Therapy in Writing and Liberation in Hybrid Publishing
Somewhere along the way I absorbed the notion that writing for healing couldn’t be literary or publishable. I didn’t start writing my book with a goal of publishing. Like therapy is for some, I found writing my memoir to be as brutal as it was curative. Finding my way to simply finishing was enough. Or so I thought.
(Why I Decided to Write a Memoir.)
After years of writing, classes, and getting recognition for my work, I was asked: “Will you publish it?” I wasn’t sure. Could I share the deeply personal stories I wrote as I made sense of my family life? My mother’s struggle with schizophrenia, our struggle with her anosognosia, the profound impact of WWII on my father as a child, my reckless youth? The stakes felt impossibly high.
As I battled through the millionth revision, I realized I had long ago stopped writing for myself. I had started writing for that one reader—someone like me—who might find solace in my truth. Reading great memoir authors like Mira Bartok and Minneapolis-based Laura Flynn opened secret passages to truths about my own life. Their courage and vulnerability inspired me to embrace my own. Literary writing can be cathartic. It’s not just about the writer finding healing; it’s about readers connecting and being transformed, too.
While I had achieved my goal of finishing my memoir, the unpublished nature of my manuscript was unfinished business, a monkey on my back, a syncopation in the flow of my daily life. I had embraced the alchemy of memoir writing and the magic that can take place between an author and a reader. Publishing this project, that had begun as a journey of personal healing, became imperative for my mental health.
Once it felt essential to put my work out into the world, I was astonished to learn how effed up the traditional publishing industry is.
A Minnesota-based literary agent recently said on Minnesota Public Radio that she receives between 7,000 and 10,000 queries yearly. A query is a writer’s letter to agents hoping to gain their representation. Agents are very important to the process, as traditional book publishers will only accept agent submissions.
The agent on MPR mentioned, to emphasize the lightning-strike scenario nature of signing with an agent, that she represented two of those thousands of queries last year. Let’s say in another year, she decides to represent four out of 7,000. If we extrapolate these chances for a writer who submits to 100 agents with similar numbers, the chances of that writer signing with an agent is 5.5%. An endeavor that could take a year and a half or more. Keep in mind that your agent may then never sell your book to a publisher. Publishers have specific things they think readers will buy. I have seen webinars teaching writers how to write books publishers will buy at that trendy moment.
Financially, traditional publishers ask nothing of you. They may give you an advance, but otherwise, you won’t see any money until they make theirs back, and then they take 85-90% of your book sales. Your agent will then take 20% of your 10-15%. You may get $2 on a $20 book sale someday down the road.
I had thought traditional publishing was the only real route to go. It is an excellent route for unicorns and known authors with large readerships or millions of followers. Still, I could never see how it made sense for me. In addition to the lottery aspect of the process, traditional publishers are doing very little by way of marketing, spending 2% of their revenue in this area. They give up on your book entirely if sales don’t come in immediately.
Most readers don’t care how books are published. Why would I, having spent years writing and revising a book, bang my head for more years if there were alternatives to explore?
I was surprised to find some very compelling options for getting my book into the world besides pure self-publishing. There are reputable, selective independent hybrid publishers that turn the business model upside down and put out compelling and beautifully written books (no noticeable quality difference from traditional). With hybrid publishing the author pays for the project management, edits, proofreads, art/design, and distribution; however, the author then takes home much, if not all, of the book’s profits without waiting for a publisher to make their investment back. Since there is no agent, in many cases, all proceeds go to the author compared to 10% or less from a traditional publisher.
I started to think of my manuscript like an entrepreneur considering their innovative new product. Many inventors may, instead of or in addition to loans or savings, accept help from early-stage investors with the money and expertise to get their product off the ground. The investors take on the financial risk and likely end up owning much of the product and profits.
In an author’s world, the traditional publisher is the money and expertise. Is this publisher/investor necessary? Maybe, for some. Or, a writer can dig into their savings, crowdsource funds, take pre-order sales from supporters, or apply for literary grants. The writer can then self-publish or submit to select hybrid publishers. Decisions about art, title, design, edits, and distribution are then guided by experts and decided by authors. Since traditional publishing only spends 2% of its revenue on marketing, writers don’t miss out on much here. Many hybrids have a wide range of marketing services included in their packages or for additional fees.
No one I know has published a book to get rich. Regardless of how writers publish, most hope to get their story out into the world and break even. Of the 58,000 trade titles published yearly in traditional publishing, 90% sell fewer than 2,000 copies. 90%! (Number from the antitrust trial, DOJ v PRH). No one is making money on those titles, certainly not the author.
After deciding to go independent, I submitted to three different independent publishing models nationwide before choosing one. I decided on a hybrid publisher in the Twin Cities, Wise Ink Media, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision and all the other decisions I was allowed in bringing my book to life. Mostly I’m happy to have not spent years banging my head against the wall of traditional publishing.
You’re Too Young to Understand will be released May 6, 2025. The publishing journey so far has been almost as liberating for me as writing the book and nowhere near as brutal.
