Hybrid publishing
It took a long time to complete my first novel, Three Degrees of Freedom. Probably longer than it should have. Not that I regret it. I loved the process and was doing it concurrently with full time employment, an active social life and some counterproductive substance habits. I am pleased with it though. I think there are some first novel issues with it that cannot be undone, but there is some good stuff in there. It’s certainly better than some other works that have been printed for sale.
When I completed it, I started a process of reaching out to all the publishers and agents I could find that were accepting unsolicited manuscripts. The process reminded me of any other job hunt in a way. I developed a nice pitch sort of like a cover letter but found that it still needed major edits to tailor it to the specific target. The responses were infrequent and slow to come. In fact, I remember there being some relief when I got my first rejection because it gave me at least some sense that something was happening. A few months after my search started, I got my first positive responses. On almost the same day, I got acceptance offer letters from both Olympia and Austin Macauley publishers.
At first, I was elated. I assumed I was getting very close to holding a printed version of my novel at long last. It was not that simple. Review of the contracts that were sent dulled my elation. Both of those publishers offer what’s known as hybrid publishing. Hybrid publishing lies somewhere in between traditional publishing where someone pays you for a manuscript and self-publishing where the author manages the details of book release. They were both offering me about the same deal: they would manage all the details of editing, printing, layout. Bottom line it was going require $3,000 of my own money to get my novel on the shelf.
After numerous initial rejections and no-calls, notions of self-publishing had started to blossom, so I had been contemplating the cost of getting my own book to market unaided when I was contacted by Austin Macauley an Olympia. I wasn’t expecting an offer like the one they gave me, but I could see the value of their service. Getting a manuscript to a bookstore carries a cost in time and resources. Of course it does. And if the book doesn’t sell, the investment is a loss. Large publishers are probably like most corporations at their heart. Their directives are profits not gambling. With all that in mind I feel confident in saying the bulk of their content does not come from random jackasses waiving unedited first novels out on the street.
For the first time self-publishing author, the issue is greater than just the investment of time and money, however. There is likely a lack of experience that must be overcome. Like anything else, there are accepted processes, best practices and trade jargon that are well established within the industry. I’m sure a dedicated novice can work through this knowledge gap, but it’s a lot of work with a lot of opportunity for missteps. Thus, the niche for a hybrid publisher. Author supplies a portion of the monetary investment and the publisher handles the industry specific details. They keep a cut of the royalties too, of course.
I did a fair bit of web research on the matter at the time. I found a quite a few very strong opinions in opposition to hybrid publishers. Most of that, however, seemed to come from people who didn’t actually publish with the company. It was more a general outrage that a publisher would be asking a writer for money and not just accepting the manuscript with an offer to split the profits. I get it. One puts a lot of energy, time and emotion into a first novel with a hope that it will get its fair chance in the world. Even if it doesn’t make a huge profit one might hope that it sees the light of day from a bookstore window in their hometown. The expectation is not that it is going to cost you a couple months’ salary just to see a physical copy. At least it wasn’t for me. I have to admit I prickled a bit when I saw the amount of money I was being asked for to get my manuscript published. My first instinct was to assume that it was some kind of scam. In the end, I warmed to the concept of hybrid publishing a bit more. Sure, there were some people who were unhappy after working with a hybrid publisher, but by and large I got the feeling that they were delivering on what they promised and I found at least as many positive reviews of the services. Both Olympia and Austin Macauley are very clear about their philosophy on their websites. Publishing unknown authors is a big risk, by sharing the risk with the author they can afford opportunities to more writers. And probably safely build a larger catalog of titles.
I had email exchanges with representatives at both companies. I did not get the impression that they were trying to scam me at all. I found the dialog very informational. I ultimately decided not to publish with either one. It wasn’t an easy decision. I could afford the author contribution, but I was not convinced it was the right decision. There was a question that I posed to both companies that cemented my decision. I asked each one approximately what percentage of their clients actually make their investment back. The Austin MacCauley rep said this would violate the policy of reporting the details of other authors sales numbers. I did not see how this was so since I was not asking for any one author’s performance, I was looking for their performance as a publisher. The Olympia rep was more in line with my thinking and unhesitantly offered an approximation of 10%.
I have two other manuscripts in the works and a couple of short stories too. While I think there is a lot of good things in my first manuscript, I think the work that follows is going to be better. If I am going to invest in a piece of work, I think it better to start with one of those. Particularly if I am gambling with $3000 of my own cash.
That is not to say Three Degrees of Freedom is dead. Quite the inverse. It is going to be the vehicle that I use to make my test run through the publishing process. I’m going to get it to print in as cheap and efficient manner as possible. I just want to walk through the publishing steps, start to finish. Hopefully, I’ll make most of my mistakes here and will be better equipped to make future manuscripts a success. Watch this site for updates on the progress of Three Degrees of Freedom. Excerpts are being made available on the Prose page of this site. Check them out and feel free to leave feedback!