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A hybrid publisher must:
(See complete list details below)
The book publishing world has undergone dramatic changes over the last 20 years or so. Technological advances have been mostly responsible for this enhancement and efficiency in book production, printing, and distribution. As a result, the New York publishing powerhouses, and their printing presses can o longer dictate who gets published and when. Now hundreds of independent publishers an opportunity to carve out a piece of the publishing market for themselves.
With this flood of arrivals comes opportunity and risk. The opportunity for authors is to team with ethical and able independent publishers who subscribe to the vaunted professional standards practiced by the most respected major publishing houses. The risks for authors is the possibility of signing with an unethical publisher that produces shoddy work and charges outrageous fees. Unfortunately, there are more than a few incompetents posing as professional editors or publishers. Anyone can call themselves an editor or publisher. The litmus test is the track record of work they produce and their fairness to authors.
The non-profit Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) was formed to infuse our industry with integrity and professionalism. It is why our company, New Dominion Press, remains a proud member of IBPA. We have, since our inception, subscribed to maintaining the highest professional standards in terms of the quality of our work and absolute transparency in our business dealings. Like IBPA, we advocate for our authors, and to that end, we help them to navigate the intimidating book-publishing process. Our distributor, IngramSpark, makes a guide available to its publishing clients which helps to educate them along these lines as well.
Recently, IBPA sent to its 3,000 members a set of criterion on responsible hybrid publishing. The trade association has eloquently codified business practices we strive to achieve. The document provides authors a checklist of what to look for in a publisher like New Dominion Press, who combine various type of traditional and fee-based publishing.
IBPA Chief Executive Angela Bole called it Hybrid Publishing Criteria, and said it took many months, and many conversations to develop. Part of IBPA’s intent, Angela said, is to help authors identify “reputable” hybrid publishers and distinguish them from general service providers who help writers self-publish. We do both at New Dominion Press, as well as traditional publishing, and are absolutely transparent about our three publishing models.
Below is IBPA’s guide. We endorse it wholeheartedly and remain a proud member of IBPA.
Blessings,
Charles C. Christie, Jr.
President, New Dominion Press
Click here to download a printable PDF with all images included.
Hybrid publishing companies behave just like traditional publishing companies in all respects, except that they publish books using an author-subsidized business model, as opposed to financing all costs themselves, and in exchange return a higher-than industry-standard share of sales proceeds to the author. In other words, a hybrid publisher makes income from a combination of publishing services and book sales.
Although hybrid publishing companies are author-subsidized, they are different from other author-subsidized models in that hybrid publishers adhere to the following set of professional publishing criteria. See additional considerations below for more information about how hybrid publishers differ from other author-subsidized models.
A hybrid publisher must:
* "Standard" royalties in traditional publishing were once calculated based on the list price or suggested retail price of the work. Nowadays, and especially among small presses and independent publishers, it is more common to calculate royalties based on net revenues.
Some contracts offer an escalated royalty based on the number of copies sold, e.g., 8% of net receipts on the first 5,000 copies, 10% on the next 5,000 copies, and 12% on all copies in excess of 10,000. The actual royalty percentages and break points vary from publisher to publisher and are often subject to negotiation with the author.
Trade publishing contracts, and especially the contracts larger publishers use, often set different royalty rates for various other formats, territories, terms of sale, and channels of distribution.
Standard royalty rates vary among traditional publishers. Although some publishers are outliers, standard royalty rates generally range from 5% at the lower end to 15% at the higher end. Some traditional publishers offer the same royalty rate for both printed books and e-books; most now offer up to 25% of net revenues for the sale of e-books. Many independent publishers adopt a flat royalty of 10% of net receipts for all formats. However, there is no longer a “standard” royalty rate among publishers.
Click here to download a printable PDF with all images included.