Synthetic Prophetic operates on a hybrid model of self-publishing, as defined by the United States’ Library of Congress, which, interestingly, issued an internal document establishing and explaining its protocols for self-published works when it comes to its library collection. This document happens to have the most lucid and concise descriptions I’ve ever seen about the self-publishing world. (Descriptions of the self-publishing world in Mark McGurl’s The Novel in the Age of Amazon [Verso Books, 2022] are supremely lucid, yet are anything but concise.)

From “LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COLLECTIONS POLICY STATEMENTS SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDELINES: Independently Published and Self-Published Textual Materials”:

Although both the terminology and the publishing industry are in flux, self-publishing as a term and a process still has an associated stigma. However, as more and more people, especially younger digital natives, participate in the process as readers or authors, the stigma declines.

I count myself, the founder of SP, part of this group of people who are participating more and more in self-publishing. I’ve been working as an editor in the cottage industry around self-publishing on and off since 2012, when I edited books for the predecessor to Amazon’s notorious Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace.com. And since 2018, I’ve been participating as an editor, taking authors into self-pub platforms.

I continue to teach Fiction Level 1 with the esteemed Gotham Writers Workshop of New York City, and when I do, and we reach week 10, on the topic of “The Business,” I no longer say the same thing about self-publishing that I did in 2013, when I began with Gotham. I credit the pandemic/Trump presidency (a.k.a. The Trump-demic) and its associated cultural shifts for the broader welcoming of gatekeeper removal; and of course internet technologies must be credited too for cutting out middlemen. Yes, there are new middlemen, and I am one of them, but I am much less beholden to the interests of any corporation. The models within the publishing space allow me, and SP, to put our priorities wherever we like, and we like above all literary art.

The LOC’s doc goes on to say:

“The lines between traditional publishing and self-publishing have been blurred in recent years…Self-publishing is an important outlet for the stories of ordinary people and reflects the voices of these multiple cultures, struggles, and experiences. Self-published books can be excellent primary source material. Self-publishing is also a significant mode used by independent authors and scholars, organizations, clubs, societies, and other groups. Self-publishing provides a valuable and often irreplaceable window into political, social, and economic movements and into popular culture.”

We agree. That’s why we’re here, doing what we’re doing. Now about that model.

The Hybrid Model

Is it overkill to excerpt all five definitions of self-publishing models from the LOC’s document? Maybe, but it’s so helpful, and I want total transparency for SP author, readers, and potential authors. So below are the definitions of all self-publishing entities that we’ve had in the U.S. marketplace across all time, presented in the reverse order as the LOC presents them, thus making them in order from least-like-us to most-like-us. (Numbers added by SP. Source, again, is the doc named above.)

  1. Vanity publishing: A publishing model where a publishing house charges a fee to publish an author’s work. Vanity imprints frequently offer publishing packages which may include a variety of editorial and production services of varying quality. Unlike true self-publishing, the author does not own the complete print run of the finished titles.
  2. Self-Publishing: The publishing of a book, serial, or other media without the assistance of an established publisher and at the author’s expense. The author is responsible not only for writing the work, but for all logistical aspects of production, including layout, design, printing, marketing, distribution, and ISBN acquisition, as well as all deposit requirements associated with LCCN assignment and copyright registration. All rights to copyright are held by the author.
  3. Print on Demand: A variant publishing format frequently based upon the “author pays” publishing model. Print on Demand (POD) usually involves printing only those copies that are ordered for purchase; therefore, unlike traditional or other self-publishing models, no physical copies exist in a warehouse.
  4. Indie publishing: A variant publishing model that stresses independence from large publishing houses and focuses on the inclusion of newcomers. Indie publishers frequently utilize publishing aspects of the hybrid publishing model such as the author/publisher cooperative relationship and profit sharing.
  5. Hybrid publishing: A variant publishing model that stresses a cooperative publishing and business relationship between author and publisher. Hybrid publishers frequently offer limited editorial services and often require authors to handle promotion, distribution, and other logistical aspects related to publication in exchange for a profit sharing agreement.

We are definitely not #1 or #2. We technically are #3, because we use a POD (print-on-demand) system. And aesthetically, we align most with #4, but we like the sound of the word Hybrid best, because “indie” smacks of the ‘90s (think bands, record labels, and zines), and here we are several decades beyond the ’90s. But where we don’t match #5 is in on “limited editorial services.” In fact, our founder has had a long career as an editor, and it’s what he does best.

So to be clear, our authors have contributed to the cost of editorial consulting (support, guidance, feedback, advice) that helped grow the books; and they’ve contributed to the costs of editing the books; and to production, layout, and design, of the insides and outs. But that’s where their costs end. At the moment, publicity costs are shared, in that website hosting, the POD service, newsletters, and other marketing basics are done by the publisher.

The other big difference and the thing that puts us squarely in #4 is that authors have received no advance on royalties or purchase fee for their manuscripts; and in turn, SP doesn’t own the creative works—the author does. One hundred percent of profits go, on a per-title, basis, right from the back end of the POD service to the author’s PayPal account or mailbox via paper check.