Once upon a time, books came into the world either through a traditional publisher that funded the project and saw to its distribution, or they entered through a self-funded, self-distributed arrangement with a vanity press.

Times have changed. These days, publishers are partnering with authors and contractors in all sorts of diverse models. Especially when it comes to funding and distribution, the lines that distinguish these models have blurred. As these diverse options go mainstream, publishers are finding ever more paths to business success.

More Than Before

In response to the morphing and merging of publishing models, an IBPA committee recently developed and released the organization’s first interactive online Guide to Publishing Models and Author Pathways, also known as The IBPA Publishing MAP. As an industry leader, the organization’s goal was to create a “robust and meaningful” tool that accounts for overlap between various models, says committee member Brooke Warner, publisher at She Writes Press and SparkPress. Calling the guide “the next-most important initiative we’ve done since the [hybrid publishing] standards,” Warner says the value is in helping publishers navigate “an ever-changing space.”

The committee spent the better part of a year developing the guide. It recognizes eight paths to book publisher: corporate trade, corporate higher education, and academic; university presses; independent publishers and small presses; hybrid publishers; service providers; author-publishers; and association, society, and nonprofit publishers.

Visually, the guide uses overlapping circles to represent paths to publishing that aren’t as distinct as they once were, especially in the realm of funding. Hybrid publishers typically involve authors in funding projects, but the specifics can vary widely from one hybrid publisher to the next, with royalty splits determined by whether the author or the publisher assumes most of the risk.

For example, Warner says that some publishers claim a traditional model but fund their marketing by requiring authors to pay for it. Likewise, she points out that there are publishers who call themselves traditional but pay no advances and offer no full-service distribution.

Warner says distributors have become more willing to embrace diverse models so long as the companies using them generate robust sales. Recently, her two hybrid presses have entered into a distribution arrangement with Simon & Schuster, as have other “million-dollar-plus” hybrids such as Forefront and Collective Book Studios. “Distributors are more than happy to take on thriving businesses,” she says. “They don’t care what the business model is.”

As publishing models continue to evolve, Warner expects the industry will see developments around crowdfunding, serialization, and influencer-driven acquisitions. Because IBPA’s guide is an online resource, she points out that it can be updated in real time to account for such changes, with the publishers used as examples for each model shifting as new players come on the scene.

The Power of Imprints

Not all the divergent models are new. For nearly three decades, Greenleaf Book Group has leveraged the power of imprints to offer both hybrid publishing and distribution services from within the same company. “We started as a distributor and began adding publishing services early on as we saw the demand from authors,” says Greenleaf CEO Tanya Hall. “Today, we are a full-service hybrid publisher and master distributor.”

The company’s distribution focus “brings a strong sales focus to our publishing approach,” Hall says. While Greenleaf acquires some titles solely for distribution, most acquisitions come through various hybrid publishing imprints. “Those authors invest in the production process on the front end, and they retain their intellectual property rights and an aggressive royalty on the back end,” Hall says.

The company organizes two of its imprints around distribution. “Greenleaf Book Group Press is our flagship imprint,” Hall says. “Those titles publish with a distribution strategy utilizing our in-house team and field sales reps to broadly target brick-and-mortar and online accounts.” A digital-first imprint, River Grove Books, relies on online launches and print-on-demand for faster speed to market. Authors with the Fast Company Press and Inc Original imprints get advertising support aimed at targeted audiences.

Citing arrangements like traditional deals with buyback clauses, Hall points out that the lines between publishing models have always been somewhat blurred. But recently, the pace of change has accelerated. “There are so many options now compared to years ago, especially within the hybrid space,” she says. “Some models have authors funding all production and retaining most of the royalties, while others fund part of production and require a buyback and/or a lower royalty.”

Going forward, Hall expects the innovations in publishing models to only increase. As one example, she points to Bindery, which leverages the release of influencers to reach communities of readers. She also sees room for growth within subscription models. “It’s my hope that the success of new models like these will help to move the publishing industry past its outdated judgment of books and publishers based on the business models behind them,” Hall says. “As authors become more aware of their publishing options, they will increasingly look for models progressive enough to accommodate their specific needs.”

For publishers who want to explore new ways of doing business, Hall advises starting small and expanding as they find a good fit. “Don’t be too married to your initial
concept of whatever the new model is,” she says. “As with any business venture, you’ll likely need to iterate and refine it as you go through the process of testing.”

Two Tracks

While publishers tend to think of hybrid and traditional as either/or choices in publishing, that’s not always the case. Koehler Books publisher John Koehler has found success by offering both options in his two-track model.

Koehler started out publishing his own books. Friends approached him asking for help with publishing their memoirs, and that led him into the hybrid space. At the time, he says he knew little about how traditional publishing worked.

“In my mind, where money is our friend, to do a feebased model for publishing just made good sense,” he says. But then he started hearing from “literati” that he shouldn’t be charging authors to bring their books to market, so he ventured into traditional arrangements while continuing to offer hybrid deals.

Today, one out of every 10 books Koehler publishes is through a traditional deal, with funding solely by the company. As submissions come in, some agented and some not, his acquisitions editors rate them on a 1-5 scale based on quality and sales potential. His interviews with authors of the highest scoring projects help him decide whether to offer a hybrid arrangement or a traditional publishing deal with a modest advance on royalties.

Theoretically, traditional deals have the potential to drive more sales, but Koehler points out that this isn’t always the case. Rather, he points to the less tangible reasons to maintain a traditional track within his publishing model. “It legitimizes the company to be working with agents and high-level authors,” he says. “It honors the history of publishing. It honors the best of the best, those authors and agents who have achieved liftoff and are the elite.”

Koehler’s two-track system includes what he terms a hybrid incentive program in which hybrid authors who reach a certain sales threshold—2,000 copies in the standard arrangement—are guaranteed a traditional publishing offer on their next acceptable work. “This makes it possible for our hybrid authors to reach the big leagues,” Koehler says. “They run hard after this goal, even though I tell them that selling 2,000 books is not easy for a debut.”

Koehler used a full-service distributor for a time, but he found that with returns, his bottom line suffered. Now the company does only print-on-demand through Ingram Spark, where he says they are one of the bigger volume publishers. “The entire planet is going to just-in-time manufacturing,” he says.

Regardless of where and how authors publish, Koehler offers two digital pocket guides at no cost, one focused on publishing and the other on book marketing. The publishing guide alone has had over 200,000 downloads, he says, and Ingram offers it as a resource on its website. “We truly want to educate new authors,” he says. “Many are called, but few are chosen. But they can learn, and we help by giving them free copies of our pocket guides.”

Koehler encourages fellow publishers to explore innovative models. “I would not advise any new publisher to only do traditional deals,” he says.

Pay to Play

With an eye toward prioritizing author goals, publisher JuLee Brand offers a different two-track model in which authors can choose to publish themselves or publish with the W. Brand Company. “Helping authors self-publish has always been an offering of our company,” she says. “The majority of our author-published books are by authors who have worked on branding themselves and want to maintain complete control over that.”

At first, Brand’s two-track model had both self-publishing and traditional publishing options. But in 2020, she replaced the traditional route with a hybrid model, so both tracks now include some element of author funding. With the increased costs of shipping and printing, Brand is finding full-service distributors less willing to work with smaller presses like hers, regardless of the publishing model. As POD costs also rise, her company is stepping up its emphasis on special event and consignment sales. “We are always looking for the best and most creative way to sell,” she says. “We will be starting a direct order channel to reach more readers and garner a higher royalty payment to our authors.”

Though her company’s two-track model allows Brand to serve and partner with authors, she acknowledges that there is still a stigma attached to paid publishing models. “While we pride ourselves in keeping high quality standards and adhering to the IBPA Hybrid Criteria, public opinion of publishing models other than traditional is hard to sway,” she says. “All we can do is make sure our books look and read as good as traditionally published books and make sure we are transparent and honest with our authors on all aspects of our business.”

Going forward, Brand expects continued growth in the paid publishing sector. “I see service providers and author-published books continuing to increase more than hybrid or traditional publishers in the next five years,” she says.

For publishers looking to explore new models, Brand advises talking with others who have implemented similar changes. “Find out what works and what pain points they have,” she says. “Most publishers will be brutally honest. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes—but learn from them.”

Direct to Readers

Whether through crowdsourcing or by tapping their own resources, funding their own books is fundamental to the author-publisher space. For distribution, author-publishers have typically relied on online retailers. But that model, too, is changing as more author-publishers embrace direct sales.

In their recent pivot away from an exclusive arrangement with Amazon, author-publisher Lori Holmes and her husband, Facebook ads and book marketing coach Matthew J. Holmes, are part of this trend. “We have seen so many horror stories of authors having their Amazon KDP accounts terminated without warning and losing their main income stream overnight, with little to no chance of appealing the decision,” Matthew Holmes says. “It really got us thinking about ways to diversify Lori’s income from her books.”

The move to direct sales hasn’t been without obstacles. “The biggest challenge—and mindset shift, really—that we’ve encountered is coming to terms with the fact that you, as the author, are responsible for every single sale,” he says. “We have no algorithm to make sales for us. The sales we generate on Lori’s store come as a direct result of the ads we are running and the email systems and flows we have built.”

Leaving the Kindle Unlimited ecosystem in 2023, the couple initially faced a big drop in royalties. “But we are gradually building [royalties] back up with direct sales,” Matthew Holmes says. “Within the next three to six months, we should replace the Amazon income.” Managing the business end of Lori’s enterprise, Matthew Holmes says that one of the biggest benefits of direct sales is the ability to communicate directly with the people who buy her books. “Readers love to hear from the authors of the books they read,” he says. “Direct sales allow us to connect on a much deeper level than we can when selling books on retailers such as Amazon.”

Matthew Holmes also points to the pressure some author-publishers feel to keep churning out books to “feed” the retailer algorithms. “With direct sales, you’re not at the mercy of any algorithm,” he says. “We are in far more direct control of our day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year results with direct sales and have huge potential to grow and design the business in any direction we choose. It is incredibly freeing.”

While direct delivery of digital products is instantaneous through services like BookFunnel, Matthew Holmes acknowledges that author stores on platforms like Shopify can’t compete with the price or speed of delivery Amazon offers on print books. “There is certainly some education we all need to be doing to help readers build trust and confidence to buy directly from authors, as opposed to, or in conjunction with, retailers,” he says. “But many readers love to support their authors directly and are happy to pay a little more or wait a few more days to receive their book.”

For author-publishers looking to shift their model toward direct sales, he points out that it’s not an either/or proposition—books can be available both at the author’s online store and also at all major online retailers. He also cautions against the perfection trap. “You don’t have to have the perfect store, the perfect email flows, the perfect ads from day one,” he says. “Imperfect action is better than no action.”

With input from over 160 author-publishers, Matthew Holmes is designing a direct sales online course that will go public this spring. “I strongly believe that direct sales is going to become more and more prevalent as time goes on,” he says. “It’s an incredible opportunity for authors, and a potentially welcome alternative for readers looking to support their favorite authors.”

No More Either/Or

In a multitude of ways, either/or thinking no longer represents the independent publishing industry. As new ways for publishing companies to partner with authors and contractors emerge, questions of who funds a publishing project and who distributes the finished products no longer clearly distinguish one publishing model from the next.

The waters may seem murky. But as new models become a legitimate part of the publishing space, opportunities abound. More than ever before, publishers can pursue their own paths toward success.

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