Right, info time. This is a hybrid contract. For those who don’t know, it’s like a halfway house between self-publishing and a traditional contract. There are advantages and disadvantages to all three types of publishing so let’s take a look.
Self-publishing you have all the control…but you have to do ALL the work. Editing, proofreading, printing, marketing, distributing…it all falls to you or to those that you organise. The book will not sell itself. The advantage is you can make more per book sale and you have the satisfaction of saying you did it all. It’s a lot of work though.
Traditional publishing is a lengthy process because you need a literary agent to ‘sell’ your book to a publisher. Then the publisher works on it (along with a lot of other books) to knock it into shape for publication and distribution. The agent takes a cut usually 15% and of course, the publisher has to make money so you end up with a much lower percentage of the revenue per book. They may well sell more books though because they have distribution contacts. You won’t make any money from those reduced percentage royalties through until any advance paid to you by that publisher has been recoupled. The whole process from hunting the literary agent to the book on the shelves might be 3 YEARS
Lastly Hybrid publishing. The process for editing, proofreading, printing, publishing and distributing the book is the same as for traditional publishing. The cover artwork will also be included in both options. Good, right? But to be part of this process they do not pay any advance and indeed you will end up paying something to them for the publishing process.
But…it is important to check this option is not a scam or just vanity press,
Assuming the publisher is bona fide, the benefits are also different to traditional publishing, and good. You earn a royalty and it’s from the very first book sold. No advance to pay back, you see? The royalty will be in the region of 50% rather than 15% with traditional publishing. The process is quicker so your book will hit the shelves sooner.
After weighing up the advantage and cost of this offer I have all but decided that for me this is the best choice.