Why Is Publishing A Book So Difficult?

If you’re a writer looking to get published, you may have heard horror stories about the industry. “Get used to rejection” and “just keep trying” are common pieces of advice, and some writers even say that you need 100 rejections of your work before giving up on traditional publishing for a piece. The stories are numerous, but how hard is it to publish a book?

Well, let’s take a look at some numbers.

It’s estimated that there are between 500,000 to 1 million books published every year by major publishing companies like Penguin Random House and others. Let’s be clear here: This isn’t book sales, this is publishing. So anywhere from six to seven figures worth of new books hit the market every year. Yet it’s also estimated that an author has roughly between a 1% and 2% chance of actually getting published. Flip that around and it means you have a 98-99% chance of being rejected.

Why is publishing a book hard you ask? There are a number of factors that can go into that. You need to have the stars align and get the right publishing agent, who hits the right publishing company, and it has to be exactly the kind of story they’re looking for. It can be hard for a publisher to be willing to take a chance on something new and different. As an author, it’s your role in this to make sure your manuscript is completely polished and your pitch is perfect. Beyond that, it’s mostly up to chance and fate.

Or you can get published through StoryForge.

StoryForge isn’t looking for trends in publishing or reader consumption, we’re just looking for people who want to write. To self-publish, it can cost you around $400 to almost $5000 to publish your own book. At StoryForge, the ability to publish a book costs nothing more than your time and effort to write, revise, and complete your story. The StoryForge community will help proofread and edit your story as you move toward completion. 

Plenty of authors who have hit it big have started out on smaller platforms, just like this. All they needed was a platform to share their story and the will to write it. At StoryForge, we supply the platform. Now it’s up to you to write the next bestseller with us. So if you haven’t yet, come sign up to be notified when we’re ready to launch. We’re all looking forward to reading your story.