Should Traditionally Publishing Your Book be Your Only Goal?

We all want to make money in this writing business and one of the main ways to make money as a writer is by publishing our books, because not only does it mean money right away but it can also mean money comes in to your long terms as you grow as both a writer and a publicist to your books.  This is not to say all books will make money, but by publishing books you can have the potential to make money.

The question then becomes on of where and how you want to publish your book: do you, as the writer face the challenges of self-publishing or do you focus your efforts on the challenges of traditionally publishing your books?

Of course when a writer has a body of work out there, one can ask should traditionally publishing your book be your only goal?  By your only goal this means that the only thing you want to have is your work published by say Random House or some other larger publishing house.  Of course, do not discount the medium presses or small presses but when a writer refers to “traditional publishing” most often them are referring to a larger publisher.

However, the allure of the traditionally published book is not something which should be your only goal, there are as many benefits, provided you are willing to work, to self-publishing as there are in a larger traditional publishing company for a new author.

It is a matter again of  money, even traditional publishers are having a harder time with their budgets, so often a smaller author ( not that any author is small!) will not get as much money as an established author would.  Then, what is the best advise?

Use both traditional publishers and self-publishing to build your body of work.  No, all writers need to have several goals not just one goal to publish a book.