What I Got Wrong About Trad Publishing
- Alissa Yarbrough
- May 30
- 3 min read

Don't quit the marathon. Every step you take is moving you closer to the finish line.
I need to remind myself of this with my writing just as much as you. And there is comfort in the fact that each step is teaching me something, however small, that will ultimately have a long-reaching effect. The strain is real. The despair amid the blood, sweat, and tears is an unceasing battle.
But I'm not facing it alone.
Trust me, if everything rode on me, I'd have likely given up long ago. And despite the hair-wrenching moments, I glean a unique excitement seeing God's hand at work, showing me things in small increments that make the blurry picture that much more understandable; just as we read He did in Abraham's life, leading him step by step rather than telling him everything at once when he wouldn't be ready for it.
Being a newbie, sometimes I get details of the publishing process wrong and force myself into a dead-end alley with a towering brick wall before me.
How am I going to be able to do this?
But as I researched more, I stumbled across a tidbit of information that made me realize the impossible only looked that way because I was getting it wrong. So I want to share what I learn, newbie-to-newbie, in the hope that we can help each other out and I can spare you the same stress.
My erroneous thinking process went something like this: I needed a lot of money.
Okay, okay, not exactly. I concluded I needed to hire a development editor to iron out plot issues in my manuscript, which would come to the neighborhood of $1,000, and then a copyright editor to analyze and polish the writing – another pricey investment at around $1,000.
But wait! Before I could get anywhere with an agent, I had to work on gaining a platform, an audience. One way to grow an email list was by using StoryOrigin... which would cost, however small, a portion of the expenses each month.
All this before landing an agent that would start work on hooking a publishing house on my suspense novel. Now you can see why I was brewing up a headache, and after all the computer research, it was a literal one.
While bellyaching at my lack of funds and the impossibility of this process, I finally came across a person's comment on a writing forum that gladly blew me out of the water.
I was getting the traditional publishing and self-publishing methods mixed up.
If you are self-publishing, all the final editing and polishing in getting your manuscript ready for the reader – the work that the publishing house would take care of in traditional publishing – is on your shoulders. So you are going to want to hire these experts to point out issues and highlight weaknesses for a professional-level reading experience.
It is still highly recommended to do one or all of these edits going the traditional route, and in no way negates the need for vigorous personal editing, as this will make your manuscript the finest it could be to capture the eye of an agent more readily. But it isn't a requirement before sending out proposals to agencies as I'd mistakenly assumed.
Wheww! That eye-opening moment is just one example of those redirections from the Lord. And I hope it serves to clarify things for you too. Yes, there are still many frustrating obstacles I'm working through, but I'm enjoying this learning curve in more fully understanding this industry. I count it as another lesson learned.
It's a journey. And I can keep bumbling along because I know that if this is the calling the Lord has for me, He's going to lead me to success, in His timing (so it might not be anytime soon but it will be when I am ready for it) and in His way. Maybe it won't be the success I imagine, but it'll be whatever He deems to further His will. This helps when I feel like I'm wasting my time.
So here's me continuing to doggy-paddle through this vast ocean of unknowns and hoping you, whether you have learned the smoother strokes of swimming or still in water wings, are refusing to surrender to the waves as well.
Do you have any bit of advice that has helped you along the way? I'd love to hear about it!
~Alissa
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