Of the three principal routes to publishing a book, hybrid publishers are emerging strongly against traditional and self publishing. For many, the traditional route is proving too difficult to break into. Self publishing involves a steep learning curve into design, marketing and IT knowhow. Hybrids offer the best of both worlds combining the publisher’s expertise with the financial contribution from the author. Both share the marketing, as is usual in the traditional route, although with hybrids the heaviest weight falls on the author. A really good hybrid takes a more equal share of the load.
With the bewildering array of hybrid publishers all claiming to be the best in the market plus the equally bewildering range of costs and packages, a simple way to choose the best product for the individual author with a unique book is becoming essential.
First, take a clean sheet of paper and make a list of where you want your book to appear:
Internet
Bookshops
Public Libraries
Now make a list of how you want your book to look:
Hardback
Paperback
Ebook
Cover:
Professionally designed
Computer /AI imagery
Next choose who you want to be your hybrid partners
Literary professionals
IT experts
Marketing gurus
Mixed
Finally, what are you prepared to invest in this partnership
Jot down a maximum budget figure
Read the 10 Essential Notes at the end of this article and alter your lists accordingly. You should end up with less than ten items. Put these in an approximate order of importance for you. For instance, if seeing your book in a public library is the most essential, put that at the top, if it is partnering with the literary professionals, give that choice the top slot.
Start Googling for hybrid publishing companies by linking the term hybrid publishing with your top requirement. (Do not use the cost for this as many do not display their prices upfront.)
For each one that comes up in your Search, check their offering against your hierarchical list. As soon as it fails to provide an item, make a note of their name (so you don’t go round in circles!) and move on. Where a hybrid provides everything you require, put it on a shortlist (perhaps by bookmarking the site?) and keep going, asking the browser for the hybrids plus each item on your list till you have half a dozen who tick all the boxes.
Now contact each of them. The best hybrids will want to evaluate your work before acceptance. This will indicate they are a company who cares for their reputation more than your money. And you will be reassured your book will be amongst other good books. They will also provide significant input into the marketing both before and after publication.
Choose your hybrid partner from your shortlist and go for it.
10 Essential Notes when choosing your Hybrid Publisher
- Internet Publishing
Amazon is popular. It is a global market and totally free. It even provides a free ISBN. You can choose ebook, paperback or hardback, or all three, set the price yourself, and receive generous royalties. The process to upload your work is straightforward but you do have to have your own cover design ready to upload with your text.
Amazon is publisher and bookseller all in one, so bookshops will not stock your books. The only way they can order them is through Amazon at the full retail price, which means no profit for them, or by you bringing them author copies. These are sold to you at cost, and you can order in bulk, but you have to pay shipping on top, (free and Prime do not apply to author copies) and you do not benefit from the speedy delivery enjoyed by retail customers. You will need to keep a stock so that you can deliver on demand to bookshops, bearing in mind that if they do buy them they will expect a 35 – 40% discount on the retail price to make their profit worthwhile.
- Bookshops Only books with a Nielsen ISBN can be registered with the major book wholesalers such as Gardners. Book retailers often only obtain their stock from wholesalers such as Gardners. They are most unlikely to order from Amazon because they have to pay full retail price which means there is no profit for them. Wholesalers give them a discount so they can make a profit. This discount is set by the publisher and ranges from 35-40% from a small publisher to the 60% demanded by Waterstones.
- Public Libraries The Public Lending Right (PLR) Scheme provides authors with an income of up to £6,600 a year from loans of their books from public libraries in the UK. This is a Government initiative set up in 1979 in response to lobbying by the Society of Authors to give authors fair payment for readers accessing their books in this way. Payment is made of 13.69p per loan (this rate varies each year). Librarians purchase new stock through the wholesalers, obtaining information about them from the catalogues. A full ISBN and a catalogue entry is therefore essential before the author may register for PLR.
- Hardback and Paperback Hardback books are more expensive to produce than paperbacks, on average about double the cost. This format is possibly only worth considering for a nonfiction work, expected to last many years. Most consumers prefer to read a paperback, given a choice between the two, as it is smaller and lighter and easily portable in a bag or pocket. Postage costs are higher for hardback as they are larger and heavier. Librarians prefer hardback for longevity, but paperbacks for budget fitting cost.
- Ebooks Increasing in popularity by the year, these can be read on pocket devices virtually anywhere. The print size can be adjusted at need and they convert easily to audio on reader technology. They are cheaper to buy but command the same royalties. They do not require a full ISBN and are available everywhere in the world the internet provider can reach.
- Cover The cover is the one single item which sells the book. It must be sufficiently striking amongst thousands of others to grab attention. It must be relevant to the content, telling the reader in a microsecond, which is all the attention span given, whether the book is worth a second glance. This second glance will result in either rejection – or turning to the back for more information. A little longer this time while the loglines, blurb and any reviews do their work, then you have either hooked your reader or you have not. Images, fonts, colours, placing, finishes, log lines and blurb all contribute to a successful cover. Those scrabbled together from AI images lack the punch and flair of an integrated design by a professional graphic artist, where even the spine contributes to the selling power of the book.
- Literary Professionals Some hybrid publishers are affiliated to traditional publishing houses and staffed by their professional editors. They are very selective over which books they accept but when they do, their undoubted experience and acumen, contacts and insider knowledge within the literary world mean your book is almost certain to succeed. They are very expensive but if your book is worth this investment and they agree with you, this is a very good choice to make.
- IT Experts A hybrid publisher who relies exclusively on targeted software to both format and publish books is unlikely to give your title the individuality it deserves. They may publish internet only with the corresponding free ISBN which will not take your book into any other marketplace. If you wish, however, to see your book in this global internet market, intend to add many more titles and have no aspirations to bookshops and libraries, many authors make a good income out of sales and the cheaper outlay is sound good sense. If they publish across the board with a full ISBN, look carefully at the books they produce and make sure you want yours to be one of them before committing as they can often cost more than those who do not use full software solutions.
- Marketing Gurus There is a huge variance here in both quality and cost. Most rely on social media marketing using specialist software that targets platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. They take clips from the content on your website, creating one for you if you do not have one, and splash it everywhere. This can result in very good sales. Notice how long the campaign lasts and the quality of the books before committing.
- Mixed The best value for money hybrid publishers are the ones who employ professionals who bring a variety of talents to the team. Individual and crafted cover designs to sell the book link with their marketing strategies which integrate both social media and local press and everything in between according to the book and author. IT experts format and produce the book both in its physical and electronic formats. Guidance and support are provided much as an agent or traditional publisher and editorial services may even be offered, although these will cost you more as a separate purchase. The risk is shared, the work is shared and there is usually an ongoing relationship with the author in readiness for the next book without, of course, tying them in to a contract. The whole point of self publishing with a hybrid is the freedom remaining to the author to make informed choices.