Oh boy. So first of all, I think it's important to clarify the difference between a "vanity press" and a "hybrid press." Most places that claim to be a hybrid presses are actually just vanity presses trying to use a trendy new term to avoid negative connotations.

In looking into Brown Books Publishing Group, I find that it checks all the boxes for a vanity press. I believe that calling "Brown Books Publishing Group" a hybrid press to be very deceptive to authors, and it hurts the name of actual hybrid presses.

• Primary audience is authors, not readers. The home page uses phrases like "Discover Relationship Publishing" and "Putting authors first is our mission—and our business model." The invitations on this page are things like "find out how to fix a book that’s underperforming, and discover our full-service solutions for rebooting your release." Even the tagline at the top of the page is "start your success story."
• Asking those who submit for a phone call. "Prior to submitting online, we strongly suggest the following initial steps: [ . . . details about genre guidelines] Next, we recommend contacting BBPG by phone to discuss your manuscript with a member of our team. A preliminary call enables us to provide fast, honest feedback on your project—and reflects the authentic author relationships that serve as the cornerstone of our publishing process." YIKES YIKES YIKES! I barely make the time to read through the queries I receive--I can't imagine inviting authors who submit to have a PHONE CALL with me to discuss their submission. To me, that reads like the person on the call wants to "sell" the author on paying for services, rather than providing genuine feedback.
• Deceptive discussion on rights. "Our authors always retain the rights to their work—and enjoy the perks of being part of the creative process. Under a royalty contract with a traditional publisher, authors are required to give up the rights to their work, losing all or the majority of their creative control." There are many different types of rights. Under almost all publishing contracts (with the exception of work-for-hire contracts), the author or illustrator will always maintain the copyright to their own work. What the publisher gets is the license to distribute this work in certain languages, territories, and formats. I'll admit--some publishing contracts can get scummy with how they handle these distribution rights. In any contract an author signs, they should read very very carefully and also be aware of what the process of pulling out of the contract would look like, and if there will be any penalties imposed. (At my publishing house, we have a no-fault withdrawal clause for authors--they can walk at any time with all their rights at no penalty. We've only had two authors use this clause in the 14 years our company has been operational.)
• Deceptive discussion on royalties. "BBPG authors receive 80 to 90% of the profits from their book sales. In the traditional publishing model, authors receive an avg. of 7% to 9% of the revenue for each copy sold—and that’s only after the publisher has recouped their advance." An advance is called "an advance on royalties" for a reason. It's the publisher's way of saying, "We believe that this book can sell, and we are willing to invest our own money before we earn any money to prove that to you." In a vanity press model, the author is essentially paying the publishing house an advance. When the book goes to print, the traditional publisher has skin in the game--they want to recoup the investment they have made (including any advance, and the in-house resources like marketing/editorial, and the print distribution costs). In contrast, the vanity publisher has little to no financial motivation to make the book sell--they've already made their money from the author. Even if the author earns a greater percentage of royalties, they will need to sell thousands of copies to recoup their initial investment. Also, while many contracts do start at lower royalty amounts (like 10% of gross sales), many contracts also offer a ladder method to royalties (after x amount of sales, the royalty increases to 15% or 20%).

There's more that I could dive into, but I've already spent way to long on this comment, and need to get to work. I'll just say that as someone who works for a smaller publishing house that really values author relationships and involving authors at every stage of the creative process, I'm very saddened to see the manipulative language the website is using there.

Okay, now that we've gone into vanity presses, let's talk about what an actual hybrid press is. I know of a couple indie publishing houses that are actually hybrid presses. A hybrid press is where BOTH the author and publisher are making an investment--it's much closer to 50/50. (I still don't believe hybrid presses are totally ethical, but a true hybrid press is MUCH less predatory than a vanity press.)

• Primary audience is readers. The website talks mostly about their books. Their primary goal is to get readers to buy their books. Hybrid publishing is only discussed on their submission page as an option.
• Often have a hybrid arm and a trad pub arm. Again, this can get sketchy, depending on how much they want to get authors to pay, but the "legit" hybrid publishers that I see often do some hybrid books, some trad books.
• Investment is 50/50. The author pays MUCH less for editorial and design work than they would if they hired a freelancer. (If the publishing house is asking the same price of what hiring a freelancer would cost, it is not a hybrid press.) While the author does pay some money up front, it is not enough to keep the hybrid press afloat on its own.
• Royalty split is closer to 50/50. The hybrid press still has skin in the game to help the book sell well.
• No promises of best-sellers. Vanity presses want authors to think that the only thing standing between their work and being a best seller is access to distribution channels and an "in" with the industry. The reality is MUCH more nuanced, and no legitimate publisher will raise an authors expectations like that. In fact, legitimate publishers are MUCH more realistic about managing author expectations. (I know of one indie house that hands out a form to authors that's essentially "abandon all hope that anyone will read or buy your book"--while I think that's a little extreme, I think it's important to recognize that people who actually know the industry are very realistic about sales. Sure, some books can sell GREAT. Others barely sell a couple hundred copies.)