TOC 2013: Startups, Sharing, And the Future of Publishing

Source: Calvin Reid | Publishers Weekly

O’Reilly Media’s annual Tools of Change for Publishing conference finished its seventh year doing what it does best—highlighting trends, identifying new businesses and startups looking to offer books and other content to a global market of readers in new ways, while also trying to offer a broad perspective on an industry in the midst of a “disruptive” transition from print to digital.

First, the new ventures. Introduced as part of its Publishing Startup Showcase, the new companies offered a glimpse into new platforms for delivering content—often dynamic content targeting specific users’ needs. Among this year’s winners were Paperight. Founded by Arthur Attwell, Paperight essentially turns copy shops into POD-driven bookstores, providing an online platform for the shops to print out legal copies of books. The copy shops can register at Paperight.com, establish an account that allows them to pay for rights and the books via Paperight. Paperight does the negotiating with publishers for the rights to the files. Attwell said the company has about 145 outlets in South Africa (he usually approaches copy shop chains to get the broadest reach), deals with about 40 publishers and intends to move into the global market. “We designed Paperight to be an international business,” he said.


Founded by Daniel Fountenberry, Borne Digital creates “adaptive e-books,” or educational e-books and software for kids “that have multiple levels” of difficulty. Winner of the Publishing Startup Showcase’s “People’s Choice” award, Borne Digital offers teachers and parents the ability to provide a single book to children of very different reading skills and to change those levels with a click. Fountenberry told PW that Borne Digital’s e-books eliminate the stigma of “leveled” titles that may embarrass children and their parents; and the interactive e-books also offer assessment, sending the children quizzes and new information to help build their reading skills and “show the child’s relationship to Common Core standards.”

Also among the Publishing Startup Showcase was Book Machine— a social media–driven professional skills exchange that mixes socializing with a database that can connect freelance professionals with publishers looking for their skills. Founded by Laura Austin and Gavin Summers in the U.K., the venture is branching out to New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, throwing cocktail parties that also serve as a magnet for professional meetups. The site is still in beta but attracted about 2,500 people to sign up and has several hundred in its database, BookMachine.Me, with more to come.

O’Reilly Steps Up

A commanding overview and industry perspective was provided by Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media and founding father of ToC, who offered an aggressively optimistic response to the state of publishing over the last decade in a keynote speech that opened the conference. Titled “Some Reasons for Optimism,” O’Reilly’s presentation surveyed the book industry’s biggest fears about the ongoing transition to digital delivery—from the disintermediation of major publishers to digital piracy. O’Reilly concluded that the industry is getting over its “fear” of a digital future.

Citing his own landmark 2002 essay on digital piracy, “Piracy Is Progressive Taxation,” in which he outlined a central tenet of the new digital economy—“obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy”—O’Reilly delivered a well documented, “I told you so,” to the publishing industry. A decade after his essay, the state of publishing is strong, according to O’Reilly, and getting stronger. He cited the motion picture industry’s fears over the VCR: “It didn’t kill cinema; movie studio revenues are strong but they’re still complaining,” and he offered charts showing “print sales have stabilized.”

“People still love reading and they love to share,” he said, and while there remains fear about the potential loss of physical bookstores, O’Reilly said, “there are now new methods of book discovery, and authors and publishers know how to build communities online.” Certainly, part of the reason O’Reilly feels so optimistic is the ability nowadays to share content so easily in the digital environment. In a separate discussion between digital authors Cory Doctorow, Henry Jenkins, and Brian David Johnson focused on the impact of sharing on their work— pointing to the rise of the social media-driven YouTube star. O’Reilly pointed specifically to the success of John and Hank Green, the brother author-and-musician team that has taken its social media act on the road, selling huge numbers of books as well as selling out Carnegie Hall.
Economist Joshua Gans, author of Information Wants to Be Shared (Harvard Business Review), gave a presentation at TOC of the same name that provided one of the most elegant arguments in support both of O’Reilly’s optimism and the power of sharing. Gans made the point that books started out as shared goods that had to be accessed mostly though libraries. Information, he said, does not necessarily want to be free, it wants to be shared. Indeed, while free is a part of sharing, it’s not the only way to share. Gans argued that people buy books for two reasons: they want to read them and they want to put them on display for everyone to see. But as we all know, “most books,” he said, “are not being read”—they’re stacked in offices on desks and on shelves in our homes and offices. The rise of digital publishing creates a problem with display, eliminating it to some degree as a way to drive book sales. “Digitization has removed the element of display and made books purely just for reading,” he said. “Now, publishers must really compete for the attention of the reader.”

Gans believes this scenario—the need for public attention to drive demand for books—engenders new business models based on “access rather than ownership,” and that, going forward, the ability of a friend to freely alert other friends to content he or she thinks is important will become more important to selling books. Publishing, he suggested, has returned to its roots of shared content and shared funding via subscription models that also offer the ability to track how content is used and to charge accordingly.

In his keynote, O’Reilly urged publishers and authors to just “work on stuff that matters,” and said “fear of the future is fading.” He urged publishers to get back to the job of “figuring out how to gather the knowledge of the world and share it with other people.”

Publishing Pistorius court photos an error: Sanef

Source: Times Live

Sanef chairman Nic Dawes said there was no intention to contravene a court order prohibiting the taking of photographs during the athletes' first court appearance on Friday.

"There seemed to have been confusion regarding the court ruling on the covering of the case," Dawes said.

This comes after some newspapers published photos of Pistorius crying in court on their front pages on Saturday.

Magistrate Desmond Nair had ruled against live broadcasts of the matter on Friday.

Sound recordings of the arguments and judgment were allowed but photographs could only be taken before or after court proceedings.

Images of Pistorius covering his face with his hands as he cried, were taken during proceedings, which was a contravention of Friday's ruling.

Dawes said the publications had acknowledged the error and had withdrawn the pictures from circulation.

Sanef did not support the publication of the pictures as it contravened Nair's ruling, he said.

"We are committed to an environment that permits free and fair reporting... and we also abide by the law," he said.

The organisation was meeting on Saturday to discuss the matter.

Pistorius's lawyer Kenny Oldwage refused on Saturday to comment on reports that he would take action against newspapers that published the pictures.

Earlier, EyeWitness News reported that Oldwage said he would address the matter at Pistorius's bail application in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

"I do not want to talk about this case or discuss it further anymore... do not call my number anymore," Oldwage told Sapa when contacted for comment.

Pistorius was arrested on Thursday after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a model, law graduate, and participant in the Tropika Island of Treasure television show, was shot dead in his home.

He was charged with murder at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday.

Pistorius remained in custody at the Brooklyn police station.

He was expected to make a formal bail application on Tuesday.

How To Find An Agent? How To Self Publish in the UAE?

Source: Fake Plastic Souks

Or, in short, what to do? You're in the United Arab Emirates and you're thinking of writing a book. You may have started. You may have finished it. But now you want to know what to do next. You have two options - find a publisher (which pretty much means get an agent) or become a publisher.

I can help. For a start, I know exactly how NOT to find an agent, I got rejected over 250 times. Believe me, I can tell you how to withstand the knock-backs. I signed with Robin Wade of that finest of London's literary agencies Wade & Doherty. How did I do it? What was the secret to my success? More to the point, how can YOU do it for yourself?

This Wednesday night, from 6-8pm at Dubai's gloriously funky uber-hangout The Archive, I shall share.

Promise.

I'll also be taking workshop attendees through how they can 'go it alone' and self-publish. Once the stuff of vanity and now an increasingly important avenue for writers, self publishing can be a road to riches, a source of immense satisfaction or an eyeball full of broken glass. How you approach it will, in many ways, define which of these is your most likely outcome. From picking platforms through formatting your manuscript and getting word out there to printing a physical edition, I'll take attendees through the easiest possible ways to get their work in people's hands.

Places are really, really limited - the room was full last time and most people booked for all four of the sessions in the Umbrella Series of wordy workshops, so do call or email Sarah at The Archive and ensure there's a place for you - sarah@thearchive.ae or phone The Archive on 04 349 4033.

If you want to get your hands on the presentations, resources and other stuff from the workshops, sign up to the emailer list using the form to the top right of this 'ere blog and I'll be sharing links an' stuff.

Self-Publishing: What It Is—and What It Isn’t

One of the most confusing things about self-publishing is what exactly constitutes self-publishing. For every right answer to this question there are about a dozen wrong answers. Particularly in the past decade, since the inception of POD (print on demand), there are a lot of inaccuracies out there. I’m going to do my best to set you straight.

A term I—and probably you too—hear thrown around a lot is “POD self-publishing.” POD refers to a printing process—specifically, digital printing. It doesn’t have anything to do with publishing per se, but somehow, it has become lumped together with self-publishing.

As I mentioned above, POD means “print on demand,” which is exactly what it sounds like: An order for a book comes in, the book is printed, and the order is filled—on demand. Authors no longer need to shell out thousands for an offset print run of 1,000 or more books. Not only does this free up cash for other elements of the publishing process—professional editing and cover design, to name but a couple—but it saves authors from having to figure out what to physically do with a pallet or two of books. (So it also saves a lot of garage space!)

Probably the best-known print on demand printer is Lightning Source. Some so-called “POD self-publishing companies” will have you believe that you, as an author, cannot go directly to Lightning Source (where they are likely going for their POD printing). Not true. The majority of self-publishing authors I work with open an account with Lightning Source and have their books printed there. There is no need to go to a “middle-man.”

Some POD services are free or nearly free, but most charge a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars. CreateSpace and Lulu are low cost and let authors set their own book prices, but other services set the book prices for the authors and pay the author a “royalty” off the net price. This is how these services recoup their manufacturing costs. More often than not, the prices set by these companies is quite high, rendering the books virtually unsalable. Most are ultimately purchased by the authors themselves.

Many of these companies also assign an ISBN (essentially like a book’s social security number) to the books. This makes the company the publisher of record rather than the author. This is not self-publishing but vanity publishing (pay to publish) by a different name (POD self-publishing sounds so much better, doesn’t it? Too bad it’s not accurate.). There are three primary ways that this method of publishing differs from true self-publishing (Thanks to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for this list!):

• Control. With true self-publishing, the writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, from cover art to print style to pricing. With POD services, choice is typically limited to the package of services the publisher offers.
• Revenue. With true self-publishing, the writer keeps all proceeds from sales. With POD services, the service keeps the lion’s share of sales proceeds to offset printing costs, and pays the author a percentage–either a percentage of income (a royalty) or a percentage of profit. Basically, you’re paying twice: once upfront, and once with each book produced and sold.
• Rights. With true self-publishing, all rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of his/her books, including the ISBN number. With most POD services, the POD service owns the ISBN, and has a limited claim on digital and/or electronic publishing rights.

So what exactly constitutes true self-publishing? You are the publishing company. You own the ISBN. You make all decisions regarding the book, including how it looks and how it is priced. If a publishing company name other than your own publishing company name appears on your book, they are the publishing company. And it’s not self-publishing.

Source: http://cjortiz.com/2013/02/self-publishing-what-it-is%E2%80%94and-what-it-isn%E2%80%99t/

Inkling takes on Amazon, Apple with new e-book publishing tool

The launch of Amazon's first Kindle e-reader in 2007 upended the publishing industry. Now a San Francisco startup founded by a former Apple executive wants to shake things up again.
Inkling, which counts Sequoia Capital and publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson among its investors, yesterday at an event in New York City unveiled a new digital book publishing tool for professionals, dubbed Habitat. It also launched the "Inkling Content Delivery Platform" to allow people to comb through books using search engines like Google and read limited amounts of content for free.

With its new products, Inkling aims to become the most-used platform for delivering "content you can use." And it hopes to put pressure on Amazon (and Apple, to a lesser extent) during the process.

"Amazon is killing the publishing industry," Matt MacInnis, Inkling CEO and founder, told CNET in a recent interview. "It has amassed too much market power, and every single entity in the industry is interested in overthrowing the [near] monopoly. ... If we're distributing content more efficiently than Amazon is, or even if we're only a fraction as successful as Amazon is, publishers still have a new revenue stream outside Amazon, and that's good for them."

Apple declined to comment, while Amazon didn't respond to requests for comment.
The digital book industry has become a big focus for many technology companies. So far, most e-books have been the text-heavy novels found in Amazon's Kindle store and other online bookstores. That has allowed Amazon to dominate the industry with about 60 percent market share, according to Forrester, and has forced some traditional bookstore owners, like Borders, to close. It also has forced publishers to merge and determine their strategies for a digital world -- something that has proved difficult for many.
A new push has emerged over the past couple years to create content that's not just digital but is also interactive and immersive. This has become particularly popular for textbooks, with startups and giants like Apple targeting the market.

MBS Direct Digital believes sales of such content will reach 10 percent of the total education textbook market this year, up from 6 percent last year and 3 percent in 2011, according to Rob Reynolds, director of the textbook distributor. Digital textbook sales are expected to rise to more than 50 percent by 2020, he added.

Apple unveiled its digital textbook strategy and self-publishing book software during an event last year at New York's Guggenheim Museum, saying at the time that it would revolutionize education. The electronics maker vowed that eventually, there would be digital textbooks for almost every subject and grade level and that individuals and publishers would use Apple's iBooks Author software to create those books.

Over the past year, Apple's textbook store has grown to about 200 titles from a handful at launch, and thousands of books have been published using iBooks Author.

But even as the market grows, a problem remains that publishers often don't have the tools to make truly interactive books. Publishers have traditionally used Adobe's InDesign to format their titles, but the technology hasn't adapted quite as well to a digital book model. And Apple's iBooks Author doesn't scale well for a large publishing company seeking to overhaul its content.
Inkling hopes Habitat changes all of that.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57568736-93/inkling-takes-on-amazon-apple-with-new-e-book-publishing-tool/

Travel Book Publisher Announces Relaunch of RoughGuides.com and Travel Contest

Source: PR News Wire

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel guidebook publisher Rough Guides recently announced the relaunch of its website, RoughGuides.com. Focusing on an interactive user experience, visitors to the new website can create online profiles, pose travel questions, read new articles daily, and converse with other members and Rough Guides staff, as well as share their own recommendations and reviews.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130212/NY57968LOGO )

Clare Currie , Publishing Director of Travel, DK Publishing, reports that the "(e)arly feedback has been incredibly positive and we hope that the new site will allow us to connect with many new Rough Guiders. At the same time, we're continuing to work through the relaunch of the main Rough Guides series in print – demonstrating that both print and digital can happily coexist."

To kick-off the relaunch, RoughGuides.com has announced The Round-The-World Contest. The RG staff has teamed up with North South Travel to offer one lucky reader – and friend – up to £4000 (or the USD equivalent) to spend on flights and hotels on a trip around the world. The winner will also receive a brand-new iPad and the chance to blog for the website.

Entrants need to sign up to RoughGuides.com and comment on the contest article with 100 words or less on "the place that changed me." The RG staff will pick their favorite entry. The competition went live last week and is open to US and UK residents – see the full terms and conditions here. The competition closes on February 22, 2013.

From trip planning to inspiration to advice, the new RoughGuides.com has it all.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.roughguides.com/

iUniverse joins with Blueink in praising Malta Remembered by Margaret Dexter

iUniverse badged “Malta Remembered” by Margaret Dexter as a Editors Choice book. Now that has been confirmed by Blueink Review who have given the book one of its much sought after red stars in its recent review.

This is what Blueink said:

“Margaret Dexter’s memoir of a year spent living in Malta is both a fond family history and globetrotting travelogue.

In 1963, husband Stillman’s business was booming and he decided the family should live in England for a year. They leased their Santa Barbara home and dove into the experience hungrily, arriving in time to see The Beatles before they were household names. Returning home, they found the business bankrupt and their own prospects grim. To rebuild a nest egg, Stillman took work that placed him in Libya. The separation from his family was too much to endure, so wife, kids and two poodles moved to Malta, which enabled frequent visits. They once again settled in and were loving life when the political climate in Libya forced the family to move yet again. Ever resilient, they packed up and made landfall (eventually) in Connecticut.

Dexter is an assured writer who is selective in choosing her anecdotes and curates them well. Her depictions of travel by train and ocean liner reveal the grit and glamour of both.

The author also captures her family’s quirky personalities neatly on the page. While living abroad, the family is used to being treated with friendly curiosity by neighbors. But when they settle in Connecticut, nobody seems curious about their time in Malta, and Dexter’s choice to bring home their right-hand drive Renault only makes things worse. “The wariness toward new people in their midst made us more than aware that we were those strangers with the weird car—and if Georg (the family’s standard poodle) sat beside me he appeared to be driving.”By the time Stillman passes away from Parkinson’s disease, we know the family so well it feels like losing a friend.

Malta Remembered is a portrait of a place that is no more (the island nation has since joined the European Union), and a striking portrayal of a loving, close-knit family.

Highly recommended for fans of M.F.K. Fisher”

Published by iUniverse, 224 pages, (paperback) $18.95, 9780595453573

(Reviewed: January, 2013)

About the author

The author, Margaret Dexter has been writing since she was a child, starting with an illustrated, hand-written newsletter which she distributed in her locality of Indianapolis, Indiana. Subsequently as a freelance journalist/photographer, she has continued to focus on the cheerier parts of life. She now lives in Connecticut, and her next literary offering is a volume of short stories and essays which she is currently compiling.

In conclusion, iUniverse picked up on the recommendation to M.F.K Fisher fans. Fisher was one of the preeminent American food writers of the 20th century, who no less than the much revered W. H. Auden once remarked:

“I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose.”

iUniverse believes there can be no better reference than that for “Malta Remembered” by self-published author Margaret Dexter!

Publishing Your Book: What Has Changed in 7 Years?

Source: Huffington Post

A lot has changed since I wrote my last book in 2006. When I launched Speed Lead, I was largely reliant on the way the publishing trade worked to promote the book. Books were sent out in the mail to the traditional press for review, launch dates were set to coincide with the publisher's cycle of book fairs and sales force briefings, launch activity was targeted at the traditional print media.

Seven years later, the picture is very different. Even before my new book Making the Matrix Work is published, I can distribute executive summaries via our website, blogs and social media networks and engage in direct conversation with key opinion formers. The value of a good online media source or blog can be higher than that of quality print media as the online links last longer, and can contribute to the ranking of your website.

This brings great opportunities to create engagement and interest, but it also carries some risks.

The first is quality control. There are very few barriers to entry to publishing a book today. The Kindle charts are often full of very low price 'business books' with little way to evaluate quality. Many are very badly written.

In the past, you needed to get past the barrier of professional editors and publishers, who wanted to ensure that the writing was factually correct and edited for errors before they would be prepared to put their name on the cover.

Today, self-publication gives everyone a voice, but makes it hard to tell which voices we should really pay attention to. Not everyone's opinion is equally valid or useful in a world where some people are experts and others really aren't. Of course, if it's an opinion on celebrity or sports, then it may not really matter -- I have lots of opinions about football, but they are based on a complete absence of competence.

The second problem is too much focus: In online bookstores, your book needs to be easily findable. Where my first book (Speed Lead) was about the topic of 'speed' in business -- a broad topic which was attractive to publishers looking for a large market -- I wrote my second book specifically around the kind of questions that I was being asked by clients and other audiences: "How do I make the matrix work?" I also use the word 'matrix manager' in the subtitle because it is the most searched term in this field.

This approach makes books easy to find online, but it also means that you need to be looking specifically to find them. We rely on people knowing they have a problem before they look for the specific solution: If the problem or solution is not specific -- and in the title -- then people may never find it.

If search engines take into account our browsing history and only serve up what they think we already agree with or what we've already shown an interest in, then our media consumption will become increasingly narrow and blinkered. We also need serendipity to be introduced to new ideas, a lot of innovation comes from cross fertilizing one field with a completely different one.

So on balance are these changes good or bad? The democratization of information and ability for everyone to have a voice is clearly a positive development. However, I do think we need help to make sense of all the voices out there and to find some way of filtering the mass of mud to help us find the occasional nugget of gold.

If you follow experts and knowledgeable enthusiasts in social spaces such as Twitter, they keep a close eye on articles, books, etc., in their field of expertise and this can help filter. For example, if you follow me on 'matrix management' you can be pretty sure I'll share any interesting resources I find. (I monitor carefully.)

Do these new tools make a difference to our ability to get books out to a larger audience? I will let you know!

Judge Eileen A. Olds Pens Fresh Guide to Successful Child-Rearing

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (PRWEB) February 13, 2013

“Most people want their child(ren) to stay out of trouble, do well in school and succeed,” Judge Eileen A. Olds states. Presenting an informative go-to, how-to, hope-filled guide, Olds shares her new book, “Twin Expectations: Raising the Bar, Raising Expectations, Raising Children!” (published by iUniverse), to reclaim what she says matters most: “our children.”

The book answers the often-asked question posed to her: “What did your mother do?” when people learn of she and her twin sister’s accomplishments. The author details transferrable tools that rescued them from negative influences and fostered the positive.

Olds and her identical twin sister, Francine, a noted gynecologist, were raised by their single mother to defy lowered expectations rather than succumb to them. If society had its way, neither of them may have succeeded, let alone risen to the top of their professions in such highly-competitive fields.

Combining life-lessons learned from her mother along with her own experiences as a juvenile and family court judge, Olds provides guiding wisdom and practical advice to readers for children-rearing. Her personal stories, told in an inviting,conversational tone, provide direction to parents for helping children gain the confidence to make wise choices, mind their manners, learn to value their families, be resilient, etc.
Advocating love, care and concern, “Twin Expectations” provides a fresh vision for parents and all of those concerned about future generations. When Judge Olds throws her book at you, it is one you will want to catch!

“Twin Expectations”
By Judge Eileen A. Olds
Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 134 pages | ISBN 9781475964707
Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 134 pages | ISBN 9781475964691
E-Book | 134 pages | ISBN 9781475964714
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
Judge Eileen A. Olds earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction from the University of Virginia and a Juris Doctorate from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary. She has been a Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge for more than 17 years. She is past President of the American Judges Association, the largest independent association of judges in the United States and Canada. Olds lives in Chesapeake, Va.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10426711.htm

Gary Griffith announces the release of ‘A House of Stone Is Forever’

Prescott Valley, Ariz. (PRWEB) February 12, 2013

In his new book of short stories “A House of Stone Is Forever: Stories” (published by iUniverse), author Gary Griffith draws from his experiences of growing up in Northern Michigan and the family stories passed down from his parents to create a collection of stories which blends realism with fantasy.

“A House of Stone Is Forever” is a collection of 13 short stories and two novellas, all of which are linked and set in Northern Michigan in the County of Pembroke. It chronicles the Dee family, as well as the lives of others. The first story, “A House of Stone is Forever, Part One,” is set in 1922, and the final story, “A House of Stone is Forever, Part Two: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, “is set in the distant future, during the ice age.

Griffith raises environmental questions in “A House of Stone Is Forever,” but he also explores more experimental, or esoteric themes in the book, giving it a uniquely fascinating appeal. “The stories are rooted in a strong sense of realism, yet there is also an element of myth and romance, especially in the final story,” explains Griffith. “I suppose this is a loose definition of magical realism, but I will not go that far. The stories cross genres. This is nothing new, but it may be new for Michigan regional writers, such as myself.”

“A House of Stone Is Forever”
By Gary Griffith
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 208 pages | ISBN 9781475962468
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 208 pages | ISBN 9781475962451
E-Book | 208 pages | ISBN 9781475962475
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
Gary Griffith has won numerous awards and accolades for his fiction, and his writing has appeared in online publications, including Storyglossia and Zinkzine. A Pushcart nominee, he has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. He is a graduate of the Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. He is married, teaches literature and writing, and lives in Arizona.
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.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10421832.htm

Karen Whitaker Shares Her story of Abortion, Adoption and Single Parenting in New Book

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) February 07, 2013

Confronted with situations some people never experience in a lifetime, Karen Whitaker found herself face to face with three of the most life changing decisions a woman can make.

Whitaker encountered many pivotal choices throughout her life, and her memoir One Woman’s Choice covers her controversial experiences, including abortion, adoption, and single parenthood. Whitaker shows her emotional growth and perseverance after making the difficult decisions that shaped her life into the woman she is today.

“This is not a debate over Pro-choice or Pro-life, but an inspiring example of how a woman can overcome seemingly impossible odds,” said Whitaker.

Whitaker reveals her feelings of emptiness after abortion, joy after experiencing motherhood, the challenges of single parenting, and difficulty to eventual relief after putting her child up for adoption,
“I wanted to be a voice for the many women who have hidden in secret and shame both post abortion woman and post adoption birth mothers),” Whitaker said.

Whitaker hopes to educate readers on the difference between a choice and a mistake, remaining a voice for the many women who have silenced themselves in shame or guilt.

“By bringing awareness to the psychological pain that affects so many young children, I want to help free those children of the shame that is not their burden to carry,” she said.

In addition to women, she also wants to inform men through a woman’s honest point of view.
“Facing the realities of abortion and adoption can empower women and establish a voice of strength that heals the heart and restores faith,” said Whitaker.

One Woman’s Choice
By Karen Whitaker
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5215-5
Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse online bookstores.

About the author:
Karen Whitaker grew up in a small town on the northeastern coast of the United States and has attended classes at Northlake Community College. She worked in the banking industry for the past twenty-five years, was a member of the banks Community Involvement Team and served as Secretary for two years. Whitaker has also volunteered at numerous local and national non-profits, but she now focuses on inspiring women with the publication of her book, One Woman’s Choice.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10398535.htm

Emma Lang keeps her Circle Eight heroes alive

Emma Lang, whose The Circle Eight: Caleb came out last month, joins us to talk about her self-publishing journey …

Emma: The Circle Eight: Caleb is my first full-length self-published novel. It's a leap of faith that I can do this on my own, without a publisher. I've invested money and time, sweat and tears, heart and soul into this book, and in the end, my success or failure is mine to own.

I've self-published three times previously, one short story, one novella and one collection of novellas. I had beautiful covers done by a gifted cover artist and edited by others. Yet Caleb was different. It was a very large egg in the basket.

What basket, you may ask? Why, the basket of books. I have numerous baskets — one for each publisher, of course. Then I have my basket — it's purple and sparkly and carries my very own eggs.

Self-publishing is a brave new world and I've stepped into it carefully. Think of a timid swimmer dipping her toe in the water, then her foot, then the other foot and so on. You get the picture, right? :)

Why am I being so careful? I've seen many self-published books that needed more shine, a good edit (or any edit) and with covers that were less than professional. I didn't want to rush into pushing a book out to make money as quickly as possible. No, my self-published books needed care and feeding, and a deliberate, professional touch that I would be proud to put my name to.

Your next question might be, why Caleb? Why take the third book in a series and self-publish it? Because it was a book that had to be written, the end of the search for the missing Benjamin Graham, and the beginning of a new life for Caleb and Aurora.

Sometimes publishers don't want to continue a series, for various reasons, or the writer does not want to continue with that publisher. In my case, I decided to own it and finish all eight books in the series. That means six of them will be self-published. I signed up for A LOT of work, money out of my pocket for professional services for the cover, editing, promoting, and advertising.

It's worth it. The Circle Eight is a part of me, stories of a family that need to be told. As a reader, I become invested in the series I love. I have that respect for readers of my series. How could I possibly abandon the Grahams or my readers? I couldn't.

Caleb is my shiniest egg in that purple basket. It's the first of the self-published novels for the Grahams and their adventures in the Republic of Texas. I hope everyone is ready for the ride.

Here's the blurb about The Circle Eight: Caleb:

A Texas Ranger, a lady blacksmith, a fierce passion, a dangerous game. Caleb Graham has spent the last four years in too many dangerous situations to count. As a Texas Ranger, he knows no fear, or at least he never shows it. When he's sent to force a blacksmith off government-seized property, he runs face to face into the woman who will change his life.

Aurora Foster grew up on the very land the obnoxious Ranger is trying to throw her off of. Her parents and her husband died for it and there is no chance she would leave without a fight. A lady blacksmith might be an anomaly but she has the strength of the steel she forges and the courage to fight for what she believes is right.

When Aurora is inadvertently injured by Caleb, he seeks medical help from a neighboring ranch. The sprawling hacienda is full of the finer things in life and the one person Caleb never expected to see again … his youngest brother, Benjamin. Forced to flee from a man who has kept the boy captive, the trio become traveling companions in a deadly game where no one wins.

Life turns upside down and sideways for Caleb and Aurora, caught in a game neither of them expected while they desperately try to save the boy who was lost to his family. Pursued and hunted, the three of them ride for the Circle Eight ranch. The unlikely pair of rescuers fight their attraction and for their lives.

To find out more about Emma and her books, you can visit her website, www.bethwilliamson.com.

Why eBook Retailers Are Embracing Self-Published Authors

If anyone doubts the speed at which the epicenter of book publishing is shifting from publishers to self-published authors, look no further than the Apple iBookstore.

Last week, Apple's iBookstore launched Breakout Books in the U.S., a new book merchandising feature that showcases books from popular self-published authors, including several that have already achieved New York Times bestseller status. The New York Times covered the story last week, as did The Wall Street Journal.

Apple's merchandising team hand-picked the titles, all of which have earned high ratings from Apple customers.

Disclosure: Many of the eBooks featured were distributed to Apple by my company, Smashwords.

Although the iBookstore has always carried and supported self-published eBooks, last week's launch signified an escalated commitment on the part of Apple, whose iBookstore currently sells books in 50 countries. The iBookstore first piloted the Breakout Books feature in their Australian store in late November and has since implemented similar ongoing features in Canada and the U.K.

A retailer's merchandising decisions are among the most important levers driving book discovery and sales. Whether you're a traditionally published author or a self-published author, such placement can make your book stand out in a haystack of millions of other books competing for your reader's attention.

Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker/ebook-publishing_b_2663965.html

Self-Publishers Get E-book Conversion Through Bowker and DCL

Source: Publishers Weekly

Self-publishers who register through Bowker's MyIdentifiers.com Web site are now offered Data Conversion Laboratory's EPUB on Demand, the company's e-book conversion capability. "We searched for a reliable service that would enable our customers to retain ownership of their content and consistently produce an accurate, highly useable e-book," said Bowker's Beat Barblan. "We’re pleased to be working with DCL."

“Once an author has decided to self-publish, the next step of creating an eBook alongside print is obvious – it is too big a market. Not too far in the future I believe we’ll drop the “e” and we’ll just have books,” stated DCL CEO Mark Gross.

Building a Better E-Book (Than Amazon and Apple)

Source: Daniel Kucera | Business Week

Rock climbing features a maneuver called a “dyno”: When climbers are too far from the nearest hold above, they have to plant their feet, let go of the rock and leap upward. It sounds straightforward, but when developers at publisher Globe Pequot Press first created a digital version of the book How to Rock Climb!, they struggled to improve on the static illustration of the dyno from the print version. Last May, however, using tools made by software developer and e-book seller Inkling, they were able to make the move come to life with a fast-moving animated sequence of still photos.

Most magazines and newspapers have created good-looking tablet versions with features such as slideshows and videos that readers can’t get in print. But book publishers haven’t been able to capitalize on tablets’ screens and interactive capabilities because software made by Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) doesn’t support some embedded multimedia and can be difficult for multiple developers to use at the same time. Some of the most pictorial—and expensive—books are thrown onto devices with little thought to properly replicating graphics, illustrations, and instructions readers see in print.

Inkling, started by Matt MacInnis, a former senior marketing manager at Apple, is addressing the problem by giving publishers a way to convert some of their highest-margin books into a more dynamic digital form. The San Francisco-based startup’s new Habitat software platform, which it released on Feb. 12 after a private beta test, allows publishers to add high-resolution photos, audible pronunciations of wine varietals, or videos that show how to cut an avocado. “Inkling is going at a unique, high-end interactive experience that you won’t find on many of those other platforms,” says Jerome Grant, chief learning officer in Pearson’s (PSON) education division, which has invested in Inkling.

The company has teamed up with publishers, including McGraw-Hill (MHP) and Walters Kluwer (WKL) (in addition to Pearson), in an attempt to gain a portion of the U.S. e-book market, which Forrester Research projects will reach $13.6 billion by 2017. Inkling takes a royalty of at least 30 percent from every sale.

Inkling is focused on textbooks, how-to guides, and cookbooks, which means many novels and other books that Kindle users are accustomed to consuming on e-readers won’t be included. “We’re not interested in pumping a bunch of text files into our platform,” MacInnis says. Starting today, the company also will make portions of books searchable on Google (GOOG). When someone searches an excerpt about treatments for asthma, for example, a chapter from a medical text could come up. Readers will have five clicks of interactive features within a chapter until they have to purchase the chapter or the book. “Publishers will have direct access to consumers, they’ll have access to data about how their content is performing, and they’ll be able to monetize through the world’s largest storefront, which we think is Google,” says McInnis, “as opposed to Amazon’s walled garden or Apple’s walled garden.”

Consumers can buy Inkling books through the Google search results page (through Inkling’s payment platform), from the Inkling’s website, or from a publisher’s online store. The books are readable through the Inkling app on the iPad, IPhone, and PC. On Android devices, users have to access the books through the web browser.

Because of the interactive features, many of the books, whose prices are set by the publishers, are more expensive than the Kindle Fire and iPad versions. How to Rock Climb! costs $18.99 on Inkling, compared with $9.99 on Amazon. Other book sellers have set prices that are closer to Amazon’s, like the cookbook Put ‘em Up!, published by Storey Publishing, which costs $12.99 on Inkling and $9.99 on the Kindle. MacInnis says he supports publishers being able to choose their prices, since they can’t on Amazon.

Inkling is for now an addition to—not a replacement for—book sellers such as Amazon. “We work with almost every distributor out there and find our business solutions with them,” Grant says. But MacInnis is looking forward to a day when his company, which began developing e-books in 2009, can match up with the giants of the e-book world. “Publishers can build content on our system and they can sell that content directly to consumers before it ever gets to Amazon,” he says. “They’ve all these years been a passenger in the airplane, and now we’ve handed them the flight manual. That’s a big deal.”

Penguin India launches self-publishing platform

Source: Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Penguin India today launched its self-publishing platform, Partridge, in the country in partnership with US-based firm Author Solutions Inc.

Penguin's parent company Pearson had acquired Author Solutions, a self-publishing major, for USD 116 million last year.

"We get a lot of manuscripts every month. So, we know there is a huge writing community here. However, all the authors do not necessarily have the opportunity to get published through traditional publishing houses," Penguin Group (India) CEO and President Andrew Phillips told PTI.

Through Partridge, Indian authors will be able to access a wide range of professional editorial, publishing and marketing services, enabling them to get their books published and distributed in both digital and print formats, he added.

India is the first country where Partridge has been rolled out. The publishing house plans to expand it to other countries as well.

"Partridge's next destination will be South Africa," Phillips said.

He said there is an increasing interest in reading and writing in the country and hence the Partridge has been launched first here.

ASI has published 170,000 authors and over 200,00 books around the world in the last three years.

Partridge is a services-based model and writers can choose from six different packages priced between Rs 12,450 and Rs 149,950.

The company will offer a services like one-on-one author support, worldwide distribution, book cover design services along with marketing strategy.

Phillips added that the company expects to complete merger with German media group Random House this year.

In October last year, Penguin and Random House had announced a 2.4 billion pound merger deal that will create the biggest book publisher in the world.

The new company would be run as a joint venture known as Penguin Random House. The German media giant Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, will hold 53 per cent stake in the JV, while Pearson will hold 47 per cent.

Author Solutions Helping Make Hollywood More Accessible to Authors with Book-to-Screen PitchFest Las Vegas

Bloomington, IND (PRWEB) February 06, 2013

Author Solutions, Inc. (ASI), the world leader in indie book publishing, today announced it will be bringing its popular Book-to-Screen PitchFest back to Las Vegas. The sold-out ASI-hosted event offers authors the rare and unique opportunity to bring their story ideas face-to-face with representatives with some of the most influential entertainment industry executives. PitchFest Las Vegas will be held at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, conveniently located on the Las Vegas Strip, on February 8-9.

Past PitchFest events in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York made it possible for authors to deliver their story ideas for movie and TV show adaptation directly to Hollywood decision-makers. Just like the previous events, PitchFest Las Vegas 2013 is designed as both an educational and pitching experience, where authors participate in group instructional sessions, allowing them to refine their pitches before delivering them to the representatives in attendance.

All 150 expected attendees will deliver their refined pitches to at least seven industry professionals representing different entertainment-based companies. The two authors who garner the most positive response will have the exclusive opportunity to pitch to Meredith Vieira, whose production company, Meredith Vieira Productions, will consider their pitches for further development as film or television projects.
“PitchFest provides authors genuine access to Hollywood decision-makers that, until recently, seemed completely out of reach,” said Caroline Weiss, ASI’s director of film and new media. “The success of ASI’s previous PitchFest events demonstrates that there is a real demand for this service on both ends. Authors are very eager to have their books considered for development, and Hollywood is continually searching for new ideas; it was a natural fit.”

PitchFest Las Vegas begins with a learning workshop where “The King of the Pitch,” producer Robert Kosberg, teaches authors how to formulate an effective, compelling pitch. Participants are then given the opportunity to create or rework their story pitches before delivering them in a practice round to either Kosberg, Weiss, or ASI senior vice-president of marketing, Keith Ogorek. Then finally, in speed-dating fashion, the authors will each have two minutes to deliver their fine-tuned book pitches to representatives from the participating entertainment companies. Prior to the event, ASI will register all participating authors’ books with the Writer’s Guild of America Idea Registration database to protect the authors’ intellectual property.

The five past PitchFest events have generated more than 500 requests from the Hollywood executives on more than 286 different titles. Among the various success stories, author Trisha Ventker’s book, “Internet Dates from Hell,” was optioned by Paula Wagner’s production company and is currently in development; author Alyson Mead’s book “Searching for Sassy” was optioned by Tagline pictures; and Travieso Productions, George Lopez’s production company, is attached to author Humberto G. Garcia’s title, “Mustang Miracle.”

Book-to-Screen PitchFest Las Vegas is available exclusively to ASI and ASI partner imprint authors. For more information about ASI, ASI’s partner brands or for information about self-publishing, visit http://www.authorsolutions.com.

About Author Solutions, Inc.
Author Solutions, Inc. (ASI) is a member of the Penguin Group and is the world leader in indie book publishing. ASI’s leading self-publishing imprints—AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, iUniverse, Palibrio, Trafford Publishing and Xlibris—have helped more than 160,000 authors self-publish, promote and bring to market more than 200,000 new titles. Through strategic alliances with leading trade publishers, ASI is making it possible to develop new literary talent efficiently and provide authors with a platform for bringing their books to market. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, ASI’s global reach includes imprints developed specifically for authors in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit http://www.authorsolutions.com, and follow @authorsolutions on Twitter for the latest news.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10401113.htm

Why Traditional Publishing Is Really In A ‘Golden Age’

How healthy is the traditional publishing industry? Not very, says Mark Coker, founder of the self-published book distributor Smashwords. On Monday, Coker told NPR’s Audie Cornish that “over the next few years, traditional publishers are going to become more and more irrelevant.”

But Michael Pietsch, soon-to-be CEO of the traditional publisher Hachette Book Group, disagrees. “I think we’re in a golden age for books — reading, writing and publishing,” he tells Cornish. “And the ways that publishers can work to connect readers with writers now are the kinds of things that publishers have dreamt of doing since Gutenberg first put down a line of type.”

Take, for example, the trend of big publishers picking up profitable, self-published best-sellers. Coker argues that, in the future, those authors will be less inclined to to sign a big publishing deal.

“You’re going to earn four to five times more per unit that you sell than you will if you work with a traditional publisher,” he explains. “Traditional publishers only pay 25 percent net, whereas as a self-published author, you’re going to earn 100 percent net.”

But Pietsch says there’s still a big advantage to a traditional publishing deal for those authors: “Part of the reason it works so well is when it happens it’s a great PR story — the press loves to pick up the story of the writer who sold the book out the trunk of their car or out of their garage and then made it into a mainstream publishing deal, as happened recently with E.L. James [author of Fifty Shades of Grey], famously and hugely.”

Pietsch joins Cornish to discuss how the Internet has helped open doors for the industry, rather than close them.

Read more http://kosu.org/2013/02/why-traditional-publishing-is-really-in-a-golden-age/

Apple Highlights Self-Published Authors, Frames iBooks As A Viable Kindle Direct Publishing Alternative

Source: Darrell Etherington

Apple has collected a selection of self-published titles on the iBookstore under a new “Breakout Books” section. The section is intended to give special attention to “emerging talents,” according to Apple, and each is both independently published and highly rated by users. Some are free, most are cheap, and the effort looks like an attempt to remind users that just like Amazon, Apple’s digital bookstore is an opportunity for independent authors to find an audience.

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program has been a big hit for the online retailer. While the effect for self-publishing authors is debatable, there’s no denying that Amazon has added another lucrative revenue stream to its existing deals with established publishing houses through the effort. Individual success stories might still be relatively rare, but Amazon itself is winning out through the cumulative 30 percent cut it’s taking in on KDP titles. Seeking Alpha estimated that Amazon makes around $48 million a month in revenues from the program, or around $10 million in profit to its bottom line. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s a growing revenue source where there was none before.

Apple’s iBooks author promised to be an app that would make it easy for authors to self-publish and submit books directly to the iTunes store on their Macs, but efforts to reach out to self-published authors on iBooks haven’t caught on quite as quickly, at least not in terms of mind share with indie authors. Showcasing content from those kinds of creators is a good way for Apple to attract more of that content to the iBookstore, and possibly make up some ground on Amazon in this regard.

Harbour Publishing acquires Douglas & McIntyre

Source: Mark Medley

Who says the dream of an independent Canadian publishing industry is dead?

Less than one week after the assets of Greystone Books were acquired by Heritage House Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre has been purchased by fellow British Columbia indie Harbour Publishing.

“Either Rob Sanders and I are nuts, or there is more life in this beast than people thought,” says Howard White, who founded Harbour Publishing with his wife Mary in 1974. “I prefer to think the latter.”

The deal includes the rights to the D&M name, the company’s back catalogue and all books under contract — 500 altogether, according to White. Authors who have published with Douglas & McIntyre include Johanna Skibsrud, Richard Wagamese, Wayson Choy, Douglas Coupland, and Will Ferguson.

White says Douglas & McIntyre will be run as a separate company.

“I don’t kid myself in thinking it’s not still a great loss, that D&M as it was constituted, is going to be no more,” he says. “But given that that happened, I think we’ve gotten as good a result as we could expect, with all those books staying in B.C. and two fairly solid presses committed to keeping the programs going.”

The deal still requires court approval, something White anticipates will happen in the next two weeks.

White says that Harbour “will be expanding [its] staff,” which currently boasts 12 employees. He anticipates the majority of the spring list will be published as previously scheduled, “provided we can reach satisfactory deals with the authors.”

Harbour Publishing is primarily known as a regional press, specializing in nature books, poetry, travel, and books about British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

White declined to reveal what he paid for the assets, but says there are no outside investors.

“It’s just something we just really strongly believe in, and feel needs to be done,” says White, who is an award-winning author himself. “And we’re in the position to do it. We probably could make more return on our money by putting it in the bank. But then I’ve always known that about publishing. But that’s not the point. The point is to keep Douglas & McIntyre going.”

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, D&M co-founder Scott McIntyre said that “the successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms that the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the future. I am particularly pleased that both imprints will go forward under new British Columbia ownership with energetic ongoing publishing programs. It is a bonus that both will remain blessed by superior national sales and distribution support. In perilous times for independent publishers everywhere, this is very good news for our writers, for their books, for the legacy of D&M’s forty year publishing record, and for Canada.”

Yudu Media

YUDU (YUDU Media LLC) is a multinational private company headquartered in London, United Kingdom that develops and supports the YUDU Self Publishing platform for computer, iPad and iPhone. The company's best-known products include YUDU Library & YUDU Pro. Its most profitable product is YUDU Pro.

The company was first launched under the name Digital Alternatives Ltd in early 1997. In April 2002, the company was relaunched as YUDU Media.

YUDUfree

YUDUfree is a collaborated digital library offering a collection of digital magazines, brochures, catalogues and eBooks. YUDU's free digital publishing platform allows users to publish contents and store in the YUDU library. Users can browse through contents across the platform and save desired contents into their personalized YUDU library. Authors can choose to make publications private or public to other users, or sell it through YUDU by upgrading to YUDUplus, or YUDUpro.

About Us

YUDU is a publishing support service provider, enabling professional publishers, brand owners, marketers and retailers to publish interactive, rich media content to the Web, mobile and tablet. Use the YUDU cloud publishing platform to publish your magazines, catalogues, brochures and books in multiple digital formats.

The YUDU cloud publishing platform was launched in 2007 and has since published over half a million publications for some of the largest brands and publishing houses in the world. The platform places our customers in complete control to publish content to the Web and also directly into branded apps on the App Store. After having a branded container app created by YUDU, our customers are then able to use the cloud publishing platform to upload new content, add interactive elements and then publish directly into the apps that are live on the App Store or downloaded onto user's devices. For those who would prefer not to self-publish, YUDU also offers a full bureau service.

We also provide a range of solutions for illustrated book publishers to monetise their content digitally, including fixed format ePub for the iBookstore, standard ePub for other book aggregators such as the Kindle Store, and multi-book apps for the App Store.

YUDU Media also provides free web edition publishing on a peer-to-peer site, YUDUfree.com, the content library and marketplace that lets people publish, share and sell their creations.

Our Mission

To develop and deliver cloud-based software and services for the publishing industry that provide genuine benefits for our clients and excite and inspire the consumers of our solutions.

To build a profitable, resilient, growing and environmentally responsible enterprise that commands unqualified respect from clients, users, employees, partners, competitors and suppliers.

Xulon Press

Xulon Press (pronounced "zoo-lon”) bills itself as "the largest publisher of Christian books in North America", claiming more than 3,900 titles published by 2007. It has published more than 3,900 print-on-demand titles in the categories of Christian living, theology, church growth, discipleship, Bible studies, fiction, poetry, biographies, and others. For a fixed fee the press will publish an author's finished manuscript in paperback, hard cover, and electronic form. Once published, customers may order the book directly from online retailers, and retailers may order the book through distributors.

Xulon Press is a member of the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA)[citation needed] and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). Xulon Press makes authors' books available through distribution agreements with Ingram Distributors, Spring Arbor Distributors, and Amazon.com.

About Xulon Press

Xulon Press is the largest Christian Self-Publishing company owned and operated by Salem Communications. We have self-published over 10,000 Christian authors since 2001.

Are you looking for a Christian book publisher? Have you submitted your manuscript to dozens of publishing companies only to be turned away, time and time again? If so, Xulon Press could be the answer to your prayers.

Title-for-title, Xulon Press is the largest publisher of Christian books in North America. The original on-demand book publisher for aspiring Christian authors, we've helped more than 6,000 authors and printed 150,000,000 book pages. Read some of our Christian Self Publishing Success Stories.

Founded by Christian author and publisher Tom Freiling, Xulon is now a part of Salem Communications Corporation. Salem is the country's leading Christian communications company with interests in radio, Internet, and magazine publishing. This means you can rest easy; Salem is a fast-growing and financially secure company with a successful 40-year track record. Find out more about Salem Communications.

Xulon Press authors have appeared on CNN, FOX News, TBN, The 700 Club, Family Life Radio, and on James Dobson's Focus on the Family. In addition, book reviews and articles have been published about Xulon books in Christianity Today; Charisma; The Washington Post; Wall Street Journal;, and in a host of other newspapers, magazines, and journals. Each and every day Xulon receives orders from retailers including Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Family Christian Stores, and hundreds of independent bookstores and churches. For additional information on Xulon authors, be sure to check out the recent Author Press Releases.

Our expert staff has more than 150 years' combined experience in the Christian book publishing industry. They are professional, courteous, and helpful. Xulon was recently awarded "Best Christian Workplace" in the largest survey ever conducted on the attitudes of employees at Christian workplaces, commissioned by Christianity Today magazine.

Xlibris

Xlibris is a Bloomington, Indiana-based self-publishing and on-demand printing services provider founded in 1997. As of 2000, The New York Times stated it to be the foremost on-demand publisher. The founder and chief executive is John Feldcamp.


Overview

Xlibris is a printing and distribution service that produces hardback and paperback books. As of 2000, it also published e-books in several formats. The company was acquired by self-publishing leader Author Solutions, Inc. on Jan. 8, 2009. Prior to that, it had been 49%-owned by Random House.

Authors do not relinquish their rights, and the company will keep books in print "forever".[4] It is "nonselective" in accepting manuscripts, describes itself as a publishing services provider rather than a publisher, and considers a book's author its publisher. Beginning in 2000, the company expanded its operations globally, opening full-service offices in Europe and Japan.

As of 2008, Xlibris was stated to have 20,000 titles in print, by more than 18,000 authors.

The name is a derivation of the Latin term ex libris which means "from the library of".

Reception

In a New York Times article, D.T. Max stated that the quality of Xlibris's books was better than its competitors in the self-publishing industry: "It wasn't until I got to Xlibris that I found something to read." Sampling two titles, one of which had won an award in 1996, Max concluded that Xlibris "confirms that books worth reading do not always find a way into print." However, Max criticized the organization of the site, where books were only indexed by an alphabetical listing by title with bare descriptions of the plot and theme. He ultimately phoned a company executive for a recommendation and to place an order.

Science fiction author Piers Anthony was an early supporter of print-on-demand, and invested in Xlibris, as well as publishing books through the company. Anthony differentiates Xlibris from "notorious vanity publishing" because it "enables any writer to publish for a nominal fee", rather than being "taken for huge amounts". The company says that it does not require authors to buy "box loads of books", and unlike vanity presses, will help the author sell books indefinitely.

Roland LaPlante, writing in Harper's Magazine, noted in 2001 that Xlibris's predicted future output of 100,000 titles a year would equal the number of all books published in the United States in 1999, and worried these "mostly dubious" works would "affect American publishing in every worst way and obliterate what remains of a genuine book culture."The company countered that "everyone has a story to tell" and its output preserved the "richness of humanity".

Status as a vanity press

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a vanity press as "a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense". While Xlibris does charge fees up front for authors, they claim not to be a vanity press on the grounds of that ownership of the book remains with the author and that they do not force the author to buy copies of the book. On the other side of the debate, they do charge up-front fees without guarantee of sales with these fees possibly significantly higher than average.

Tate Publishing

Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC is a Christian publisher that prints books of all types. In general, it operates on the vanity press model in which most authors pay for the publication of their books. Its publishing charges may be refunded for books with sufficient sales volumes, and Tate has used a traditional publishing model for some of its authors including Joe Washington and Shane Hamman.

The company was founded by Richard and Rita Tate and is located in Mustang, Oklahoma, USA; the same company also runs the Tate Music Group record label. As of 2009, the company had doubled its operations since 2007.

In May 2012 the company fired 25 of its employees, out of over 200. According to the company president, the firing was a disciplinary action rather than a layoff, in response to employee leaks of confidential information related to rumors that the company would be outsourcing its operations to the Philippines.

Smashwords

Smashwords (Smashwords, Inc.), based in Los Gatos, California, is an ebook self-publishing and distribution platform founded by Mark Coker. The company began public operation in 2008.

Smashwords is a self-serve publishing service. Authors upload their manuscripts as Microsoft Word files to the Smashwords service, which converts the files into multiple ebook formats for reading on various ebook reading devices. Once published, the books are made available for sale online at a price set by the author. Smashwords does not use DRM.

History

Coker began work on Smashwords in 2005 and officially launched the website in May 2008. Within the first seven months of launching, the website published 140 books. Due to initially low profits, Coker switched to a distribution model that offered retailers a "30% commission in exchange for digital shelf space". Smashwords achieved a profit in 2010 and has partnered with Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Sony. In 2012, Smashwords announced that it would potentially partner with 3M Cloud Library, which would allow for the option for their authors' books to be available in libraries, and that it had reached about 127,000 titles by 44,000 authors.

Authors

Some Smashwords authors distribute free copies of their books via lotteries at such sites as LibraryThing and Goodreads, in exchange for reader reviews. Smashwords reports they are the leading distributor for indie authors.

PublishAmerica

PublishAmerica is a Maryland-based print-on-demand book publisher founded in 1999 by Lawrence Alvin "Larry" Clopper III and Willem Meiners (born Amsterdam 6 January 1949). Some writers and authors' advocates have accused the company of being a vanity press while representing itself as a "traditional publisher".

PublishAtlantica was an imprint of PublishAmerica. PublishAtlantica claimed to be headquartered in the UK in Milton Keynes. It was formerly PublishBritannica before a lawsuit from Encyclopædia Britannica. PublishIcelandica was another imprint of PublishAmerica. According to a letter from PublishAmerica in 2006, neither imprint is active.

History

As of 2004, the current executive director of PublishAmerica was Miranda N. Prather. In 2004, Prather stated that 80% of authors who submitted manuscripts to the house were rejected, and that the house had "30 full-time editors" with plans to expand. She also refused to identify the CEO of PublishAmerica. In 2005, the company had 70 full-time employees of various functions.

In 2004, PublishAmerica published small runs of over 4,800 titles (compared to Random House's 3,500 titles). In 2005, the company had approximately 11,000 authors under contract.

In June 2005, PublishAmerica identified Willem Meiners as "PublishAmerica CEO" and Clopper as "company president".

In August 2005, PublishAmerica was sued by Encyclopædia Britannica for trademark violation over PublishAmerica's PublishBritannica imprint. The matter was settled out of court, with PublishAmerica agreeing to stop using the "PublishBritannica" name. However, PublishAmerica continued to use the website address on letterhead as late as 2008.

In late September 2005, PublishAmerica announced its books would be returnable by the bookseller if they failed to sell, a standard practice among other commercial publishers. The announcement stated that this applied to "all" of its books, though it noted that there would be "a few exceptions initially" and that the offer would apply to United States booksellers only. PA's site now says that "many of our books are returnable."

Outskirts Press

Outskirts Press is a Denver, Colorado-based book publisher which caters to self-publishing authors.
The company is based in Parker, Colorado, and offers print on demand self-publishing services, wholesale digital distribution to Ingram Content Group and Baker & Taylor, and online-order fulfillment.

Around 150 contractors (as of July 2007) throughout the United States are used to assist authors with production issues such as editing, formatting, illustrations and cover design. The company also provides other production and marketing services, such as preparing illustrations for children’s books, viral video distribution of book videos on social networking sites, and the services of a Personal Marketing Assistant.
In 2004, Outskirts Press and F&W Media reached a sponsorship agreement whereby Outskirts Press would publish the annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition Collection.

The company was founded by an author, Brent Sampson, as a result of his frustration in trying to get his own work published, and incorporated in 2003. Between 2004 and 2007 revenue rose rapidly, from $95,000 to $3.2 million and in 2007 the Denver Business Journal recognised it as the third fastest-growing privately held company in the state.

In 2009, Outskirts Press was recognized by Inc. 500 (which is charged with delivering "advice, tools, and services, to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully.") as the fastest-growing self publishing company.

Lulu

Lulu (Lulu Enterprises, Inc. and Lulu Press, Inc. are collectively called "Lulu") is a company offering publishing, printing, and distribution services with headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since their founding in 2002, Lulu has published over 1.1 million titles by authors in over 200 countries and territories and adds 20,000 new titles to their catalogue a month. In addition to printing and publishing services it also offers online order fulfillment. The company's CEO is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young.

Authors who publish/print materials and similar works through Lulu retain the copyrights to such materials and similar works.

Optional services offered by the company include ISBN assignment, and distribution of books to retailers requesting specific titles (returns are not accepted, which limits distribution to physical bookstores). Electronic distribution is also available.

Lulu Enterprises was founded in early 2002. OpenMind Publishing, founded by Bradley Schultz and Paul Elliot, merged its publishing company and staff with Lulu in the latter part of 2002. OpenMind Publishing was a publisher of customized texts for college professors.

Overview

Lulu offers publishing services for self-publishers, for outside publishing companies, and for other businesses.Lulu operates primarily in five different functions: (1) acts as a publishing company by offering the Published by Lulu option; (2) as a co-publisher working in conjunction with outside publishing companies; (3) a service-provider for publishing and printing needs of outside publishing companies; (4) a tool for self-publishers, and (5) a technology company.

Lulu's ordering-and-publishing system is automated and authors can communicate with Lulu exclusively via the Internet.

If the author elects to place items such as books, eBooks, calendars, etc. on Lulu's website "market place" then any registered Lulu user may make and pay for orders online. There is an additional process and fee for books to be distributed beyond the website to outlets such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Publications

Lulu focuses on conventional books, which it can print in various sizes, in paperback or hardback, in black-and-white or in glossy full-color. Lulu also publishes calendars and eBooks. Media type options are available to authors. For example, an author uploading a novel can select a type of binding, layout style, and even among predefined cover art if desired, and can set the amount of author margin desired. An author can upload a file in .pdf format (or can choose to have Lulu convert it), and can download and view the uploaded or converted file.

Lulu publishes a very wide range of subject matter, ranging from information technology to self-help to alternative topics that might not capture the attention of mainstream publishers. Titles range from the medieval recipe book How to Cook a Peacock to Depths and Details: A Reader’s Guide to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.[5] Other books deal with serious but niche topics; when interviewed by The Times, Young cited "the example of a Los Alamos scientist who has written a work that he regards as being of interest to only 160 people in the world and he knows 148 of them personally. 'That community needs this book.' "[5]
Late in 2009, Lulu began selling electronic books that had already been published, with 200,000 selections from authors such as Dan Brown and Malcolm Gladwell and entering competition with Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Process

Authors are guided by menus and instructions on the website as they upload files. Material is submitted in digital form for hard publication. Uploaded items that are not distributed beyond Lulu are immediately available for order and the author is not required to purchase a copy. However distributed items require the author to first order a draft and to approve it. In either case uploaded files will be published verbatim and unedited within the limits of the technology to do so. A live, online chat-service is available to help customers navigate the instructions posted on the website.

The author is not assigned a contact person such as an editor. This approach reduces support and editing costs and thus provides access to publishing to those who would otherwise not be willing or able to afford a self-publishing press or find an accommodating conventional publisher.

Potential customers must first create an account with a user name and password before ordering or paying for any item. Lulu keeps no inventory, instead orders are placed in a queue at a contracted print-on-demand printer, in a system referred to as "POD." Printing takes approximately 3 to 7 business days,[8] after which the finished product is shipped. There can be small variations in published material when the job is moved from one contract printer to another.

When a book or project for distribution beyond Lulu's website is first entered, or when it is revised, the author is required to purchase a draft copy and then approve it. The draft copy goes through the regular order process with approximately one or two weeks delay for printing followed by shipping time. The author may approve the draft by checking a box on the 'project page' for the book, or the author may enter a revision. After entering a revision, a new draft copy must be ordered according to the regular order process. This is true whether the revision is one letter, the whole text, or even just the price. This procedure is repeated until a final draft is approved. According to the Lulu website, shipping of the final project (upon order) occurs approximately another six to eight weeks after the final draft is approved, online, by the author. Thus, a book with one revision and one week for shipping, without including any time for the review, may take up to 14 weeks time or more as per the website guidelines.
[edit]Costs and pricing

The retail price for the published item is determined based on printing costs, the author's selected profit margin, and the fee charged by the distributor for distributed items. Printing costs for books are correlated to the page count, paper size, binding type, and color or black-and-white print. The author's margin is partitioned into 80% for the author and 20% for Lulu. It follows that Lulu claims no commission if the work is offered free of royalties. Lulu also offers free ISBN assignment and makes publications available on Amazon.com if the author so wishes. eBooks are also made available on iTunes and Barnes&Noble.com at no charge to the author if they so desire.

While Lulu does not charge for uploading material, a number of other fee-related services are offered, including cover design, general marketing, and making publications available through Barnes&Noble.com and other online retailers. Lulu also maintains an online store, "Lulu Marketplace," which offers publications for sale on their website at no up-front charge to the author, collects payments, and tracks royalties.