An author who decides to self-publish basically becomes the publisher. You provide the funds required to publish the book, as well as the camera-ready artwork. You are responsible for marketing and distributing the book, filling orders, and running advertising campaigns. In the past, the author had to decide on the number of copies to print, sometimes resulting in unsold books. The Print on Demand (POD) technology now used by some self-publishing companies means that authors can have fewer copies printed—only as many as they need.

With self-publishing, depending on the company used, you can have a finished book - hardcover or paperback or both – within a couple of weeks after the manuscript is completed. And, with an e-book, this can be reduced to days. Of course, you are responsible for managing these services, and making sure the books have the desired look and feel, and are up to your desired quality level.

The self-publishing author pays for everything - design, layout, printing, advertising, distribution - to get the book into retailers and ultimately into people's hands. The major payoff for all of that payout is control. You own the content, the title, the price, and all decisions about promotion and distribution. You also receive the revenues from the book sales, after the retailer takes their cut.

is Harper-Collins, Wyllie, Random House and the other conventional publishing houses. With traditional publishing you get credibility, possibly an advance, some marketing, and a number of editing cycles. Traditional publishers decide if they will represent you (not easy to get for an unknown, first-time author); they may also decide the title for the book, they set the price, and take nine months or more to publish, or they decide to shelve the manuscript. The advance payment to the author means they essentially own the book.

In traditional publishing, the author completes part or all of the manuscript, writes a query letter or a full book proposal, and submits this to a publishing house (or has a literary agent do this for them, if one can be acquired). An editor reads it, considers whether it is right for the house, and decides either to reject it or to publish it. If the publishing house decides to publish the book, the house buys the rights from the author and pays an advance on future royalties. The house puts up the money to design and package the book, prints as many copies of the book as it thinks will sell, markets the book, and finally distributes the finished book to the public. If it sells well, the author may see a share of additional royalties.

as offered by SVP is a very different proposition. With hybrid publishing, books can be turned out much quicker than traditional publishing, usually three to four months after the manuscript is complete.

With hybrid publishing, you maintain control over title, the content and pricing. The hybrid option provides all of the needed infrastructural services of layout, formatting, final edit, cover design, printing, and distribution to all of the online and some brick-and-mortar retailers.