Hybrid publishing’s moment; book summary purge; radioactive mayonnaise: Newsletter 11 September 2024

Newsletter 61: As traditional publishing declines, hybrid is a viable alternative for serious authors. Plus, Amazon and B&N flush misleading book summaries, the Internet Archive faces another copyright setback, three people to follow and three books to read.

It’s time to fully embrace hybrid publishing

A hybrid publisher is a publisher you pay to publish your book. There used to be a stigma associated with that. But the publishing world is shifting and for many of the business authors I work with, hybrid publishing is now the best choice. Their goal — to publish a high-quality business book that will establish their reputation and enhance their business — is best served by a professional publisher who is responsive to them.

What qualifies me to make this judgment? Experience with all types of publishers.

I have written or cowritten three books that were published by traditional publishers: Groundswell (HBR Press), Empowered (HBR Press), and Writing Without Bullshit (Harper Business). I’m ghostwriting one now. And I’ve edited a bunch, including Stefan Falk‘s Intrinsic Motivation (St. Martin’s Press), Mitch Lowe‘s Watch and Learn (Hachette), and Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine‘s Outside In (HMH New Harvest).

I’ve also written, cowritten, or ghostwritten four books published by three different hybrid publishers: The Mobile Mind Shift (Greenleaf), Marketing to the Entitled Consumer (Amplify), The Age of Intent (Amplify), The Responsive Enterprise, (Ideapress) and Build a Better Business Book (Amplify). I’ve edited hybrid published books including Rebecca Otis Leder‘s Knock (Greenleaf/Inc.), Diane Hessan‘s Our Common Ground (Amplify/RealClearPublishing) and William Kilmer‘s Transformative (Amplify).

Traditional publishing has always seemed to have many benefits. Traditional publishers carry an imprimatur of prestige. They have better distribution. They offer better editorial and marketing support. They produce and manufacture a quality product. And, crucially, they pay authors advances. You get a check as soon as you sign the contract, and another one when the book is published.

But every one of those advantages is now eroding.

The prestige associated with a traditional publisher is fading, now that more and more quality books are being published by hybrid publishers. The best hybrid publishers like Amplify, Ideapress, Greenleaf, and Page Two, are producing books that have every bit as much impact. Distribution matters less and less — do you buy your business books in a bookstore or online? In my experience, both editorial and marketing support from traditional publishers is ebbing; without exception, every traditionally published author I’ve worked with has been disappointed in their publisher. The actual books (and ebooks and audiobooks) produced by hybrids are now indistinguishable from those produced by traditional publishers.

So we are left with the advances. While big-name authors continue to get big advances, the advances available to other authors are evaporating. The median advance paid to traditional authors in a survey of 300+ authors I’ll soon be publishing was only $5,500, and about one in three traditionally published authors received no advance at all. Anecdotally, several authors I’m working with recently have been offered zero-advance publishing contracts.

Meanwhile, there are significant downsides to traditional publishers. For one, you generally need to develop a book proposal and retain an agent, both of which can be a lot of challenging work. Having done that, you (and the agent) need to pitch publishers, and there is no guarantee of getting accepted. And if you do take a publishing deal, you’re likely to have to wait 15 months or more to see your book published. Traditional publishers rarely go faster than that unless your book is extremely timely.

Of course, not everything is perfect with hybrid publishers either. While they can often get a book out in six to nine months, there are costs and risks. A traditional publisher shares both the risks and rewards with you. In contrast, with a hybrid publisher, you take nearly all of the risk and reap the lion’s share of the rewards. Among the drawbacks to consider are these:

• The expense. One of the biggest costs of publishing is printing books. If you’re on the hook for that, the total bill is likely to exceed $20,000. You can mitigate that by choosing print-on-demand, but then the book quality will be lower. A hybrid publisher pays much higher royalties, so if you sell a lot, you can actually end up making more money than with a traditional publisher, but if you fail to sell, you’ll be out a lot of money.
• The partner risk. There are a lot of publishers that purport to be hybrid publishers, but are no more than glorified book formatting and production people — self-publishing service companies. A true hybrid publisher is selective, specializes in a specific type of books such as business books, and has a spotless customer service reputation. There’s a reason that I recommend Amplify, Ideapress, Greenleaf, and Page Two: I’ve either worked with them or know authors who’ve worked with them and had excellent results. There are risky partners to avoid: Scribe Publishing had a lot of authors and a poor reputation, and when it imploded, it left a lot of disappointed authors in the lurch. Forbes Books has a big name along with a reputation for extracting as much money as possible from authors for exclusive “councils” and other schemes. Just because a “publisher” holds themselves out as a hybrid doesn’t make them a partner you can trust, and publishing with a poor partner risks ruining your book, your wallet, and your reputation.
• The choice of services. Hybrid publishers typically offer you an à la carte menu of services from which you need to select carefully. They’ll offer to do “developmental editing,” but as with traditional publishers, you may be better off hiring your own editor (like me). They’ll offer marketing services, but you’ll likely want to supplement or replace those with your own publicist or social media marketing firm. You might be able to produce your own audiobook or generate your own cover, or you might be better off working with them. These are complicated decisions with both quality and financial implications.

If this scares you and you’re in no rush to publish, you could certainly go back to pitching traditional publishers. Lots of authors do, and if they get a publishing contract, they’re often very successful.

But keep your eyes on the prize. A published author generates much of their success from speaking, consulting, or sales leads. Investing up front with a reputable hybrid publisher is a faster way to get to that success, and because you’re paying the hybrid publisher, they tend to be far more responsive. Don’t discount hybrids on your path to writing success. The traditional business book publishing industry gets weaker every year, and the justification for hybrid publishing gets stronger.

News for writers and others who think

Amazon and Barnes & Noble are cracking down on book summaries in their catalogues (Publisher’s Lunch, subscriber link). Book summaries are crap and generally confuse people who were trying to buy the original book. Good riddance.

The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that the Internet Archive can’t lend out books without the copyright-holder’s permission.

Could the secret to unleashing unlimited energy from nuclear fusion be . . . mayonnaise?

Think you have writer’s block? George R.R. Martin says he’s having trouble finishing the soon to be biggest book in the Game of Thrones series. At least you don’t have hundreds of millions of people wondering why you couldn’t write much today.

Three people to follow

Ingrid Lindberg , the original C-level customer experience executive, now a legendary expert.

Mindy Diamond , trusted coach to financial advisors and author of a new book on how to maximize your financial advisory business, Should I Stay or Should I Go.

Doug Lipman , a fascinating storyteller who helps you tell your stories in the most compelling possible way.

Three books to read

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli (Abrams Press, 2022). The four remarkable women who came together to make NPR matter.

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks (Portfolio, 2022). How high-achievers can make life even more rewarding on the far side of 50.

How to Raise a Citizen (and Why It’s Up to You to Do It) by Lindsey Cormack (Jossey-Bass, 2024). Tips to make kids smart and curious about politics and civic engagement.