Why I Used a Hybrid Publisher

Why I Used a Hybrid Publisher My story, Get Tough or Die: Why I Forgave My Parents for My Abusive Childhood, is a sad one, but it is also very inspirational. Because I’m a professional writer, I believe I could have eventually gotten a contract with a professional publisher, but that takes time–probably at least a year or two, especially when the author is not yet well-known. At age 72, I did not feel I had a lot of time and I wanted to see my book in print before I died, so I got my book published by a hybrid publisher–which is a step up from self-publishing. Most hybrid publishers will share 50’/50 in the cost of printing, but they also share 50/50 in book profits. It is a little more difficult to get a book published by a hybrid publisher than just self-publishing because the hybrid publisher will not accept any old manuscript. The manuscript must be strong enough to become a successful book or the hybrid publisher will not accept it because they have a reputation to protect and they want to make money, too. I was lucky because I met my publisher, Jennifer Reich Bright, when I was a newspaper editor and she was an Army officer. She wrote stories for our Army newspaper, the Northwest Guardian, so I already knew she was an excellent writer, editor and had a superb work ethic. When she got out of t he Army, she went to Pennsylvania and worked for a book publishing company for five years before she partnered with a woman doctor to start her own publishing company–Momosa Publishing. She began by writing and editing her own serious of books called Mommy MD Guides aimed at helping military mothers who no longer lived near their mothers while their husbands are deployed. I kept in touch with Jennifer over the years through Facebook and Christmas cards. Later, she started to publish other books as well, and she specialized in memoirs (which my book is) and books with a strong Christian theme (which my book is, also). I kept notes in a file for 50 years to write this book. I also interviewed most of my 11 siblings and 7 of them contributed to my book. I started working on it after I retired, on and off, for 10 years. However, I kept putting my book down because it was so painful to revisit my past child abuse, which I knew I had to do to write it with enough passion to grab my readers. So it was a difficult book to write, but it was a book that needed to be written. When I mentioned to the founder of DealDash.com online shopping site, that I was working on my book, he asked me to send him a few sample chapters. I did, and then he offered to “invest” in my book. That really motivated me to get serious about actually getting my book done, because it meant I would have the money I needed to get it printed. Once I got serious, it only took two months for me to finish writing my book. For the first time in my entire adult life, I did not send out Christmas cards in 2018 because I was too busy working on my book to meet my self-imposed deadlines. I was determined to finish writing my manuscript and send it off to my publisher by the end of the year. Little did I know how much more work I would still have to do before my book was actually in print. Also, I now know that marketing a book takes far more time and effort than writing it. Without marketing a book, it is “dead in the water.” If someone wrote the best book in the world, it would not inspire or help anyone unless people know about it, see it and read it. A great book does not walk around introducing itself to other people. The author and publisher have to do that. Word-of-mouth from fans who read the book helps a lot, too. I had about eight volunteer editors before I even sent my manuscript to my publisher, and Jennifer said my manuscript was one of the cleanest manuscripts she had ever received. Then my publisher and her people also edited my book. Each page was probably edited about 30 times before it was published. I’m glad I went with a hybrid publisher because I was able to maintain control over my story, but at the same time Jennifer made some really great suggestions to improve it. As the saying goes, “Two heads are better than one.” My publisher and I did not always agree, but after we discussed our different opinions and made some compromises, I think I ended up with a much better book. For example, at first I did not want to include photos with every chapter because that meant I would have to learn all about copyright laws regarding the photos I used and/or get an attorney, which I wanted to avoid. However, Jennifer’s idea to use photos with every chapter turned out to be a good one because photos help to sell more books. My publisher is also the one who got my book on Amazon and she created lots of publicity flyers that are great marketing tools. By having a hybrid publisher who took care of so many of the marketing tasks for me, I think it was well worth giving up half of the profits. Of course, I work hard on marketing my book, too. We both do.