In recent years, I’ve heard anecdotally that hybrid publishing is growing, and certainly it feels that way. Currently the Independent Book Publishers Association has about 400 hybrid publisher members, and a recent episode of the IBPA podcast discussed how to set up a hybrid publisher. The host commented that the topic is popular among IBPA members. Meanwhile, there have been notable business developments among hybrids this year, with investment from private equity firms.
Any time I discuss hybrid publishing, I first have to offer a definition of what it is, a contentious exercise all by itself. If you ask a group of professional self-publishing novelists about hybrid publishing, many will say it’s vanity publishing under another name. They’re not entirely wrong, given that the author pays to publish in both scenarios, but today’s hybrid publishers aren’t the same as the vanity publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. Hybrids don’t publish everything brought to their doorstep—there’s a selection process and editorial involvement—and assuming they meet the IBPA’s criteria for hybrid publishing, hybrids offer industry or specialty distribution of some kind.
But not all hybrids are the same or meet IBPA’s criteria. The term hybrid gets used by a range of companies that do take mostly anyone who can pay and that have little or no industry distribution (or experience, for that matter). Moreover, costs aren’t indicative of who can do the best job for the author; choosing the most expensive option doesn’t necessarily lead to better visibility or sales. Pricing relates mostly to the market sector being targeted.
I talked this month to several people who’ve been in the hybrid publishing space for many years to assess how they see the current environment and the evolution of hybrid publishing. From those conversations, I believe that a large amount of disposable wealth has driven growth in the market, and people with means are choosing hybrids partly because of traditional publishing’s high barriers to entry. These authors typically have limited or no interest in self-publishing.
Some of the most well-known, established hybrids focus on the business sector. The hybrid publishers with strong industry recognition and branding—such as Forefront Books, Amplify, Greenleaf, and Page Two—typically serve mid-career and late-career professionals who can afford to publish for business visibility, legacy, or thought leadership. Jonathan Merkh, founder of Forefront Books, and Naren Aryal, founder of Amplify, both told me their authors use books as a vehicle to grow their businesses or careers, whether that’s through speaking, consulting, or something else. (The Business Book ROI study released last year digs deep into various forms of monetization for business book authors.) If you look at the homepages for Amplify or Forefront, for example, you’ll see a parade of handsome nonfiction titles and business brands.
Both Amplify and Forefront partner with established brands or thought leaders on boutique imprints. For Amplify, partners include RealClear Politics and Sports Journal Publishing; Forefront works with Worth Media and Brand Builders Group, among others. Merkh says, “What happens is a brand like Worth Media serves as a funnel. They have people in their orbit who want to write to that audience. Financial planners, investment people want to reach that top 1 percent of people who read magazines like Worth. And so they attract them in, but then they also leverage their platform to help launch the book. … We’re helping make it happen, then getting the distribution to the retail that they otherwise couldn’t get. So, it’s a win-win-win type of situation. It brings opportunities to us, it helps the author get published, but we provide the distribution.”
Fiction and children’s work prove more challenging for hybrid publishers. Merkh said that on the nonfiction side of things, hybrid brings a better quality of product to the table than self-publishing. But he admitted that fiction and children’s books—or any books meant for entertainment—are more of a challenge, especially if authors seek a return on their investment. “A debut author with no platform, that’s harder to justify. The numbers just don’t seem to add up as much,” he said. That doesn’t mean there aren’t well-regarded hybrids doing such work. She Writes Press is known for publishing novels and memoirs, and Collective Book Studio does children’s books as well as full-color titles, such as cookbooks. So how do hybrids command legitimacy in tougher categories, especially for authors who aren’t household names?
Brooke Warner, founder of She Writes Press, told me they take everything they do seriously, “in some ways even more so than a traditional publisher, because our authors, they hold us so deeply accountable.” She said the highly priced hybrids operate more like service providers, while She Writes or firms like Forefront and Collective Book Studio want to be publishers. “Some of us have been in publishing for 20, 30 years. We came from a publishing ethos and background. … And so [we] come with a publishing mindset and feel that each piece of this process is meaningful and matters, that the work that we’re putting out into the world makes sense for the lists that we have. There’s a curated sensibility. And a lot of these service providers, they do not give a shit. They don’t have a mission. It’s just to make money.”
There is, no doubt, a lot of money to be made in the hybrid space. In 2022, an agent told me that $25,000 was the entry cost for hybrid publishing, and I regularly see quotes from some companies that are double or triple that. Even six figures is not uncommon. Publishing industry vet David Wilk, who serves as an expert and consultant to many types of organizations—and also does work as a hybrid—told me that a lot of the business is driven by baby boomers, who have reached a certain age and were not writers in their careers but wanted to be. “A lot of them are in business. A lot of them are lawyers. A lot of them are whatever, but writing was always important to them. And so I think you see that’s one thread of this, people getting to a certain age and they can afford it.”
He doesn’t think it’s predatory as a rule for hybrids to charge $100,000 or even more, because the people willing to pay can afford it. “They’re selling a service, and they’re pricing it to the market. It’s mostly business books, and it’s mostly business owners,” he said. Adding to that are all the rich people who don’t care about writing but do want to publish their life story before they die. To get an idea of just how big this market is, see this Wall Street Journal article from August 2025 about a new generation of wealthy retirees commissioning their own memoirs.
However, Wilk said there’s a difference between charging high fees to a business or individual who can clearly afford to pay five or six figures and charging the same fees to an individual author with limited means. “If you’re making a book for a corporation, you should be paid what they’re willing to pay. Otherwise, you’re a chump. But for authors or author-facing jobs, Brooke and I are probably in this middle range where we talk to authors, and sometimes they can afford it and sometimes they can’t. And if they can’t, we send them to somebody we think is more affordable.”
Some of the growth in hybrid publishing has come from self-publishing authors and other service providers—such as coaches, editors, designers, and marketers—who put out their shingle to help people publish. Sometimes the companies are more affordable but lack industry distribution or editorial oversight; their services might be more akin to assisted self-publishing. Like Warner, Merkh at Forefront believes one of the differentiators for hybrids is whether they’re founded by people from traditional publishing; he observed gaps while working in the traditional market and now fills those gaps through a hybrid model. He’s bothered by firms that seem to exist only to sell a marketing package. “We value editorial, we value distribution, and we’re not trying to upsell packages to authors,” he said. “[Some hybrids are] just trying to find someone to talk into writing a book so that they can sell ghostwriting packages and then marketing packages on top of that.” He also says some of these hybrids send work overseas. “I don’t farm out to the Philippines or anywhere else. I have legitimate developmental editors who have worked with major publishing companies. … We do it like the traditional publishers do.”
Some traditional publishers use paid publishing efforts as a way to bolster their business. Wiley is well known for publishing authors who agree to buy a set number of copies, subsidizing publication. Brooke Warner once worked at North Atlantic Books, a nonprofit that offers traditional contracts and also subsidy-style contracts. Sutherland House, a newer Canadian publisher, has a paid publishing operation called Sutherland Experts. I could go on, and in fact I will. Years ago, Simon & Schuster started an operation called Archway that offers paid publishing packages; it’s run by the disreputable Author Solutions, well known for sending work overseas and using high-pressure sales tactics on authors. Other Author Solutions–powered efforts include Hay House’s Balboa Press and Thomas Nelson’s WestBow.
It’s difficult to explain the difference between these Author Solutions brands associated with traditional publishers and a hybrid launched by someone who used to work in traditional publishing. While anyone can refer to the IBPA hybrid criteria for help, authors without publishing experience don’t know how to sort through the options and pricing or understand what’s worth paying for. It’s why I’m constantly asked, “Can you recommend a good hybrid?” Never mind that the good hybrids probably cost more than the typical author can afford. Authors who choose a company on the cheap end of the spectrum—or worse, on the predatory end—can end up with low-quality results and little to show for their investment. I regularly hear from authors who feel they made a mistake working with a hybrid (which may not really be a hybrid) and want to self-publish on their own.
Wilk says he thinks the only way authors can protect themselves is by looking at and actually reading other books from the hybrid. Do you think they’re good? And would you feel good in their company? Still, I’m at pains to emphasize: Hybrid models aren’t meant for everyone, especially genre fiction novelists or others who expect to publish many books over their career. The costs are too high for hybrid publishing to be sustainable for the average author.
Regarding collaboration and consolidation among hybrids: I was compelled to start digging into the hybrid sector this year because of business developments I did not anticipate. She Writes Press joined the Stable Book Group, a collective of independent publishers with traditional models. Forefront and traditional publisher Histria Books joined forces under the Unified Publishing Group and took a stake in UK’s Unicorn Publishing, a hybrid publisher. And Amplify and Greenleaf were both acquired by Civica Media, essentially a private equity investment vehicle, with more acquisitions likely ahead.
After talking with company leaders about each of these moves, I believe that they happened for different business reasons and that growth in the hybrid market is not a driving factor. In fact, in my conversation with Wilk, he said he thinks growth has already peaked for hybrid publishing. The reason has to do with demographics: The baby boomers fueling the growth will die off. “I think most younger writers who are digitally astute will not pay for this kind of stuff,” he said. “So if you’re the 35-year-old or 40-year-old writing a novel, your experience is not inclining you to paying a lot of money for publishing. … I really believe that the younger generations will be able to do this themselves. So the future for hybrids may actually look pretty grim.”
Bottom line: Hybrid publishers, especially the kind founded by people from traditional publishing, care deeply about being seen as legitimate. They do not want to be lumped in with paid service providers or others in it only for the money. It’s not hard to understand why. Because the term hybrid is used by operations both good and bad, hybrid leaders like Merkh and Warner are in the awkward position of trying to create a hierarchy among hybrids.
Warner said, “I just want people to follow the rules. [She laughs.] But instead, [some hybrids] do whatever they want. And you’re sitting there, being like, ‘Well, I don’t wanna be associated with these people who are creating inferior products.’ And it drives me crazy, because someone on Facebook recently, the comment was, ‘I respect you, Brooke, but I read hybrid books and they’re not good.’ And she didn’t mean She Writes. She was just talking about hybrid in general. That kind of stuff is just discouraging, obviously, and I do feel like I’ve been in a place in the last five years of feeling discouraged. It’s like too many people are in the pool.”
Wilk said of hybrids, “You have to be able to say, ‘No, I will not just publish junk. I have a reputation also. I don’t want to be dismissed as a vanity publisher.’ … We still have that fear, that if somebody finds out that your books have been paid for by the author, you’ll be dismissed out of hand. You cannot maintain a reputation if that is constantly being questioned.” He continued, “In the end, all publishers make business decisions that are not always based on the literary quality or the pure quality of the book. I don’t believe that quality is so objectively measured that we can say that any publisher—self-publishing, hybrid, or commercial—is truly, 100 percent dedicated to, ‘I’m only gonna publish books I believe in.’ I just don’t buy it.”
How Authors Can Evaluate Hybrid Publishers
- Hybrid doesn’t mean one thing. The label covers an enormous range, from boutique efforts with strong editorial curation to glorified service providers. Authors must assess who’s behind the company, what distribution they have, and what editorial value is being added. Do not rely on the term alone. (Also, by limiting yourself to companies that call themselves “hybrid,” you might exclude good options for your project.)
- Legitimacy is earned through curation and transparency. The best hybrids turn down projects and authors. They have editorial standards, distribution relationships, and publishing practices rooted in experience. Authors should seek evidence of that. Read their books, ask about their editors and designers, and learn how their editorial and production process works. Who will you work with? Do they outsource? And to whom? Read and understand the contract, and determine what you will earn per copy sold before signing.
- Ask how the company defines distribution. True distribution involves sales relationships, not just uploading to Ingram. Authors need to clarify whether the hybrid has active sales reps pitching accounts or if they are merely listing titles through wholesalers.
- Paying more doesn’t guarantee more sales. Pricing doesn’t necessarily reflect the hybrid’s quality or the potential for commercial success. Hybrids cannot promise specific outcomes, just as a traditional publisher cannot make promises about sales.
- Know your motivation for publishing and consider expectations for return on investment. For most hybrid clients, success means business visibility, lead generation, or personal legacy—not royalties. Authors expecting profits from sales alone should rethink whether hybrid is appropriate.
- Evaluate financial fit. Some hybrids serve high-net-worth clients. Authors with limited budgets should recognize that the economics of hybrid publishing may not make sense for them and that “affordable” hybrids are often closer to self-publishing services.
- Private equity and consolidation can bring risk. Consolidation and investment in the hybrid publishing space shows maturation and seriousness but also indicates potential loss of personal attention and squeezing the author for more juice. Authors should pay careful attention to editorial care and transparency and avoid high-pressure sales tactics and expensive upsells that may not fit their project or goals.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
Thank you for the article. I do disagree with Mr. Wilk on one thing. He believes hybrid publishing has peaked and that the younger generation is going to go a different route. We are seeing the opposite. Social media influencers are doing things the unconventional way. We recently had an influencer turn down a 6 figure advance form a big 5 publisher to publish with us. She valued the control, keeping her IP, and the bigger share of the revenues over the prestige of being with a big 5.