If you’ve been following our Sutherland House Experts Instagram account, you may have seen our post touching on different publishing models.
Different Publishing Models in 2024
[Caveat: This article is simplified. Every publishing type has lots of subcategories. Please contact us by email if you have a question about the details of any type.]
As a first-time or experienced non-fiction author writing for an international general audience, choosing the right publishing path can be overwhelming today. There are myriad options: these include traditional publishing, self-publishing, and hybrid publishing. At Sutherland House Experts, we call our type of hybrid publishing “cooperative publishing.”
There are also publishing models that have elements of more than one type, or that seem like one but then, upon contract signing, look entirely like another. If you see a book contract so confusing that it doesn’t make much common sense, that’s a red flag.
This is a big reason why reputation matters in this business: the reputation of the founders and the team in business in Canada and internationally, among their own (and other) authors and readers, in the media, and in the world of ideas.
So, with all the publishing methods out there, and given all the publishing houses available to work with, why should you apply to be an author with Sutherland House Experts?
How Sutherland House Experts is different
We’ve crafted a unique co-publishing model that combines what we feel to be the best aspects of traditional, self, and hybrid publishing. We specialize in books of inspiration that challenge conventional wisdom and offer fresh perspectives on important issues. Our books seek to awaken a national or international conversation on a topic that matters to a broad audience, not just to the tiny group of people who write reviews on Goodreads. Or just to book reviewers at legacy media outlets that still do book reviews.
We are highly selective in choosing authors
At Sutherland House Experts, we carefully choose authors with genuine, established expertise in their fields. We have a “no jerks” policy. No brilliant schmucks, either. Good people write good books. Our authors are demonstrable experts with decades of experience, often big thinkers in the world of business and active in the world of ideas. They’re respected voices in the public square, seeking to translate their expertise in a book for a broad, international audience.
Our authors have voices that need to be heard
We seek out authors with unique perspectives – often unheard or quiet voices with important policy prescriptions, or with untold, engaging stories. Their books tend to be provocative. They prosecute narratives born of lived experience and applied expertise.
Our authors enjoy the collaborative process and like to work hard
One year into this, we learned that we should only take a fee upon a draft manuscript’s acceptance, that is, after we’ve provided substantial assistance in refining the book’s outline, vision, early partial drafts, structure, and goals. Watch out for predatory publishing models that demand immediate, full upfront payment without you having provided any details about your book. We insist on excellence from our authors. If you’re looking for a passive publisher or a publisher who professes to be able to “turn you into an expert” or focuses too much on “building your brand equity,” we’re not the right choice for you.
We offer comprehensive services – including marketing that matters
We offer structural editing, multiple line editing reviews, copy editing, typesetting, author coaching, author coffee hours (to share writing tips and to learn from experts in the industry), proofreading, fact-checking, reference-checking, design, cover art, worldwide distribution — and marketing that matters to the people you’re trying to reach.
Our marketing is a big deal. And we know how the world of marketing is changing fast. We get our authors on top 100 podcasts across North America.
We aspire to reach the world. That’s because our authors are demonstrable experts. Getting a book out there doesn’t often benefit from a write-up in a newspaper’s book review section by a writer with an axe to grind on a political issue of the day. As Mean Girls put it, that marketing model is “so fetch.” It just doesn’t fit that many authors. There are ‘must-read’ lists on blogs that will get an author far more sales yield than a review in The New Yorker. It’s 2024, not 1975.
We offer a much higher profit share, but not 100%
Our authors receive a significantly higher profit share compared to other publishing models. That profit share can rise if we outperform expectations on sales and other pre-defined hurdles of success that we define together.
If you are going the traditional publishing route that offers select authors in non-fiction a small advance with a tiny royalty on the back end, ask the publisher how often the advance earns out such that their authors receive any royalty at all. How many books does the median author sell, when sales are not skewed by the small percentage of authors in whom they invest hefty marketing? (If they’re honest about this, that’s a good sign).
Ours is a collaborative journey. We have a financial interest in making revenue off sales of your book (see “shared investment”). If your hybrid publisher is offering you 100% on royalties, do they really care about your book’s sales? We do. Our model is especially powerful commercially for the right kind of author—an author respected in a field. And that respect, we’ve learned, isn’t reflected in how many followers you have on any social media platform. Nowadays you can buy followers or write partisan, angry Op-eds to win them over. Your quiet reputation is what matters to readers.
At Sutherland House Experts, reputation isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.
We offer our expert authors a shared investment and shared rewards
Both publisher and authors have ‘skin in the game’ with us. Authors benefit financially if pre-orders and marketing hit certain agreed-upon milestones, creating a true partnership for success. To have no skin in the game means you’re not an entrepreneur. Watch out for publishers who are not financially motivated to perform well for each and every author.
At Sutherland House Experts, we love entrepreneurs. And any author is a quintessential entrepreneur. Authors put themselves “out there,” need to pass market tests of success, and seek to build stories of lasting value. An author isn’t in it for fast money. And neither is a decent publisher. Beware of a publisher who hustles you into signing a contract too fast.
We leverage the expertise of Sutherland House Books
We benefit from the expertise of our traditional companion press, Sutherland House Books (an independent legal entity). Editing, narrative flow, market positioning, and design are therefore executed to the highest of the non-fiction book industry’s standards. We demand excellence from our authors, and from ourselves.
Sutherland House Experts’ authors have a partner who cares (a lot)
The works of Sutherland House Experts’ authors are designed to inform, provoke thought, and even to inspire social or policy change across a wide, international readership. Our co-publishing model is for entrepreneurial experts who want to share in both the risks and rewards of publishing.
We’re not just a coach or a consultant or a brand – we’re a partner in amplifying an author’s expertise and story for the world. The most important factor to success in publishing any non-fiction book for the world is to have a publisher who believes in you fanatically, in your goals, and who is with you at every turn.
If you’re a ‘quiet expert’ with a story that needs to be told, we want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or fill out our Author Form. We’re excited to learn about you and your work. And we get back to all applicants! Watch out for book publishers who don’t return your calls or emails. This is 2024. Not 1975.