Q –
Angela,
What are the benefits of going with a hybrid publisher vs POD?
EK
A –
hy·?brid | \ ?h?-br?d
“A hybrid is a mixture of two different things…” (Vocabulary.com)
Such a cool sounding word, right? But…
Be very wary of the term “hybrid publisher.” Many companies use that term to trick authors into thinking that the company itself is footing part of the bill for book publishing. However, when you look at the numbers, the author is the one paying all of the fees.
For example, a so-called “hybrid publisher” may quote the author $5K in fees, but say that the publisher is also investing $5K in the book publishing project. In reality, they are NOT. It does NOT cost $5K to publish a book. Not even close.
A true hybrid publisher is a firm that pays all of the up-front publishing fees, but does not lock an author into an exclusive contract for decades. However, a hybrid publisher will typically not set up book signings without charging the author to do so, they will not send out press releases without charging the author for it, etc., etc.
A hybrid publisher will take a chance on an author, and invest funds in the project, but they’re not going to risk going broke in the process if the book does not take off. That’s why the contracts for hybrid publishers are usually for much shorter periods of time than those offered by traditional publishers.
POD (print on demand) is simply a method of printing a book only when it is ordered. Many hybrid publishers, as well as traditional ones, use POD technology now.
Abuzz Press, which we own, is a true hybrid publisher. Authors pay nothing up front and the contract is exclusive for only three years. However, authors are responsible for book promotion. And, Abuzz Press accepts only a handful of submissions each year.
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So called hybrid publishers are just vanity presses trying to fleece people by looking legitimate.
And they make a lot of extra money by selling worthless services that you do not need, while often doing a bad job with services you did need and paid too much for.
These so called hybrids are trying to confuse people with the older name cooperative publishing which was used by some university presses to help publish material that is important academically, but with little sales potential outside some libraries and a few research professionals. These have been mostly done away with by online sites that publish such things free for those types of authors.
There are only two types of valid publishers and that is trad pubs that pay you to lease rights to print and sell your book. And there is true self publishing where you own the ISBN and are the actual publisher even if you choose to buy services for some items you can not do well or would take too much effort. These are editing and in many cases formatting or layout for a media whether print or ebooks of various types.
If you get a ‘free’ ISBN from a so called ‘self’ publishing company you got tricked because they are the true publisher and you were vanity published by them.
Even some trad publishers now have subsidiaries that are vanity presses to make more money by trying to look legitimate by being associated with a true publisher.
A very few places like BookLocker do not fit neatly in the current terminology and its usage. IMHO they would fit closer to the old cooperative model of the unis but applied to more popular topics that again generally are not going to be massive best sellers, although some might achieve that level.
Plus the quality and the ethics used by Book Locker are far better than the so called hybrids. They are definitely on my short list when I get ready to publish my next book.