I’m working on a novel right now, and in the firm tradition of counting my eggs before they hatch, I’ve been deliberating over how to get it published. We’re standing at a crossroads in the publishing industry now, and I think we may be witnessing a drastic change in the publishing industry. Specifically, there’s a surge of a third publishing option that combines self-publishing and traditional publishing: hybrid publishing.

What’s the Difference?

These are our most frequent publishing options:

Traditional: This is what most of us think of when we think of publishing. You submit your manuscript or sample chapter and cover letter to one of the Big Five publishers (Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, and Simon and Schuster) who’ll look over it and either ask for more or will reject you outright. If they like your work, you’re novel, poetry or short story collection, etc. will be published usually within 2 years.

Self-Publishing: You have a manuscript done and you want it published now; you also want to keep all of the royalties to yourself. Once upon a time, this meant finding a printer and getting your book printed yourself as well as marketed by yourself. With Amazon’s print-on-demand (POD) service, however, you can just upload your documents and have print and digital copies of your book ready for people to purchase.

The problem with these methods is apparent.

A traditional publisher comes with some level of prestige. After all, your book was published because it did something right. It’s engaging, has commercial value (what publishers really like), and it has a fairly high probability of seeing at least some bookstore shelves. It feels like a real achievement!

Unfortunately, while a traditional publisher has high standards when it comes to what they will and won’t accept, it takes forever to actually get to print once your book is accepted. Worse still, they often don’t take unsolicited manuscripts, so you’ll have to first find an agent who’s willing to go to bat for your book and your vision.

This leads us to the problem of royalties. Traditional publishers are unique in that they have the ability to pay you an advance, but your royalties will only be 5-10% of the book’s profit, and some of that will go to your agent, usually 15%.

Traditional publishers usually don’t market your book for long, either. They’ll spend their money marketing it for a few weeks or months, but if it doesn’t become a bestseller, they’ll drop you like a stone. They’re here to build their brand and make money, not help you achieve your vision.

Self-Publishing comes with its own set of problems. It may seem lucrative because you keep 100% of your profits, but it’s also rife with trouble. First of all, zero gatekeeping whatsoever means that amateur authors are more than willing to put out a book that never made it out of the first draft and is riddled with typos and grammatical errors. They never bothered to pay someone to proofread it or edit it to make sure it’s readable as far as content goes.

For novels, that means making sure that the plot doesn’t slow to a grinding halt, subplots aren’t dropped and forgotten about, and, especially if you’re writing a how-to book, that what you’ve written is comprehensible and easy to follow.

There’s also the downside of needing to market it all by yourself. Even though a traditional publisher is liable to drop you after a short time, at least you get some exposure with them! If you don’t know how to market your book or aren’t a social media influencer with a huge, built-in following, you can forget about ever selling a book.

Why Hybrid?

I’ve shopped around for agents before only to find that most of them have their hands full already. Many agents aren’t willing to take a chance on an unproven author, and it could be that my writing just doesn’t come across as lightning in a bottle. I’m not sure yet, as most agents just say they aren’t accepting new clients right now.

Rather than wait around for someone to even tentatively take me on, I have also self-published. I try to make sure that my work is 100% finished before I upload it, but I shudder whenever I come across something that I should’ve seen while going over it for the last time. I’m also not a terrible marketer (two of the books I’ve published were about how to market online), but the publishing industry is a very special breed that requires know-how I don’t possess.

This is why hybrid publishing is so attractive to me. A hybrid publisher has the gatekeeping and many of the resources that a traditional publisher does, but they accept unsolicited manuscripts! They are, in my opinion, the answer to the current problems the publishing industry has found itself in.

There are a wide variety of hybrid publishers, but here’s what most of them will do followed by my (untested as of yet) guide to what I’m definitely going to avoid when shopping around for publishers.

Hybrid Breakdown:

• They don’t publish tons of books like a traditional publisher, so they are more selective about what manuscripts they publish. As such, there’s still that sense of pride and prestige (perhaps a feeling of legitimacy) that comes from being accepted by one. Anything that’s willing to publish whatever you send them is a vanity publisher that should be avoided! It’s little better than a self-publisher.

• They’re more personal. I’ve been checking them out in between writing and researching, and many of them are far more personal than the larger traditional publishers. Often they’re willing to give you pointers on why your manuscript was rejected if they don’t deem it marketable. If you don’t take the criticism personally, you can become a much better writer.

• They offer editing and proofreading services, which is what every book needs before it hits shelves. It’s amazing what you can miss, no matter how skilled of a writer you are, simply because you’ve gone over your own manuscript so many times! I know I’ve missed obvious errors and sorely needed a fresh pair of eyes.

• You get much higher royalties. Anywhere between 25-100% royalties seem to be what’s common in the industry. The disadvantage is that they usually don’t pay an advance and you have to partially foot the bill for marketing and other services. Still, once you have a book that they deem worthy, there’s a good chance that you’ll make that back. Some of them offer marketing separately, though, so make sure you read the fine print and know what the journey is going to look like before you submit anything or agree to anything!

• On that note, they market your book for longer than a traditional publisher will. That’s because each book they take on is a risk, so they’re far more determined to make it succeed than a traditional publisher, which has multiple manuscripts coming in all the time and, out of the thousands of books they publish each year, at least a few of them will be a hit!

• You have a good chance of winding up on bookshelves and in libraries – almost as much of a chance as a traditional publisher. Self-published books, especially POD books, have almost no chance of getting out into the world. It’s a shame because there are some self-published books that I enjoyed.

• Your covers will look fantastic because cover design is always something they provide. It’s unfortunate, but people do judge a book by its cover.

There are some downsides, as I’ve mentioned. Often, you’ll have to share the cost of bringing the book to market, but there are some hybrid publishers that don’t take payment. None of them, however, pay an advance.

Even so, this definitely looks to be the direction that publishing is moving in. There are some guidelines I’m following as I browse through hybrid publishing sites.

For example, I’ve found a couple of them that are POD, which is a clear sign for me to stay away from them. If I wanted POD services, I’d just self-publish myself.

Another red flag for me is anything that doesn’t include marketing services. One of the big draws of going with a traditional publisher is that they will market your book, so I feel that it’s a mistake to accept a publisher who offers marketing services separately. This is definitely so if their publishing package is already expensive.

Thoughts?

Is there anyone here who’s had anything published by a hybrid publisher and can give me advice? Maybe you’ve had success with a traditional publisher or as a self-published author and would like to give me and everyone else here some tips? I’d love to hear from you!