Jun 16, 2024 7 min read Writing Guides

Choose Your Fighter: Traditional, Self-Published, or Hybrid

The first step to figuring out your writing parameters.

You may think I’m getting a little ahead of myself by making this the first article in the series but hear me out: knowing where you’re going lets you plan out the journey, rather than simply writing without a map.

It’s also possible that you’re only coming across this after doing just that, and that’s totally fine! It happens! That’s what I did my first time around with writing, but I ran into a lot of snags afterward when I was trying to aim for a different goal.

There are three main objectives:

Traditional publishing
Self-publishing
Hybrid publishing

Whichever one you choose, you can absolutely change later, but each one has different hurtles and hoops to jump through in order to hit that achievement of holding your book in your hands.

Traditional Publishing

The Big Five

So, traditional publishing has some branches: there’s the possibility you can get in with the US big five publishing houses. At the time of writing this, those four (in order of most units—mostly books—sold) are:

Penguin Random House attempted to purchase Simon & Schuster in 2022, but the sale was blocked by a court ruling. Since publishers typically grow by purchasing smaller publishing houses, this was sort of a big deal, and it shed a lot of light on how traditional publishing functions, so I would highly recommend doing some research before committing to one of the big five if you manage to catch their eye. Author Xiran Jay Zhao has detailed some of their publishing experiences with an imprint of Penguin Random House and why Iron Widow’s sequel was delayed on TikTok.

With that warning/disclaimer out of the way, these are the big monsters that have the most weight to throw around to get a book the most sales if they put enough marketing behind it. And, seeing how that's the biggest upside of traditional publishing, any author would absolutely love to have that.

However, in order to pitch to any of these publishers—and most of their imprints—you’ll need a literary agent. Literary agents are representatives of authors who get paid by selling your book to publishers, so you never directly pay them. Instead, they work like a partner or a manager to help you in selling your book to someone who will, well, sell your book.

You can check out Reedsy’s directory of literary agents to create a shortlist of any that you think might be a good fit for your book.

Indie Publishers

Now, getting an agent doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be hooked up with a big five publisher, but you’ll definitely have a better chance at seeing your book on a shelf at a random bookstore in the United States, even with the alternative of your agent locking you into a deal with an indie publisher (not to be confused with “indie publishing” in terms of self-publishing)—typically a small or mid-size press. Because even these publishers can do a really good job of getting your book on a ton of shelves, so don’t rule that out completely.

These publishers are more likely to pay more attention to a book they really like since they typically have less clients and a smaller portfolio, but their resources might not be as great as their larger competitors.

The upside to going to a mid-size or smaller press is that there are more who are open to unagented submissions—meaning that you can pitch your book to them yourself and then, should you need to (which I’d recommend for handling your pay negotiation and contract), secure yourself an agent later. This might be a bit of an easier feat for some, seeing how an agent that is already secured a sale if they get you is going to be a much easier pitch than trying to convince an agent to take a gamble on your book.

You can look for a good fit to directly pitch your completed book manuscript to a publisher through Reedsy’s publishing directory.

What You’ll Need

An agent
A finished book manuscript
- This should already be self-revised and self-edited, as well as recommended to have been read through and received feedback from a handful of critique partners and beta readers. Please do not send agents your first draft. Your book should be as complete as possible and theoretically ready to publish when you submit it to them.
- It should also have an appropriate word count for its genre to make it an easier sell. Keeping it between 80,000 and 90,000 words is considered to be the safe zone for the typical traditionally published fiction novel. Though there are exceptions, never expect to be one of them.
A query letter
- This is like your pitch to your agent. You should include the book’s title/working title in CAPS, rounded-up word count, comparative titles, age group, and genre (ex: TRICK is a 94,000-word upper young adult urban fantasy novel.)
- Note: Trick is a “new adult” book (just past young adult, but still in the very late teens/early twenties of adult), but this is not a category in trad pub, so I’ve swapped new adult for upper YA, since I think this would theoretically be the best pitch for this book.
A synopsis
- A complete-with-spoilers 1-2 page breakdown of the major events in your story from start to finish.

The Good & Bad of Traditional Publishing

Okay, so here’s a quick breakdown of the pros and cons.

Pros:

More resources, overall
Potentially the best marketing opportunities
Possibly better up-front royalties
Access to amazing editors and cover artists/designers
You don’t pay for anything out of pocket
Slower writers will likely feel more comfortable with the longer timeline it takes to publish

Cons:

Potentially more input and pressure to adjust your story to fit the masses
Your say in marketing/cover options/editor/etc could be limited
You and your book(s) are locked into a contract, for better or worse
Limited in sharing certain aspects of your book due to the contract
Your book may not earn-out (read: your up-front payments might be the only ones you see) or your royalties checks could be very small since your books are paying back the team who is selling it
It can take anywhere from weeks to years to secure an agent, on top of the years to secure and get a publishing deal rolling—it’s a very slow process

Self-Publishing

Now, self-publishing is another route that more and more authors are taking because it’s become more of an openly available option. There are some who find a ton of success in the pathway because they’re able to control every aspect of the process, while others simply enjoy the freedom it’s given them to share their books on their own timelines, rather than that of a publisher.

And there are quite a few options for how you can go about publishing, along with fewer restrictions on things like word count, choosing a cover artist, picking your own editor, deciding how to promote and market it, pricing, and potentially making more money on a regular basis (key word: potentially—there is never a guarantee).

Self-Publishing Platforms

Please keep in mind that this is a non-exhaustive list of options for self-publishing. There are many more eBook, audiobook, and print publishing platforms that exist:

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) & ACX — eBook, Print, & Audiobooks
- Expanded distribution (print only in US and UK)
- Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited program for eBooks (must have enrolled eBook exclusive to KDP and not available anywhere else)
- Greater cut through Amazon purchases
IngramSpark — eBook, Print
- Expanded distribution
- Partnered with Findaway Voices for audiobooks
Spotify’s Findaway Voices — Audiobooks
- Expanded distribution
- Greater cut through Spotify purchases
Draft2Digital — eBook, Print
- Expanded distribution
- Can distribute eBooks to many major platforms in one place and automatically enroll them to new platforms when they’re available
- Can enroll your books into Kobo Plus (Rakuten’s version of Kindle Unlimited without the exclusivity)
Barnes & Noble Press — eBook, Print
- Greater cut through Barnes & Noble/Nook, but no expanded distribution
Lulu — eBook, Print
- Expanded distribution
- Best for selling books through your own website; costly to push to other retailers

What You’ll Need

Motivation and willingness to learn
The ability to wear different hats
Money for the programs, skills, and people you’ll need to assist you

The Good & The Bad of Self-Publishing

However, the one thing about self-publishing is that you’re doing everything yourself.

Pros:

You have full control
You have a ton of options
You set your own timeline and schedule to make it as fast or as slow as you’d like
You’ll typically see your money three months after you make your first sale

Cons:

You’re a one-person army
You’ll have to write, manage, and market your book yourself
You may want/need to set up a business and track income for taxes
It can get overwhelming if you’re disorganized or not a self-starter

Hybrid Publishing

As you may have guessed, hybrid publishing is is a combination of traditional and self-publishing (not to be confused with vanity presses, which ask for you to pay up front to get your book published—I would recommend you never pay for someone else to publish your book and to steer clear of vanity presses).

You can absolutely be an author who publishes works traditionally and on their own through self-publishing. For example, you might have a great standalone book that you think would do well in the trad pub space, so you send it through your agent. And while that book is going through the trad pub process, you can publish books in, say, a completely different series or genre that you have as a pet project, or you believe trad pub wouldn’t be as open to taking on.

Taking this approach can be a lot to juggle, but if you play your cards right, you can have the best of both worlds and maybe get your name—or pen name—out there a little more than trying to do it all on your own or giving up more creative freedom than you’d like.

I’ll spare you the pros and cons list for this one since it’s a combination of both.

Now It’s Up to You to Decide

Honestly, there’s no wrong way to publish when it comes to these. It ultimately depends on you and what you’re comfortable with. So, as you’re writing, plot your trajectory toward the end goal that you think fits the best for you, but if you reach the end and realize you’d like to go in a different direction, at least you’ll be aware of what you need to do.

And if you feel you still have questions, don’t worry! I’ll be sure to drop more info soon. 🖤