Indie authors gained publishing insights at May 9 meeting

National Press Club members who publish their books independently learned about the fine points of “hybrid” publishing at their May 9 gathering.

Mascot Books CEO Naren Aryal joined the conversation to explain the concept. Hybrid is an outgrowth of the much-maligned “vanity” publishing. In both cases, authors pay the publisher to produce and market their books. The hybrid model attempts to straddle the gap between vanity publishing and “traditional” publishing, in which the publisher assumes all production expenses and some of the marketing costs.

Aryal explained that hybrid publishers typically vet submissions, then assist authors through the publication and marketing processes. Those steps, however, come with a sometimes significant cost to the author. He noted that Mascot Books and other hybrids abide by the Hybrid Publisher Criteria issued by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

The hybrid and vanity approaches differ from "independent" authorship (sometimes called self-publishing), in which authors essentially operate as a business to publish, distribute, and promote their books.

The informal group of Club members welcomed two new authors at its May meeting and encourages fellow indie authors to join them. Contact Ed Barks at [email protected] if a) you've already published a book independently or b) you have firm plans to write a book and a serious interest in learning about the indie authorship/publishing route.

At its next meeting on June 13, the group will hear from special guest speaker Robin Cutler, director of IngramSpark, a leading book distributor.