Book Publishing Overview: Traditional Publishing, Self-Publishing and Hybrid-Publishing

An Overview of the Different Types of Book Publishing: Traditional Publishing, Self-Publishing, Hybrid-Publishing

Your Nonfiction manuscript is finished. What an achievement! You should be very proud of yourself. Now, the real work begins. Finishing a manuscript is only the first step in the process of getting your book created and available to the masses. Next up is the publishing process.

There are three different types of nonfiction book publishing. This article will outline each type of publishing and outline their pros and cons.

Traditional Publishing

The first type of publishing available to nonfiction authors is traditional publishing. This is the type of publishing we normally think of when we hear the term publishing.

Traditional publishing is when your book is published by an established publishing house. It is a formal approach to bringing your nonfiction book out into the world. A team of professionals will take full control of sales, marketing, book design, and other aspects of bringing a book to market.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of traditional publishing.

Pros:

Little to No Overhead Costs: With traditional publishing, the company will cover all the expenses of bringing your nonfiction book to the market.
Branding: With traditional publishing, your nonfiction book receives fantastic branding. Nonfiction authors who use major traditional publishing companies have a leg up in the literacy world. You will receive industry validation, an expanded audience, and potential expansion for your writing career.
Experienced Team: With traditional publishing, your nonfiction book will have an entire arsenal of high-level tools and improvements at its disposal. The publishing team will take care of literally everything outside of you physically putting pen to paper and writing the book. They will supply editors, designers, sales, and marketing. The publishing house will do everything they can to make your book a success.

Con’s:

Less Control: With traditional publishing, you lose control of everything aside from the words on the pages of your book. You have no control over where, when, or how the book is designed, marketed, or sold
Smaller Percentage of Royalties: With traditional publishing, the author is given a much smaller percentage of book royalties. This is to offset the cost of the publishing company doing all the leg work on the back end.
Time Consuming: With traditional publishing, the process from finished manuscripts to books on shelves can take many months or even years.
Unbeknownst to most new authors, the publishing house will fully expect that you will be marketing your book. Marketing does not fall solely on them. In fact, they will likely be asking you upfront how big your audience is (meaning your superfans who follow you on social media as well as your email list) and how you plan to market your book. Your plan or lack thereof may actually influence whether or not you get offered a book deal.
If you plan to turn your book into a business, be careful. As mentioned earlier, you have very little control over your book and this may include what happens even after it goes to print. If you intend to turn your book into a course or coaching program, you may be in for a rude awakening if this isn’t negotiated in the contract ahead of time. The publishing company may not agree with your plans to monetize your book and if they do, they may take a hefty cut of your profits. Be sure to think ahead and negotiate everything upfront.

Need To Know:

Below are a few things a nonfiction author needs to know about traditional publishing.

You need a manuscript. Even if it is the first draft. Traditional publishing houses will not consider a publishing contract with a first-time or lesser-known author without a manuscript.
Most traditional publishing houses do not accept manuscripts directly from authors. They only work with literary agents.
There is no guarantee for publishing. Nothing prevents a publishing house from rejecting your manuscript.
You must have a hook. This is the best angle to your nonfiction book. Regardless of whether your nonfiction work of art is in the category of cookbook, self-help, memoir, and business, it must have a hook.
A digital presence must be live. The world we live in is based on technology. Traditional publishing is no different. You do not need hundreds of thousands of followers on social media or to be uploading the newest Tik Tok dance but, you must have a digital presence. A basic website and social media page will be a good jumping-off point but may not be enough. You will need to focus on building a large and very engaged audience of fans.

Self-Publishing

The second type of publishing available to nonfiction authors is self-publishing. This type of publishing is when the author makes the decision to fully print and distribute their work 100% on their own.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of self-publishing.

Pro’s

Full Control: Self-publishing allows you to be your own boss. You have full control over every single detail of your book through the publishing process. From beginning to end, every step of the way, you have the final say. Self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to go at it alone. You do have the ability to hire outside help such as book designers and editors. This is at your sole discretion. You decide the how, where, when, and why of marketing and sales.
Higher Percentage of Royalties: Self-publishing gives the author a much higher percentage of book royalties. There is no middleman to pay for services of marketing, branding, or sales, so you are able to keep a much higher percentage of your book’s royalties. You will still need to pay the self-publishing service a fee, it will be substantially smaller than a traditional publishing house.
Guaranteed Publishing. As a self-publisher, you guarantee that your book will come to life. You do not need to wait on a green light or an acceptance letter from a publishing house. You have complete creative control and are able to publish your book when you want to.

Con’s

High Overhead Costs: As a self-publisher, you are solely responsible for all the out-of-pocket expenses of publishing a book. There are a number of different costs associated with publishing a book. You will need to pay for them all in order to get your book published. There are also no monetary advancements or book deals that are possibilities with traditional publishing.
No Team of Professionals: As a self-publisher, you are on your own. While you can enlist the help of others such as editors, designers, mentors, etc. The only person guaranteed to love and look out for the best interest of your book is you.
Less Visibility: As a self-publisher, you will automatically not have anywhere near as big of an audience as you would with a traditional publishing house. Your audience will be smaller because you will not have immediate access to industry validation, prestige, or resources. With self-publishing there’s a slim to no chance that you will be able to gain literary prizes, become critically acclaimed, or transform into the next best seller.
Print Distribution: With self-publishing, it is much harder to get print distribution. Most bookstores have exclusive contracts with major publishing houses. As such, it can be extremely difficult to get your book into mainstream bookstores or major online platforms.

Hybrid-Publishing

The third publishing option for nonfiction authors is hybrid publishing. This is essentially a cross-over between both traditional and self-publishing. It can also be referred to as:

Author-assisted publishing
Independent publishing
Partnership publishing
Co-Publishing
Entrepreneurial publishing

There is no all-encompassing hybrid publishing agreement. Hybrid publishing is the newest type of publishing in the industry and as such not everyone is on board or on the same page. There are essentially three different ways hybrid publishing is happening currently.

Traditional publishers that have been brokering hybrid publishing deals for years

In this type of hybrid publishing, the nonfiction author works with a traditional publishing house but is required to pay for some costs upfront. This could be for the cost of production or print. Typically, this will give the author a higher percentage in book royalties. This type of hybrid publishing is very few and far between as the publishing houses that do it very rarely discuss it. Hybrid publishing and self-publishing are still stigmatized.

Partnership publishing models

Nonfiction authors in this hybrid publishing model absorb the financial risk of their publishing endeavor in exchange for high royalties.

There are some hybrid companies that require a flat fee upfront – usually in the $10,000 to $20,000+ range and they will do all of the legwork to get the book to print. This fee will typically include editing, refining the title, formatting, cover design and getting the book on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

In this scenario, the author retains all rights to the book and keeps 100% of the royalties. It is important to note that the fee typically does not cover marketing the book and does not guarantee book sales. If you want those things included, you need to discuss it upfront and be prepared for a much higher price point.

Agent-assisted publishing models

This hybrid model happens when agents feel so passionately about books they cannot get published by a publishing house. These agents publish books under their own imprint.

Which one is right for you?

As you can see, there are many options but only you can decide which is the best for your situation. You need to take several things into consideration:

How much money do you have to invest in publishing your book?
How fast do you want to get your book into the hands of people who need it? Are you okay with waiting three to five years or more? Would you prefer to get your message out there in the next six months?
Do you intend to go beyond your book and turn it into a course or coaching program?
Are you okay with losing almost all rights to your book?
Do you have a large and engaged social media following?
Are you comfortable with hiring freelancers to take care of the editing, formatting, cover design and other details associated with the publishing process?
Do you know what steps to take to get your book self-published?
Would you rather pay someone a few thousand dollars to take care of all the self-publishing details while you retain all rights to your book?
Are you comfortable with writing a query letter and reaching out to multiple agents to try and get representation?
Are you able to handle potential rejections from agents and/or publishing houses and still persevere?

You really need to think about why you are writing your book, what you plan to do with your book once it’s been published, and how long you want the publishing process to drag out.

There really is no right or wrong answer, all of the approaches above work. It’s just a matter of what you are comfortable with and what resonates with you the most. Whatever you choose, I wish you many blessings and success on your journey to authorship!