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July 5, 2019 by Laura Resnick

Nink Knowledge: Mixing Traditional Publishing & Self-Publishing

This article, written by Lindsay Randall, is from the July 2019 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

(Editor’s note: For the purposes of this article, hybrid is defined as having published front list in both trad & indie during 2018-2019.)

Is it double the trouble or worth the effort to publish front list titles both traditionally and indie?

Several of NINC’s hybrid authors shared their thoughts, words of wisdom and warning, and how each times releases to widen her reach.

Why publish trad and indie simultaneously?

For author Katie MacAlister, concurrently publishing indie and trad offers the opportunity to push beyond boundaries of style and storytelling while reaping the benefits of publisher support and a conduit to a larger readership.

“It’s the best of both worlds, allowing me freedom to write whatever twangs my strings, yet remain in the traditionally published world,” she said.

MacAlister’s most recent trad title is Day of the Dragon, the second book in the paranormal Dragon Hunter series (March 2019, Hachette Group). Her latest self-pub book is the contemporary romance Ever Fallen in Love, released November 2018.

While the genres may differ, MacAlister noted that she sees an uptick in her self-pubbed sales whenever a new trad book is released.

“My publishers have connections and abilities that I either lack or don’t want to spend time doing. They put books up on NetGalley, arrange for reviews in trade journals, organize blog features, run ads and contests, coordinate PR campaigns online, and so on. They usually have a longer reach with subsidiary sales and contacts within foreign publishing companies,” she said. “It's also nice to be able to write a book and hand it over for editing, production, and cover work without having to arrange for all that myself.”

Indie publishing also netted her a new publisher. She released Fireborn in 2018, the first book in a new series she wanted to write regardless if a publisher wanted it. She’d no sooner posted news of the release than Kensington made an offer. It was a bid MacAlister liked. Kensington will re-release Fireborn in June and two other books in the series.

“I’d highly recommend being hybrid to any author,” said Bronwen Evans, who writes and publishes historical romance through indie and trad channels. “This market is ever-changing—in fact, it’s more like revolving and spinning. I think it’s good to ensure you have a foot in each camp.”

Attracted to the Earl is her most recent trad release (May 2019, Random House), while her latest indie offering is To Tempt a Highland Duke, released in April as part of the Dukes By the Dozen multi-author boxed set.

Evans said she loves the freedom found in self-publishing and appreciates the marketing available through her traditional publisher.

Words of wisdom and warning

Both MacAlister and Evans said they must deal with non-compete clauses.

“My agent works hard to eliminate any non-compete clauses in my contracts, narrowing the language so that I can write outside of a series whenever the whim strikes me,” MacAlister said. “I do try to remain cognizant of how many books are coming out and when. Since I'm not a rapid release sort of writer, I like to make sure I have a new book dropping every few months, and I will shift my self-pubbed books to make that happen.”

As for Evans, the non-compete clause nearly made her walk away from traditional publishing.

“In the past two years, non-compete clauses began to pop into my contracts and the non-compete period got longer and longer,” she said. “I have a good agent, and we tweak most of the clause now and work around it with my release schedule.”

Lyn Cote, who has been hybrid since 2010 and traditionally published for 12+ years before that, said “being a hybrid is a juggling act” of positioning indie titles around the release of trad titles.

She, too, worked through an agent to deal with the non-compete clauses, remaining with Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line until its end in 2018 (her last title was Suddenly a Frontier Father, part of the Wilderness Brides series). She stayed because most of her readers purchased their books in Walmart “and Harlequin could get me into almost every Walmart in the U.S. and Canada.”

She noted that sales for both increased whenever an indie book released around the time a traditionally published book came out. (She writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and historical novels. The Heart Hopes is her latest indie title.)

Today Cote said the biggest reality in all retailing is that more people are shopping online.

“When an author looks at a traditional contract, he/she must ask these questions: ‘Where will my publisher sell these books?’ and ‘What will they do to actively make my books visible?’” she said.

Cozy mystery author Lynn Cahoon, who indie writes in romance as Lynn Collins, said “keeping your foot in both worlds gives you an edge over other authors.”

“I now have a better understanding of the entire process for publishing a book, which gives me the ability to ask for things I know the publisher can do and not look stupid asking for things they can't do,” Cahoon said. “As authors, sometimes we don't know enough about the entire book publishing cycle.”

Cahoon’s most recent trad title is Mother’s Day Mayhem (April 2019, Kensington), part of the Tourist Trap Mystery series. Her most recent self-published title is Country Hearts, book five of the Castle View romance series.

“You have to plan your time and energy well,” Cahoon said. “Make sure you’re taking as much time writing and editing your self-published books that you do with your trad. And think about marketing. You can't just put a book up on Amazon (especially under a new name) and expect it to sell.”

For Lea Wait, the model of pubbing both indie and traditionally offers her a larger income (to date, her trad books out-earn her self-published titles), while allowing her the freedom to write what she wants in whatever genre she chooses.

She traditionally publishes mysteries (her latest is Thread on Arrival: A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery [April 2019, Kensington]) and indie publishes historical and young adult fiction (Justice & Mercy: A Post-Civil War Mystery in February).

Wait markets all of her books together, regardless of genre. When speaking or signing, she has both types of books available, plus blogs about both, and features them on postcards she shares with fans.

Timing releases/widening the reach

Each author said they time self-pubbed titles around their traditionally published titles and take care not to dilute the market.

“My traditional books come out about every nine to 12 months,” Wait said. “I try to have indie books come between them.”

For Cahoon, she tries to avoid releasing her self-pubbed romance in the months she has a mystery releasing on the traditional side.

“My trad contracts all say I can't give a book to another publisher before I complete this contract, except anything written under Lynn Collins,” she added. “In a perfect world, I'd love to have one release a month—trad or indie.”

Evans plans her release schedule each January. She also watches cover design on the trad side so that it doesn’t clash with the indie side, and she makes use of her self-published work as giveaways and free reads for newsletter signups, marketing all of her releases to all readers.

MacAlister said she staggers books to release three or four times a year, and adds a link to all works in the end matter of every indie book. “Being very, very organized is a must,” she said.

Wait summed it up like this: “Take a lot of deep breaths and don’t overcommit yourself in either direction. Make sure you meet contracted deadlines. Have fun with the whole idea!”

________________________

Lindsay Randall serves as assistant editor of Nink, and while she has indie published front list and backlist, she hopes to once again work with a traditional publisher.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: career, Hybrid, indie, Publishing, Writing

January 5, 2019 by Laura Resnick

Nink Knowledge: You Thought You Knew What Being a Hybrid Means?

This article by Patricia Burroughs is from the January 2019 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

One of the great benefits of being a NINC member is access to the wealth of knowledge and experience available in the NINCLINK email loop from writers of all different backgrounds. Recently someone presented a confusing question, “What is a hybrid publisher?”

Most of us know what hybrid authors are. But it took some Googling to discover that there actually is such a thing as a hybrid publisher.

It primarily boils down to financial risk, and who is taking it.

Until the 21st Century, most publishing was what we now call traditional publishing. The publishers took all the financial risks from editing, to publishing, to marketing, to shipping. And the author usually got paid an advance up front!

The opposite of traditional publishing was vanity publishing. These publishers fed off a writer’s vanity (or more likely, desperation) and promised the sky—but the author had to pay all the publisher’s expenses, plus more, and then ended up with boxes of books to market and ship. Vanity publishing was rarely a good idea and almost always ended in frustration for the author.

But after the turn of this century, authors gained the power and ability to skip the traditional publishers and publish their own work profitably. Yes, self-publishing.

We all know the term “hybrid author” as a writer who combines both publishing paths in her or his career. Publishing has evolved its own hybrid, not to be confused with “hybrid authors” any more than it should be with “hybrid cars” or pluots, a hybrid of plums and apricots.

A hybrid publisher is a publisher that—in a perfect world—brings a lot of value to the table that the author usually can’t provide. Namely? Marketing and sales through established access and relationships with libraries, schools, and brick-and-mortar stores.

But it’s not that easy.

One reason there are so many definitions and descriptions of hybrid publishers is because they have widely different business models. Also, different companies that range from legitimate to scammers are using the term.

It’s up to writers to know what to look for and what to avoid.

The simplest and most accurate definition of hybrid publishers is that they combine aspects of traditional publishing with aspects of self-publishing.

In general, the author often provides the book and the money to cover editorial and production costs. This is usually far more than the typical self-published author pays for the same services, even if they hire them done. Thus it’s even more important that the publisher can hold up its side of the bargain.

The publisher provides the knowledge and experience to publish and market the book. This can include providing developmental editors with a background that matches the author and book, as well as later editing, professional layout and covers, and of course—selling books.

How do you get this magic on your team? You pay high publishing expenses up front and then split the royalties with the hybrid publisher, hopefully at least 50/50. Unless your financial investment is low, anything less than 50/50 is not a good deal.

So the author pays huge expenses up front. How is this any different from a vanity press? The publisher should then market and sell the book with a vastly wider reach than the given author could do alone.

This sometimes works.

Let’s just accept that sometimes this actually works out satisfactorily for the author who earns back initial expenses and more. Some hybrid publishers can point to at least a few true successes and connect a prospective client to authors who are willing to recommend said publisher. (If not, it does not bode well to assume that with your book they will suddenly break through and sell thousands or tens of thousands of books when they haven’t before, no matter how flattering it feels to be told your book is special, ‘the one’ they have been waiting for.)

So, again, hybrid publishing can be a good deal. But in all actuality? It’s a long shot.

Beginning with—there is no association or body to monitor or penalize hybrid publishers who are simply vanity presses with a clean, unblemished new term to call themselves.

An author interested in hybrid publishing has a lot of research ahead. Here are some questions to ask and things to investigate.

Are their books editorially curated?

Do they have a gatekeeper and standards a book must meet or do they take anyone who sends them a submission?

Do they provide sound, professional editorial support?

Do they provide developmental editing, copyediting, proofreading, and all the steps expected from a reputable traditional publisher?

Do they produce quality books you’d be proud to have your name on?

How do you know? Read as many free samples on Amazon and elsewhere as you can find. If those pass muster, buy some in digital and print, if the publisher does both. Read complete books to see if they maintain the quality you expect. Hold actual print books in your hands and don’t just read them. Compare them to good traditionally published books.

Do they provide a higher than standard royalty since you are subsidizing production of the book?

Assuming the author investment is significant (as it seems to be in most if not all cases) that should be at least a 50/50 split of net royalties.

What rights does the publisher want to claim?

As publishers, they may want more than you want to give. An important question is, do they exercise all the rights they want to keep? Do they actually create quality audiobooks that are selling and getting good reviews (or at least no bad reviews) on sites like Audible? Do they actually market print books to libraries, schools, stores, etc.? If the answer to these or similar questions is no, it’s incredibly difficult to justify a publisher keeping them, no matter what traditional publishers might do. You have more clout in this situation than you do with a traditional publisher. Carefully consider whether you want to let them sit on your subsidiary rights, hoping someday they’ll be able to use them—or better, that they’ll be worth something because of your later success (which may have little to do with this particular book or anything this publisher did).

Perhaps one of the most important questions is what do they offer in terms of marketing and distribution?

Does the publisher have an actual print catalog of their books? Do their books get reviewed in PW, Library Journal, or specific publications and websites that have an authoritative voice and reach in your book’s genre or niche?

Do they have an actual marketing or sales team that will be actively attempting to sell your book, in the way you would expect a traditional publisher to do? Do they buy ads in places that count or promote their list in other ways? Do they have a marketing and sales strategy for your books? Did they and/or their sales team come from marketing at a reputable publisher in your genre or niche? If not, how are they going to be able to sell more books than you can on your own? Being able to point to books in an Ingram online catalog is not proof of their connections. You can do the same thing yourself. Being in the catalog means your book is available for books, libraries, and bookstores to order. But if the publisher can’t actually stimulate sales, how are they holding up their part?

Remember…

A hybrid publisher should bring a lot of value to the table that the author can’t provide. That means not just producing books but selling them.

A publisher that isn’t every bit as vested in making money from your book as you are is a publisher whose business model is based on getting money from writers.

There is no standard definition of a hybrid publisher, what they offer, or what expenses they expect the author to cover. Do your homework and you may find that special situation that will actually make a positive difference to you. Just remember that in this, like many aspects of publishing (whether traditional or self-pub), the odds aren’t in your favor until you’ve done your due diligence and made smart choices.

The IBPA (International Book Publishers Association) has a helpful and informative webpage with downloads, which states their IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria and details the IBPA’s “Industry Standards Checklist for a Professionally Published Book.”

________________________

 

Patricia Burroughs is a Screenwriting Fellow of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, an award-winning romance writer, and in this phase of her career writes SFF. The last book in her YA Dark Fantasy series, The Fury Triad, will be published in late 2019. Her first cozy mystery, Mourning Chorus, will be published by Sweet Promise Press November 30, 2018.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: Hybrid, Nink, Publishing, Writing

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