How to choose: Indie or Traditional publishing? Part 1: What is independent book publishing?

In a nutshell, independent publishing or self-publishing means you basically become your own publisher. Once you've written your book, you hire professionals to assist with the production (for example, cover designer, editor, formatter, marketing person, admin assistant), then publish the book yourself.

This is simplifying the process, and you might not need so many people on your team, or you might need more, depending on where you are in your career, what your strengths are, what you'd like to outsource because you don't want to spend time on a specific task. These all can be tailored to your specific needs.

You keep the creative control and you also get to keep all your royalties (sans the price to access all the different marketplaces – but you won't have to take a cut for your publisher; because you're the publisher!), and yes, you won't get an advance and you'll have to bear all the expenses and handle all the marketing. However, unless you're already well-known, traditional publishing houses will probably not allocate a big budget for your book anyway - and you'd still be an active part of the marketing. Readings, book tours or interviews. Yes, your publisher may help arrange those – but you'll have to perform.

There's also something I want to mention here. Please don't confuse independent publishing or self-publishing with vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is, when you have a contract with a publishing house and you pay them to publish you. (On the contrary, traditional publishing houses will pay you to publish you! So keep your wits.) Oftentimes, vanity publishers offer you different packages / deals for your publishing needs. They'll edit, format, design your cover, market your book, they'll promise you things. But listen. They get the money from you, not from your readers. So they really don't have much interest in making your book successful. That's all on you. And sadly, most often than not, you can hear stories how they do subpar work.

At that point, you're much better off looking for freelancers and vetting them yourself, then hiring them to assist with publishing your book.

What do you think? Does this help answering your question?