The Four Types Of Book Publishing Explained

I've been using the term "professional publishing" in my articles thus far, often as a way to differentiate the niche from traditional, hybrid, and vanity publishing. But why am I using this term, and how am I drawing the lines between different types of publishing? Let's do a quick dive into the four types of book publishing commonly discussed, where they overlap, and how they differ from each other.

A Note On Terminology

Publishing can be categorized in many different ways, and as such many of these publishing types have multiple descriptors. For example, traditional publishing might also be called trade publishing, differentiating it from academic publishing. The term "independent" might be used by a traditional publishing house to indicate they are not an imprint of the Big Five, or it might be used by a hybrid or professional publisher to indicate the author's independence from traditional methods of publishing.

For the purposes of this article, I am going to be categorizing publishing types by business model: how they generate revenue. Not only does this provide pretty clear lines, but it also addresses the primary talking points for and against each form.

What Is Traditional Publishing?

For the last century or so, "traditional publishing" has dominated the industry. Traditional publishing is most closely associated with the Big Five global conglomerates: Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan, Hachette Book Group, and HarperCollins. However, there are plenty of smaller traditional publishers as well, who use the same business model on a more local or specialized scale.

Traditional publishers make their money through the acquisition and selling of intellectual property (IP). They aren't even really purchasing a book, but rather book rights: exclusive right to publish, reproduce, sell, and iterate on an author's IP (often including things like translations and film rights).

They purchase these rights in exchange for paying the author a percentage of the royalties (usually somewhere between 10-15%) and sometimes an advance against those royalties (i.e. the author would receive no royalties until sales paid for the advance).

In exchange, traditional publishers take on the cost of book production, printing, and distribution. They also pay for limited marketing, but often expect authors to fund their own book tours and supplemental marketing efforts.

Because traditional publishing makes its money on book sales, they are much more particular about what they acquire. Many publishers will not accept unsolicited manuscripts at all, and require their authors to be represented by agents who have done a first round of vetting on the manuscript. Ultimately, they want books that meet as many of the following criteria as possible:

• The book meets the publisher's submission guidelines and/or has been solicited
• The book slots well into an already defined and easily marketable category or genre
• The book is in line with the current literary zeitgeist and not outdated trends (<3 years)
• The book is well written and does not need a lot of editorial work to make it workable
• The author already has name recognition that will guarantee a base number of sales
• The author already has published books that have sold well in a similar category/genre
• The author has multiple books in the works and will be a resource they can tap again

Gone are the days where F. Scott Fitzgerald could show up to Maxwell Perkins' office with a steamer trunk of loose papers and say: "Here's my book, good luck!" While there are always going to be editors and publishers who are willing to take a chance, it requires a steady flow of "sure things" in order to finance those dark horses. So 90% of the time, traditional publishers are looking for "sure things."

Smaller publishers who have can be more flexible in their submission policies may be a lot more likely to take a risk on a book if it fits within their mission, but often these publishers are not as well financed and so the struggle becomes more about whether they can afford to publish, offer an advance, or commit the resources.

Between the inaccessibility and the time it actually takes to publish a book traditionally (sometimes up to 2-3 years), many authors found that looking for alternative forms of publication worked better for them.

What Is Hybrid Publishing?

Hybrid publishing often gets mistaken for professional publishing, but is its own category based on our criteria of revenue generation. According to the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), a hybrid publisher must meet the following 11 criteria:

• Define a mission and vision for its publishing program
• Vet submissions
• Commit to truth and transparency in business practices
• Provide a negotiable, easy-to-understand contract for each book published
• Publish under its own imprint(s) and ISBNs
• Publish to industry standards
• Ensure editorial, design, and production quality
• Pursue and manage a range of publishing rights
• Provide distribution services
• Demonstrate respectable sales
• Pay authors a higher-than-standard royalty

Hybrid publishers generate revenue in two ways (hence the term "hybrid"): through the acquisition and selling of IP ("traditional") and through charging the author a fee to finance the actual publication process ("professional"). This allows hybrids to finance the purchasing and publication of more books, while building a backlist of titles that generate residual income.

So why might an author want to work with a hybrid publisher if they have to sign away the rights to their IP and also need to pay to finance their own publication? Well, there are a few benefits to working with a hybrid publisher:

• Royalties are substantially higher than they would be at a traditional publisher, since hybrids are not dependent solely upon that passive income
• Cost of financing publication might be lower than professional publishers, since hybrids are not dependent solely upon that active income
• It is easier to get acquired, since hybrids usually don't use the same rigorous criteria as traditional publishers
• It allows for more control over the publication process, often including veto power on decisions that traditional publishers would not grant
• Publication and production timelines are usually a lot faster than traditional publishers offer (~1 year as opposed to 2-3)
• More built-in bookselling and marketing support than professional publishing, since hybrids benefit from residuals along with authors

Traditional publishers have historically mixed feelings about hybrid publishing. This type of publisher has been around for about 20-25 years, and many of the founders of the niche were publishing experts from the traditional sphere who wanted to find ways to better serve authors and publish more diverse and interesting books.

However, many see this flexibility as inherently indicative of insufficient gatekeeping, and are concerned that author-financed publication creates an incentive to publish quantity over quality. This is actually an ongoing argument in the world of academic publishing (it's own beast) as journal editors grapple with the ethical considerations of Open Access.

What Is Professional Publishing?

Professional publishing is a relatively new niche, only having truly existed for the last decade or so. Its origins coincide with the rise in another form of publication: SEO content marketing. In the same way a business would contract an SEO marketing agency to develop blog and website content and organically boost their algorithmic search results, so author clients contract professional publishers to develop book content to organically boost their credibility in their chosen field.

There is no IP trading, no acquisitions editors, no royalties. By eliminating IP acquisition and selling as a primary or even secondary revenue stream, this business model made it so that any author client can pay to have their book to be professionally published. This makes professional publishing the most easily scalable model, as there are no budget restrictions to consider when taking on new author clients. However, it also makes this type the most unstable in terms of longterm growth, since it relies on a steady stream of active clients and commensurate number of fulfillment experts to exist.

From the author client's perspective, there are strong pros and also compelling cons to this publication method.

One the one hand:

• Anyone who is willing to pay for the service can be a published author
• The author client retains the rights to their IP during and after publication
• The author client get pretty much full control over every part of the publishing process
• The author client receives all royalties paid out by distribution platforms without the professional publisher taking a cut
• The author client often can show up with just a book idea and work with writing coaches, ghostwriters, or other content creatives to develop the manuscript
• Many professional publishers have extensive suites of additional marketing and personal branding services to complement publication
• Most professional publishers prioritize client experience, since they are service-based businesses, which means dedicated and personalized support throughout the process

On the other hand:

• Prices for professional publishing can get restrictively expensive, since the business model does not have a means of generating residual income from IP
• The lack of IP acquisition can cast doubt about the quality or value of the published book if the author client is publicizes their use of a professional publisher
• The author client will probably need to purchase additional marketing support after their book's publication, since professional publishers have no incentive to sell the book for residuals
• Many professional publishers do not have comprehensive distribution lists or relationships with booksellers, relying primarily on popular self-publishing platforms like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

It is up to the individual aspiring author to determine if the pros outweigh the cons when considering professional publishing. For many who choose this route, books are business-building tools and so achieving literary acclaim is not high on their priority list. Plus, they can just write it off as a business expense come tax time.

However, for those who are concerned about the opinions of the traditional publishing community, it is worth considering if professional publishing will be the best fit to help hit those goals.

What Is Vanity Publishing?

Professional publishing (and even hybrid publishing) are often called "vanity publishing" by those in the traditionalist camp. For them, any publisher who asks authors to subsidize the publishing process is a vanity press. This opinion is so widespread that many authors keep their publishing partner under wraps to avoid having their book "discredited" in this way.

Yes, there are valid concerns one could raise about how hybrid and professional publishers work, some of which I touched on already. But those next-level discussions about how to improve their offerings or business models will not be accessible if the discourse is reduced to inaccurate name calling. So let's discuss what a vanity publisher actually is, and how it differs from the other types described above.

Vanity publishing makes their money from aspiring authors who pay to have their existing manuscripts formatted, printed, and/or uploaded to distribution websites. Some might offer light design or proofreading work as well, but usually to a subpar level. It is the literary equivalent of going to Kinko's:

• There is no publisher-author relationship
• There is no dedicated expert support
• There is no ongoing deliverable development
• There is no guidance on book launching or marketing (paid or unpaid)

On a very basic level, it is easy to see where the traditional publishing purists get their opinion from: if you pay money to hold a book in your hands or share an ebook link, that is all vanity publishing. But that lacks nuance in a way that feels disingenuous. (It's also a tactic that helps shore up traditional publishing's own market share by discrediting any viable competitors, which is a fantastic branding tactic but should throw doubt on its veracity.)

Perhaps it is best end this with an analogy, to explain the differences between these four types of publishing.

The Point Is How You Get There

Let's say three people want to take a picture at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Their reasons for going (and their levels of commitment) are all different:

• Person A wants to commemorate a pilgrimage they've been dreaming about since childhood
• Person B is opening an Irish-themed pub and wants to create promotional material for their business
• Person C is in an argument online about whether you can see the Aran Islands from the cliffs and wants to use photographic evidence to back up their claim

How does their reasoning and commitment influence how they approach this goal?

Person A

For Person A, it's all about the experience of actually doing the thing. They save up money for years to make the trip, and finally purchase their tickets. When they get off the plane, they have to figure out how to hail a taxi and where to stay, and then how to get a train ticket from Dublin to Galway, and then figure out which buses go from Galway to the Cliffs. It's a long, arduous, do-it-yourself process, but finally they reach those Cliffs and snap that picture. They did it, all by themselves, scraping and saving, and made it happen.

Person B

Person B isn't necessarily emotionally invested in the Cliffs themselves, but he definitely wants to stand out from the competition and prove his pub's authenticity. So he books with a travel agent, who finds him all the best flights and accommodations for his price point and send along a comprehensive itinerary. Person B gets to the Cliffs, takes a picture, and then writes off the entire expense on his taxes.

Person C

The point of the picture for Person C is not to experience going to the Cliffs or even to be at the Cliffs. They just want to prove a point by evoking the authority and aesthetic of having been there so they can win an argument online. They don't want to actually go to the Cliffs for something like this, so they pay someone on Fiverr for a Photoshop job and get to say "I told you so!" without 90% of the expense or the work.

None of these people were wrong in their approach. They all smartly used the tools they had available to achieve the end result that would provide them with what they needed. It would be silly to say Person B didn't really travel to the Cliffs because he paid a travel agent, and it would be silly to expect Person C to spend thousands of dollars to prove a point in an internet argument (although we might suggest they at least go outside and touch some good old domestic grass).

There are many ways to publish a book. There are also many reasons to publish a book. And we are lucky enough to be living in a time when we have multiple avenues to do so, surrounded by experts who can help us on our way.

So... which type of publisher is right for you?