What is the difference between a traditional publisher and a hybrid publisher such as Becker-Hill Books?

Traditional publishers are those we are familiar with, and have grown historically ever since the invention of the printing press. They are distinguished by paying the author to write. They own the copyright of the book the author writes and the author gets royalties through the publisher based on a contract. The author typically relinquishes control over their book to the publisher!

Getting a contract with a traditional publisher isn’t easy and takes in most cases a literary agent advises the author how to create a book proposal or presents it to a publisher. Most traditional publishers don’t take on “unknown people” as authors so there are more hurdles to get a book published. Depending on the power of the traditional publisher’s brand, it can be very worthwhile because of the reputation benefits of being represented by a well known publisher.

Before the internet and social media, traditional publishing houses did all the marketing for authors and their books. Now authors have to show proof in their book proposals that they have a “serious platform”, which means a decent email list of ideally 10 000 or more subscribers and over 50 000 followers combined on social media platforms.

With the online industry development of books being “printed on-demand”, the development of great editing software, and affordable cover designers, self-publishing became very popular and holds the other end of the spectrum of the publishing industry: The authors do everything themselves or outsource pieces of the process. The author keeps all copyrights and has the freedom to multi-purpose her writing in any way they can think of, however the learning curve is often very steep and doing it alone, the whole process may end up taking longer  than if they were working with experienced professionals. Plus mistakes can be costly and deeply frustrating because of the deep personal attachment. Think of painting artists, who often can’t sell their own art...

Hybrid publishers combine the best of both worlds! Authors can choose from different niched hybrid-publishers with different service packages and hire them to provide specific services they choose and pick. (See the list of services Becker-Hill Books offers further down the page.) The most important advantage of hybrid-publishers versus self-publishing is that there is much less work and stress for the author, and a far more professional, higher quality book product as the end product. Self-publishing sadly still has a bad reputation of cheaply produced books and garages filled with unsold inventory. Being published by a publisher gives the book and the author a higher reputation.

The most important advantage of hybrid-publishers versus traditional publishers is the speed to market, control of the end product e.g. cover design, and copyright ownership. Plus the income potential beyond the royalties from the book - which the public over-estimates hugely - is much higher because of the option to multi-purpose the book and its content. Traditional publishers - with the exception of proven bestselling authors and celebrities - don’t pay their authors as much as an author-entrepreneur can make by keeping the copyrights to their book, using it as a funnel product or as the door to their products and services. If an author is also a speaker and can do book sales from the back of the room, they earn much more per book than the royalties they would get from a traditional publisher.

From contract to book launch it takes about two years with a traditional publisher. Depending on the scope of the book with a hybrid publisher you can get your book out in a matter of a few months. My fastest solo book was my bestseller in 2016, which took under 40 days to write and publish! One multi-author book with Becker-Hill Books took from start till publication four months with 20 authors from around the world of which over two-thirds were first-time authors!