10/24/2024
In addition to being an indisputable pop sensation, Taylor Swift is also a shrewd business person. Her decision to independently publish The Eras Tour Book (read about it in Business Insider) points in the direction Radius Book Group has been headed for nine years. But, what does a billionaire pop icon’s approach to publishing her book have to do with you?
Control.
It comes down to controlling all aspects of the publishing process and reaping the greatest rewards for betting on yourself. The question to ask yourself is “What do the publisher and I each bring to the table?” It makes sense to publish with a traditional publisher if they bring in capabilities you may lack but highly value. You may be willing to sacrifice control to obtain the upside offered by the publisher. Independent publishing is an attractive option when you bring most of the crucial value to the table and the traditional publisher adds minimal value. After working through this equation, Taylor Swift came to the conclusion that she brought the most value to the table and could successfully publish her book on her own.
Those valuable assets included, first of all, highly desirable proprietary content or intellectual property, secondly, a loyal fan base, thirdly, brand recognition, fourth, a platform from which she could launch a marketing and publicity campaign guaranteed to generate positive results—no matter the metrics—fifth, she has Target as a distribution partner to happily sell her book to those loyal fans and everyone else, and lastly, substantial financial resources to underwrite publishing her book. What she didn’t have (i.e., book production and printing capabilities), she could outsource while retaining creative control. Voilà, this gambit allowed her to create and manufacture finished books, deliver them to a warehouse, and distribute them worldwide.
Not every author brings those types of assets to the publishing table. One could argue either that Taylor Swift is a unicorn or at least she occupies such rarefied space that it is unreasonable to view her as an example to emulate. Even so, all authors can and should take stock of what they want to accomplish by publishing their book, what assets they bring to the table, what assets they need some other company to provide, and whether control over their book is important enough for them to invest in themselves to achieve their dream.
As you weigh the pros and cons of each of your publishing options, remember that the same market fundamentals apply to you as apply to Taylor Swift. You may not be in the same category as a world famous music star, but your book is just as important and you have just as much a right to pursue your dream of publishing a book. Taylor Swift simply did on a grand scale what you can do on a smaller scale. If you value control over your content, want creative control over what ends up in the finished book, over cover design, over what the printed pages feel like, over when it is published, how it is marketed, the publicity campaign that will promote you and the book, and so on, then it is in your best interests to find a publishing partner that will look after your best interests, rather than their own.
Radius Book Group is that publishing partner.