It's been a while Pt 3 - what we... no...what I have been up to. I became a...

[DrWilly]

I emailed back and waited to see where it would lead me.

I feel like I'm trying to binge watch a Netflix series that keeps leaving me on a cliffhanger.

[Thai Dhupp]

I feel like I'm trying to binge watch a Netflix series that keeps leaving me on a cliffhanger.

LOL.ok..ok...

I got a deal.
They're publishing the book.
It's out next week.
I'm getting feeltheee rich.
The End.

[DrWilly]

LOL.ok..ok...

I got a deal.
They're publishing the book.
It's out next week.
I'm getting feeltheee rich.
The End.

Well, that's a bit reductionist.

[Thai Dhupp]

Well, that's a bit reductionist.

Oh, so now you want more, but no cliff-hangers?

Your wish is my command, sir...

The response from the Hybrid Publisher was all positive. The deal on offer wa a lot better than if I had succeeded with the agent / trad publisher, and the timescale was a LOT better. The downside was the cost but...as I said before, it was a lot less than if I had decided on the self-publishing route. The other thing with that cost, assuming I went down this route was...it could be spread at no interest over 4 or 10 months.

I was still not committed but now I had the detail.

I waited for some more replies from my queries. Here they came, at last. Three. Rejections though to be fair rejection based on the 'fit' with the agent and the suggestion that I might be successful with another agent. I had heard this before. It had become regular. It's still a rejection.

So...I ceased querying and requested a copy of the contract to read through before making my mind up.

That was sent the following day, I read it and it was all exactly as discussed, no sneaky small print, so I took the plunge.

I signed up and began my working relationship with the hybrid publisher.

(lol and not a cliffhanger in sight!!!)

[Thai Dhupp]

HYBRID PUBLISHING - THE COSTS AND...WHAT YOU GET.

Right so...all costs are different. there are 50-50 contracts with part of it being a traditional contract, part of it a hybrid, so you pay less but you get less royalties.

Or varying full-on hybrid shared cost contracts with the amount the publisher deems reasonable for the book and the royalties they will offer.

You can see a pattern right? payment between £0 and a figure deemed reasonable and an associated royalty based on that initial figure AND the likely book revenue, with the book production costs taken into account.

So for me... £2700. that's it. one cost, and spread over 10 months, £270/month. Pretty good for what I get.


Firstly though...what I DON'T get:

I dont get the stress and heartbreak of the querying process, chasing endless Agents who are overloaded with submissions and dont really have time to fairly assess each one.

I don't get the 3-year average timescale to publish to book from when I find the Agent who will rep. me. Remember, finding an agent might take a year.

I don't get the reduced royalties one ends up with if traditionally published (of course, I don't get the advance either!)

I don't get the extreme stress of trying to self-publish a book with zero support from anyone unless I pay for it

I don't have the larger cost of going down the self-publishing route (remember I said it could be £3,500-£4,000, sometimes even more).

I don't get more stress from trying to market the book without any industry contacts who have never heard of me.

Now what I DO get:

Support from day one. I have had this so it's not a hollow promise. I have dealt with all departments in the publishing house.

I have been through 2 rounds of developmental editing.

I have had the grammatical editing completed. Very comprehensive. highlighted a lot of my errors.

Their art team worked in collaboration with me to produce a compelling book cover. The initial idea was mine and they developed it into the one we finished up with.

They have a marketing and publicity team. Vanity publishers usually do not, because they make their money from your 'contribution'.

The senior commissioning editor is always available if I need any clarification. (used that twice since signing the contract).

In-house production facility. no need to find a seperate book printer - they handle it all.

They don't do print-on-demand (a key feature of vanity publishers, btw) - they do a print run, then hold the books in their warehouse for distribution.

They have a large distribution network and a lot of well-known names 'on their books', and good working relationships with all of them.

They also handle the EBook market, and will create the digital version for sale.

They have a reputable translation service for overseas sales, depending on demand.

They have a film and TV rights department and actively look to get the book into the wider media environment.

At all times I retained ownership and control of MY manuscript/book.

[Thai Dhupp]

THE 'SUPERIORITY' OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS

If you research hybrid publisher, you will almost invariably find them being described as a con, a cheat, vanity publishers, etc etc. A lot of those negative comments come from traditional publishers who are now feeling the heat from the competition.

They already contended with self-publishing, viewing that, amusingly as a few hobbyists playing around with a cover design artwork package and killing themselves on the uphill battle for actually selling their output. i.e it was viewed as no threat.

But steadily, self-publishing grew. firstly, self-help books, low appeal books, limited print run book of the 'yoga for beginners in your area' or ' home brew from roadside kill' variety, but then extending into reasonable...even good novels that started to challenge the establishment.

Just when they were reeling from this now growing threat, along came hybrid publishing and this scared the sh1t out of them.

Here was a new publishing method offering all their benefits but with reduced timescale and bigger royalties. Difficult for them to compete with that so they resorted to maligning Hybrid publishers. They're conmen. They just want your money. They are low quality, dont be fooled, they are not proper publishers. They don't offer the same support. etc. Endless 'writer beware' web pages were created by those traditional publishing houses to try to scare authors away from hybrid publishing, as a knee-jerk reaction to what they saw was a threat to their monopoly.

In fact, they are the architects of their own downfall. They made it so damn hard to get published in the first place that OF COURSE alternatives would come along.

Don't get me wrong though. There ARE some conmen. some pure vanity publishers. Take the money, your money and disappear. You can look at an organisations make up, history etc and make an informed judgement without relying on biased and often untrue internet 'assessments'.

Those conmen 'publishers' DO need to be avoided but they are certainly not all like that. When I did my research I found 4 that were reputable, and selected one.

How did I choose it?

The depth of support. The websites comprehensive information. The previous books sold, which could be checked and assessed. ie is this a real book? Has it been commercially sold? Are they listed as the publisher? Is the author a genuine person with other works? Does the book have genuine reviews?

Then a check on the website. Are the authors who they work with listed? In my case the publishers website detailed them all. I could cross-check if those authors had any issue with the publisher (no, they didn't). The fact that the contract was straight forward and with no cons or small print. The team I have come to work alongside and lastly my gut feeling - all of the above leave me confident the publisher I am using is bona fide.

[armstrong]

Seems a bit off to me.

[Thai Dhupp]

Seems a bit off to me.

What did I miss?

What's 'a bit off'?


My whole writing/publishing journey, or hybrid publishing or my publisher or traditional publisher's fears and reactions!

Or, something else...?

[DrWilly]

Learn something new. I knew about the traditional publishing route, and I knew of the self publishing route. I had not heard of this hybrid option and so was thinking, as you suggested that they are all cons. But the benefits you have listed clearly outlined that this is a new, legitimate form of publishing.

In fact, they are the architects of their own downfall. They made it so damn hard to get published in the first place that OF COURSE alternatives would come along.

In much the same way taxi companies helped spur the growth of online ride sharing.

Som num nah.

[cyrille]

That happened in teaching too.

A new environment spurring growth in new ways of gaining (and proving) expertise.

[Thai Dhupp]

That happened in teaching too.

A new environment spurring growth in new ways of gaining (and proving) expertise.

What's that saying?

ah yes..

''Necessity is the mother of invention''

Seems pretty accurate for teaching, taxis and trad publishers!

(no alliteration intended)

[Thai Dhupp]

Learn something new. I knew about the traditional publishing route, and I knew of the self publishing route. I had not heard of this hybrid option and so was thinking, as you suggested that they are all cons. But the benefits you have listed clearly outlined that this is a new, legitimate form of publishing.



In much the same way taxi companies helped spur the growth of online ride sharing.

Som num nah.

Like everything, there are some 'bad'uns so research is necessary but it IS an alternative route with many benefits.

One other one for me is that I'm not getting any younger. I have 6 books going round in my head and I need to get the first one out there.

As they say...time is the enemy...

[Thai Dhupp]

SO...WHERE WE ARE UP TO NOW...

What did I facetiously say earlier in this thread?

I got a deal.
They're publishing the book.
It's out next week.
I'm getting feeltheee rich.
The End.

Except... I wasn't being facetious. I was being totally truthful.

I HAVE got a deal - I just told you all about it, above.
They ARE publishing the book...that was the contracted agreement.
It really IS out this coming week. Launch date is 25th January.
Hopefully I will make a bob or two out of it!!

I am heading to UK this week for the book launch and promo work / support.

The book is already on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, WH Smiths, etc + USA bookshop chain sites and now its in Europe, too.

A search on my name, my real name of course and the book title fills the first 10 or so slots of the returned websites.

Its quite exciting but quite scary also to see yourself and your book plastered everywhere.

There is a pre-order option and I have been told that I have already made 3 sales. That means I am no longer a writer. I can now legitimately call myself a published author!

In fact, it has been hard to focus back on my debut novel because I have been hard at work on the follow up. I am 45,000 words in and it's coming along nicely. That's a story for another time, though

So in answer to my question on post 1

'....I have become...a published author.'

I hope this was of some interest to some of you!

Thanks for reading.

[DrWilly]

t.
It really IS out this coming week. Launch date is 25th January.
H

Congrats. I hope it all goes well.

[Thai Dhupp]

Congrats. I hope it all goes well.

Very kind, DW. I hope so, too, but... I have achieved what I set out to do - write a book, get a deal, publish it and sell at least one copy.

Every sale after is a bonus for me, but of course, I hope there will be many more sales.

I will know more after the 3 weeks I am spending in UK on the promotional 'tour'.

[Thai Dhupp]

SOCIAL MEDIA

Oh...one last thing...

I forgot to mention the role social media play in the promotional aspects of book marketing.

Before I wrote the book, I had...FB. That was it.

I did some research via YouTube and discovered I needed to be on a lot more.

So..enter Instagram, Twitter (now 'X'), Threads, TikTok, and of course I created my own website.

The website is a classic authors site...with my history, a blog, the thinking behind the book, what i am working on now and of course...how to contact me. I add to the blog maybe 3 times/month. I also send a monthly newsletter to my subscribers.

The main marketing vehicle is X. I have grown from no followers to a figure approaching 5,000. I have tweeted (or is it now, 'X'ed?) over 200 times both building the following and telling of my book journey.

Instagram is also there for book visuals and I try to keep it real with some family life posts, too.

I am still trying to work out how I can use TikTok!!! NO...I am not going down the hand dancing in a bikini route, but maybe there is some way ai can make use of it?

The surprise was Threads - Zuckerberg's version of Twitter. I didn't really do so much but my following is steadily growing and is about to pass 200. There is more of a community feel on Threads, than on X.

When i get back to UK, I can expect book signing in bookshops, and possibly radio and magazine interviews, too. The publicity dept is arranging all that - I just have to show up

Just dusted off my jacket, found a tie and polished my shoes. Now...where are my socks? Not worn those for about 6 years, now!