Help Please! Anyone compare hybrid and self-publishing...?

[E G Logan]

From The Bookseller today:

'XXXX Press is a hybrid imprint. Authors are asked to contribute half of an agreed budget based on word count and in return, their book will be given editorial, design and print treatments. The author will be paid 10% of the book’s RRP for each copy sold, and 100 copies of the finished paperback.'

The new press is soliciting submissions for literary fiction and novels. (Their description.)

How does that stack up against self-publishing in terms of advantages, if any? Anyone know? @AgentPete ??

 

[Pamela Jo]

Sounds like the same old, same old vanity press. The missing piece of the puzzle there is where and how those "sales" happen. Whether self-publishing or trad. it's how readers find the book and are persuaded to read it that matters.

 

[BrianY]

It sounds to me like a fusion of the worst parts of each publishing model. If you're going to shell out cash to publish, choose each service yourself and make sure they align with your vision. If you're going to trade publish, make sure they have the distribution and can get you in the right retail spaces and have the rankings on that really big website. If they have those things, you can safely assume they'll tailor the book to suit those big clients.

All XXXX publisher is telling you is that they'll take your money.

 

[E G Logan]

a fusion of the worst parts of each publishing model

Me, too. That's why I need it explained why anyone (author/writer) would do this.

 

[BrianY]

There's at least one good reason - you are commissioned to produce a few hundred custom books for a company or organization and a one-stop shop that can produce them will make the project much easier. Imagine a gift book for the largest donors to a charity or a holiday gift book for large corporate companies.

And then there's the bad reason - self-publishing has created a culture of insecurity that now surrounds the process of book production. You need! You need to pay an editor! You need to pay a designer! And then pay for marketing classes! Pay! Pay! Pay!

I used to hear about artists who needed to produce books of their work - these were called "monographs" in the day - and there were several companies that handled this. I think of this as in between. However, I can no longer find any of them online. And modern dictionary definitions of "monograph" don't include this at all.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Every year or so Jane Friedman releases a handy chart that compares all the different pros and cons of the various publishing routes (trad and non-trad, including hybrid). It's well worth a read, even just to catch up on the state of the industry.

 

[BrianY]

Nikky, thanks for posting this. It mentions several things you have to be aware of before you get swallowed by the self-publishing industrial complex. There's another vulture that people have to watch out for: book coaches. These are people who charge you large sums of money to introduce you to other people who'll charge you large sums of money. Be careful out there!

 

[Pamela Jo]

There is actually one super successful writer I know who started vanity press way back before digital. He took the books that were printed and sold them at rodeos, schools, supermarkets and gained enough readership to get into trad publishing. Hank the Cowdog - Wikipedia

It is possible JK Rowling followed a similar model to getting into print. They mystery of how she was discovered after so many rejections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_the_Cowdog

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

It is possible JK Rowling followed a similar model to getting into print. They mystery of how she was discovered after so many rejections.

No. JK Rowling kept on writing and kept on submitting despite rejections. One day, one publisher (Barry Cunningham, then of Bloomsbury) organised an interview with her. She went along with a synopsis of the first book and an outline of the next seven. Nothing more mysterious than them both being in the right place at the right time and a children's publisher prepared to gamble and an author who just wouldn't give up. (I have this info from a close associate of Barry Cunningham.)

 

[Pamela Jo]

No. JK Rowling kept on writing and kept on submitting despite rejections. One day, one publisher (Barry Cunningham, then of Bloomsbury) organised an interview with her. She went along with a synopsis of the first book and an outline of the next seven. Nothing more mysterious than them both being in the right place at the right time and a children's publisher prepared to gamble and an author who just wouldn't give up. (I have this info from a close associate of Barry Cunningham.)

This is something Pete has discussed. That she did MORE than the usual just keep submitting.

 

[AgentPete]

From The Bookseller today:

'XXXX Press is a hybrid imprint. Authors are asked to contribute half of an agreed budget based on word count and in return, their book will be given editorial, design and print treatments. The author will be paid 10% of the book’s RRP for each copy sold, and 100 copies of the finished paperback.'

Really doesn't excite me.
One of the key aspects to this is performance. They have little skin in the game, so what’s to make them go the extra mile selling your book? It’s a recipe for disappointment (unless you have very low expectations...)

It sounds to me like a fusion of the worst parts of each publishing model.

Yep.

It is possible JK Rowling followed a similar model to getting into print. They mystery of how she was discovered after so many rejections.

No. JK Rowling kept on writing and kept on submitting despite rejections.

JK received a derisory advance, because quite simply there was no competition from other publishers. Even Mr. Cunningham didn’t want US rights and left them on the table. All this suggests that expectations were extremely low.

What I’ve heard is that her own self-starter marketing involved schools etc and gave the book some initial gas in the tank. Would like to know more about this aspect… obviously, it went stratospheric and that was mainly driven by word of mouth. But what did she do to get it even noticed initially? Would be good to know.

And PS. Barry is right to take credit for spotting it. However, most of the glory is due to her agent, Chris Little, for believing in her and the book and not giving up. He was not treated well.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Chris Little was not treated well by Rowling or the publishing world? I think that legend that yu just keep knocking on agents doors serves no one well. The people who have broken out all seem to have tried SOMETHING else, whether self publishing, blogging, Tick Tock, or going straight to readers at the source.

 

[BrianY]

Pamela Jo, "self publishing, blogging, Tick Tock, or going straight to readers at the source" aren't "something else," they're what everybody has done all along. Indeed, lets not forget local media appearances, being excerpted in magazines and long-form websites, and pushing your work at conferences. All this is par for the course. The self-publishing industrial complex™ wants you to believe that you're an iconoclast for doing them (and that you should pay them for how-to instructions), but you're not.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Christopher Paolini of the 'Aragorn' quadrilogy (soon to be expanded) went to schools with his self-published books and did workshops (even though he was just a young whipper-snapper himself - wrote book one when he was 16). He gave out freebies for kids to take home. One of those kids had a father who was high up in a major publishing house. The father asked what his kid was reading, liked the book himself, and that's how young Christopher became a traditionally published author - by hard graft and a very lucky break. Lots of authors do school visits, especially PB and MG authors, but few get such a grand stroke of luck. It can happen though. Obviously.