[perlgeek]

I've gone the traditional publishing route with three books so far.

Making money wasn't the goal.

A traditional publisher organized a technical review, editorial review, cover design, type setting and project management for me; the result was better than I could have done on my own.

Sure, I could have hired an editor and a cover designer and all that, but would have been exhausting and a financial risk.

So, I went with a publisher, and accepted that I'd likely never recover the advance that the publisher payed.

If you're after exposure or the best result, a traditional publisher can still be the way to go.

[ghaff]

The main flipside is that you also have to play by the publisher's rules, so length, deadlines, and (importantly) price. You probably can't set a lower price or give away digital copies like you can if you self-publish which may work against a desire to use the book for exposure/reputation/etc.

[perlgeek]

At least my publisher (Apress) is pretty open to giving away free copies for review (everything that helps bring reviews on Amazon is a plus), and limited discount vouchers etc.

But yes, you don't have all the freedom that you have with leanpub & co.

[ghaff]

I have a book through Apress as well. Among other things, their contract was pretty generous about my repurposing small chunks of book material for other purposes--which I've taken full advantage of. They also offered some sort of discount so that an organization could have me do a book signing though I don't know the financial details. (And said organization might have done this if it weren't through a known publisher.)

On the other hand, the price is set quite a bit higher than I would have set it personally for maximum exposure. And I don't have the right to broadly distribute free electronic copies to just anyone I want.