Grey House Publishing Becomes Publisher of the Salem Press Product Line

Source: PR Web

AMENIA, N.Y. (PRWEB) January 14, 2013

Grey House Publishing will become the publisher of the print editions of the Salem Press product line under a new exclusive license between EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and Grey House.

Published for over 50 years, Salem Press products deliver award‐winning literary, historical, medical and science reference content to the public library, academic and high school markets. From the long‐standing Magill’s Literary Annual to the forthcoming Computer Technology Innovators, Salem Press reference continues to enrich the collections of all types of libraries.

Salem Press has a long tradition of publishing highly regarded, and well‐reviewed reference content.
New editions of these extraordinary reference resources will continue to be derived from the EBSCO managed editorial program.

“This enlightening, well‐written set, which has no current competitors, is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries… The material offers an entirely new way of looking at things.” –Library Journal (on the Encyclopedia of Mathematics & Society)

“Offers a wider variety of information and is an excellent starting point for those beginning literary research. Highly recommended.” –Library Journal (on Critical Survey of Long Fiction)

“Grey House is proud to now be a part of this outstanding publishing program and looks forward to continuing to provide the library community with these much‐needed, well‐regarded titles,” says Richard Gottlieb, President of Grey House.

Key offerings in the Salem Press product line include:

• Critical Insights Series
• Critical Survey Series
• Defining Documents Series
• Great Lives from History Series
• Magill’s Literary Annual

Grey House will maintain the publishing schedule of these critical reference titles, with new Salem Press titles, under the joint imprint, scheduled to come off press beginning in February 2013.

Effective February 1, 2013, Grey House will fulfill backlist, standing and new orders. All orders and customer service inquiries after February 1, 2013 should be directed to:

Grey House/Salem Press
Two University Plaza
Hackensack, NJ 07601
(800) 221‐1592

Sales will continue to be supported by Salem/Grey House Publishing’s in‐house sales team in Hackensack NJ, all school and library jobbers, as well as its outstanding group of independent sales representatives around the country.

EBSCO Publishing – EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world's premier for‐fee online research service, including full‐text databases, subject indexes, point‐of‐care medical reference, historical digital archives, and e‐books. The company provides more than 375 databases and more than 350,000 e‐books. Through a library of tens of thousands of full‐text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K‐12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full‐text searching of journals and magazines than any other discovery service (http://www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: http://www.ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

Grey House Publishing publishes reference works and information products for both business and library markets, with over twenty authoritative databases of vertical industry information as well as critical reference tools in health, education, statistics and general reference areas. Grey House produces authoritative information resources for the Performing Arts, Sports, Food/Beverage, and Venture Capital industries. Recent additions to its general line of well regarded encyclopedias for high school, public and university libraries include From Suffrage to the Senate: America’s Political Women, Constitutional Amendments: An Encyclopedia, US Land & Natural Resources Policy and The Encyclopedia of Gun Control & Gun Rights.

Its most recent publishing acquisitions include the Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook, previously published by Bowker/Proquest and the Micromedia/Proquest Directory line (featuring the Canadian Almanac) in Canada. It also, under license, publishes Bowker’s Books In Print® product line, The Street and Weiss Ratings product lines and Medical Device Register.

All Grey House publications are available in print and many are also available in e‐book form, and in subscription and downloadable databases.

For further information on any Grey House products, please visit our website at http://www.greyhouse.com.

Guy Kawasaki Talks About “Artisanal” Publishing

Source: Blog World

We always feel lucky when Guy Kawasaki is able to speak at one of our events. This year, Guy sat down with Mark Fidelman at NMX 2013 in Las Vegas to discuss in a keynote entitled “Going Bananas with Guy Kawasaki,” which covered a wide variety of new media topics, including a discussion on publishing in the new media world. Here are some of the highlights from his talk:

“Let the people decide.”

The session began by discussing self publishing, or artisanal publishing as Guy refers to it. After publishing What the Plus himself, he decided to write his newest book, Ape, to discuss the process. Guy used social media for feedback and reviews by sending out the outline, and later his full manuscript draft, for his book to “4 million of my closest friends,” as he referred to his followers. He would never have been able to do so with traditional publishing.

“Traditional publishers would have an aneurism!”

Self-publishing allows you freedom to do things like sending your content to followers before it is published. With self publishing, the writer has complete control over the book from beginning to end, but that also comes with all the responsibility and risk. Remember, Guy has a huge audience, so he’s able to self-publish and try new things while still knowing that he will sell a healthy number of books. If you don’t have this massive following yet, self-publishing might not be as successful for you. However, don’t overlook this as an option, especially due to the freedoms self-publishing affords you.

“Guy’s provided me with such great content all year, the least I can do is buy his $10 book.”

What’s Guy’s personal social media strategy? He compared it to NPR. According to him, they provide “great content 365 days a year,” and once in a while slam you with a phone-a-thon. In Guy’s eyes, they’ve earned the privilege to promote once in a while because of their commitment to quality content throughout the entire year. He applies the same principle to his social media accounts. He provides his followers with quality content so consistently that when he does stop to promote his newest project every now and again, he hopes his followers think, “Guy’s provided me with such great content all year, the least I can do is buy his $10 book.”

Of course, during his keynote, Guy also spoke about a number of other topics as well. Did you know that all of our keynotes have been live-streamed and archived? Head over to NMX University to see our keynotes and additional bonus content live from the show.

About Guy: Guy Kawasaki is the author of APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Impressionists Enhanced E-book by ArtePublishing is Finalist in 2013 Publishing Innovation Awards

Source: PR Web

(PRWEB) January 14, 2013

Innovation is rampant in the world of publishing these days. With e-readers, tablets, smart phones and other devices, a whole world of opportunities in enriching text content with illustrations, audio, video, hyperlinks and other features are available. But how does one find what the best e-books are? The prestigious Publishing Innovation Awards was created to have a panel of distinguished publishing professionals select some of the very best e-books of each year.

The publishing process has been turned upside down. While just a few years ago, the normal process was for a printed book to be converted to an e-book, now tens of thousands of books are e-book originals.
The Publishing Innovation Awards has an award for books that are published first as e-books, the "Best Digital First E-book". One of the two finalists for the 2013 award for this category is Great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings - The Musée d'Orsay published by ArtePublishing.

What makes this Impressionists book so innovative? It can be read like a normal art book. There are over two hundred featured illustrations of paintings in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, which has the world's greatest collection of Impressionist art, along with texts and captions. But that's where the similarity to a traditional art book ends. The illustrations can all be enlarged to see fine details of the paintings. In addition to the texts, there are over three hours of audio commentaries by Dr. Charles F. Stuckey, one of the world's foremost authorities on Impressionist art. There is a built in dictionary to look up words, and if a word or name is not in the dictionary, there are links to Wikipedia and the Internet. But perhaps the greatest innovation of the ebook is the more than 500 specially curated hyperlinks to learn more about the artists, their lives, and their works. Do you like the "Whistler's Mother" painting in the Orsay and want to see Whistler paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the National Gallery of Art, Washington? Click a button and you're there. Want to read the complete letters of Van Gogh? Click a button. A video about Monet's Water Lilies? Click a button. The complete catalogue of Manet's 1867 exhibition across from the Paris World's Fair? Click a button. There is a hardly a limit to the knowledge that can be learned by following the trail that these 500 curated links create.

Since its publication in July, 2012, Great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings has been a strong seller in the iBookstore, having gone as high as number 40 on the best seller list, out of more than 1,500,000 available ebooks!

In honor of its selection as a finalist in the Publishing Innovation Awards, Great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings is being made available for a limited time at the Apple iBookstore for the specially reduced price of only $.99.

Available at the iBookstore. http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781938153020
For more information contact Hugh(dot)Levin(at)Artepublishing(dot)com

How to Become a Better Publishing Technologist (Yes, Even You)

A technologist is someone who can use digital tools. A good technologist is someone who can use digital tools well; and a great technologist is someone who knows how to use the right tools at the right time. No matter what your job is, becoming a better technologist can save you time, increase the quality of your work, and increase your value.

In the same way that learning to properly use a hammer, screwdriver, and wrench doesn’t make you a carpenter or a plumber, it does allow you to quickly assemble furniture, hang a picture frame, and fix a leaky faucet before it becomes an expensive disaster. In an ongoing series of posts here at Publishing Perspectives, I’ll help you put together your publishing technology tool box. I’ll introduce you to a series of simple tools, explain what it is, the basics of using that tool, and then offer advanced techniques, enabling users of all levels to gain value.

What’s more, I’ll strive to help you see their potential applications. Simply knowing that you can get free hosting and have WordPress automatically installed lets you know that you can start a blog with little technical know-how. Knowing that you can link Facebook and Twitter to your blog, or that you can utilize the jQuery framework within iBooks can drastically reduce the time and cost of development for a new feature.

There are three fundamentals that can take you from an inexperienced user to a technologist, from a technologist to a good technologist and from a good technologist to a great technologist.

Read more: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/01/how-to-become-a-better-publishing-technologist-yes-even-you/

Enoch Press Highlights Importance of Self-Publishing Industry in Author Success

Source: PR Web

Baltimore, Maryland (PRWEB) January 14, 2013

The digital age has served as the inspiration for many would-be authors, and while there is certainly no lack of creativity and imagination amongst this group, it is also the reliance on digital mass media which has caused the traditional publishing industry in the United States and around the world to experience a sharp decline. As such, the world of self-publishing, initially a taboo subject with many in the literati community, has received not only a fresh look by many would-be authors, but also increased legitimacy as a platform amongst many in the publishing industry. A recent CBS News article notes that many writers are throwing off the chains associated with traditional publishing rules. It is for this reason that the self-publishing industry is basking in an improved reputation. Zsolt Bicskey, president and publisher-in-chief of Baltimore-based Enoch Press, comments on this positive development.

The article outlines the tale that self-published, and now mainstream, author Richard Paul Evans faced when he originally considered publishing a story written for his daughters 20 years ago, in the days before the Internet. He notes that he was not hiding behind the delusion that he was going to score success as a novelist, comparing the idea of having his work picked up by a traditional publishing house like “becoming the President of the United States, it’s not gonna happen.” Evans decided to print 20 copies of his book, The Christmas Box, simply for personal purposes after receiving countless rejections from large publishing houses. However, it was only after the early form of viral messaging took off, namely, through friends and family passing around dog-eared copies of the printed book, that bookstores took to contacting Evans for copies to put on sale, did Evans believe he might be on the verge of a new career. Evans decided to become his own publisher, something unheard of during the early 1990s. After much toil, The Christmas Box hit the bestseller list and suddenly, publishing offers were pouring in.

Zsolt Bicskey of Enoch Press notes that this trend is really what inspired the launch of the self-publishing industry. “It is authors such as Richard Paul Evans who responsible for transforming the publishing industry as it stands today,” stated Bicskey. “Traditional publishers, in my opinion, have turned away so much talent, but it is the emergence of new digital platforms that have been responsible for breathing new life into what was a dying industry. Author Evans did it without the Internet and today [self-publishers] are able to publish, promote and distribute amazing books and introduce new authors who would have been cut from the fold via traditional means. I am proud to be a part of this industry and am pleased to have the opportunity to give a voice to would-be writers who were simply sitting on manuscripts that the reading public has a right to have access to.”

Enoch Press, as a self-publishing service, assists authors with a large range of printing, promotional and distribution help. The publishing house, most recently known for its partnership with Nicholas Black, author of the non-fiction book Terrorist University, is looking to attract would-be authors to its platform in order to guide these individuals through the increasing murky waters of the self-publishing industry.

“For as fantastic as the self-publishing industry has been in providing more authors a voice and platform for their work, unfortunately and as with any burgeoning industry, there are many self-publishing companies that take advantage of the dreams of writers for their own profit,” commented Bicskey. “While I cannot promise that an author who signs with Enoch Press is going to be the next New York Times bestseller, I can guarantee that they will be provided the utmost in support, guidance and promotion from my team of publishing, promotion, writing and editing professionals. Enoch succeeds as a company only when our authors succeed. So that is our primary focus with each person that we partner with.”

ABOUT:

Enoch Press is a Baltimore, Maryland-based self-publishing company specializing in the editing, formatting, distribution, promotion and printing of non-fiction and fiction works. The company, founded in 2012 by publishing and public relations industry professionals, implements a variety of online and print strategies in the successful promotion and distribution of their client’s books. The organization has experience working in digital and traditional print formats and invites would-be authors to learn about their suite of services by visiting http://www.enochpress.com.

A Conversation About Books and Money, Part Two

Source: Nichole Cliffe

We weren't quite done with Friday's "who knows?!" dialogue about the best way to link to books on our (or your) website, and we asked Emily Gould to stop by and clarify a few things.

Nicole: Hi Emily, we've been talking about that thing you wrote, in case you wanted to flesh anything out.

Emily: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to respond! I'm kicking myself now for not explicitly explaining, in that post, why I don't think it's a good thing when sites like The Hairpin participate in the Amazon Affiliates program. It's not at all because I don't approve of making money — wow, do I ever approve of The Hairpin making money. And I don't care about making money in non-transparent ways. I just want media outlets that care about the future of the culture they're covering to look twice at whether it makes sense in the long term for them to have a relationship with Amazon.

I'm glad you guys are thinking twice about whether the amount of money you're making via that program is worth throwing your weight behind a business that has repeatedly showed that it doesn't care about the future of the book industry. Amazon treats books as loss leaders to get people in their store to buy other things, regardless of what that means for other booksellers, for publishers, and for authors. In the past, when publishers have balked at their pricing, they've removed their "buy" buttons. They've opened their own publishing imprints, so they're competing directly with the publishers whose books they're selling. They generally give the impression that they don't care whether other publishers continue to exist.

A lot of us are just starting to think about sustainable culture — i.e., whether the decisions we make, as consumers, are helping to create a future for the kinds of books we want to read, music we want to hear, and movies we want to see. A lot of the infrastructure that used to support all of those culture industries is eroding rapidly. When there's less marketplace diversity, when one retailer is selling the majority of all books and can bully publishers into accepting their prices, that is felt in the industry not, as Edith says, as a helpful culling of the herd (though she's right, there are "too many books!") but as a conservative chill, as publishers become more and more risk-averse.

I'm not saying we should boycott Amazon — I'm saying we should make sure we shop diversely for diverse things, to ensure that the culture we like consuming keeps getting made. I don't think it makes sense for you to point your readers in exclusively one direction, even if you are getting a nice kickback in exchange. I mean, a sort-of-nice kickback—while I agree that $1,000 is a lot of money, if I can just be gross and talk about "your brand" for a second, I don't think you should let them get away with paying you that little to have The Hairpin's implicit seal of approval. You're worth more.

Nicole: While we've got you on the ... line? ... : ebook publishing, and The Future. Go!

Emily: Last things first: well, there are two possible futures! One is the dystopian future, and let me get into that first.

In the bad future, we never wake up and think about how our book sausage is made until it's too late. The major publishers contract and consolidate further and thousands of people who have made careers as book editors, copyeditors, production editors, designers, salespeople, marketers, and publicists lose their jobs and are unable to find new ones. The only publisher that survives is Amazon, and every book is a Tim Ferriss knockoff or a Fifty Shades knockoff. I mean, I'm exaggerating slightly, but only slightly.

In the good future, readers make the connection between the books they enjoy and the publishing infrastructure that enables those books to be created. We buy new hardcovers when we can afford to, ebooks when we want instant gratification and convenience or to audition books we're not sure we want on our shelves forever, and we take out books from the library when we don't feel like paying full price at a bookstore. We buy from Amazon, from Kobo, from the iBookstore, from our local independent bookstores and from B&N as long as they exist. We buy books directly from publishers and authors when we want to make extra sure they're getting the biggest cut they possibly can, and we buy from other places when convenience is more important or the authors are long-dead anyway.

I don't know firsthand how the Indiebound Affiliate program stacks up to Amazon's, but that is worth looking into.

About ebooks — well, I sell them. I like reading them. I especially like reading them on my iPhone and iPad mini. I wish I was getting paid by Apple to say that, but I'm not. I also read print books. I am excited for the books I love to be available in both formats, which means, I don't think books should be published exclusively as ebooks and I want more of the print backlist titles I love to be made available as ebooks, which won't happen without advocacy of people like me and Ruth and customers like Emily Books's readers and subscribers.

Nicole: Thanks so much, Emily. We're offering our readers a choice, going forward, and we want to know how people like it, and what else is out there. We're also curious to see what the future of good writing is, which, as Edith points out, is not the same as the future of the book industry.

Read books, everyone!

The new wave of on-line publishing

Source: LITERARY POP

Smashwords is a self publishing portal started in 2008. There are other on-line publishing portals, but Smashwords is a great representation of he revolution happening in publishing today. In its four years since its startup the on-line publishing company has published over 130 thousand books and has made over 12 million dollars profit on a 30% commission model and in the process Smashwords has made a huge impact on the publishing industry as a whole.

The publishing industry today is in a state of major flux. Talk to anyone in the business and they will tell you they don’t know what’s going on, other than things are changing. For most of the history on publishing you went on bended knee to and presented your manuscript to a company. The most likely result was, you got your pages back with a form letter wishing you good luck…somewhere else. With profits shrinking and major retailer like Borders closing their doors the industry has circled the wagons and is rarely taking anything other than what it feels is a sure bet. This new world of publishing has lead the exodus to the self and on-line publishing world, and companies like Smashwords Lulu, Booklocker and Myebooks stand at the forefront.

I remember being at a writer’s conference just six years ago where the guest speakers was a VIP from Random House. He was animate at the time that on-line/self publishing would ruin the industry. He actually warned all new writers that going to the on-line route would tarnish your name and prevent further traditional publishing options. I can only look back at this and laugh. This VIP from on of the biggest publishing companies in the world didn’t see the on-line revolution just about to happen. Today just six years later, more people buy their books on-line than from a traditional store. Not only was he wrong, he didn’t even comprehend the huge economic impact not only to his company, but to the demise of brick and mortar book retailers like Borders and the many Mom and Pop booksellers.

This modern publishing reality has lead to the overwhelming success of the on-line companies, and today the business couldn’t be more different. The only thing preventing you from publishing your own title…is yourself.

This past year the on-line leader of self publishing Smashwords has seen several of its authors in the New York Times bestsellers list and continues to build steam. This is all happening on a grass roots, do it with many small publishers, instead of the huge conglomerates. This new do it yourself industry is being lead from the bottom up, and even the big houses like Simon & Schuster are scrambling to get into the self and on-line publishing. Just this year Simon & Schuster launched Archway, a flat rate self publishing imprint, and early reports are that is doing well.

I guess the bottom line is like Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changing. The internet revolution has changed publishing forever. This change has allowed access to something that most of us haven’t been able to reach, and the very good news is people are taking advantage of it.

Bauer Media hires River Publishing's Jane Druker to edit Top Santé

Source: Maisie McCabe | Media Week

Druker will lead the 12-strong Top Santé team and edit the specialist monthly lifestyle magazine, which offers readers a mixture of news and features about health, beauty and wellbeing.

She is an experienced editor of health and beauty magazines, having edited Boots Health & Beauty Magazine at Redwood Publishing, before joining River Publishing to edit Healthy in 2009.

Her consumer magazine experience includes stints as deputy editor at IPC Media's InStyle and fashion features editor of the Mail on Sunday's You magazine, and she has written for Grazia, Red and Easy Living.

Earlier in her career, Druker worked at John Brown Publishing for six years.

David Bostock, publisher of Top Santé, said: "Jane's talent, editorial knowhow, vision and expertise make her the perfect editor to lead Top Santé through its next exciting stage of development."

Former editor Ellie Hughes left Bauer Media in October 2011 after seven years, to pursue other opportunities. Since then, the magazine has been edited by editorial consultants, most recently by acting editor Shoshana Goldberg.

Druker said: "Top Santé is an empowering, joyful and meaningful magazine and, as an editor, it doesn't get better than that."

According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), Top Santé had a circulation of 63,525 in the first half of the year (down 9.3% year on year).

When Should You Start Calling Yourself an Author?

Source: Stephanie Chandler | Authority Publishing

I remember back in 2005 when my first manuscript was in progress. I attended a writer’s conference and felt like I was able to immerse myself in the craft of writing and promoting books. I left that event with the thought that I could officially start calling myself a writer.

Once my first book was released later that year, it took awhile before I began introducing myself as an author. It seemed like such a bold statement, and I still wasn’t sure I was qualified. However, it seemed easier to print the title up on a business card, and that’s exactly where I started.

Today, when I meet someone new at a social event, I rarely introduce myself as an entrepreneur, publisher, or CEO. When someone asks what I do, I love to introduce myself as an author. Not only does it feel incredibly powerful to be living that life-long dream, it is also a wonderful conversation starter. People almost always want to know more about what books I’ve written. Often, they will admit to having wanted to write a book themselves.

When can you start calling yourself an author? If you’ve written a book, or if you have one in progress, why not start now? Embrace your title and your accomplishment. People with special accreditations take ownership of their titles, and authors should too.

A very small percentage of people will ever follow through with writing and publishing a book. You are part of an elite group and should be proud of that accomplishment. Shout it from the rooftops!

Why do e-books cost so much?

Source: Stacey Johnson

Here’s a question I got on our Facebook page. Maybe you’ve wondered about it too.

Why do your Kindle books cost more than a paperback copy? The Kindle version of Life or Debt on Amazon costs $9.73, but they’re selling the paperback for as little as $6.00. Since e-books should cost much less to produce, why do they cost more to buy? This seems unfair, especially when you’re writing about how to save money to pay off debt.
- Ted

I got a very similar question a little more than a year ago, published in a post called "Why Are E-Books So Expensive?" I’m going to answer it again, however, because since then things have happened that shed more light on this subject.

RECOMMENDED: Battle of the e-readers: who wins?

As I said in my earlier post, I have no control over the price of my books. When you work with a traditional publisher (mine is Simon & Schuster), you have no input – they set the price.

Whoever establishes the price, however, you’ve still got to wonder…

Why are e-books so expensive?

The first time I attempted to answer this question, I quoted an article called "Why Do eBooks Cost So Much? (A Publisher’s Perspective)" by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. Here’s how he justified the high cost of e-books…

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…physical manufacturing and distribution expenses cost less than you think. Some people assume that these two items represent the bulk of a book’s costs. They don’t. Together, they account for about 12 percent of a physical book’s retail price. So eliminating these costs doesn’t do much to reduce the overall cost structure.

Even if this is accurate, shouldn’t the price of e-books be 12 percent lower than physical copies? No, he insists, because there are other costs associated exclusively with e-books, like formatting them to fit e-readers. He goes on to say…

“The elimination of manufacturing and distribution costs are being offset by retail price reductions and the additional costs I have outlined. The good news is that we are making about the same margins, regardless of whether we sell the book in physical form or digital.”

E-books cost as much to produce as hardcopy? Hogwash.

Despite this publisher’s claim, the reason e-books are as expensive, or even more expensive, than traditional books isn’t because they cost as much to produce and distribute. Anyone who produces anything digital that was formerly physical knows digital is cheaper. A website is cheaper than a newspaper. A digital version of a video costs less to deliver than a tape. An e-book costs less than a physical book. Anyone suggesting otherwise, like this publishing executive, probably has a dog in the fight.

If you want a single answer to why e-books are more expensive, it’s in the last few words of this publishing CEO’s explanation: ”The good news is, we are making about the same margins, regardless of whether we sell the book in physical form or digital.”

The lion’s share of the retail price of a book, whether in digital or physical form, is going to the publisher. And what’s good news for him is bad news for you. Want cheaper books? Eliminate the fattest fingers in the pie – the publisher’s.

Publisher price-fixing?

Another reason e-book prices might have remained stubbornly high: According to a lawsuit by the Justice Department, their prices were fixed by five major publishers, along with a major distributor, Apple. From a recent DOJ press release…

The five publishers and Apple were unhappy that competition among e-book sellers had reduced e-book prices and the retail profit margins of the book sellers to levels they thought were too low. To address these concerns, the department said the companies worked together to enter into contracts that eliminated price competition among bookstores selling e-books, substantially increasing prices paid by consumers. Before the companies began their conspiracy, retailers regularly sold e-book versions of new releases and bestsellers for, as described by one of the publisher’s CEO, the “wretched $9.99 price point.” As a result of the conspiracy, consumers were typically forced to pay $12.99, $14.99, or more for the most sought-after e-books, the department said.

As I write this, four of the five publishers sued by the Justice Department have settled. The remaining defendants are Apple and Macmillan: They’re scheduled to go to trial in June.

My e-books are about to get cheaper. Here’s why:

As with the music industry, when it comes to publishing, the power has never been with the artist, or the consumer. It’s been with the distributor. In the case of music, the label. In the case of books, the publisher. But thanks to the Internet, that’s changing now.

When I wrote Life or Debt three years ago, there was no way around publishers: If you wanted distribution, you went to a major publisher. It was the only way into bookstores or onto Amazon.

A short three years later, however, the landscape has changed. The publishing industry – the gatekeeper between writers and readers – is collapsing under its own weight. I no longer need to surrender up to 90 percent of the price of a book to the publisher. Today I can self-publish an e-book, put it on Amazon, spread the word on the Web, and price it however I like.

And I’m about to do exactly that. We recently partnered with other voices in the personal finance space to create books about money. We’re going to publish them ourselves, promote them ourselves, and price them so they’re more affordable.

While you wait, avoid paying for books entirely by reading versions you’ve already paid for with your tax dollars. They’re waiting for you at the library. Check out my post, Thousands of E-Books: Free.

Penguin Development Group Quietly Pads Slate

Source: Publishers Weekly

Random House has Random House Films. Macmillan has Macmillan Films. And Penguin? Although the house has been low-key about the ways it has begun to dip its corporate toes into film production, and Hollywood, it, too, is making inroads there. One way is with Penguin Development Group.

PDG is less a group and more, as its sole member and founder put it, “an army of one.” That description comes from Peter Harris, a former producer based in Los Angeles who has been working at the book publisher since mid-2009. Harris is not the only person working on film development at Penguin, but he is the only one working, formally, in a Hollywood-focused unit.

According to Harris, the group started after he began having conversations with Penguin CEO David Shanks. Before joining Penguin, Harris was a v-p with Temple Hill Entertainment, a production company that specializes in developing projects based on books (ranging from the Twilight Saga to Dear John), with lots of contacts in publishing. Shanks, Harris elaborated, conceived the division. “In our conversations [Shanks] said he wanted to explore new ways... that film development could work for book publishers.”

Harris is not the only executive trying to take advantage of publishers’ intellectual property in a more encompassing and aggressive way. At Penguin, Ben Schrank (who works at Razorbill) is active in this area, as is Eric Huang, who has the title of publishing director for media and entertainment at Penguin UK. But Harris, at least at Penguin USA, is the only with a “division” behind him.

Like the film units at other houses, the goal of PDG is to position Penguin to benefit more directly from media projects derived from content that begins as their books. With content flowing to other media platforms beyond the old Hollywood tropes (of film and TV)—like streaming video on the Web and video games—Harris said there are even more opportunities for publishers to develop their own projects across mediums.

At PDG Harris said he is focused on “generating original ideas for books and series” that can then be turned around and adapted into other forms of entertainment. While Harris said he’s interested in concepts that have appeal as “books first,” the caveat is that he would not likely “pursue something that didn’t also have a real shot at becoming great in other media.” Thus far, Harris has roughly six projects that he is working on. When asked about the relatively small figure, he pointed out that it can take “years” to set up a project in Hollywood.

Harris estimated that 80% of the projects he does start from brainstorming sessions with Penguin editors, while the other 20% grow out of ideas he is pitched. One example that highlights how Harris works is a book called The Code. A hockey thriller, the title grew out of a desire at Penguin to create “a Canadian Robert Parker.” With that template in mind, Harris worked with editors at Penguin Canada to craft a potential series, in the mold of work by the aforementioned author, that would have particular local appeal. After the series was conceived, Harris and the Penguin Canada editors found a writer—G.B. Joyce—and the book was published in January 2012. (In the U.S., the title was released in September by Penguin’s Pintail imprint.) The book has been optioned by Entertainment One (known as eOne), one of Canada’s major production companies.

Two recent projects Harris has in the pipeline include one coming out of Dutton with the pulp author Christa Faust, and a series called The Rescuer, which is at Putnam. The Faust project, which Harris worked on with Jill Schwartzman, is about “Gillian Flynn-izing Fifty Shades of Grey,” Harris said. Faust (Chokehold and Moneyshot) is set to write an e-book original for Dutton’s Gilt Edge imprint called Bad Romance. The goal with Faust is to “thriller-ize what’s going on in erotica,” Harris noted, and he is currently shopping the concept, like all PDG projects. The Rescuer, which Harris described as “Batman meets The Wire,” is about a former crooked cop who returns to his beat to, as they say, right the wrongs of his past—and save a crumbling metropolis. The first book in that series, developed with Ivan Held, is set to debut in summer 2014.

Book fair brings royalty issue to the fore

Source: The HINDU

As the 36 Book Fair got under way in Chennai on Friday, a debate on royalty for writers has come to the fore, even as publishers are complaining about the government’s failure to purchase books for public libraries since 2009.

The book fair has been witnessing a steady increase in the number of participants — from 687 last year to 747 this year — and around 10 lakh titles are out on sale. This growth, however, has not benefitted writers, says critics.

“While writers are not aware of their rights, there is a lack of commitment on the part of publishers both in terms of moral and legal. Around 75 per cent of the publishers do not pay royalty to the writers and many pay grudgingly,” alleged A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies.

But he hoped the industry would move to that stage next, as writers who have established a name for themselves are getting proper payment.

“A decade ago it was impossible get a book published unless the author was well-known to the readers. But the trend has changed and it has become easy for anyone to get a publisher,” he explained.

Even writer S. Ramakrishnan, one of the most sought-after authors in Tamil and who had no issues with his publishers, said his case could be an exception and that a majority of writers could not get royalty properly from their publishers.

“In Tamil Nadu, you cannot lead a life depending on your writings for livelihood. Even those who buy the book from publishers and sell it get a discount of 30 to 35 per cent. But writers’ royalty continues to remain at 10 per cent and in some cases it has moved up to 12 per cent. Publishing still remains a cottage industry and many treat it as a profession without any capital investment,” he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnan, during a visit to the US, was asked whether he was a multi-millionaire as he had written around 50 books.

“That is the kind of assumption related to writers elsewhere. One of my short stories was published by Penguin and I am getting royalty for it every three months,” he said, adding that many publishers did not make any promotional efforts to sell books.

Even though writer Rajendrachozhan agreed royalty was an issue, he made a case for analysing the issue taking into consideration so many factors plaguing the publishing industry.

“Book writing and publishing is no longer considered an intellectual pursuit. Publishing books is seen as a commercial venture and serious literary efforts would not be encouraged by all publishers. Moreover, there is no transparency in the ways followed by the Library Authorities in selecting books for purchase, and failure on the part of the government to purchase books also affected the industry severely,” he said.

PUBLISHERS’ ARGUMENT

“No publisher denies royalty to a book that sells. But how can a publisher pay for the books printed and remain unsold? A. Madhavan is a brilliant writer in Tamil. But in the last ten years I am not able to sell his books I first printed,” said Vasantakumar of Tamizhini publications.

He said that publishing industry could not be viewed in isolation when popular and mass media promotes inferior quality.

His views were echoed by Manushyaputhiran of Uyirmai Pathipagam.

“We pay royalty promptly to writers. But at the same time I volunteered to publish the books of young writers to encourage them. There is one book. I published 450 copies and I am yet to sell 350,” he said.

Viva Editions: Books for Inspired Living Associate Publisher Brenda Knight Launches Publishing Classes

Source: PR Web

Saturday, January 19
Hook Your Book:
How to Get Your Great Idea Published
7:30pm • $25 thru Jan 18, $35 day of
20-year publishing veteran Brenda Knight helps authors through the process of putting their passion on paper. From refining ideas to something very marketable, to writing the "perfect proposal"  and selecting an agent (or not!) as well as networking with publishers, Knight will act as a guide through the mysteries of book publishing. A national award-winning author herself, Brenda Knight offers encouragement, sound advice and, most importantly, contacts to get that great idea onto the bookstore shelves. Resources and handouts will include: An Authors Guides to Social Media, The Perfect Proposal, Publisher’s Weekly. To reserve tickets, please call 650-988-9800.

Thursday, February 14th - Sunday, February 17th
The San Francisco Writer's Conference

The conference takes place on Presidents’ Day weekend, February 14th-17th, 2013. The main conference begins with a Thursday afternoon orientation and continues through Sunday. “(There will also be In-Depth Writing Classes on Monday, February 18th taught by some of the presenters.) The SFWC features 100+ agents, authors, editors and publishing professionals. This means that you will have non-stop opportunities for learning and networking at this ‘Celebration of Craft, Commerce and Community’ for all writers.

Personal Statement from Brenda Knight:
After twenty years in the publishing industry, I have worked with #1 New York Times bestselling authors, self-published authors, poets, and those who aspire. From the very beginning, I have always been a champion for writers, and I enjoy helping people find their voice and find their market. I am going out to share tried and true methods.

About Brenda Knight:

Brenda Knight is a twenty-year publishing veteran, starting at HarperCollins and authored American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, Rituals for Life and Wild Women and Books. Knight has worked with many bestselling authors including Mark Nepo, Phil Cousineau, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and Paolo Coehlo. Knight volunteers for the American Cancer Society as a counselor for the newly diagnosed and leads writing workshops “Putting Your Passion on Paper.” Founding editor of Viva Editions, a division of Cleis Press, Knight lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been quoted by Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

Comic Books’ Disastrous Self-Censorship Offers a Lesson for Games Publishers, Too

Source: Owen Good

"Censoring violent comic books did not reduce juvenile delinquency or increase literacy," reasons the International Game Developers Association. "It decimated the production of one of the few kinds of literature that at-risk youths read for pleasure."

The IGDA, the foremost group representing video games developers, wrote that to Vice President Joe Biden in a letter dated Tuesday. A lot of constituencies are weighing in on the gun violence debate as Biden's task force examines the issue, which will mean looking at cultural influences, violent media and mental health concerns in addition to gun control proposals.

The IGDA asked Biden to carefully consider how he led the discussion, sounding the usual cautions about the rush to scapegoat popular entertainment, video games' upheld status as works of free expression protected by the Constitution, and studies disclaiming links between violent media and violent crime.

But it's interesting that the IGDA would bring up the censorship of comic books. It was legitimately devastating not just to specific titles and publishers, but to an entire genre and the industry as a whole. And it was self inflicted. In fact, the development of the Comics Code Authority is almost a template for the creation, 40 years later, of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

Comics aficionados are well familiar with Seduction of the Innocent, the book by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham, which in 1954 incited one hell of a moral panic against horror comics and, among other things, insinuated Batman and Robin were gay lovers. The Comics Magazine Association of America formed that year, introducing along with it the Comics Code Authority. The CCA wiped out EC Comics' popular horror and crime titles, and it took 15 years before a major publisher challenged its authority.

The ESRB arose from similar circumstances in 1994. Senate hearings on video game violence echoed the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency investigating comic books 50 years earlier. Rather than fight the threat of federal regulation, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was born. Nowhere near as petty or as draconian as the CCA—which banned undead creatures (no, really) and prohibited depicting law enforcement in ways that encouraged disrespect for authority—the ESRB is likewise criticized for a fixation on sex as more objectionable than violence. And more than just the broad ratings of E, T, M and the like, they come with content descriptors that themselves can result in damaging self-censorship. I've written about the absurdity of "drug reference" and "alcohol reference" before.

Today, Biden will meet with the president of the Entertainment Software Association, among other chiefs of major entertainment publishers or their lobbying associations. Some are skeptical that this meeting will do anything for video game publishing, if not suspicious that the industry will give in to government requests for more self-regulation, such as in when and where advertisements are run.

So the IGDA calling on Biden to lead this discussion in proactive and rational way is entirely appropriate. Yet as this was an open letter, to me, bringing up the self-censorship of comic books, and the damage that creative industry did to itself, is a useful between-the-lines message from developers to their publishers, too.

Bard and Book Publishing Seeks To Establish A Sustainability Model Of Publishing For Authors

Source: PR Web

Holmen, Wisconsin (PRWEB) January 09, 2013

Bard and Book Publishing enters the new year as a publishing alternative for authors. Bard and Book Publishing represents an incredible new vision for connecting publishers, authors, and readers through a subscription service that yields the lion's share of revenue to authors, unlike today's traditional publishing model.

Bard and Book founder, Anthony Horvath says, "Very few authors who go the ‘traditional route’ make any real money. It is the rare author that is able to make a living from their writing. Publishers and retailers get the majority of it."

Bard and Book is designed to address this situation head on, putting the author on an equal playing field with the publisher, and protecting the interests of all involved–including the reader.

All Subscriber-Readers Get:

• Exclusive access to the authors throughout the creative process.
• Copies of every digital book produced by the community’s authors throughout the duration of their memberships, obtained through Smashwords.com. (Approximately 5 per month).
• Discounts on printed editions of Bard and Book’s published books.
• The collected works of each author in a single digital file throughout the duration of their memberships.
• The gratification of knowing that they are directly supporting the authors, because the majority of their membership fee goes straight to them!

To experience the Bard and Book service, two subscription options are currently available. The free membership option gives a reader full access to digital edition of works the authors produce but only within 30 days of the work’s release. The premium (paid) membership gives the reader full access to every digital edition of works the authors produce, past and present, as well as full access to the authors themselves in forums, comments, chats, etc. An added bonus to the paid membership is that the subscriber will receive 1 free copy of a printed edition of a Bard and Book publication each year, including shipping. The paid membership plan is available for only $5.95 per month.

Titan Comics Announces New Publishing Partnership

Following the recent announcement that Titan Comics is offering new original creator-owned series in 2013, Titan Comics is pleased to announce a new co-publishing venture with A1 publisher, Dave Elliott.

Dave Elliott has more than 25 years of experience working in the comic book industry. He created Sharky and Maximum Force and has worked on diverse titles such as Deadline, 2000 AD, Justice League of America, Transformers and GI Joe. In 2006, he co-founded Radical Studios and played an integral role in the development and launch of Radical’s premiere comic book titles, several of which have now begun development as film properties – including Hercules, Shrapnel, Caliber, Hotwire, The Last Days of American Crime and Oblivion, which is due to hit cinemas next May, and stars Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman.

The new publishing venture between Titan Comics and Dave Elliott launches in June 2013 and will see the release of brand-new comics and stunning new and classic graphic novels.

The first wave hits from June 2013 with two new series: A1, a monthly revival of the famously experimental anthology and the new music-festival adventure, Tomorrowland.

The first collections will drop in September 2013, with releases including the League of Extraordinary Gentleman-style Weirding Willows, supernatural anthology Monster Massacre and the adventures of the teenage god Sharky. The first volume of the new A1 annual and the collection of Tomorrowland will release later in the year.

"Anyone who has been in the comics industry knows Dave Elliott, and his industrious and creative talent," says Nick Landau, Publisher of Titan Comics. “He has an address book like no-one in the business, a never-ending fount of ideas, and the savvy to win the best global creators over to his team. We’re delighted to be co-publishing his latest creations."

"Having worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years I wanted a partner that complemented what I do”, said A1 Publisher, Dave Elliott. “I wanted a partner who has the same aspirations for seeing this industry do what it has the potential to do. And most importantly I wanted a partner who realizes that if I do well, so do they. I know with Titan’s 30-year experience in the industry, I'm getting just that."

Each new release will also be available to read day and date on the iPhone, iPad, Web, Android and Kindle Fire.

The new co-publishing venture begins in June 2013, with two brand-new comic series, with further new collections being released through the year.

Read more: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=43123

Dark Horse Publishing American McGee's Akaneiro Comic

Source: The Escapist

Despite being only about 30% of the way to its Kickstarter goal, Akaneiro: Demon Hunters is getting a three-issue comic storyline.

Comic book publisher Dark Horse, known for the Hellboy series and seasons eight and nine of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among many others, announced that it is teaming up with Spicy Horse for a comic adaptation of Akaneiro: Demon Hunters. The "soon-to-be-released game" will get a three-issue arc "from the brilliant minds behind video game auteur American McGee's Spicy Horse Studio."

As you may remember, Spicy Horse kicked off a Kickstarter campaign for Akaneiro: Demon Hunters last week, with studio head American McGee pleading with fans for $200,000 to "finish what we started." A few days ago, McGee clarified the Kickstarter, stating that Akaneiro was already complete and the crowd-funding campaign was just to add more features to the game, which is apparently launching this month either way.

In a press release from Dark Horse, McGee stated, "Though I hate being categorized as some sort of auteur, I'm thrilled to be working again with the rocket-scientist sex machines at Dark Horse... It's a perfect marriage of art and execution." The three-issue comic spin-off will be an original story "expanding the universe of Akaneiro," though no other story details were provided.

It's pretty strange to Kickstart a game that's supposedly already done, and even weirder to announce a comic series for that game that's set to launch months later, but Spicy Horse has never really been a conventional developer. The Akaneiro comic launches on May 22, but if you don't want to wait that long, the game is now in open beta. And you can still donate to the Kickstarter campaign, which is currently at $59,615 of its $200,000 goal with 22 days to go.

Publishing world cashes in on heavenly journeys

Can it be true? Do people really see a light at the end of a tunnel when they have a near-death experience?

Could that be heaven up ahead?

Well, it could be. And that light is shining brighter than ever these days. Heaven is hot. Hotter even than that other place. Just ask any bookseller in America.

Folks have been going to heaven with amazing regularity lately. They look around — one even sat on Jesus' lap — then come back to report on the trip. It's a lucrative journey.

Three of these tales have ascended to heavenly heights on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list recently, and more are on the way.

- Colton Burpo, then almost 4 years old, "dies" during an emergency appendectomy, travels to heaven and reports back how "really, really big God is." Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, Rev. Todd Burpo's 2010 tale of his son's round-trip to the Pearly Gates, has sold more than 7.5 million copies after 22 printings. It's been on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list for 111 weeks and reached No. 1 eight times in 2011. It's currently No. 94.

- Eben Alexander, a Harvard neurosurgeon who was in a coma for seven days in 2008, encounters an "angelic being" who guides him into the "deepest realms of super-physical existence." His Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey Into the Afterlife, published last fall, peaked at No. 4 in December and is currently No. 10.

- Mary Neal's To Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again: A True Story, published in May, tells of the orthopedic surgeon's celestial journey following a kayak accident in Chile in which she was pulled underwater for so long that even she thought she was dead. It's been in the top 150 for 33 weeks, reaching as high as No. 14 in July.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/01/10/heaven-bestsellers-burpo-neal/1759279/

Self publish your own photo book

This is a unique chance to meet, listen to and interact with two experts at the forefront of the photography self publishing photo-book phenomenon. Brunoc Ceschel founded Self Publish, Be Happy in 2010 with the aim of helping artists and photographers make and publish their own books and celebrating the form. Cristina du Middel is a photographer who self- published her first book, The Afronauts, in 2012. Through word-of-mouth, it has become a huge success, selling out its print run, making it onto most of the Best of 2012 photobook lists and and being shortlsted for the prestigious Detshe Borse Prize 2012.

The one-day course, curated by Sean O'Hagan, will consist of two morning talks followed by an afternoon of interaction and a Q&A session.

To get the most out of the day, you will be somebody who has a series of work that you want to publish as a book. You may be a photographer or student who just want to get your work seen, or an artist who works with photographs who want to make an artistic book - like the Afronauts. You should have enough unified images to provide the material for a book in some form.

The course will provide practical advice on editing and arranging images, and on how to actually get the book seen by others. You will leave with a cleared knowledge of how to present your work in book form and a sense of the possibilities of self-publishing .

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian-masterclasses/self-publish-photo-book-course

iUniverse would be happy to see another Les Misérables

Source: My Publishing Universe

The other day I was pondering just how big and timeless a book can become? Take for instance Les Mis, written by Victor Hugo in 1862, who is one of the most important of French Romantic writers, being the first to write about all aspects of contemporary life. His best-known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and, of course, his epic tale of social injustice, Les Misérables.

The Author

Though a royalist in his youth, Hugo’s views changed as time passed; becoming a passionate supporter of republicanism and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. When he died over 2 million attended his funeral at the Pantheon.

The Book

Les Misérables is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. The appearance of the novel was highly anticipated and advertized; however critical reactions were mainly negative. However commercially, the book was a great success, not just in France, but across the world.

The Musical

It didn’t stop there, the story became a stage musical, which was originally conceived and produced in France, before its English-language adaptation, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, opened in London on 8 October 1985, launching what has turned out to be a global phenomenon.

At the opening of the London production, reviews were bad and the literarati condemned it for converting classic literature into a musical. However public opinion differed: the box office got record receipts. The three-month engagement sold out, and lo and behold the critics reviews improved. The London production has run continuously since: the second longest-running West End show after The Mousetrap, The Broadway version opened in March 1987 and ran until May 2003, only closing after 6,680 performances. Becoming the 4th longest-running Broadway show and nominated for 12 Tony Awards, of which it won eight.

Also there have been numerous tours, productions have been staged across the globe, plus any number of recordings, as well as concerts and broadcasts. In 2005, it was first in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of Britain’s “Number One Essential Musicals”, receiving over 40% of the votes.

The Movie

Now we have a film version directed by Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech fame), which was released in the US at the end of 2012, the 150th anniversary of the book being published, and is being released globally this coming weekend. The movie has already amassed huge box-office takings and been nominated for many, many of the movie awards.

So we at iUniverse says the moral of the story is never give up, keep writing and, who knows, you could end up with your own ‘Les Mis’.

Flint sixth-grader's book, 'The Michigan Adventure,' picked up by local publisher

Source: Blake Thorne | MLive

FLINT, MI -- Write what you know.

It's advice young writers hear all the time, and an approach that worked for Antonio Brown.

When the sixth-grader last year attended a local creative writing program, he jotted down a tale based on his own experiences.

"It's about three young children who go on a journey to Michigan's Adventure. ... They all see they have something in common and they become friends," said Brown, who attends class Flint's Doyle-Ryder Elementary.

"I kind of relate it to my life because I went to Michigan's Adventure with my cousin and with my sister and we kind of had some differences," Brown added.

Like the characters in his book, "The Michigan Adventure," they worked out their differences.

The book is being published by Flint-based publisher Brandon Publishing. The book will be available this week through the publisher's website and on Amazon, said CEO Kellen Brandon. The publisher also brought in an illustrator to add pictures to the story.

Brandon worked with Brown on the book starting earlier in the fall. Seeing someone so young work so hard has been a thrill, Brandon said.

"I don't have a word (for it), I would say amazing," Brandon said.

"I'm really, really inspired by him."

Brown said he's written stories before, just never a full book. "The Michigan Adventure" comes in at about 24 pages. He said he'd like to write more, and never thought he'd publish his own book, especially not so young.

"It was a surprise," Brown said. "It just kind of happened."

Brown will have a book signing and sell copies of his book from 5:30-7 p.m. Jan. 10 at Doyle Ryder. The event is open to the public.

PublishNews Brazil: Brazil’s Bestselling Books and Top Publishers of 2012

Source: Edward Nawotka | Publishing Perspectives

This week’s issue of PublishNews Brazil, a collaboration between Publishing Perspectives and PublishNews, brings you all the latest news from the booming Brazilian book market, including:

Brazil’s Bestselling Books and Top Publishers of 2012

PublishNews’ annual list of best-selling books confirmed what appeared to be the year’s biggest two trends in the Brazilian publishing market: erotic novels and religious authors. And once again, Sextante is the publisher with the most bestsellers.

Record Buys Publisher Paz e Terra, Bringing Total to 14 Imprints and Publishers

Publishing Group Record has bought publisher Paz e Terra (which translates to “Peace and Earth”), adding Paz e Terra’s list of sociological and political books to Record’s 13 other imprints and publishers.

Ebooks Sales Up 400% at Companhia das Letras

Ebooks sales at publisher Companhia das Letras rose 400% in 2012, helped by the arrival of new ebookstores and readers just prior to Christmas. Bestsellers included Sylvia Day’s erotic title Bared to You and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

New Orwell cover designs obscure an Orwellian copyright saga

Source: Paul StJohn Mackintosh | Tele Read

Penguin Books, along with its seriously talented team of graphic designers, is making great play of its latest rebooting of the George Orwell franchise. Coverage from the Huffington Post to the Creative Review lauds Penguin’s brave and high-minded initiative to relaunch Orwell’s works with bold cover designs that recall the original Penguin editions—only, in the case of Nineteen Eighty-Four, with the title erased to signify censorship.

Penguin Classics’ own website states:

In recognition of one of Britain’s greatest and most influential writers, Penguin Books, the Orwell Estate and The Orwell Prize are launching the inaugural ‘Orwell Day’ on 21st January with new editions of his most beloved books designed by David Pearson. The annual event will serve to celebrate [Orwell's] writing in all its forms and explore the profound influence he has had on the media and discourse of the modern world.”

Well … perhaps so.

Only, remember that Orwell has more recently been one of the poster boys for the global fiasco surrounding extension of creative copyright and public domain status across different jurisdictions. Nineteen Eighty-Four itself is in copyright until 2020 in the EU; until 2044 in the U.S.; but already out of copyright and available for download, absolutely free, in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and yes, even in Russia.

Remember too that Nineteen Eighty-Four was the subject of the notorious case in 2009 when Amazon remotely deleted an edition that had failed to clear U.S. rights from its e-readers.

Yes, Penguin absolutely has the right—if any publishing house has—to do itself proud on its iconic cover designs. Those designs are monuments in and of themselves, and Penguin is certainly entitled to extract from them the maximum value they can. Penguin can also take pride in its own great Sir Allen Lane tradition as a promulgator of knowledge and cultural values (though remember that the house is now in the hands of Pearson PLC, and soon to be snapped up by Random House).

But don’t forget: Penguin was also one of the last major publishers to settle with the U.S. Department of Justice over the “agency model” charges of conspiracy to raise prices on e-books. Indeed, Penguin is still defending the agency model in its statements, while agreeing to settle only in order to consummate its marriage with Random House undisturbed.

So while Penguin and its designers pat themselves on the back over their consecration of Orwell’s memory, the publisher continues to defend the principle of charging top dollar for access to his ideas—even though those same works are completely free elsewhere—and to defend a system that prosecutes those who make those ideas freely accessible, anywhere within its reach.

Yes, a situation where an e-book publisher can erase entire libraries at the press of a button following a court decision is Orwellian. Just as Orwellian—or Kafkaesque—is the global copyright term situation. Are U.S. Customs thought police going to patrol the Canadian border until 2044 to confiscate copyright-free Canadian editions of Nineteen Eighty-Four? Are they going to go after U.S.-based servers that provide access to work that is totally legal elsewhere? Are they going to push cross-border jurisdiction on the model of the U.S. tax authorities and go extraterritorial, to enforce U.S. copyright practices worldwide, at the behest of Big Media? That would be truly worthy of Oceania.

The Australian, Canadian and other archives who are making Orwell’s thought and work freely available are the only ones who are truly honouring his memory, and living up to his ideals. Penguin, meanwhile, seems blind to the Orwellian irony of what it is doing.

5 Surprises About Self Publishing

My first six books were all published by major New York houses, including Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Crown, and Berkley/Penguin. I adored my editors and their teams, but I was a midlist writer getting midlist attention, and the midlist was starting to feel like purgatory. For my seventh book, Perfect Red, a historical novel set in 1950’s New York, I decided to self publish. Why I made that decision is a story for another day, and how it turns out, economically-speaking, has yet to be determined. But a few revelations about the process have surprised the socks off me. Herewith, the top five:

1. I underestimated the weight of having the legitimacy of a traditional publisher. When I could say, “My third novel is being published by Penguin,” I was not just a wanna-be hopeful novelist. I was legit! I was chosen! Pitching book reviewers was a breeze. Attending high school reunions was a delight. When I ran into more famous writers, we met as colleagues, exchanging e-mails, making dates for lunch. Now that I am self publishing, I am no different than the crazy cat lady down the block who has been working on her memoir for 17 years or the guy at the street fair hawking Xeroxed pamphlets of his poetry about fruit. People smile indulgently when I tell them what I’m doing. Book reviewers politely decline. My doubts about writing, which I’ve spent a lifetime overcoming, have blossomed like a drug-resistant virus.

2. I underestimated the thrill that comes with being in control – as well as the fear. I get to pick my cover! Set my own price! Make a special holiday edition for my friends and family and send it out tied up with a red bow! When I do something well, I feel like a rock star entrepreneurial author on the cutting edge of the brave new world of publishing. But book publishing is a detailed, complex enterprise requiring a range of skills completely different from writing a book. There are a thousand opportunities to screw up. Suddenly, it’s not just my writing that’s out there being judged, it’s my eye for design, my sense of how readers behave, my business acumen. I used to wonder why it took traditional publishers nine months to produce a book. Now I get it; it’s a lot of work.

Read more: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2013/01/5-surprises-about-self-publishing/

Self-publishing helps you write the novel inside you

Source: Press Citizen

Many people — especially in this City of Literature — believe they have a book in them.

Usually their first excuse for not writing it is, “I’ll never get around to it.” The second is, “Who would publish it?”

The second excuse won’t wash, anymore. It has become amazingly easy and cheap to publish and market your own book.

I’m all too painfully sensible of the pathos and vainglory that must go into anyone’s decision to self-publish. When my first novel, “Willie Wilden,” came out in 2011, and I was asked, “Who’s publishing it?”

I got a vague understanding of how it must feel to be an exceedingly plain girl who’s never had a serious boyfriend, walking around with a big pregnant belly, having someone ask, “Who’s the lucky fella?” — and having to reply, “Uh … it’s complicated,” because you don’t want to admit that, being unable to attract a mate, you used frozen sperm.

My publisher, Rex Imperator, could be described as “a boutique company based in New York City.” That is technically true. My company (Dobrian, Frances, Bowie & Long) is incorporated in New York, and Rex Imperator is a division of that company — set up, specifically, to publish my books and those of my clients.

I’ve been making a decent living as a commercial writer for almost 30 years now, and not many people can do that — but I have something to say to the literary world, as well.

“Willie Wilden” was in ready-to-shop condition for three years before I decided to self-publish. I sent queries and sample chapters around to a dozen or so agents, and I didn’t get so much as a nibble from any of them — and I was not surprised.

I could come up with several reasons why an agent wouldn’t want to touch it:

• It’s a first novel by an author who’s utterly unknown in the world of fiction.

• It’s 160,000 words: about 540 pages.

• It’s not genre fiction. It’s neither a woman’s nor a man’s book. It has largely to do with academia, somewhat to do with love and romance, somewhat to do with college football and somewhat to do with poetry.

• “Willie” is unabashedly political — and politically incorrect. Most of the “good guys” are conservatives or Libertarians. The “bad guys” are liberals and progressives.

Naturally, I heard a pretty loud voice in the back of my mind insisting that those bullet-points were just lame excuses, and that the real problem was that “Willie” simply stunk. But if it did, I wanted to be convinced that it stunk, by overwhelming popular revulsion.

So, I decided, “Self-publish and be damned.”

And, guess what? “Willie” isn’t selling in the millions because I don’t have the marketing resources that a major publisher has, but it got good reviews. “Willie” will never make me famous, but it has passed the smell-test, and then some.

It’s a damn good novel — and it’s exactly what I wanted to write, exactly what I wanted to publish.

So, my advice, if you have that book unwritten, languishing on your bucket-list? Self-publish and be damned — but not until you’re convinced that it’s the best book of its kind that you could have written.

I’ll be reading from my novel, “Willie Wilden,” and perhaps from my collection of essays, “Seldom Right But Never In Doubt,” at the Self-Published Authors Fair, which is from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Coralville Public Library.

Glenn Heald Tells Tales of the Real Santa in ‘Santa Talks!’

Macon, GA (PRWEB) January 11, 2013

In Glenn Heald’s new book “Santa Talks!: The Life Story of Saint Nicholas” (published by iUniverse), he seeks to tell the truth behind the mysterious man named Chris Cringle and what each Christmas item really means.

In the first part of the book, Heald weaves a magical tale about the “real” Santa who first appeared in historical texts sometime in the fourth century A.D. He explains how Nicholas began life in a monastery studying with monks after his parents died, and, when older, took to the streets to spread cheer and joy to everyone he passed.

In the second part of the book, Heald shines light onto what each Christmas object, candy cane, Christmas tree, ect…, really means through a tale about his meeting with Santa Claus one evening. He uses his beliefs in Jesus Christ to sew a Christian meaning into each piece explaining how each has been lost through time.

An excerpt from “Santa Talks!”:

“The candy cane is a stick of hard white candy—white to symbolize the virgin birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the solid rock, the foundation of the church, and the firmness of God’s promises. The candy cane forms the letter J to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth. It also represents the Good Shepherd’s crook, which he uses to reach down into all ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs, which, like all sheep, have gone astray. The original candy cane had three small red stripes, which are the stripes of the scourging Jesus received and by which we are healed, and a large red stripe that represents the shed blood of Jesus, so that we can have the promise of eternal life.”

About the Author
Glenn Heald served in the United States Air Force and, upon retiring, became a Santa. He has performed as an entertainer and magician for over 48 years. Heald lives in Macon, Ga., where he anxiously awaits Christmas every year.

iUniverse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Indigo Books & Music, Inc. in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Reader’s Choice, Rising Star and Editor’s Choice designations—self-publishing’s only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniversebooks on Twitter.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10309928.htm