E-books Empower Independent Publishers

Though few experts predict the demise of the big publishing houses, their future role in providing the majority of content for today's reading public is now hotly debated by industry insiders. In the same way that cable TV has eaten into the monopoly once held by the big networks, smaller publishers aim to take a bigger piece of the publishing pie.

And the main reason why is the change in technology and the emergence and extraordinary rise of the digital-publishing phenomenon. "E-books sales have exploded more than 500 percent in only a few years," says Larry Leichman, founder of Arbor Books New Jersey, an independent book-services and ghostwriting company. "And as e-books continue to become more and more popular, the low cost of producing and distributing books gives independent writers a tremendous boost. Just look at the sales figures for Amanda Hocking, a self-published author who produces YA fantasy books. She's routinely at the top of Amazon's bestseller list."

In fact, Amazon.com is a major force in this independent-publishing revolution. Perhaps no other entity has done so much to level the publishing playing field. Amazon provides the marketplace and lets consumers decide what's popular. More and more people are turning to reader reviews instead of big-name critics at newspapers and magazines when it comes to helping them decide their next e-book purchase.

And, according to Amazon.com, e-book sales have already surpassed hardcover sales and will surpass paperback sales in 2011. "Everything is going digital," says Joel Hochman, president of Arbor Books' ghostwriting division. "This trend is helping independent publishing earn the same respect as independent films and music."

Traditional publishers are surely feeling the heat from this growing revolution. Some houses, such as Simon & Schuster, are dumping their paperback divisions in favor of a push toward digital, but fierce competition with self-publishers could further erode their bottom lines.

With e-book sales growing exponentially, the barrier to entry into the market is now lower than ever. Small presses and individual authors no longer have to worry about the cost of manufacturing. This in turn leads to higher royalty payments to writers.

Today's improved, light-weight electronic readers are also making more choices available. Since many authors are now releasing their "older" out-of-print titles as e-books and offering them at huge discounts, it can cost just a few bucks to try out a new author. Ultimately, this means more people reading more titles by more authors than ever before. This is sweet music to the independent movement.

ClickBank Continues to See Significant Growth in Independent eBooks Space

eBook sales nearly doubled in 2010 and industry predictions expect these percentages to continue to climb in 2011, tripling by 2015. ClickBank (http://www.clickbank.com), the premier, online marketplace for digital information products, is experiencing this explosive growth first-hand, due in part to significant new product launches in the eBook space. ClickBank currently provides the largest digital marketplace for independent informational eBooks, and sales of eBooks in the ClickBank Marketplace have seen significant growth.

Long time ClickBank clients and Internet marketers Rasheed Ali and Huey Lee have recently launched a new information product, "Autopilot Income Machines." This extensive, multi-media product contains a mixture of video and PDF training materials in eBook format, supported by software, and aims to be one of the most comprehensive products of its kind.

"We've been online for almost 10 years now and have been with ClickBank since 2003. We've built multi-million dollar businesses on the sale of eBooks and still cannot find a worthy replacement, even video, that can achieve what a simple, well written eBook can achieve for its reader," said Ali. "Our latest product is an eBook ‘blueprint,' supported by video training that will give the reader a richer, multi-modality, learning experience to help enhance their retention and functional use of the information."

"There has been a lot of buzz recently around the increase in consumer desire for eBooks and this creates strong opportunity for independent authors seeking to establish a following," said Brad Wiskirchen, CEO, ClickBank. "Historically, we have provided an established channel for innovative, independent vendors to bring their products to market. This is no different. We are leveraging our network to provide a unique opportunity for authors, sellers and publishers to reach a new market of readers."

ClickBank offers titles from independent authors in a wide range of categories that include Education, Fiction, Green Products, Self-Help and many more, with titles that range from Do-It-Yourself Solar Energy to Official Secret Restaurant Recipes. Companies such as Relationship Headquarters, a relationship counseling resource founded by Licensed Professional Counselor Bob Grant, have seen first-hand the success that's possible when selling eBooks through ClickBank. Relationship Headquarters' success over the last 7 years includes over $3 million in sales and over 80,000 products sold to date through ClickBank.

"As with anything you do, success depends largely on partnering with the right companies," said Jill Menghini, Manager of RelationshipHeadquarters.com. "ClickBank provides all of the resources that you need in one place. We have received rave reviews on their customer service and that has translated into return customers and increased success for us."

Publishing Upheaval Leads Author to New Career as Indy Screenwriter/Producer

Three years ago, author Gini Graham Scott was a successful writer specializing in books on work relationships, professional development, and business success, with books published by major publishers, including AMACOM and Random House. She had also sold a service connecting writers to publishers and agents, the film industry, and the media, which she still works with as a consultant. But then the economy tanked, publishers cut back, and the e-book revolution happened, making it harder than ever to make a living writing one's own books.

But after two desperate years of living on the edge while commuting between L.A. and Oakland, Gini Graham Scott has found a new career as an indy screenwriter and producer, as well as helping would-be writers, speakers, and businesspeople write, publish, and promote their own books through her new company: Changemakers Publishing and Writing (www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com). As an indy filmmaker, she has written and produced over three dozen short films and trailers for features, which are now featured on YouTube at changemakersprod. Her most recent films are trailers for the feature, The Engagement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU15IABpr_4, and for a documentary for geocaching, Hide and Seek at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szRNRoJB5Pk

Scott has additionally written a book on low-budget filmmaking: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING, PRODUCING AND DIRECTING A LOW-BUDGET SHORT FILM to be published by Hal Leonard in November. In the meantime, an e-book version is available through Smashwords and Kindle, and she is currently working on her next book for filmmakers: FINDING FUNDS FOR YOUR FILM, since she is doing exactly that for some of her feature films. She is also leading workshops on writing, producing, and promoting short films, as well as on how to write, publish, and promote one's own book and find a publisher or agent.

Self-Published Authors Can Tap Into 3,500 Christian (Book) Retail Stores

Swanson Christian Products (SCP) has created a new ministry called Grace and Fire Media, which provides a non-traditional alternative for self-published authors to gain access to more than 3,500 retail stores in the traditional Christian retail market.

As a result of its mission to "reach the world through ministry, missions and products that honor God" SCP, a leader in the Christian retail market for more than 75 years, is using its long-standing relationships with Christian bookstore owners and its infrastructure to enter into an exciting opportunity to help authors/pastors and their ministries distribute self-published materials. It is a hybrid distributor /publisher model that no one currently has within the Christian marketplace.

"Swanson has identified a need to bridge the gap between an author's self-publishing and vying for a slot in traditional publishing houses," said Shawn A. Kuhn, vice president of P&K Bookstores. "The company's commitment to quality says to me that these will be great books that will make an impact in the lives of people and cause a stir in the publishing industry."

Christian publishing is a $4.2 billion-a-year industry. Books and Bibles account for more than half the revenues of the average Christian retail store. However, current distribution systems are still based on more traditional models that are integrated with established publishers who only release 10-30 titles a year.

As a result, many self-published authors and pastors who would like to get their books or most-popular messages to the public are unlikely to be able to publish or distribute them though traditional Christian marketing channels.

"Last year, for the first time ever, there were more self-published titles released than traditional publisher titles," said Adam Swanson, president of SCP. "We have set up a system to enable the self-published author to get his message out to the consumer through the Christian retail market. It's a win/win for everybody."

SCP is a not-for-profit ministry of Victory Christian Center. It is an importer, manufacturer and distributor of more than 4,000 Christian products in categories such as apparel, home/office décor, Bible accessories, entertainment and custom products.

For more information about Grace and Fire Media go to swansoninc.com and for a CBA store near you, click on Find A Store Near You.

Visual Storytelling -- almost a movie

Cinema is the most powerful medium for delivering information and entertainment, beyond any doubt, but standing in close proximity to the cinema is the visual story; and Chriscribe.com offers digital readers a unique style of visual storytelling. Best viewed on large screens of 15 inches and upwards, these visual ebooks are formatted to present a mosaic of integrated text and images, much the same as a magazine or newspaper spread. However, on the iPad the format differs in that continuous horizontal scrolling is achieved to provide a significant animated function that equates to a movie.

Currently, at Chriscribe.com there are three graphic novels: Made in England, Born of Fire: The Omen and Where Giants Fall: Lest We Forget; and and visually robust art and design analysis: The Visual Reviewal, all priced at $19.95 AUD and in PDF downloads that facilitates 'read-right-away'. Born of Fire: The Kingdom of Venga is due in April.

All the artwork is developed using a Wacom Cintiq with Photoshop, collated in InDesign and exported to Acrobat PDF.

As the applications for visual material become more available so will the products, and the ability to scroll along the pages uninterrupted is a volatile feature that cannot be overlooked for much longer. Once artists can deliver continuous imagery in a horizontal format, unfettered by the printing process protocols, to electronic readers and computers then this medium will explode, with the potential, not only to equal the power of cinematography in the delivery of visual material, but to overtake it.

It's great to see screenwriters like Aaron Sorkin and Chris Sparling getting the recognition they deserve

It's been said "film is a director's medium," and the whole notion of a name above the title and possessory credit was a battle long ago given up by the Writers Guild of America. Yet a recent wave of Hollywood films seems to be shifting toward what was unthinkable years ago--acknowledging the screenwriter as auteur. It's a subject at the heart of Steven DeRosa's book Writing with Hitchcock, which, in a new expanded edition, closely examines the most important writing collaboration of cinema's most celebrated auteur.

In Writing with Hitchcock, Steven DeRosa invites the reader into what was sacred territory at Paramount Studios for much of the 1950s--Alfred Hitchcock's office, where he and a young screenwriter named John Michael Hayes hashed out, debated, and plotted the movie at hand, until it was time for the director to go home, or to one of his favorite restaurants, leaving the writer to sort through the ideas they discussed that day and weave them into a screenplay. The first of their collaborations, Rear Window, marked a turning point that began the Golden period of Alfred Hitchcock's career, a ten-year-run during which he made his greatest films in Hollywood.

In all, four of those films would be penned by John Michael Hayes, the only screenwriter in Hollywood whose collaboration with Hitchcock lasted beyond two consecutive movies. Yet in spite of Hayes's considerable contributions to films such as Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and The Man Who Knew Too Much, the director barred Hayes from speaking to the press about his work. It's hard to imagine a director or studio being able to silence a writer in such a way today.

One of this year's top contenders to take home the Academy Award for Best Picture is The Social Network, the film about the battle between the creators of Facebook, which is being touted more as the product of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's talent than that of director David Fincher. Even the official website for The Social Network contains a downloadable PDF of the screenplay. While Fincher himself has been dismissive of the film, Sorkin's script has been praised as an incisive look at a generation and for the irony in its subtext--the story of an idea that promised friendships, but ultimately caused destruction of the friendships between those who created it.

Another film released in 2010 which created a stir around its screenwriter was Buried, the movie which placed Ryan Reynolds in a wooden coffin beneath the Iraqi desert with a cell phone, a cigarette lighter, and little hope. For all the dazzling direction by Rodrigo Cortes, who faced the challenge of making a visually interesting movie in the smallest of spaces, the studio did not shy away from the fact that the concept was the brainchild of screenwriter Chris Sparling. Sparling would later be at the center of his own controversy when an email went out in his name to Academy members asking them to consider his achievement for an Oscar nod.

"It's great to see screenwriters like Aaron Sorkin and Chris Sparling getting notoriety and the recognition they deserve," says Steven DeRosa. "In Hitchcock's day and during the height of the studio system in Hollywood, that just wasn't done. Rear Window is as much John Michael Hayes's film as it is Hitchcock's. But for so long in Hollywood, unless you were a writer-director like Billy Wilder or Preston Sturges, or speaking of more contemporary hyphenates like Woody Allen, Sofia Coppola or Quentin Tarantino, the perception has been that it was solely the director's vision that reached the screen." DeRosa writes that Hayes drew upon situations in his own life when creating the central relationship between the characters played by James Stewart and Grace Kelly in the film. Like Kelly's character, Lisa Fremont, Hayes's wife Mel was a high-style fashion model.

DeRosa makes a compelling case for the significance of Hitchcock's collaboration with Hayes, as the director was in the midst of a career crisis following the failure of his own production company and a string of box-office failures when he called upon Hayes to help him reconnect with his audience. "Although they enjoyed a very fruitful association, it ultimately came down to a matter of contending with Hitchcock's ego. After Rear Window was released and was a huge hit, Hayes began to get recognition from the press and award nominations. After that, his days with Hitchcock were numbered. It's too bad," notes DeRosa, "because the films they made together were the pinnacle of sophistication and suspense at the movies."

Writing with Hitchcock is available now on Amazon.com in both print and e-book editions.

For more information visit writingwithhitchcock.com, you can join the Writing with Hitchcock Facebook community at facebook.com/writingwithhitch.

Barnes & Noble's New PubIt! Platform Grabs 11,000 Publishers and Authors

Barnes and Noble, Inc. reported major growth for its news PubIt! (www.PubIt.com), an easy-to-use digital publishing platform for independent publishers and authors. Since launching four months ago, more than 11,000 independent publishers and authors have joined the PubIt! community of booksellers, adding more than 65,000 new works to the NOOK Bookstore. In fact, there are currently 35 PubIt! titles among the Top 200 NOOK Books based on sales, and Barnes and Noble customers have purchased PubIt! works in more than 50 categories to date.

Barnes and Noble will also expand promotion for PubIt! titles and authors into its retail channels. In addition to in-store events, the company offers PubIt! authors and publishers access to the unique marketing and merchandising opportunities through the NOOK Bookstore, a PubIt! bestseller list and additional exposure through the Read In Store  program.

Authors have found great success with PubIt!. H.P. Mallory, author of Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, and To Kill a Warlock, calls PubIt!, "an incredible experience… one of the best decisions I ever made." Mallory's paranormal romance books have become such a hit that she just signed a three-book deal with a major publishing house. Lori Brighton, author of A Night of Secrets, The Mind Readers and The Ghost Hunter, says, "PubIt! places publishing in the author's hands, which benefits not only the author, but also the reader."