About Hybrid Publishing
November 20, 2024 by Harvey
In Today’s Journal
* About Hybrid Publishing
* Hybrid Publishing Is a Viable Option
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
About Hybrid Publishing: A Foreword
In Of Interest today, you’ll find a link to Vin Zandri’s latest video from his YouTube channel, Writer’s Life.
It that video, beginning at about 4:37, he talks about having found his ‘sweet spot’ in hybrid publishing, vs. going all-tradpub or all-indie.
I found his comments in the video interesting, so I emailed him:
“Hey Vin, I’m not understanding how tradpub, especially with their lack of promoting authors who aren’t established yet, can get your name out there more than indie publishing can. Please help me understand.”
Vin took time out from his very busy day to respond. He responded both quickly and so thoroughly that I asked him whether I could use his response as a guest post in TNDJ.
So here it is for those who have the ears to hear. I hope that’s all of you.
Note that neither I nor Vin are recommending going hybrid. Only that it’s an option that’s available to you and one you might want to look into:
Hybrid Publishing Is a Viable Option
a guest post by best-selling author Vin Zandri
Basically, hybrid publishing means I engage in both indie publishing via my own outfit, Bear Meda—which publishes in all formats including paper and audio—and traditional publishing with either big, medium or small traditional publishers.
However, a traditional publisher must be accredited by Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers of American, and International Thriller Writers or I don’t consider them.
Although I’m a big believer in keeping your IP close to the vest for generations to come—and I will continue to follow that path every day—with indie publishing you just don’t get the attention of reviewers, libraries, and book stores that you get with traditional publishers.
I didn’t get all those PW, Book Reporter, NY Times, NY Post, etc., reviews from my indie books. I don’t get any “formal press” for my indie books. I got them through my traditional book deals.
While I’ve sold about 200,000 Bear Media indie books over the course of the past 8 years or so, I’ve sold more than a million books in the traditional world.
At the same time, I racked up quite a few “nice” and “very nice” advances (that’s how I used to live). The Remains alone sole 200K copies. So did Everything Burns and The Innocent in two different editions.
And yet my Chase Baker action/adventure series is my big indie seller. It would take a lot of money for me to release that IP to a major publisher. Let me repeat, a LOT of money. That’s the kind of IP you want to hold onto. The gift that keeps on giving.
The problem with traditional publishing is that you need to earn those advances out to start earning royalties on your books. Not many of us earn out even when we do exceptionally well.
Even some of the most major—let’s call them “famous” authors—do not earn out a lot of the time.
But the big publishers don’t really care. They win no matter what. When the author earns big money they win, and when the author loses they still win via a year-end tax credit.
It’s also tough for indie books to get attention with agents who want to push for multi-media. It happens of course, like The Martian for instance, but it’s extremely rare.
That’s one of the reasons I’m returning to traditional on top of indie. The phone has stopped ringing when it comes to movies and TV, and it used to ring at least three or four times per year. I need to get that going again.
I also have new agent who wants to see Dick Moonlight PI on the big or little screen. So, we’re working on remedying that phone problem as I speak.
On the other hand, you can depend on indie publishing for a certain amount of average sales per quarter. Traditional sales are never guaranteed. This is why I’m also sold on indie from a purely business perspective.
So the risk factor is different also. And yes, the author still needs to do a ton of publicity on his own in the tradpub world. It’s just that there’s a certain—and I hate to even call it this—respectability that comes with a traditionally published book.
The press, in all their infinite wisdom (ha), and other outfits attached to them will automatically see traditionally published books as respectable. At the same time, they still see indie books as a “self-published so anyone can do it” kind of thing.
One thing to keep in mind as a writer: If you want to take advantage of both worlds, you will need to be both prolific and good.
Otherwise, it’s probably wiser to stick to one method of publishing and find a way to make it work for you. It all comes down to what you want out of your career.
***
Thanks, Vin, for a great guest post.
Folks, sometimes comments writers leave on these posts are informative. Click the following link to read an interesting comment and response on yesterday’s post.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Episode 794: My Sweet Spot! The stuff about hybrid publishing starts at around 4:37. See what you think.
Unlocking Bestseller Success: The 6 Essential Tasks….
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 900
Writing of Blackwell Ops 31: Jack Temple
Day 1…… 1620 words. To date……. 1620
Day 2…… 5016 words. To date……. 6636
Day 3…… 3466 words. To date……. 10102
Day 4…… 1235 words. To date……. 11337
Day 5…… 3188 words. To date……. 14525
Day 6…… 3933 words. To date……. 18458
Fiction for November………………… 52156
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 889288
Nonfiction for November…………….. 18950
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 353370
2024 consumable words…………….. 1,066,697
Average Fiction WPD (November)…. 2745
2024 Novels to Date…………………….. 16
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..… 98
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 255
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.