Our storycraft meeting next week is on marketing and publishing, so as I’ve been working on putting the meeting together, I’ve come across some things that I thought you might like too, Squiders.
So, today, let’s talk about the concept of hybrid publishing.
What is hybrid publishing? Simply put, it’s any publishing model that falls in between traditional and self-publishing. Some indie publishers refer to themselves as hybrid publishers, because they have aspects of both. For example, Turtleduck Press has a traditional editing model, but allows authors full control of things such as pricing, covers, and where to list the books for sale, and it relies on POD and e-book technology.
That’s publishers and presses. For individuals, being hybrid published can mean a number of things, but typically it means that you have works that have been self/indie published, as well as some that were traditionally published.
You might be asking why one would want to do hybrid publishing. Well, let’s look at the pros to being traditionally published. You get some marketing/PR (hopefully). You are eligible for most major awards, can get your books reviewed by the snootiest of reviewers. There’s the clout, the respectability of having made it the “right” way. And you might get a large advance.
And the pros of self-publishing: you get full creative control of your story, cover, etc. You get more royalties and potentially more money over time. You can publish on your own schedule instead of waiting a year or more for each book to come out. You can switch genres and write whatever suits you at that particular moment of time.
So why hybrid publish? So you can get the benefits of both methods. An author can publish novels traditionally and self-publish short story collections and novellas in between novels to give their readers new stuff while they wait. An author can traditionally publish one more serious series while self-publishing another sillier series. You can traditionally publish short stories and link them to your self-published or indie-published novels. Hybrid publishing can be done in any number of ways.
In this day and age, is there any reason to not do both in any way that works for you?
Are a hybrid author, Squiders? Do you have any authors you follow that have a system you like?
