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Traditional publisher
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Self-publishing
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| Book publishing
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- External authors submit book outlines and sample chapters.
- If selected, the publisher contributes substantially towards editing (including developmental editing if necessary), designing, and marketing the book.
- The author pays for none of this and expects to get paid (assuming the book sells).
- If the publisher rejects the book, then the author is free to sell it to a different publisher.
- The money ultimately comes from book sales.
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- The author(s) writes whatever they want.
- The author hires whichever vanity press, e-book publishing platform, or printer they want.
- If the author needs help with editing, illustrating, designing, or marketing the book, then the author hires whoever they want and pays for their services.
- The hired company accepts anything that the author will pay for, with only necessary practical restrictions (e.g., if they don't have the right equipment for that type of book binding).
- The money originally comes from the author, who may (or may not) hope to recoup the original outlay through book sales.
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| Newspapers and magazines
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- The publisher/publication hires editors and journalists.
- The editor assigns stories (to internal staff) or commissions them (among freelancers; alternatively, editors may accept external pitches, in the book-publisher model).
- The journalists write the stories; the editor and publisher/publication representatives decide whether to publish what the journalists wrote.
- If an employee instead of a freelancer, the journalist gets paid the same even if the article is not published. If a freelancer, and the piece doesn't run, the freelancer is free to sell it to a different publication.
- The money ultimately comes from advertising revenue and/or subscription sales.
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- The author(s) creates a publication, e.g., The Company Newsletter or The Weekly School News.
- The author is frequently a group, e.g., an organization's marketing department or a fundraising team, but it may be a single-person publication (e.g., Substack newsletters).
- The author decides what stories to include, and writes them.
- If the author needs help with editing, illustrating, designing, marketing, website management, etc., then the author hires whoever they want and pays for their services.
- The author pays all publication expenses (e.g., printing and postage costs; e-mail and webhosting costs). Depending upon the context, the money may come from personal funds or departmental budgets.
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| Peer-reviewed journals
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- The (usually for-profit) publisher or (usually academic) sponsoring body creates the publication and hire editors.
- External authors submit whole papers.
- Staff editors send the papers for external review and use that information to decide which ones to publish.
- The authors usually pay for publication, but this is understood to be akin to volunteer work on all sides, with the money usually coming from a third-party grant rather than the author's own funds.
- If the journal rejects the article, the author is free to submit it to another journal.
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- The author writes a whole paper.
- The author finds a predatory publisher with a pay-to-publish model.
- The article is not peer reviewed. All articles that are plausibly connected to the journal's subject are accepted – as long as the payment has been received.
- The main job of the journal's editor, once the author's payment has been received, is to post the article online. (Having been paid to post it in the "journal", the editor wants to avoid breach of contract charges or having to give refunds.)
- The author can pay for the same article to be published in multiple journals, because the content is unimportant to the publication.
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