What is "Hybrid Publishing?"

"Hybrid Publishing" is a term that has been thrown around a lot and you'll know this if you've ever looked into how to publish a book. So, what is it? It is incredibly difficult for the average person to publish a book through "traditional" methods. Publishing companies just don't take chances on brand new or unknown authors anymore. Often they have developed options for those trying to bring a book into the world that involve a lot of money, basically they make the author pay for the whole thing. Then there's self-publishing. Most often bookstores won't allow a self-published author to set up book signings and it's incredibly difficult and often expensive to get interviews or promotions any place that will actually get you noticed. Hybrid publishing is a combination of both of those options. It is less expensive than paying for all of the costs a traditional publisher might impose on a unknown author and there is a bit more support than self-published authors receive.

Of course there are still costs. However, included in those costs are things like world-wide distribution, initial set-up, formatting, an illustrator if you don't already have one, etc. Often there is someone available to you that will help you find interviews, places to do book signings and even things like social media promotions. It can be overwhelming to navigate everything by yourself and have a successful book launch. Hybrid publishing can relieve much of that overwhelm. In addition you can keep costs lower by utilizing "print-on-demand" in which you will only incur print costs when a book is ordered. You can always order books for signings or to sell yourself and give away at cost, so there are options in case you do want to sell books directly to people. In that instance you can set whatever price you want without any overhead.

Books sold through book sellers are printed and shipped through the retailer or distributor so you don't have to worry about making trips to the post office. There are royalties on each book sold and depending on the book seller those are either paid monthly or quarterly. Again, you don't have to do anything, this is automatic. If your books sell, you will get a royalty. If not, you will not. It is for this reason I highly encourage authors to take advantage of people who work in book marketing and have worked for IbbiLane Press for some time. These people do know what they're doing and you won't have to go through the trial and error of finding a great book marketer. There is a cost associated with this but we do our best to keep all costs very low.

That's the basics of hybrid publishing. Of course you probably still have questions and that's always welcomed. Please reach out to us and we will address all of those questions. Whether you choose to publish with us or not, I personally still encourage you to write your story. No it doesn't have to be non-fiction, we publish all sorts of things.

Thanks for reading!