Hybrid author is one of those publishing terms you hear a lot these days. 
We wanted to define what it means so that writers can understand the conversation that’s happening around them.
The term usually refers to an author who has published with a traditional trade publisher such as one of the Big 5 (Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan) and then decides to self-publish (either through a service like Book Country or by forming an independent team).
We’ve also heard “hybrid author” applied to writers who self-published first and then sold to a major publisher.
We’ve seen authors who first published with a smaller press and then self-published (and the reverse) also use the term.
And, we’ve seen the term applied to authors who are doing both simultaneously. It’s common for a hybrid author to have a book for sale through a traditional publisher and self-publish a second title. We’ve even seen hybrid authors who have a traditional publishing agreement for one title and self-publish novellas or short stories using the same characters. (This is often done for promotional purposes.)
One final example of a hybrid author is an author who has self-published an eBook first. She then sells the print rights for that book to a traditional publisher while retaining the electronic rights.
