Hybrid Publishers are either affiliated to a traditional publishing house or they are independent. Of the independent ones, these are either run by literary professionals from the traditional publishing world or experts in other fields. Or neither.
Those with links to traditional publishers and have networking contacts, strong editorial skills in a fastpaced arena, and an instinct born of years of experience as to which book is likely to sell well, charge highly for their services and are well worth the price if you have written an excellent book. Many bestselling authors started this way and are now agented in the traditional world of publishing.
Hybrid publishers who do not have such affiliations or background should charge a great deal less. Not all of them do. It is up to the author to check what they are offering against the price. It really is a case of ‘buyer beware’ in this field.
As to the quality of your work, again there are two types of hybrid publisher. The ones who publish everything they are sent as long as you pay them. And the ones who reject manuscripts they feel will not sell well. Some offer editorial services to bring your script up to standard. These can be expensive but a critique by an experienced editor with a sound background in publishing could well be worth the cost. Bear in mind you will still have to do the actual work yourself whoever critiques it. Check out our article on Self Editing. You could save yourself a hefty fee by doing it yourself whilst improving your own writing skills in the process.
Marketing strategies vary from hybrid to hybrid. Some offer exposure on their website plus social media tweets for a limited time. Others offer author pages with links. There may be entries in the wholesalers catalogues or advertising to independent booksellers. Those with traditional affiliations have a whole network of contacts to exploit on your behalf. The level of marketing partnership you require is again a matter of choice bearing in mind the old adage: Early to bed, early to rise, Not a ha’porth of good unless you advertise.
So where does Tweedlecoate stand in all this? We are not run by traditional publishing professionals so we do not charge the author that kind of fee. We do bring a vast skills base to the table, so we charge a reasonable fee for these - less than a thousand pounds. We have an experienced writer on the team with creative writing teaching skills, so we do reject those manuscripts we feel will not sell well and we do not accept any payment at all until we are certain we have a sound marketing strategy agreed with the author. This includes our webpage, individual author pages, wholesalers catalogues, social media and independent booksellers plus guidance and support for author talks and signings events. We do not offer expensive editing services. We do offer free self editing guidance based on our years of experience.