More Lies about Traditional Publishing

+August Meeting Invite

💀Kristin’s Updates💀

Hello from Calgary, Alberta! Again, I’ll be in Seattle on August 10th, then pretty off-grid from the 11th-17th. (The previous post said I’m dog-sitting in Seattle. That was a mistake; I’ll be at a museum in Seattle and then spending a week kayaking in the San Juans for a Writing the Nonhuman course.)

I also have someone renting out my house from September 29-November 14, so I have to think of some place to go for those times. I think I’ll be speaking at the Jackson Hole Writers’ Conference about social media for nonfiction writers in late October, then maybe I’ll go to CA for the holidays.

📅August Meeting Invite📅

Event Link

Authors' Meeting

Monday, August 25 · 5 PM PST, 6 PM MST, 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/gbo-crjc-ozs

Resources

📖 Have a nature book out?
PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

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📅 Deadline: August 20, 2025 | 💵 $85 (waivable) | 🏆 $10,000 prize

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🏛 Writing a book about American History?
NEH Public Scholar Program

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📅 Deadline: August 6, 2025 (SOON!) | 💵 Free to apply | 🏆 $5,000/month stipend (6–12 months; awards range from $30,000 to $60,000)

THOUGHTS:
More Lies About Traditional Publishing

In previous posts, I wrote about why freaking out about earning out your advance is unnecessary and why I suspect this huge amount of misinformation about traditional publishing might be propaganda spread to encourage you to get scammed.

Here are some more of the lies about trad pub I’m sick of seeing, and the more nuanced truths I want to see.

🤥FALSE: “There’s no point in getting an advance because it’s in installments and you have to pay a percentage to your agent!”

✅ TRUTH:

Look, it’s good to realize and talk about the fact that an advance of size N will not mean N in its entirety goes immediately to your bank account, and you might need to financially plan for the slowness of it and the percentages going elsewhere. It’s true and good to be clear about the financial realities that an advance might not be big enough to be worth writing the book at all. In which case, you can just say “no” to an offer that isn’t high enough, and you go on your merry way to do something other than book writing. Maybe start gardening.

But why would money “not help” or “not matter” because it’s slow coming? You don’t need to be a financial guru to know that slow money is better than no money. Self-publishing means no advance or grants. 80% of $60k over 4 years is more than $0, and the 4 years will pass either way. Any positive percent of any positive number of dollars is more than $0.

🤥FALSE: “Traditional publishing sucks because they expect you to do all your own marketing!”

✅ TRUTH:

Author/editor/publishing professional Gina Denny says, “I’m ready for this lie to die.” (Denny is extremely reliable and has been working in publishing for a long time.)

This is another thing that doesn’t make any sense. What happens if you don’t meet this made-up “expectation?” The publisher hires someone to cry quietly in the break room over your lack of TikTok followers? They don’t, and I wouldn’t care if they did. Don’t talk to me about “expectation.” Talk to me about “contractual obligation.” Maybe you can bring up “social rules.” But the idea that “trad authors have to do all their own marketing” is yet another myth made up just to stress out authors and turn them away from deals that could be excellent, profitable partnerships for all parties.

Sure, trad authors should be kind of available to participate in the PR work their publishers put together. Maybe the publisher will do some work setting up some interviews for their authors, but look at a decent trad contract and show me exactly where you are required to do marketing, and what marketing, and how much marketing, and what the parameters are.

The only thing my publisher said about marketing was that they’re going to do a lot for me. And did you know that marketing isn’t just publicity like Facebook ads and tabling at farmers’ markets? It’s a lot of really boring stuff that the average person wouldn’t even know to do, let alone how to do.

The weirdest part about people going to self-publishing over the lie that “trad publishers expect you to do all your own marketing” is that self-publishers have to do all their own marketing. Or pay someone else to, and risk getting scammed. Who else would do it? The marketing fairy?

🤥FALSE: “No one gets trad deals these days except celebrities!”

✅ TRUTH:

The fact that so many aspiring authors think this makes me very concerned. Have they never…seen a bookstore or library? The people who say this must hate books!

🤥FALSE: “Getting a book deal is a good retirement plan.”

✅ TRUTH:

No. If writing books was a magic ticket to wealth and fame, then everyone would just write books all the time. You do not become a good writer just by turning 55, either, so if you’re waiting for that time to write your memoir, you don’t have to.

🤥FALSE: “No one ever makes money writing a book. Trad deals are basically impossible, and they don’t give out advances anymore.”

✅ TRUTH:

This is the opposite extreme of the previous false claim. I think it comes from people who are experiencing sour grapes.

No creative field guarantees unlimited riches. This one might be harder than average. But traditional publishing has existed for centuries because it’s a viable business. Plenty of authors make more than minimum wage, even a good wage. In fact, I think the book industry is more profitable per work-hours-by-qualified-writers than other types of writing/freelancing.

Does it pay “good money?” “Good money” varies wildly from person to person. (See Counter Craft’s “Schrödinger's 100k Author Advance,” about how $100k is both a bigger advance than most people will get, and it’s great, but also not enough.)