CHOOSING A KREST PUBLISHING MODEL – TRADITIONAL, HYBRID, OR SELF-PUBLISHING

 

Here at KREST PUBLISHERS we work across all 3 publishing models.

Sometimes we'll offer authors a deal based on the traditional publishing model – which means we pay for all book production costs, and the author gets good royalties.

In the cases where the author is profit-savvy, we self-publish them – the author bears all costs so therefore keeps all of the money made from book sales.

Hybrid publishing is that playground in between – both publisher and author share the costs, and therefore the income too.

                             

All sound tempting in their own way, so how to choose? Here’s an outline of each, to help you make an informed decision on which publishing model to pursue.

 

Before starting, we'll note that the 3 models refer to who funds the books ONLY. The actual publishing process and quality is the same across all 3 when working with KREST.

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING:

Let’s start with the familiars.

The premise is pretty simple. A traditional publisher will pay for any costs in the production and admin processes of creating a book from your manuscript, and give you royalties on every book they sell.

The traditional publisher pays editors, cover designers, typesetters, and printers to create a finished book. They also pay for and arrange things like legal deposits, ISBN numbers, and barcode generation. The traditional publisher also takes on post-production costs, like the storage of the books in a warehouse, and distribution to book stores, all of which consume copious amounts of money.

The author has minimal cost responsibility, amounting to any personal marketing strategies they choose to engage in. We’ll add in here that with any publishing model the author needs to participate in personal marketing of their books because it takes a lot of convincing for a reader to pick it up. And to be blunt, but authentically honest, if an author isn't prepared to put effort into marketing their own book, is there any reason somebody else should expend their time and resources into it?

Because traditional publishers end up funneling large amounts of money into books, they are very selective about the type of work they accept, and need to have assurance the author is fully committed to making the book as big a success as it can be.

If your contract requires you to pay over any money as a condition of publication (whether it be for production or compulsory purchase of your books) it is NOT based on a traditional model, but one of the others. If you're a curious, here's what a traditional publishing contract should look like..

SELF-PUBLISHING:

On the opposite end of the financing scale, we have self-publishing.

The author takes on every administrative and financial cost the publisher would have done. Resultantly, they keep every cent made from the book. Basically, the author is only paying the publisher to produce books out of the manuscript - the publisher has no rights to the book.

Naturally, it is entirely possible for a self-publishing author NOT to work with a publishing company at all

The author would find and pay an editor, cover designer, typesetter, and printer.

They would also be solely responsible for all the legal processes such as legal deposits and ISBN applications.

They would market and sell the books themselves.

Any money that comes in belongs to them, naturally.

However, this isn't always a pretty process for someone doing it for the first time - and the last thing you want to do is find yourself in breach of publishing laws because you weren't aware of them. A publishing company can help the author with the above. So instead of hiring staff yourself or dealing with confusing publishing legalities yourself, you can pay a publishing company to do all of this for you and simply have your batch of printed books delivered to you when it's done. You will be involved at every step of the way in creating your book.

The only thing hiring a publishing company can't usually help with is post-publication marketing and sales. If you've paid them to simply 'manufacture' books from your manuscript, then their duty ends when they have delivered your books to you in good condition. However, because we already have existing sales and distribution channels from our traditional projects, we do extend these same benefits to our self-publishing authors. We've got it already; there's no reason not to share :)

HYBRID PUBLISHING:

This is a new model, offering the administrative perks of a traditional publisher, and the financial ones of self-publishing.

Hybrid contracts are vastly varied, covering every space in between traditional and self-publishing.

An example would be:

The publisher pays for editing through to typesetting, and handles all the legal processes involved. The author pays for printing. The two parties agree that they will each get 50% of the book sales.

Another example:

The author pays for everything. The publisher only handles administrative processes like ISBNs, legal deposits, discussions with book wholesalers and chain stores. They agree to split it 90% to the author and 10% to the publisher.

The contract can say anything the parties agree to, really. It sounds simple, but there are a few legalities behind going hybrid. If this model is something that genuinely interests you, then we suggest reading about how hybrid publishing works.

Being a local and approachable publisher, we are open to contract negotiations with our writers and enjoy the collaborative effort of a hybrid deal. 

 

TABLE OF COMPARISON

	TRADITIONAL	SELF-PUB	HYBRID
Who owns the book publishing rights	the publisher	the author	the publisher
who owns the sub-rights (movie deals, merchandise etc.)	the publisher	the author	the publisher
who owns the non-physical aspects of the book (e.g. cover design, layout design)	the publisher	the author	the publisher
who owns the physical copies of the book	the publisher	the author	the publisher
Who funds the process	Publisher funds entire process	Author funds entire process	Both author and publisher put funds forward (usually 50/50)
Who keeps the sales money	Publisher retains almost all sales money. Author gets a small 5-15% royalty	Author keeps 100% of sales money	Both publisher and author get back a big percentage (usually 50/50 if this is how they split the costs)
Who gets the final say about how the book turns out	the publisher	the author	the publisher
Who is responsible for marketing	both publisher and author	author only	both publisher and author
Who handles sales process (e.g. delivering books to customers or getting into bookstores)	both publisher and author	author only	both publisher and author
Overview of each	The publisher funds everything, which can be a financial help. But in return the author basically relinquishes all control and decisions over their book. They have very little say and also only earn back a small amount from book sales.	The author gets all the say in how their book turns out, they have all the creative and decision-making power. Everything belongs entirely to the author and they have complete control over their own book. But they have to fund the process.	A good dynamic as both author and publisher are putting money forward – therefore both sides take the process very seriously and work together very hard to make the book a success. Both get to reap the financial rewards from it.

 

KREST PUBLISHERS’ ROLE

As before, we work across all 3 models. If you have a preference for any model, you can let us know when submitting your manuscript.

Contact us for anything you need more information on. As you can see, we love to spread information through the world - so just pop us an email with your question, and we'll answer in detail.

Our personal best,

KREST PUBLISHERS
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