Hybrid publishing is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot but rarely explained. Hybrid publishing lives in the space between traditional and self-publishing: you invest in your book the way you would if you were indie, but you also work with a professional editorial, design, and distribution team—the kind of infrastructure you’d normally only get from a traditional press. For me, that meant creative control paired with guidance and accountability. It’s like going to a tailor with your own fabric: you’re paying for their skill, measurements, and execution, and when the garment is finished, it’s yours. The tailor made it, but they don’t own it.
It’s not the easy route some people assume; it’s a partnership. And like any partnership, it comes with both reward and risk.
Hybrid publishing and me: getting started
Once I’d finished writing Flooding the River, I went looking for a book home for my baby. Naturally, I started looking for agents. This process was long and daunting and, while I received many full requests, nothing quite landed. After setting her down multiple times and picking her back up again, I was ready to shelve her for good. At the time, I felt heartbroken, but I did not want to self-publish. Why? Because I was busy starting a new job and I wouldn’t have the time. I also wanted to be “official.” I wanted to be like all my favorite authors who got huge book deals. But what I wanted even more was to have this book, my book, out in the world.
I was stuck. Then I stumbled upon Wise Ink Creative Publishing, who had a call out for manuscripts. I didn’t know much (anything) about hybrid publishing when I submitted my manuscript, but what I did know was that this was my last effort putting this novel into the world. If things didn’t pan out with this publisher, Flooding the River would belong to me and my shelf only. With that I hit submit.
Within a couple weeks, the CPO (chief publishing officer) reached out to set up a meeting to learn more about me, my manuscript, my goals, and my ambitions for publishing. Before this meeting I did some research of my own, about the other types of books Wise Ink had published, the professionalism of their platforms, and the cover designs of the books they had published. I know you are not supposed to judge a book (or publisher) by their covers, but the covers of Wise Ink books were beautiful, well done, and professional. After the meeting, I was asked to send my full manuscript for evaluation. I was told that once my manuscript was evaluated, if Wise Ink decided to offer me a publishing contract, I would receive a project proposal.
Here lies one of the key differences between hybrid publishing and traditional publishing. In hybrid publishing, there is no advance. Your book proposal includes the estimate of what you will need to spend upfront to bring your book to life: the costs of a developmental editor, a line editor, a cover designer, a book manager, and so on. All of the details are laid out bare with their associated prices. You can decide how many copies you want printed and what distribution methods you would like to use—factors that inform the basic pricing. (If you’re wondering if you can change your mind down the road, the answer is yes.) In case it is not clear: You do not have to pay all the money at once. You pay half before each specific service and half after the specific service is completed.
The upsides
To me, the upside of this process (which made some associated fees worth it) is that I did not have to go out and find the individuals who would be bringing my book to life via editing, design, and the like. I had a book manager who, through several meetings and several worksheets, was able to get the vision for the team I wanted working on my book and was able to go out and find them. For example, for Flooding the River, I specifically wanted a Black developmental editor and a Black cover designer. For the book cover, I wanted a specific type of abstract artist who drew people and faces without specific features.
The downsides
Despite what the above may suggest, like most things in life, hybrid publishing has some downsides. The two downsides I will focus on here are timing and marketing.
Within the book proposal there are estimated deadlines, but to make a long story short my expected publication day was pushed back several times because of things outside of my control. This busts one of the myths associated with hybrid publishing: that you are in control of the timeline. You are not. You are still subject to the whims of others like your editors and your book manager. So if you are type A-minus like me, this can be frustrating.
The costs of hybrid publishing also do not include a marketing/PR team. So if after fronting the money to pay to bring your book from manuscript to real-life tangible book you do not want to spend massive amounts on hiring a PR agency to market it, you may be out of luck. Hybrid publishers such as Wise Ink offer some related resources, such as templates for reaching out to media outlets and biweekly office hours where authors can seek advice on marketing. These present a good place to start when it comes to marketing your book, but you will need to invest in other methods and conduct some of your own research into opportunities.
My takeaways
The answer to whether I would do this again, and by this I mean hybrid publish my debut, is a resounding yes; the answer to whether I will keep using the hybrid method for future books is not so certain. I would be lying if I said I did not have dreams of getting a traditional publishing deal.
Ultimately, I feel grateful that I was in a position to be able to afford hybrid publishing, but I know it is not possible for all people to front the money for their dreams. I welcome you to follow my story to see what’s next for me, and what if any role hybrid publishing pays as I pave my path forward as an author.
Kehinde Winful is a first-generation Nigerian-American attorney and author. Her debut novel Flooding the River was published in January 2024.
