GOING 50/50 WITH A PUBLISHER - WHAT IT REALLY MEANS

 

The publishing landscape is changing. In the beginning there was Traditional Publishing - a god of the printed work, held in steadfast reverence as the only reputable way of publishing. There was the slow take-over of Self-Publishing - the disruptive newcomer of whom the people were wary. And not necessarily with reason, of course, as self-publishing eventually came to establish itself as a good way for writers to keep the financial benefits from their art, which are rightfully theirs. Now enter Hybrid Publishing.

The rather shaved definition of Hybrid is when publisher and author go 50/50 on costs in order for both to reap equal benefits - financially, artistically, reputational-wise. Like any publishing model, there are legalities around it. KREST Publishers takes pride in freely providing information to aspiring writers - because no one else will give you the good, bad, ugly like this before pushing a contract your way. 

Here is what a typical Hybrid contract contains:

1. Personal Details

Much like a traditional contract, the laying out of any legal document begins with the details of both author and publisher. You want to know exactly who you're dealing with!

In fact, almost everything in a hybrid contract is the same as a traditional one, with the only big exception being the cost split (and therefore the revenue split.) Just take note of the minor differences as you read along.

Take a look here if you're curious to know what a traditional publishing contract looks like.

2. Rights Granted

Here's where the contract is sometimes met with surprise. 

While the author puts in half the money (or whatever the agreed upon amount is, because it doesn't necessarily have to be 50/50 - it can be 60/40 or so forth), the publisher still retains all the necessary rights to the book - rights are not shared. 

You, as the author, always have the copyright to your book, of course. But the publishing right - i.e. the right to turn your story into a 'book version' - is signed over to the publisher. They will be the only people allowed to make books out of your work, and this means you can't do it either. So, no self-publishing on Amazon or simultaneously signing on with a different publisher for the same manuscript. 

If you want to take a quick detour, click here to learn about copyright, publishing rights, and subsidiary rights.

Here are the other things the publisher owns:

• the cover design, typesetting, and illustrations from the book. In other words, anything surrounding the 'book version' of your story is publisher property, because they are the commissioners of the book and both parties are just co-investors. They don't own your story itself
• the physical copies of the book. This means you won't have free reign and access to copies, because - like any investment project - the assets are owned by the investment, not by any individual. The aim is for someone to be in control and in charge of selling copies of the book, and then the sharing of the money

In the big scheme of having the publishing process behind your book run smoothly, it is necessary to allow the publisher to have the control they need to pull off the project without hiccups. One of the benefits of Hybrid Publishing is that you are still backed by a traditional publisher with their same level of quality, and they still handle everything for you so that you don't have to fumble with legalities and technicalities yourself. You get the entire Traditional Publishing experience, but with the added benefit of Self-Publishing. 

One last important thing before we move on - a lifespan of this agreement needs to be present in your contract. So either a specific number of years or a specific number of books needs to be covered. You don't want to be forking out every time someone at the publishing house feels like doing another print run! 

3. Revenue

In a Traditional agreement, this section is called 'Royalties'. Because the publisher funds the entire process from front to back, the author only earns a small portion of the sales, which is called a royalty. 

Because Hybrid is the careful usage of two parties' money, we use terms like cost/revenue/profit instead. 

All revenue is split as per what you've agreed upon with your publisher. If you've shared the costs of publishing at 50% each, you will each get 50% back of the sales money. If you've decided to go 60/40 instead, then this is how all sales money will be split. 

Revenue sharing (which is what we term the splitting of sales money) gets paid out at a specific number of months. Most publishers do 6 months - 1 year; here at KREST we like to make sure you see benefits at the soonest, so we do 3 months.

4. Obligations and Prerogatives

A publishing contract must state the duties of each party, and how much leeway they have in decision-making. This is to avoid too many cooks spoiling the broth! 

As stated before, a publisher-controlled process is necessary to make a traditional-quality book. These are people who have relevant knowledge of the production process of a book, as well as of the reader target market. So, the publisher usually has final say over decisions, but not for the sake of control - it's for the sake of putting out a a great book.

Here's the truth about books. Writing a book is a creative process - but publishing a book is a business process. You have customers and target audiences (your readers) who are expecting a premium product (a quality book), and therefore the manufacturer (the publisher) needs to create a streamlined operation that will produce something that will sell well. Most people don't see books in terms like these, and often their stories end up being simply creative projects that didn't reach the right reader. 

For this reason, the publisher approves the cover, front, formatting etc. However, if you're working with a friendly publisher like ourselves, we will make it as collaborative an experience as possible - we will never simply discard your vision for your own book.

Marketing is really the responsibility of both author and publisher. No, it's not true that it is the publisher's job. And this is where the great debacle came about, about why traditionally-published authors need to market themselves. Readers have access to EVERY SINGLE BOOK available around the globe. Why are they going to pick yours when you won't take initiative to make them do it? If you put in every effort to get word of your book out there, a publisher will be excited to match this effort. If you can't be bothered to market your own book, truthfully why should anyone else expend thousands into doing it?  

Now that we've got the 'unpleasantries' out the way, let's move on to the most exciting part of the process and whose job it is - sales! The physical process of getting the book from the warehouse into the hands of the customer, is the publisher's duty. And the method they choose to do this, is entirely up to them. Some publisher's use distributors to get the book in shops, where it may get picked up by a reader. Other publishers do sales directly from their office. KREST Publishers does it by selling through our online bookstore www.krestpublishers.co.za. Our bookstore stocks books from independent publishers all around the country, making us one of the most trusted independent bookshops in SA. We sell voluminous amounts of our own titles, second-hand books, and books from other independent publishers. Like any trustworthy online store, customers place their order through the website and the book gets dispatched to them. We ship physical copies both locally and internationally; we also sell eBooks for download available both locally and internationally.

It is important that your publisher explains to you what sales channel they use, as it needs to match your vision for your book. If it's really important to you to have the the book in a bookstore, then we wouldn't be able to fulfil this. On that note, perhaps you might like to take a small detour to see why we don't sell through distributors and stores. Learn about how the book distributor model works.

5. Author Copies

In both Traditional and Hybrid agreements, the publisher gifts a copy of the book to the author for free, for them to keep. 

Sometimes an author will want extra copies for family and friends. We've mentioned before that the publisher owns all copies so that no one individual has free access to them - so whether publishing staff or author wants copies, they will have to buy them. The purchases are given at big discounts, however. This is just a form of creative camaraderie.

The question of whether the author is allowed to sell their copies has different answers at different publishing houses. Many publishing houses discourage it as it technically detracts from their sales, which is understandable. Ours allows the author to sell their copies as we found it has increased the eagerness of their friends/family to purchase, knowing they may get it signed, personally delivered, from a familiar source.

SUBMIT YOUR OWN MANUSCRIPT

KREST Publishers is an independent publisher based in Durban, South Africa, accepting manuscripts from writers all across the country. If you wish to submit your own manuscript for publishing consideration, you can do so via the manuscript submissions page. While submissions are presently closed, you might like to take a look to prepare yourself for when they do open again. Competition is tight and an estimated only 1% of manuscripts submitted each year get accepted for publishing - but there's no reason it can't be you!

Avid readers might also like to purchase second-hand and brand new books at discounted prices on our online bookstore. You'll never pay more than R220 for a brand new book (of any size!), and delivery to any address in the country is R60. We advocate making local books available to local people FIRST.

Our personal best

KREST Publishers