What is Hybrid Publishing?
Benefits & Challenges in 2025

Congratulations: you’ve written – or are close to completing – your novel! That’s an achievement in itself. But after all your hard work you want others to read it; to enjoy it for themselves. How best to achieve this?

You could go for a traditional publishing deal. Or you could take the whole thing into your own hands and go down the self-publishing route. It’s a valid option – and has been for some time.

But what do each of these involve?

Traditional publishing means submitting your manuscript to literary agents or publishers, hoping for acceptance. If approved, the publisher handles – and pays for – the editing, design, and marketing. While this can lead to higher visibility and credibility, it often comes with long waiting periods and less creative control. It also has multiple gatekeepers, meaning that the success of your book is very much in the hands of other decision-makers and approvers.

Self-publishing, on the other hand, puts the power in your hands. You control – and yes, you pay for – everything from editing and cover design to marketing and distribution. No gatekeepers or approvers are involved – you are the publisher.

But you may have heard of Hybrid publishing as a third option? I think it’s a viable and beneficial option – so much so that I have created a company that offers hybrid publishing. The purpose of this blog post is to explain what it is (at least as I see it), and to show how it brings you, the author, the best of both worlds.

 

What is Hybrid Publishing?

OK, let’s be clear on what we mean by hybrid publishing – because there are different versions, and some have negative press attached. I believe that if hybrid publishing is done ethically and transparently, then this negativity is wholly unwarranted.

Hybrid publishing is based on the self-publishing model, but the difference is that you’re not alone. The publisher undertakes most of the work for you, and charges you just as if you had self-published – but often, the hybrid publisher has been able to negotiate good deals with trusted service providers like editors, formatters, cover designers and proofreaders. So you may even end up paying the same or less than if you went direct yourself – and you have the reassurance of quality service providers working on your book.

Why I Originally Took the Self-Publishing Route

I mentioned above that the hybrid service is based on the self-publishing model – which is something I have had a lot of experience in. For ten years I have been publishing my own (and now other people’s) books. This means eleven published titles, with one more due out on March 7^th (The River of Fire, book three of my Mary Fox Adventures). Back in 2015, I assumed that if I was going to be a serious author, I needed an agent and a traditional publisher for my first book, The Witchfinder’s Well.

While I ‘queried’ (pitched) my book to agents, I was also aware that self-publishing was a viable alternative. So I set myself a strict deadline of six months; telling myself that if I hadn’t had a positive response after that, I would publish the book myself. I did get some responses, but they were along the lines of “it doesn’t engage with me enough” and “this isn’t what I’m looking for”. None of them said “Yes”.

Then the deadline was up, and I felt frankly quite relieved! Now I could self-publish with a clear conscience, and have all the freedom and control that such a process offered.

At that time I didn’t have much money or any contacts, so I had to learn it all for myself. Sure, I made mistakes along the way (big ones!) but that meant I gained a good understanding of how self-publishing works. I could unleash my creativity with things like the blurb and the cover, and knew that if I had got an agent, such things would have been out of my hands.

 

What Are the Benefits of Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing empowers you to manage your journey from manuscript to market. As an author you maintain your creative control, maximise your earnings, and bring your work to readers as quickly as you want.

Complete Creative Control

When you self-publish you can ensure that the vision of your book remains intact. This freedom allows for your unique and diverse stories to flourish, which might not fit into traditional publishing moulds. You also have complete control over the creative process; you get to decide on the cover design, who will be your editor, the formatting and the marketing. The final approval at each stage of the process is yours (which is also true in my hybrid service).

If you then wish to update your book anytime, responding to reader feedback or trends, you can. This flexibility ensures your book remains relevant and continuously improves.

Book covers are one area where some traditionally published authors are disappointed with the final look of their book. After 35 years in the advertising and marketing industry, I know what makes a good design – and this can only come from a good creative brief. His means time spent researching the genre, looking at trends, and considering the style of the book, in order to give the designer the clearest possible brief. How they then use their skills to create a design is up to them. I am always looking to be pleasantly surprised by the final design!

Higher Royalty Rates

One of the most attractive benefits of self-publishing is the potential for higher royalty rates. With a traditional publishing deal you can often end up with around 6-10% of the cover price as a royalty. If you’ve been lucky enough to receive an advance, you have to earn that back in book sales before you start seeing another penny.

With self-publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Apple Books For Authors, and Google Play you can earn royalties up to 70%.

This significant difference means you have more money in your pocket for each book sold and your earnings can grow faster. You have the opportunity to earn much more money from the same volume of sales.

Higher royalties can also enable you to price your book competitively, attracting more readers while still making a substantial profit. There are people out there making millions from self-publishing. It shows it is possible. But you do have to treat your writing like a business.

Faster Publication Timeline

Do you want to publish two, three or four books a year? With self-publishing, you can. It offers a much faster route to getting your book into readers’ hands.

Traditional publishing can take months or even years before the public reads your books. The lengthy process includes submissions, approvals, editing, production schedules, and marketing plans. With all the people involved in the process, more time is required.

In contrast, once you’ve edited, proofed and formatted your book, platforms like Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, allow you to make it go live online in a matter of hours.

This speed is particularly beneficial if your content is timely or if you’re eager to start building your readership. You can quickly release subsequent books, keeping your audience engaged and growing your fan base steadily.

With my marketing background, I understand that ‘speed to market’ is important to gain a competitive advantage. In book publishing, if you see a trend, it’s vital to get in quick and grab your share!

In autumn 2023 I decided to publish a gift book from a series of existing humourous articles I’d put up on Substack. Christmas is a brilliant time for books as people buy them as a nice gift – especially if they are signed by the author – so it seemed a good idea to make it available. It took me a week to gather the articles, proof-read them, design a cover and upload the book to Amazon! A week, to go from an idea to a published book. And my confidence was well rewarded – both Christmas 2023 and 2024 have seen good volumes of sales of the book.

The Challenges of Self-Publishing

The self-publishing route is not without its challenges. As I mentioned above, you need to treat your writing career like a business rather than a hobby. But I believe that the benefits far outweigh these challenges.

Upfront Costs

It costs money to publish a professional book. Period. So if you don’t have a traditional publisher to cover the costs, you have to cover them yourself. Such costs can include hiring professional editors, cover designers, proofers and formatters – to ensure the book meets industry standards. You will also need to budget for marketing, such as building and hosting a website or promotional campaigns. However, with careful planning and budgeting, these investments can pay off in sales of your book (and don’t forget, you make substantially more per sale than if you are traditionally published).

One area of costs that should not be skimped is on editing.

There are three different types of edit.

1. The developmental or structural edit. This takes a holistic approach to the whole novel, standing back and looking at how the book is constructed. Do the characters work? Is there a developmental arc for the main ones? Are they credible? Then there’s the plotting; does the action follow an identifiable structure, hitting all the key beats in order to keep the reader engaged? What about pacing? Are there rest and recovery scenes after action? Your editor’s understanding of your vision for the book is key here – as they need to understand it in order to help ensure it is effectively realised.
2. Once the second main draft has been completed, your book will need a line edit. This focuses on the style, tone, and flow of the writing. The goal here is to enhance your ‘author voice’. It aims to ensure clarity, consistency, and impact at the sentence and paragraph level.
3. Finally there’s a copy edit, focussing on the technical accuracy of the text. It ensures the manuscript is free from grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and formatting errors.

In order to optimise speed and efficiency, the line edit and the copy edit are often merged into one process, so a single editor performs them together in one go. This is certainly something we like to do at Winter & Drew, in order to keep the costs as competitive as possible for our Authors.

Marketing and Visibility

One of the biggest challenges self-publishing authors face is marketing and achieving visibility. There’s a general perception that if you have a traditional publishing contract the publisher will do all the marketing for you.

This is not necessarily the case. Unless you are already a big selling name you will still be expected to do most of the marketing yourself.

You don’t have to love marketing but you do need to understand it. How else are people going to find your book and buy it?

Gaining knowledge does take time but there are hundreds of courses that you can take to educate yourself in building an online presence, engaging with potential readers via newsletters or social media channels, undertaking keyword research, and book launches.

Some are free, others will cost you money. Winter & Drew has a good level of support via our marketing consultants if you need it.

Competing with thousands of other self-published books can make it difficult to stand out. You must be proactive and creative in your marketing efforts to gain traction and reach your target audience.

Prestige and Recognition

Self-publishing is often thought to carry less prestige and recognition compared to traditional publishing. This bias can make it harder for self-published authors to gain reviews, media attention, and award nominations.

Many readers and industry professionals still view traditionally published books as more credible and of higher quality. I’ve definitely seen badly formatted and proofed books, which scream ‘self-published and ‘self-edited’ (but then, I have also seen some proofing errors in trad books as well – so who knows…)

At Winter & Drew I believe that once we take a book on, it is primarily the author’s creative vision that gets realised – albeit with our help, support and encouragement. That’s why we have a submission process, as we only want to put our Winter & Drew imprint onto books of a suitably high quality. That means our imprint becomes a credible mark of quality for our authors.

Support System

Self-publishing can feel like a solitary endeavour due to the lack of a built-in support system. Traditional publishers provide a team of editors, marketers, and designers who contribute to the book’s success. In contrast, self-published authors must assemble their own team, which can be challenging.

Joining critique writing groups and book groups where you’ll learn to appreciate stories from the readers’ perspective can help you hone your stories and writing.

Without the guidance and resources of a traditional publisher, navigating the process can be overwhelming. However, joining writer communities and online forums, and networking with other self-published authors can provide valuable support and advice.

And of course, if you work with Winter & Drew you will have your built-in support system!

 

A final thought

If you are still undecided about hybrid-publishing your novel check out our FAQ page. Or get in touch via our Contact Page. We’re always interested to review your work and have a chat if we think it’s right for us.