What Publishers Do for Authors
7 Services Traditional Publishers Provide to Authors
What is the relationship between publishers and authors? And what do traditional publishers actually do for authors? A recent Substack post claiming that “no one buys books” falsely concludes that publishers do almost nothing for most authors and that most non-celebrity, non-franchise authors working under the traditional publishing model will reach about “a dozen readers.” (
of Counter Craft debunked the fewer-than-a-dozen-copies rumor back in 2022 and responds thoughtfully to the current post here.)In this post, I’d like to share what publishers actually do for authors—including debut authors who get a tiny advance—and what they’ve done for me. I’ve been one of those authors with a tiny advance from a small press (three times, in fact), and I’ve also been a “bestselling” author with six-figure advances from a Big 5 publisher.
At every stage of my career, publishers have done things I couldn’t afford to do for myself, things I didn’t have time to do, and things I could not have have done with any amount of time or money.
This is definitely not to say that traditional publishing is the only path, or even the best path, for most writers. I understand it’s tough to break in. I also understand that many writers prefer the immediacy of serializing on Substack or self-publishing. So this post isn’t about what you or any other writer should do. It’s only about what traditional publishers do, and have done, for writers for many decades.
What Publishers Do
There’s a ton of misinformation about what publishers do and don’t do. When I commented about services publishers provide on a different article, a reader replied that these services “certainly” aren’t for a first-time author “who doesn't know how to market, doesn't have his own marketing budget since he's barely making ends meet, and doesn't have the knowhow or time to figure it out...”
But in fact, yes, these services are provided free of charge for all authors whose books are published by a traditional publisher—regardless of the size of the advance or the author’s follower count.
If the publisher has decided to publish your book, they’re not going to decide, “oh, this person doesn’t get an editor” or “we’re not submitting any review copies” just because it’s a debut book! They certainly don’t decide not to cover printing costs just because you don’t understand marketing! It just doesn’t work that way.
First, what is a traditional publisher, exactly? Any publisher that asks a writer to pay for editorial, design, printing, or distribution is not a traditional publisher; that’s a pay-to-play publisher, an entirely different animal, and it’s not what we’re talking about here.
Traditional publishers come in many sizes, from major conglomerates to very small operations. Keep in mind that big traditional publishers naturally have more money to spend on advances, marketing, and distribution than small traditional publishers. Some small publishers will accept unagented submissions, while large traditional publishers do not.
For paid subscribers below:
7 things traditional publishers do (for free!) that makes them worth pursuing
Are publishers really pariahs?
The other traditional publisher: university presses
How traditional publishing helps authors generate additional income streams beyond the book itself