Hybrid vs. Self-Publishing

Anyone who has ever looked into the hybrid publishing industry knows it's expensive and full of shady companies that look to take your money for very little value in return. Yet, unless you're lucky enough to land an agent, your only other choice is to self-publish, which can be just as prohibitively expensive, if not more so. Which route you take is largely reliant on your time and budget. This article is about my own personal experience with both areas, the pros and cons, and what I ultimately chose. Full disclosure, there is also a small sales pitch at the end!

Let's start with something that even fully traditional published authors often fail to understand: No matter how you're published, you, as the author, have a lot of marketing work to do before and after your book is released.

Marketing yourself and your novel/novella is a fact of life. There is no avoiding it. Ever. So be prepared to get your feet wet. You're gonna have to talk to people, find and attend events, contact bookstores, do live readings, build a social media following, etc. Unless the publishing company believes you're going to be the next Joe Hill or Brandon Sanderson, you'll have to do most of this stuff on your own. My advice is to start marketing early and often. Even if you don't have a finished draft yet, you can still sell yourself, and that is just as important as selling your manuscript.

Okay, on to self-publishing. I went with this route a couple of years ago, publishing a very different and very rough version of Mississippi Wizards using KDP/Kindle as my platform and, later, on the now-defunct (RIP) Kindle Vella serialized fiction platform. Before publishing, I spent about $1k on a professional developmental editor and another $1k on a professional line editor (which was a damn steal!) I used my own, poorly created cover that I made in Adobe Photoshop, ran it through AI, and finally used free cover design software. Photoshop cost me $79, and the rest was free. So, in total, I spent about $2,079.

It bombed. Hard. That's when I decided to really look into both self-publishing and Hybrid.

People love digital. These days, everyone has a Kindle, a Nook, a Kobo, or a tablet with an e-reader application installed. But here's the thing: Unless you have a gigantic social media following or you're lucky enough for your story to take off with little effort, you're going to have to go out and talk to people. Some of the best places to find them are conventions, library events, author signings at local bookstores, etc, and if you go to any of these places, you're going to need a paperback version of your book.

KDP pretty much has a chokehold on the Indie Book Printing business, with IngramSpark coming in second (though it isn't close). Each has its own pros and cons, but this article doesn't cover that. The point is, both of these are print-on-demand services, meaning they print once you order.

For a 350 page, 5.5 x 8.5 inch novel, the typical price is between $5 and $7. It depends on what kind of paper you want, the cost of printing the cover, etc. If you're in the middle and ordering 50 copies at a time, then your out-of-pocket cost is around $300 for printing.

This is, by far, the cheapest part of self-publishing. At least until you've sold a hundred copies! Which brings me to either the next cheapest thing, or the most expensive: A book cover.

I don't know how many people can realate to this, but whether I'm shopping online or in a book store, I don't bother with blurbs or looking at the back cover unless the art speaks to me. People say, "don't judge a book by its cover," but I'm here to tell you, I absolutely do! Not to say I won't read a recommendation, but the cover is the first thing that someones sees when they pick up your book, so it should be good, right?

A good book cover design can cost you anywhere from $500 - $3k. Yes, the range is that wide. It really depends on what you want vs your budget. Before I went to hybrid publishing, I spent $500 on a cover design. It wasn't great, but it was an eye catcher. The ones on the lower range are those that use photoshop and digital art. The higher end are hand drawn. Somewhere in the middle is a mix of both.

Then there's the third most expensive thing: Editing. Yes, you need an editor. I don't care how good your writing is, a novel always needs editing. The good news is that it doesn't have to be super expensive. You can find good editors at wiriting conventions and online, and a lot of them are willing to work with you on price. On average, a line/copy editor will cost you between $0.02 - $0.06 per word. At $0.03 per word, a 50k word novel will cost you $1500. At $0.06, $3000.

Finally, there's marketing. This is a pretty large umbrella of items that includes social media building, website design, advertising, and attending in person events. There's more, but those are the main things, and again, the cost can vary wildly, especially if you plan on attending out of state events and have to take into account hotel costs. Let's say we're limiting in person events to local to avoid hotel costs. We're lookiong at an average cost of about $500 to $1k for the website build, the same for advertising, and, if you want to pay to have professionals build your social, another $2k. So far, I've stubbornly refused to pay somone for the social media side, so lets say altogether $1500 for marketing.

Putting all this together, a self-published author should expect to spend anywhere from $2800 - $9300. I got away with a measly $2079, but again, no editor, no website.

The great thing about a good hybrid publisher is that they take care of most of the above for you, and you generally keep more of the net profit, but it comes at a greater up front cost. For example, Atmosphere Press, the hybrid company I went with, has a basic package that will run you $7200. If you want to see what they offer, you can check out their packages here.

But if you go with a hybrid, it's important to look into them first. Look for customer satisfaction, see what they offer in comparison to others, and check to see if any of their authors have hit the best selling list. There are so many companies that are out to make a quick buck and offer very little, so be careful!

What I loved about my publisher is that every part of the publishing process is done by a different group, and they are all professionals. The cover for my novel is gorgeous, and I worked with a top quality developmental editor to help me figure out what was working and what wasn't. It went through copy and line editors and interior design editors, and the final result is something I am quite happy with.

And now for the sales pitch. Please check out my website, kennypenn.com, read the blurb, and if your interested, preorder! Most importantly, please be sure to leave a review on Goodreads and/or Storygraph. Thanks for reading!