My Writing and the Indie Scene (such as it is)

This post got me thinking about a lot of things, mostly writing related.

Of course, I've been thinking about my writing, which, BTW, now includes another WIP, a paranormal suspense, that's actually based on a short story I tried to submit mucho years ago.  It was rejected by a few different ezines and print zines, and I let it slip by the wayside.

I think I know why: it wasn't good enough.  I thought it was.  After all, I'd just sold my First. Ever. Short. to an ezine...after only submitting it to three places.  Yeah, I was high on myself, and was brought waaay down to Earth after those rejections.

So I moved on to novels.

Novel In Progress Number 1

This is one I originally started years ago.  It had a time travel element to it (a woman going back in time to 1942 to see her birth mother, also, a Roman deity :-)), but I started reading articles about different things I needed to do (or so I thought) or have in the story, so I chucked in just about anything I could think of.

What a bloated mess.

Well, I resurrected that this past year, completely reworking it, thanks to a writing instructor whose only question was how timely and up to date the time travel element was in fantasy books.  My reading time is small at the moment, but I've been a voracious reader in the past, and I know I'll get back to that way at some point...so my look at recent fantasy books made me conclude to drop that altogether.

Remember that for the next section of this post.

I think it's progressing very well, with a few bumps, but I'll deal with that AFTER I've finished the first draft.

I haven't done any writing in that in about a week or so, because of that short story I mentioned earlier.

Novel In Progress Number 2

Which takes me to my second novel.  I originally thought it would be a novella, which Wikipedia says has between 17,500 and 40,000 words.  Now I'm not so sure.  It might get to novel length (over 40,000 words) because I've been working like a nut case to get it done.

Words so far this week: 2,500.  Don't know what chapter I'm up to, as I haven't figured that out as yet.  But the words are flowing, which is more important.

As I said above, it's a paranormal suspense, like this one, and this one.  All right, not exactly, lol.  The paranormal elements are there, including the protagonist, who has powers to undo dark auras, which can induce people to kill; some romance, with a hunky guy who has a leg prosthesis (the romantic element is NOT of the Happily Every After (HEA) variety; and a creepy guy who's the landlord of the building the hunky guy lives in.  Oh, he's got a grisly, um, habit, that was suggested to me by a Beatles tune (I won't say which one).  Not that this particular Beatles tune has anything grisly in the lyrics; it's one of their most wistful almost melancholy tunes, I think.

The New Indie Scene

With lots of sales of The Kindle ebook reader last Christmas, tons of people started to download ebooks from Amazon.  And figure in Barnes and Noble's Nook.  And smartphones.

You get the idea.

Amanda Hocking is the current darling of the self pubbing scene, having sold a boatload of ebooks.  Her key was to upload a slew of books in the same series (YA paranormal, I believe), and enough people decided to give it a whirl that she was number one on Amazon's Kindle bestselling ebooks list for weeks.

Now you're wondering...where is this leading to?  (If you've already figured it out, skip this sentence. ;-))

I'm not getting any younger, and my health has come into question a lot lately - I'm not ready to kick the bucket yet, and intend to be around for a looong time - so I'm considering other ideas.  Nothing is set in granite at this point, but I like to explore everything that's available.  And ebooks - Kindle, Nook, whatever - are a big thing at the moment.

I'll just continue to gather facts and opinions before doing anything.  Part of that fact finding mission was accomplished over the weekend: I bought two Kindle-formatted ebooks off of Smashwords.  Why there and not Amazon?  Because Amazon doesn't use PayPal and Smashwords does.

I downloaded To Kill a Warlock, by H. P. Mallory (great cover, BTW) and Loose Ends, by Terri Reid.  The first is an urban fantasy (which I thought I didn't care for), while the second is a paranormal mystery.  Both women decided now was the time to get their stories out there, instead of going through the query agent/submit to publisher grind.  I admire them both for deciding to go this route, because it's not an easy thing, ESPECIALLY if you've heard for quite a while that getting an agent is not only a pain in the ass but they can do some horrid things to your royalty statements (I'll probably do a post on that sometime).  Submitting directly to publishers ain't easy, either; most have eliminated their slush piles (with the agents now in charge of that).

I haven't gotten through either book as yet, but when I do, I'll do reviews.

In the meantime, you simply have to see this fun cover of Ms. Mallory's (which she did herself!):

My Writing and the Indie Scene (such as it is)

This post got me thinking about a lot of things, mostly writing related.

Of course, I've been thinking about my writing, which, BTW, now includes another WIP, a paranormal suspense, that's actually based on a short story I tried to submit mucho years ago.  It was rejected by a few different ezines and print zines, and I let it slip by the wayside.

I think I know why: it wasn't good enough.  I thought it was.  After all, I'd just sold my First. Ever. Short. to an ezine...after only submitting it to three places.  Yeah, I was high on myself, and was brought waaay down to Earth after those rejections.

So I moved on to novels.

Novel In Progress Number 1

This is one I originally started years ago.  It had a time travel element to it (a woman going back in time to 1942 to see her birth mother, also, a Roman deity :-)), but I started reading articles about different things I needed to do (or so I thought) or have in the story, so I chucked in just about anything I could think of.

What a bloated mess.

Well, I resurrected that this past year, completely reworking it, thanks to a writing instructor whose only question was how timely and up to date the time travel element was in fantasy books.  My reading time is small at the moment, but I've been a voracious reader in the past, and I know I'll get back to that way at some point...so my look at recent fantasy books made me conclude to drop that altogether.

Remember that for the next section of this post.

I think it's progressing very well, with a few bumps, but I'll deal with that AFTER I've finished the first draft.

I haven't done any writing in that in about a week or so, because of that short story I mentioned earlier.

Novel In Progress Number 2

Which takes me to my second novel.  I originally thought it would be a novella, which Wikipedia says has between 17,500 and 40,000 words.  Now I'm not so sure.  It might get to novel length (over 40,000 words) because I've been working like a nut case to get it done.

Words so far this week: 2,500.  Don't know what chapter I'm up to, as I haven't figured that out as yet.  But the words are flowing, which is more important.

As I said above, it's a paranormal suspense, like this one, and this one.  All right, not exactly, lol.  The paranormal elements are there, including the protagonist, who has powers to undo dark auras, which can induce people to kill; some romance, with a hunky guy who has a leg prosthesis (the romantic element is NOT of the Happily Every After (HEA) variety; and a creepy guy who's the landlord of the building the hunky guy lives in.  Oh, he's got a grisly, um, habit, that was suggested to me by a Beatles tune (I won't say which one).  Not that this particular Beatles tune has anything grisly in the lyrics; it's one of their most wistful almost melancholy tunes, I think.

The New Indie Scene

With lots of sales of The Kindle ebook reader last Christmas, tons of people started to download ebooks from Amazon.  And figure in Barnes and Noble's Nook.  And smartphones.

You get the idea.

Amanda Hocking is the current darling of the self pubbing scene, having sold a boatload of ebooks.  Her key was to upload a slew of books in the same series (YA paranormal, I believe), and enough people decided to give it a whirl that she was number one on Amazon's Kindle bestselling ebooks list for weeks.

Now you're wondering...where is this leading to?  (If you've already figured it out, skip this sentence. ;-))

I'm not getting any younger, and my health has come into question a lot lately - I'm not ready to kick the bucket yet, and intend to be around for a looong time - so I'm considering other ideas.  Nothing is set in granite at this point, but I like to explore everything that's available.  And ebooks - Kindle, Nook, whatever - are a big thing at the moment.

I'll just continue to gather facts and opinions before doing anything.  Part of that fact finding mission was accomplished over the weekend: I bought two Kindle-formatted ebooks off of Smashwords.  Why there and not Amazon?  Because Amazon doesn't use PayPal and Smashwords does.

I downloaded To Kill a Warlock, by H. P. Mallory (great cover, BTW) and Loose Ends, by Terri Reid.  The first is an urban fantasy (which I thought I didn't care for), while the second is a paranormal mystery.  Both women decided now was the time to get their stories out there, instead of going through the query agent/submit to publisher grind.  I admire them both for deciding to go this route, because it's not an easy thing, ESPECIALLY if you've heard for quite a while that getting an agent is not only a pain in the ass but they can do some horrid things to your royalty statements (I'll probably do a post on that sometime).  Submitting directly to publishers ain't easy, either; most have eliminated their slush piles (with the agents now in charge of that).

I haven't gotten through either book as yet, but when I do, I'll do reviews.

In the meantime, you simply have to see this fun cover of Ms. Mallory's (which she did herself!):

Author Solutions Adds Another Company to Its Suite

Hunh? So who/what is Author Solutions? (For the really big scoop, go to the Writer Beware post here.)

What the Heck is Author Solutions?

Author Solutions owns a suite or stable of self-publishing venues: iUniverse, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, and, its most recent acquisition, Trafford.
More...

Complaints On the Way--Or Not?

According to the Writer Beware post, iUniverse and Xlibris had minimal complaints until being acquired. Is Trafford headed for the same level of complaints as AuthorHouse has had?

As Victoria noted when Xlibris was bought out, this lessens the self publishing field, and that's not a good thing. Competition is good for business because it helps to keep prices down, or at least at a reasonable dollar amount. (You don't like the prices at one car detailing place, you go to another and another, etc.)

Only time will tell if Trafford will suffer the same fate.

And, of course, the writer will be the one suffering the brunt of this.

Oy vey.


Love and kisses,

~Nancy Beck

Author Solutions Adds Another Company to Its Suite

Hunh? So who/what is Author Solutions? (For the really big scoop, go to the Writer Beware post here.)

What the Heck is Author Solutions?

Author Solutions owns a suite or stable of self-publishing venues: iUniverse, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, and, its most recent acquisition, Trafford.
More...

Complaints On the Way--Or Not?

According to the Writer Beware post, iUniverse and Xlibris had minimal complaints until being acquired. Is Trafford headed for the same level of complaints as AuthorHouse has had?

As Victoria noted when Xlibris was bought out, this lessens the self publishing field, and that's not a good thing. Competition is good for business because it helps to keep prices down, or at least at a reasonable dollar amount. (You don't like the prices at one car detailing place, you go to another and another, etc.)

Only time will tell if Trafford will suffer the same fate.

And, of course, the writer will be the one suffering the brunt of this.

Oy vey.


Love and kisses,

~Nancy Beck

Self Publishing - Part 1

There's a recent post on the Fidra blog that made me crack up.

But although Vanessa uses a lot of humor (she has Ms. Bookshop Owner say, "...after I’d noticed that you’d managed to work elements of The Three Little Pigs, Harry Potter and Hollywood Wives into the plot.” ::snerk::), what she has to say about how not to get your self published book into a bookstore is serious, good reading.

She does have a follow up here, but I'll digress on that for now, until I read it.

More...
I'm No Expert...

...but I am damned opinionated at times. (Did you like my sorrowful, woebegone rant of the other day? As heartfelt as that was, those types of rants are few and far between.)

Vanessa talks about the old model of vanity presses, where you had to buy a thousand or so hardbacks and store them in a garage or a closet or in a dungeon. I personally know my sister-in-law's one friend, Amy, who went that route (although she opted for paperbacks), and heaven knows where she stored 'em all (I mean, living in New York City, in her "opium den," as she called it, I didn't see a heck of a lot of space to store oodles and oodles of books.

Heading For the Chains

The "oops" moment is calling up one of the local bookstores. Now, to be fair, I've heard that at some of them, a manager has a few local interest books; books about the area's history, its flora/fauna, spooky/weird stuff, that sort of thing. But, for the most part - it ain't happenin'. You can kiss most of that goodbye.

You might be lucky. You might get a manager who's sympathetic to your plight, and might - might - take a look at the first few pages of your tome (although maybe not at this point in time, with the economy, yadda, yadda, yadda).

But if grammar and spelling aren't big on your Hit Parade, you've got trouble coming your way. (Today seems to be Cliche Day for me, lol.) Seriously.

Go ahead. I dare you to purchase a self-published book. Some of them are pretty good. The grammar isn't too bad, the typos are kept to an absolute minimum, and the plot is fun/interesting/worthwhile. I purchased one such book last year, and although I haven't gotten back to reading it, it was obvious to me the author took the time to make sure the basics were taken care of, plus she had a fairly interesting plot.

But, Then Again...

I also just recently purchased another self-published book. Yuck. Mistake. First of all, the title was misleading. Instead of talking about what I thought the dude was going to talk about (this was non fiction, BTW), he talked about something related but different. Only in the very last chapter did he talk about what I thought he would; talk about barely scratching the surface.

What irritated me just as much was this guy's insistence on using "your" for "you are." Come on. Throughout the entire book, this guy used it this way. Plus there were plenty of run-on sentences.

Note that I don't have anything against run-on sentences in certain instances (especially if it's a character who talks that way), but to use such "techniques" throughout a non-fiction book? Give me a break.

Amateurish all around. And I'll get an Amazon review up on there at some point, too.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Publishing Business

It's about money. The stores aren't going to stay in business if no one buys books. Period. So the owner is going to look for certain things to make sure she has a fighting chance of hanging around for a while.

This, no doubt, goes doubly for the independent bookstores; the chain stores have some deeper pockets to grab for (although even that's drying up). But if an independent is going to hang around, don't you think the owner is going to want a professionally-produced book, one that has everything in place as noted above?

Sure.

But there must be more to it than that, right?

Step up to Self Publishing - Part 2. Coming soon to a Writerly Stuff blog near you!


Love and kisses,

~Nancy Beck

Self Publishing - Part 1

There's a recent post on the Fidra blog that made me crack up.

But although Vanessa uses a lot of humor (she has Ms. Bookshop Owner say, "...after I’d noticed that you’d managed to work elements of The Three Little Pigs, Harry Potter and Hollywood Wives into the plot.” ::snerk::), what she has to say about how not to get your self published book into a bookstore is serious, good reading.

She does have a follow up here, but I'll digress on that for now, until I read it.

More...
I'm No Expert...

...but I am damned opinionated at times. (Did you like my sorrowful, woebegone rant of the other day? As heartfelt as that was, those types of rants are few and far between.)

Vanessa talks about the old model of vanity presses, where you had to buy a thousand or so hardbacks and store them in a garage or a closet or in a dungeon. I personally know my sister-in-law's one friend, Amy, who went that route (although she opted for paperbacks), and heaven knows where she stored 'em all (I mean, living in New York City, in her "opium den," as she called it, I didn't see a heck of a lot of space to store oodles and oodles of books.

Heading For the Chains

The "oops" moment is calling up one of the local bookstores. Now, to be fair, I've heard that at some of them, a manager has a few local interest books; books about the area's history, its flora/fauna, spooky/weird stuff, that sort of thing. But, for the most part - it ain't happenin'. You can kiss most of that goodbye.

You might be lucky. You might get a manager who's sympathetic to your plight, and might - might - take a look at the first few pages of your tome (although maybe not at this point in time, with the economy, yadda, yadda, yadda).

But if grammar and spelling aren't big on your Hit Parade, you've got trouble coming your way. (Today seems to be Cliche Day for me, lol.) Seriously.

Go ahead. I dare you to purchase a self-published book. Some of them are pretty good. The grammar isn't too bad, the typos are kept to an absolute minimum, and the plot is fun/interesting/worthwhile. I purchased one such book last year, and although I haven't gotten back to reading it, it was obvious to me the author took the time to make sure the basics were taken care of, plus she had a fairly interesting plot.

But, Then Again...

I also just recently purchased another self-published book. Yuck. Mistake. First of all, the title was misleading. Instead of talking about what I thought the dude was going to talk about (this was non fiction, BTW), he talked about something related but different. Only in the very last chapter did he talk about what I thought he would; talk about barely scratching the surface.

What irritated me just as much was this guy's insistence on using "your" for "you are." Come on. Throughout the entire book, this guy used it this way. Plus there were plenty of run-on sentences.

Note that I don't have anything against run-on sentences in certain instances (especially if it's a character who talks that way), but to use such "techniques" throughout a non-fiction book? Give me a break.

Amateurish all around. And I'll get an Amazon review up on there at some point, too.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Publishing Business

It's about money. The stores aren't going to stay in business if no one buys books. Period. So the owner is going to look for certain things to make sure she has a fighting chance of hanging around for a while.

This, no doubt, goes doubly for the independent bookstores; the chain stores have some deeper pockets to grab for (although even that's drying up). But if an independent is going to hang around, don't you think the owner is going to want a professionally-produced book, one that has everything in place as noted above?

Sure.

But there must be more to it than that, right?

Step up to Self Publishing - Part 2. Coming soon to a Writerly Stuff blog near you!


Love and kisses,

~Nancy Beck

Self Pub to Commercial Pub

I'd only read about this the other day, with the reviewers on Amazon crazy about the book (with one even saying he wished it would become a movie. From what I read I forget where, that's going to happen, too (well, hold your breath as to whether or not the film gets made; the rights being bought is one thing, while the actually making of the movie is another).

Anyway, here's the blurb from Publishers Lunch:

Leinad Zeraus's (aka database consultant Daniel Suarez) originally self-published debut technothriller DAEMON, "the story of a terminally ill game designer who unleashes a diabolical, self-replicating Web entity that enlists disaffected Netizens in its mission to destroy civilization," to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, followed by a sequel, by Bridget Wagner at The Sagalyn Agency (world).

~Nancy Beck

Self Pub to Commercial Pub

I'd only read about this the other day, with the reviewers on Amazon crazy about the book (with one even saying he wished it would become a movie. From what I read I forget where, that's going to happen, too (well, hold your breath as to whether or not the film gets made; the rights being bought is one thing, while the actually making of the movie is another).

Anyway, here's the blurb from Publishers Lunch:

Leinad Zeraus's (aka database consultant Daniel Suarez) originally self-published debut technothriller DAEMON, "the story of a terminally ill game designer who unleashes a diabolical, self-replicating Web entity that enlists disaffected Netizens in its mission to destroy civilization," to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, followed by a sequel, by Bridget Wagner at The Sagalyn Agency (world).

~Nancy Beck

Booklocker Files Class Action Lawsuit

Read about this on Publishers Lunch (PL). PL linked to Foner's Self Publishing blog.

Quite interesting. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out (it hasn't yet been certified by the courts), but kudos to Booklocker for trying this.

~Nancy Beck

Booklocker Files Class Action Lawsuit

Read about this on Publishers Lunch (PL). PL linked to Foner's Self Publishing blog.

Quite interesting. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out (it hasn't yet been certified by the courts), but kudos to Booklocker for trying this.

~Nancy Beck

Self Publishers and Amazon

After going through and reading some of the stuff eBay is up to, I was kind of surprised to see Amazon up to some tricks, too.

If You Use Lightning Source Instead of BookSurge

I'm sure you know Amazon bought BookSurge about a year ago or so; they' a self-publishing option for those who want to go that route.

Well, it seems that if you use Lightning Source (PublishAmerica, anyone?), Amazon will remove the "Buy" button from your book; books printed by the aforementioned PublishAmerica (PA) have already had the Buy buttons removed.

But...There's A Catch (Isn't There Always One?)

The catch, the way I read it, is you have to agree to Amazon's contract and use BookSurge.

An informative page about this whole Amazon/BookSurge thing is at the Writer's Weekly site (Angela Hoy, who also runs the epublisher, Booklocker). Here, specifically, is what the fuss is all about:

Mr. Clifford [of Amazon] said authors of those books could participate in the Amazon.com Advantage Program, meaning they would have to pay Amazon $29.95 per year PLUS 55% of the list price of their book, as well as buy and then send those books to Amazon directly for them to warehouse and ship to customers.

More and more fees and stuff. Doesn't seem right, especially as a lot of authors want their book with Lightning Source, as it uses Ingram as a distributor.

And something else in favor of Lightning Source:

Amazon/BookSurge would make money two ways on Amazon.com sales - first the fee for printing the books, and then 48% of the list price of each sale through Amazon.com. Lightning Source allows its customers to set their own discount rate for Amazon and other retail sales, and does not force POD publishers or authors to pay "48%."

So...What to Do?

I'm not in the self publishing boat, fortunately. Ms. Hoy is seriously considering moving all of the books in Booklocker to Barnes and Noble. But that'll take time, as she has lots of books up at Amazon.

For those published by bigger or smaller presses...it looks as if everything is okay right now. (If anyone comes up with anymore info, feel free to post your comment; I'll probably blog about it at some point.)

But who knows? I'm currently an Amazon Associate, although I haven't taken advantage of it all that much (I post books on reviews is about the extent of using it).

I wonder if B&N has a similar program?

Since this seems to have happened in just the past day or so (talk about fast), I'm sure more things will shake out about this.

One Thing Is For Sure...

I hope Amazon reverses itself on this. My feeling is that maybe they're not getting enough people to go with BookSurge, and they think only force can provide them with the moolah they want?

Oy vey. Not liking this, FWIW.

~Nancy Beck

Self Publishers and Amazon

After going through and reading some of the stuff eBay is up to, I was kind of surprised to see Amazon up to some tricks, too.

If You Use Lightning Source Instead of BookSurge

I'm sure you know Amazon bought BookSurge about a year ago or so; they' a self-publishing option for those who want to go that route.

Well, it seems that if you use Lightning Source (PublishAmerica, anyone?), Amazon will remove the "Buy" button from your book; books printed by the aforementioned PublishAmerica (PA) have already had the Buy buttons removed.

But...There's A Catch (Isn't There Always One?)

The catch, the way I read it, is you have to agree to Amazon's contract and use BookSurge.

An informative page about this whole Amazon/BookSurge thing is at the Writer's Weekly site (Angela Hoy, who also runs the epublisher, Booklocker). Here, specifically, is what the fuss is all about:

Mr. Clifford [of Amazon] said authors of those books could participate in the Amazon.com Advantage Program, meaning they would have to pay Amazon $29.95 per year PLUS 55% of the list price of their book, as well as buy and then send those books to Amazon directly for them to warehouse and ship to customers.

More and more fees and stuff. Doesn't seem right, especially as a lot of authors want their book with Lightning Source, as it uses Ingram as a distributor.

And something else in favor of Lightning Source:

Amazon/BookSurge would make money two ways on Amazon.com sales - first the fee for printing the books, and then 48% of the list price of each sale through Amazon.com. Lightning Source allows its customers to set their own discount rate for Amazon and other retail sales, and does not force POD publishers or authors to pay "48%."

So...What to Do?

I'm not in the self publishing boat, fortunately. Ms. Hoy is seriously considering moving all of the books in Booklocker to Barnes and Noble. But that'll take time, as she has lots of books up at Amazon.

For those published by bigger or smaller presses...it looks as if everything is okay right now. (If anyone comes up with anymore info, feel free to post your comment; I'll probably blog about it at some point.)

But who knows? I'm currently an Amazon Associate, although I haven't taken advantage of it all that much (I post books on reviews is about the extent of using it).

I wonder if B&N has a similar program?

Since this seems to have happened in just the past day or so (talk about fast), I'm sure more things will shake out about this.

One Thing Is For Sure...

I hope Amazon reverses itself on this. My feeling is that maybe they're not getting enough people to go with BookSurge, and they think only force can provide them with the moolah they want?

Oy vey. Not liking this, FWIW.

~Nancy Beck

I Got Your POD Right Here

Today seems to be Print On Demand (POD) day over at Publisher's Lunch. Two, count 'em, two articles on POD.

I'll say right up front that POD, as a technology/business model is good for some projects: If you're a seminar leader and have books to hand out; if you're a poet; and genealogy-related books/projects, for instance.

e If you want a mainstream, traditional career (especially where fiction is concerned), then go with literary agents or smaller publishers (because most of the majors just aren't handling slush anymore).

Here's the first article:

New POD Options: Perseus and Edwards Partner on In-House Printing
The Perseus Books Group is returning to print-on-demand via its own facility with a new partnership with printer Edwards Brothers to set up a digital print center in the publisher's Jackson, TN distribution center. The in-house operation should be set up by this fall, and in the meantime they will use Edwards Brothers' outside machines to "ramp up titles in the program."

Perseus will offer the service to all of their distribution clients and use the capability for their own imprints. CEO David Steinberger says it's "the first of a range of digital services that we are making available to our independent publisher clients."

Steinberger says they are able to offer digital printing solution to clients "on attractive terms" drawing on the scale of their overall operation. Client pricing is designed to cover the company's direct and related costs. "The only way we will make money is if this leads to greater sales for the independent publishers we represent. Those greater sales will mean more money for independent publishers, for us and for booksellers."

The offer is non-exclusive, so nothing prevents clients from continuing to work with other vendors such as Lightning Source and Booksurge at the same time. Steinberger notes, "our in-house publishers currently print tens of thousands of units per month through digital print. We expect that volume to increase significantly with clients joining in."

Perseus was an early player with in-house on-demand printing, at one time running their own facility in Boulder, Co. After closing that operation they moved to a Donnelly-based short-run printing solution.

I know the major publishers also use POD for short runs.

Here's the other article:

More New POD Options: Ingram Works on ABA Store-As-Publisher Program
At a session at the ABA's Winter Institute, representatives from Ingram and Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville presented an experimental program designed to make it easier for member stores to set up their own publishing programs in conjunction with Lightning Source.

The vision is that independent stores can serve as "niche publishers focused on regional and local interests," leveraging relationships within their communities and using their expertise to identify public domain material appropriate for reprint. Conceivably, stores can also offer their own "self-publishing" services to patrons looking for a place to launch and sell their manuscripts.

Ingram projected set-up costs of approximately $150 to $200 to make a book ready for print-on-demand fulfillment. While stores can elect to publish for all customers by setting the retail and wholesale prices, the p&l is clearly most advantageous when the store is selling the books directly at retail as well as publishing them.

As presented, the hope is to formalize a program by this year's BEA. Moderating the panel, the ABA's Len Vlahos underscored that it's an idea that "bears further investigation" though the organization is not sure yet if the concept "really works economically yet" for member stores. There are also a number of questions about rights, clearances, royalties, liability and other components of the publishing process that the organization may or may not provide formal guidance and guidelines on.

But for stores excited by the possibilities, Ingram made clear that they offer such services already, even without a formal ABA program. For that matter, though Lightning Source is not trying to aggressively compete with the pod self-publishers that comprise a significant part of their customer base, the company does already deal with individual customers on a direct basis.

ABA in this instance standing for American Booksellers Association (since I work for a corporate lawyer, I knew it wasn't American Bar Association, heh).

I think I'd still go with Lulu if I were interested in self publishing.

~Nancy Beck

I Got Your POD Right Here

Today seems to be Print On Demand (POD) day over at Publisher's Lunch. Two, count 'em, two articles on POD.

I'll say right up front that POD, as a technology/business model is good for some projects: If you're a seminar leader and have books to hand out; if you're a poet; and genealogy-related books/projects, for instance.

e If you want a mainstream, traditional career (especially where fiction is concerned), then go with literary agents or smaller publishers (because most of the majors just aren't handling slush anymore).

Here's the first article:

New POD Options: Perseus and Edwards Partner on In-House Printing
The Perseus Books Group is returning to print-on-demand via its own facility with a new partnership with printer Edwards Brothers to set up a digital print center in the publisher's Jackson, TN distribution center. The in-house operation should be set up by this fall, and in the meantime they will use Edwards Brothers' outside machines to "ramp up titles in the program."

Perseus will offer the service to all of their distribution clients and use the capability for their own imprints. CEO David Steinberger says it's "the first of a range of digital services that we are making available to our independent publisher clients."

Steinberger says they are able to offer digital printing solution to clients "on attractive terms" drawing on the scale of their overall operation. Client pricing is designed to cover the company's direct and related costs. "The only way we will make money is if this leads to greater sales for the independent publishers we represent. Those greater sales will mean more money for independent publishers, for us and for booksellers."

The offer is non-exclusive, so nothing prevents clients from continuing to work with other vendors such as Lightning Source and Booksurge at the same time. Steinberger notes, "our in-house publishers currently print tens of thousands of units per month through digital print. We expect that volume to increase significantly with clients joining in."

Perseus was an early player with in-house on-demand printing, at one time running their own facility in Boulder, Co. After closing that operation they moved to a Donnelly-based short-run printing solution.

I know the major publishers also use POD for short runs.

Here's the other article:

More New POD Options: Ingram Works on ABA Store-As-Publisher Program
At a session at the ABA's Winter Institute, representatives from Ingram and Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville presented an experimental program designed to make it easier for member stores to set up their own publishing programs in conjunction with Lightning Source.

The vision is that independent stores can serve as "niche publishers focused on regional and local interests," leveraging relationships within their communities and using their expertise to identify public domain material appropriate for reprint. Conceivably, stores can also offer their own "self-publishing" services to patrons looking for a place to launch and sell their manuscripts.

Ingram projected set-up costs of approximately $150 to $200 to make a book ready for print-on-demand fulfillment. While stores can elect to publish for all customers by setting the retail and wholesale prices, the p&l is clearly most advantageous when the store is selling the books directly at retail as well as publishing them.

As presented, the hope is to formalize a program by this year's BEA. Moderating the panel, the ABA's Len Vlahos underscored that it's an idea that "bears further investigation" though the organization is not sure yet if the concept "really works economically yet" for member stores. There are also a number of questions about rights, clearances, royalties, liability and other components of the publishing process that the organization may or may not provide formal guidance and guidelines on.

But for stores excited by the possibilities, Ingram made clear that they offer such services already, even without a formal ABA program. For that matter, though Lightning Source is not trying to aggressively compete with the pod self-publishers that comprise a significant part of their customer base, the company does already deal with individual customers on a direct basis.

ABA in this instance standing for American Booksellers Association (since I work for a corporate lawyer, I knew it wasn't American Bar Association, heh).

I think I'd still go with Lulu if I were interested in self publishing.

~Nancy Beck