fbpx

Tracy C. Gold

AUTHOR, EDITOR, TEACHER

Hybrid Publisher Red Flags AKA Vanity Publishers

Today I got an email from a writer that made me very angry on her behalf, and on the behalf of all writers just trying to get their books out into the world. She detailed several “offers” from “hybrid” publishers all costing an arm, leg, and the family dog.

Now, there is a lot wrong in the world of traditional publishing, too. It’s extremely hard to break into and I’ve seen many horror stories and broken hearts. I really do think the market is ripe for reimagining; there’s got to be a better way to do this.

But so-called “hybrid” publishing ain’t it. I’m going to tell you why, and share the red flags that should make you run away from these unethical businesses, fast.

Let’s take a moment for some definitions, which I’ve pulled and updated from my post on how to evaluate whether a publisher is traditional or vanity. I’ve used bold to note my updates which particularly pertain to picture books.


Traditional publishing
 is when a publisher chooses to publish a book and takes charge of the editing, design, distribution and basic marketing. (Marketing mileage varies WIDELY.) The author receives royalties and maybe an advance. The author pays NOTHING to get published. For picture books, the author DOES NOT PAY FOR THE ILLUSTRATIONS. The publisher finds and pays the illustrator, normally with an advance and then half of the royalties.

Self publishing is when an author publishes a book themselves, either by piecing together freelancers/DIYing or working with a company that helps take a book from a manuscript to a final book. The author puts all the money up front and keeps all of the profits from the book. For picture books, authors typically pay illustrators and any other service providers with flat fees because it’s too complicated to keep track of the royalties. Distributors like Amazon do take a percentage of self-published books.

Hybrid publishing or vanity publishing is when a publisher convinces an author they’re chosen/special yet charges them money to publish their book. My original description did not include “hybrid” as “vanity” publishing, but lately, I’m having a hard time seeing how any “hybrid” publishers are NOT “vanity.” I’ve heard of authors spending as much as $40,000. Today I learned about a publisher asking for $15,000 to publish a picture book. Vanity publishing also covers those anthologies/collections that seek out authors but then charge $100 or so for a copy of the book. Traditional anthologies, lit magazines, and collections GIVE contributing authors at least one free copy of the book or magazine.

Confusion and Clarifications

When I talk about hybrid in this post, I am talking about publishers who are hybrid, meaning they charge authors to publish their books. There are also authors who call themselves hybrid, and confusingly, this is not at all the same thing. Hybrid authors are those who use a mix of traditional publishing and self publishing. This is A-OK, totally normal, and increasingly common given the problems with traditional publishing. No ethical issues there!

Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments »

Literary Agent Query Template and Favorite Query Writing Resources

I sent hundreds of queries over the years of my search for a literary agent, and I had a darn good request rate (about 40%, on some projects!). I also read thousands of queries as a literary agent intern. While I didn’t end up actually getting my agent from cold querying (full story here!), I’m a pretty dab hand at writing query letters and helping other writers improve their letters.

So, here is my favorite format for query letters. Caveat: there is no one right way to write a query to a literary agent. You have to do what makes your book sound amazing. This is just what worked for me, and what I loved when I was going through the slush pile as an intern. Looking for info on writing picture book query letters? They’re much shorter! My guide for picture book queries is here.

I’ve also included a whole bunch of resources, including links to successful query letters, at the end of this post.

Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments »

How Long it Takes to Traditionally Publish a Book

My editing clients often come to me saying they want to find a traditional publisher for their book and hope it will be published within a few months or a year. Buckle up, I tell them. If you want to publish a book quickly, in the vast majority of cases, self publishing is the way to go. (And most people’s self publishing timelines are far too ambitious, too.)

To educate those who have big dreams of getting a book published, here is a rough sketch of just how long it takes to get a traditional publishing deal (if you’re lucky), and then how long it takes for the book to be published after that. Of course, there are exceptions in both directions. Right now with Covid-19, I am hearing of launch dates getting pushed back left and right. Books can also be rushed, which is called “crashing,” if they are extremely timely (but this would likely not involve a first-time/not-famous author).

Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments »

Webinar on Building a Kidlit Career

One of the reasons I was extremely excited about my regional SCBWI conference was because I was going to moderate a panel with Linda Sue Park, Melanie Conklin, and Susan Muaddi Darraj. Sadly, the conference was cancelled due to Covid-19. This was absolutely the right call, but I was bummed not to get to meet these writers and others who were planning to attend.

In happy news, these wonderful authors agreed to hold the panel as a webinar despite new homeschooling responsibilities and Covid-19 chaos.

Join us on Monday, April 13th at 7 pm for a lively conversation about publishing. You’ll have a chance to ask questions if you tune in live, or you can watch the recording later. Susan and I are also offering limited critiques.

Register here: https://mddewv.scbwi.org/events/webinar-building-a-kidlit-career/.

No Comments »

How to Evaluate Whether a Publisher is Traditional or Vanity

I just got an email from Submittable about a call for full manuscripts from Atmosphere Press. With the recent discussions of financial transparency on publishing Twitter, I thought I’d share thoughts about this call and the spectrum between traditional, self, and vanity publishing.

Disclaimer: I only know what’s on the email from Submittable and Atmosphere’s website and I could be totally wrong, but this is an example of how to analyze publishers based on what I’ve learned after years of my own submissions and my editing clients’ submissions.

To start, I’ll define traditional, self, and vanity publishing.

Read the rest of this entry »
25 Comments »