisher, which means building an audience of your own.

Get Help with Graphics

Creating compelling, marketable graphics is anything but easy. In fact, it’s a skill in its own rite, and very, very few writers have it mastered. However, how well your self published book performs on Amazon Kindle is directly linked to the marketability and quality of your cover. But how do you ensure that your book is properly formatted, well designed, and marketable all at once?

Chances are, you can’t, on your own. That’s why partner companies like ours specialize in creating compelling content for you. We have cutting edge marketing experience and graphic design experience, and we combine them with digital-know-how in order to create an effective cover design. We also help many of our writers with creating compelling content to share to their social media accounts, and help authors create compelling landing pages and podcasts for their books.

Find an Editor

Lastly, every good writer needs a good editor. Self publishing means finding and building a relationship with an editor yourself. A partner publishing company, however, will do the editing work for you. At our company, for example, we have experienced, top-notch editors who will not only find your errors, but make suggestions for how your content can be improved. The first page, for example, is often the most critical. Our editors focus on making the first chapter of your book so compelling that readers won’t want to put it down.

Self Publishing is What Everyone is Doing – Not Just Writers!

Unfortunately, today writers wear traditional publishing like a badge of courage. Even if their pay is meagre, their reach dismal, and their marketing poor, they can still tell their friends and family that they are “a properly published author, not one of those awful self published people you hear about”.

The problem is, this kind of thinking is horrendously outdated. Especially in a world where EVERYONE has become their own publisher. Think about it – every single major brand, every single one that you love and follow, publishes their own content. Tech giants like Google, for example, have their own staff dedicated to creating compelling content daily. They are on the cutting edge, and they know that the biggest money can only be made by publishing content themselves.

If you are a writer, you need to be a publisher, too. However, you need a partner to show you the ropes. This is why partner publishing is the way of the future.