Hybrid Publishing

Trying to think of a concise definition of a hybrid publisher - maybe "a publisher who makes money off your work before you do."

Unimportant said:

or "a publisher who invests no money or time, and shares the profits."

Click to expand...

I could see this applying to a poorly-run small press that doesn't take money directly from the author, though. A lousy publisher isn't necessarily a vanity (but is no less something to be avoided).

Thinking of this thread today as I came across this, from Writer Beware. Some excellent information and guidelines. Also read Victoria's response to the first comment - there are more resources linked there.

At one point in the post, she says:

It's a great argument for a step that many writers skip: learning about publishing before diving into the quest for publication.

Click to expand...

I thought I knew quite a bit, and that my agent would walk me through the rest. I was very wrong. There's nothing quite as valuable as a site like AW where you can easily interact with people who've published in all kinds of ways. You can't ask questions about things you don't know.

lizmonster said:

Trying to think of a concise definition of a hybrid publisher - maybe "a publisher who makes money off your work before you do."

Click to expand...

And they never pay an advance.

Do hybrid publishers “promote” in the sense of sending out press releases? I can attest that they do. Often for the price of an extra promotional package, I believe. The question is, are those press releases insta-deleted because they don’t take the time to target a particular publication? Probably. Media outlets receive hundreds of press releases per day, many of them about books. Unless the subject line says “local author” or some other thing relevant to the publication’s audience, they’re not likely to be read.

The most important question to ask a publisher is “Who is your distributor?” And then ask booksellers to make sure that distributor actually puts books on shelves and doesn’t just make them available for order. I interviewed a small publisher who is on the verge of being hybrid (this is the one I mentioned above who asks some authors to pay for their own editing and not others). She pays a significant amount to a distributor to sell her books into stores. It’s a point of pride for her because it makes a big difference. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a publisher that is primarily making its money off fees from authors will not bother to maintain an expensive distribution deal. I defer to the experts here. But that for me would be a sign that the publisher has no serious incentive to promote me.

I’ve interviewed many authors with trade publishers of all sizes, and “not enough promotion” is the No. 1 complaint, so yes, that is a concern everywhere. I know authors with Big Five publishers and six-figure deals who feel like they were barely promoted. But! Their books were at conventions, in libraries, on bookstore shelves. They may not have been promoted to the media, but they were marketed to the trade. I know a guy whose whole job is to do “special sales” (put books in gift shops, drugstores, and other non-bookstore places) for a reputable small publisher. Finding all possible markets where consumers might see and grab a book is a skill unto itself. So the first question to ask a hybrid publisher is whether they will do that kind of marketing for you. And find proof.

Some hybrids promote, some don't. Honestly I look at distribution first, no amount of promotion compensates for being unavailable for stores to order.