Mermaid Cove Publishing is not a traditional publisher or a vanity press, but a Hybrid Publisher. Hybrid publishers behave like traditional publishing companies in most respects, except that they publish books using an author-subsidized business model and, in exchange, return a higher-than-industry standard share of sales proceeds to the author. Read on to find out more about hybrid publishing.

In the world of traditional publishing, an author normally must secure a book agent in order for a publisher to even look at their manuscript. If the agent is good, they secure the author a publishing contract.  Traditional publishers invest time and money in a book they want to publish, and normally prefer to concentrate on authors who have already proven they can sell books in large volumes.

Traditionally, the writer does the writing and the publisher produces, distributes and markets the book, but these days traditional publishers are expecting authors to share more of the marketing duties. This extra work for the author doesn’t always mean more money as the traditional publisher still keeps most of the money.  A book advance is usually small, if there is one, and the royalties – paid after the advance is earned out – are often meager.

Hybrid publishers are more like a partner to the author. Both the risks and rewards are distributed more evenly between the two. An author doesn’t need an agent in hybrid publishing; however, hybrid publishers still uphold professional standards and appraise (vet) the idea/manuscript from the author. As with a traditional publisher, the hybrid publisher is also responsible for professionally producing the book, distributing it to multiple points of sale and participates in marketing activities on behalf of the book.  Most hybrid publishers don’t do print runs. Instead, they’ll use POD (Print-On-Demand) to print books, distributing them through wholesale markets via Ingram or on retails sites like Amazon.

In hybrid publishing, the author pays for some or all the book production costs, depending on their contract, and participates in marketing.  Due to this, hybrid publishers do not pay advances. However, with hybrid publishing the author retains book rights and can pick and choose individual services. 

This type of deal renders more money for the author after publication. Many hybrid publishers offer their authors up to 50% net earnings compared to the 5-10% many traditional publishers offer. In short, an author with a hybrid publisher assumes a share of a book’s financial risk (via paying upfront fees) in exchange for more freedom and flexibility over publication.

Now, a writer can self-publish their own book for very little money, but in order to make a profit self-publishers must invest money into their books. Good selling books require many services: editing, proofreading, book design, layout, production, distribution and marketing. Many authors do not have the resources or time to manage these services by themselves.

And that’s where hybrid publishing comes in. With a hybrid publisher, you can work with a single point-of-contact who collaborates with you to decide on which services you want to pay to delegate and compile it into a single publishing package.