Hybrid publishing and the lessons I learned
A scam or an opportunity?
I attended London Book Fair online event this year and among private messages from various people, there was one from a publisher. I thought they saw my comments in various panels and they liked what I said. But, whatever, a publisher was interested in me! Anyone out there who has written a book and has tried to find an agent or a publisher knows how exciting this is after years of submitting and waiting, only to get a handful of responses, all rejections.
I sent them my manuscript, and the editor wrote back saying that he wishes he read it as a reader, not as an editor. Can a compliment get better than this? I was so excited. Oh my… I thought this was my big break, the one that I’ve worked so hard for, the one I’ve been waiting for.
I read the contract, copied it to my computer. They offered help with everything (editing, formatting, cover etc), no upfront fees, 50% of the profits, and I got to keep my copyrights. I signed the contract.
Well, it went down the hill from there and I terminated the contract earlier this week. I’ll write about the lessons I’ve learned first (my advice to other writers) and then I’ll go into what happened.
1. Check how many books they publish?
This is probably the most important lesson I’ve learned. I think my (former) publisher is only interested in quantity, which makes sense. They take 50% of the profit from every book. So if every writer sells just 50 books to their friends and family, the writer doesn’t make much money, but the publisher does because it adds up. I’m not sure if this is what they are doing, but I know I don’t want to risk it. And considering that they had no time to reply to my e-mails (no, there were not that many of them) yet they were constantly asking for more books, and considering how eager they were for my book to just get published, I think this makes sense.
2. Is there anyone you can speak to?
My first point of contact was over Whatsapp, so I had a number. I also had the name of my editor. Otherwise, they always signed the e-mails as an anonymous person within in the team. When I asked to speak to someone (by this point I was having all kinds of doubts), they said that they don’t do conversations. I really wish I pushed for a conversation, video call of some sort.
3. Are they answering your questions?
I was particularly concerned about the marketing strategy — let’s face it, you can have one heck of a book, but if it’s not marketed properly, it will disappear. Eventually, they sent me a list of things they intend to do. I remember looking at the list thinking: okay, you’ll send your catalogue to book dealers, but what then? I should have asked, but they created such an atmosphere, I felt reluctant to ask.
4. Do NOT be too positive!
I was positive about everything. The first book cover they designed was horrible. I mean, the picture they chose was nice (it was a picture of Hawaiian beach, can’t go wrong), but the composition was ridiculous, the title was almost invisible. Although I felt this right away, I choose to be nice and then work my way to tell them that it needs changing. They did change it, it was much better, though the woman on the front cover was Chinese. I honestly didn’t care that much about this, but I was worried that this might be misleading. I decided to risk it because the cover came out really nice.
5. Check their pre-publication plans
I did not! I assumed they know that a book needs marketing before it goes out. One day I just got an e-mail saying: Your book is live, here are the links. My dream to have a pre-publication party, to have pre-orders and all that kind of stuff went right out the window.
6. Are you getting feedback?
I am one of those writers who needs feedback. I like even negative feedback. I sincerely believe that it helps. How can you tell if what you wrote is what you meant to write if no reader tells you how they understood it and how they felt about it? I had a back cover blurb, but when I read it, it just didn’t sound right. They had no opinion on it, so I made the decision myself to change it. I wrote another blurb. They seemed to like the second one better. I’m not sure. I think they did — this annoys me. Please say yes or no. I can write 10,000s blurbs for my book. Give me something.
7. Editing!
Who is doing the editing? Check the contract, check the reality. They went through my book once, made a couple of comments and corrections. To be fair, they said that the characters and the plot were already great and that they wouldn’t change anything regarding those. So, fair enough. Perhaps I did a good job. This wouldn’t surprise me because this is what I focus on fanatically. However, this means that I will miss spelling and grammar mistakes, typos, and (in this case) names of my characters — after the first draft I changed the names of almost all the characters, never mind why but do NOT do this, EVER! I went through the book four times. I asked for a proofreader, they never replied and I don’t think anyone read my book after the first edit. Then again, they were too busy adding more books to their list, so…
8. Check their followers!
I did NOT think this was a big deal. I mean, maybe they’re not focused on Twitter, maybe they have contact lists and readers… I don’t know. I should have checked. I don’t think these guys have a ‘devoted’ readership.
In short, after the initial compliments like ‘I wish I read this as a reader, not as an editor’ and ‘the plot and the characters are great’, I had very little in terms of communication or input. This was surprising (I thought they liked my book), but then I depended on their help with marketing — maybe they’re not willing to invest more time in editing, but since they like the book, and sales are in their interest, I thought they would invest in marketing. (shaking my head)
Whenever they sent me final drafts of the text or the book cover, I couldn’t download them. I could only view them. This also bugged me. It seemed like they couldn’t trust me. If they can’t trust me, why am I trusting them?
I also have reasons to doubt their reporting, but I can’t say much about this. Only one copy of my book was sold, according to their reports.
Anyway, now that I have made the tough decision to leave them, and it was a really tough decision, it’s not easy to accept that such high hopes are nothing more but an illusion, I have one book that’s been published, i.e. I cannot submit it anywhere anymore. My options are to try with another, better hybrid publisher or self-publishing.
While this has been a valuable lesson, it cost me far more than it’s worth. So, to all my hardworking writers out there, do NOT make the mistake I made.
Good luck to all, and may we never be victims of various scams going around. People who don’t like our books should just reject our books. It is as simple as that. Do not play games.
