Authors of unsolicited manuscripts will no longer see their work returned to them with a "Thanks-but-no-thanks" letter from Christian publishers like Zondervan and Baker Publishing Group. Instead, they will receive a letter or email encouraging them to post their manuscripts, free-of-charge, on authonomy.com/Christian.
"authonomy.com allows authors to quickly get valuable feedback from consumers on the relevance of their work and gain traction in the market without giving up any of their publishing rights," said Steve Sammons, Zondervan's executive vice president of Consumer Engagement. "It takes only five quick steps to get a manuscript on the authonomy.com site, and you start getting feedback on your manuscript quickly without the usual weeks or months of waiting and hoping."
authonomy.com is a unique free online service that connects readers, writers and publishing professionals. It invites authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project. Visitors to the site can and will comment on these submissions ? and they personally recommend their favorites to the community. authonomy.com counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site. It also spots which visitors consistently recommend the best books ? and uses that info to rank the most influential trend spotters.
"We believe the strength of authonomy.com is that it allows authors, free-of-charge, the ability to get honest feedback from readers, editors and agents as to the relevance and quality of their work," said Dwight Baker, president of Baker Publishing Group. "That is why we feel the combination of features offered by authonomy.com will provide authors the largest audience, exposure and best potential entree into the world of publishing."
Not only will Zondervan and Baker promote the authonomy.com site to agents and other Christian publishers, their editors, as part of their editorial review process will track and review those books in the Christian section of authonomy.com that have the highest rankings and provide feedback to the authors.
"authonomy.com is a tremendous idea that creates a community linking writers with their readers," offers Steve Laube, president of The Steve Laube Agency. "Making it free is both revolutionary and very exciting. Where else can you get objective and instant feedback, and then use those comments and critiques to improve your work?"
authonomy.com was created as a better way to access the best new work out there based on real customer input. Thousands of manuscripts come through publishers' door every year and authonomy.com is a great tool for improving an author's work and increasing his or her chances to be discovered by avid readers, editors and agents.
"I believe that authonomy.com is an excellent tool for the Christian publishing industry," said Sealy Yates, founder of L.A.-based agency Yates and Yates. "There certainly is a serious need for our industry to serve all those who would desire to be published authors. The current system does not provide ready access or even helpful information about how the system works. It supplies support for would-be authors, publishers and agents and is efficient and effective for all involved in the process."
authonomy.com completely levels the playing field for a profession that heretofore was dependent on who-you-know or who-you-are. For the authors, the best part is that it is not just Baker and Zondervan looking for promising books; the site is open to other publishing houses and agents. Zondervan or Baker won't ask for a 'first option' to publish or take away any of rights of ownership, and the author can continue to submit to publishers and agents by other methods.
To learn more visit the authonomy.com website at: www.authonomy.com/Christian.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
How unknown first time author is Amazon No.1 Best-selling business book
Victoria B.C./San Francisco Vancouver Island first time author Dawn McCooey saw her new business book "Keeping Good Employees on board - Employee Retention Strategies to Navigate Through the Economic Storm" rocket to the top slot on Amazon Canada best-selling business books yesterday.
It is every first time author's dream to achieve this within a few weeks of launching their book so we asked her to share her secret.
You can watch the 3 minute interview aired on Shaw TV featuring six local authors and Dawn McCooey giving an inspirational message about their journey to become published authors and how they did it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkWLip_9h38
They all have one person in common that helped them publish their books and this is Inspire A Book Founder Julie Salisbury, also from Vancouver Island. Salisbury is
passionate about helping first time authors become best-sellers and her coaching and workshops help writers from the early stages of writing their books, right through to helping them get a publishing contract and beyond to assisting them in becoming a best-seller.
Salisbury will be a guest speaker at the 7th Annual San Francisco Writers conference and will be offering a half day pre-conference seminar on "Dressing your book for publishing success" on February 11th, also open to non-conference registrants.
Who: Julie Salisbury, Founder, InspireABook
When: Thursday, February 11th, 2010 from 9am-Noon
Where: Mark Hopkins InterContinental Hotel, One Nob Hill, San Francisco
What: Pre-conference seminar "Dressing your book for publishing success"
Cost: $149
Salisbury added "if you take the time to educate yourself and understand at the early stages of writing your book, what makes a book a best-seller, there is no reason why more
first-time, unknown authors should become best-sellers! Just look at J.K. Rowling and the "Harry Potter" books, she did it, and so did Dawn McCooey of Victoria!
Free classes and information on the InspireABook system is available at http://www.inspireabook.com/
It is every first time author's dream to achieve this within a few weeks of launching their book so we asked her to share her secret.
You can watch the 3 minute interview aired on Shaw TV featuring six local authors and Dawn McCooey giving an inspirational message about their journey to become published authors and how they did it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkWLip_9h38
They all have one person in common that helped them publish their books and this is Inspire A Book Founder Julie Salisbury, also from Vancouver Island. Salisbury is
passionate about helping first time authors become best-sellers and her coaching and workshops help writers from the early stages of writing their books, right through to helping them get a publishing contract and beyond to assisting them in becoming a best-seller.
Salisbury will be a guest speaker at the 7th Annual San Francisco Writers conference and will be offering a half day pre-conference seminar on "Dressing your book for publishing success" on February 11th, also open to non-conference registrants.
Who: Julie Salisbury, Founder, InspireABook
When: Thursday, February 11th, 2010 from 9am-Noon
Where: Mark Hopkins InterContinental Hotel, One Nob Hill, San Francisco
What: Pre-conference seminar "Dressing your book for publishing success"
Cost: $149
Salisbury added "if you take the time to educate yourself and understand at the early stages of writing your book, what makes a book a best-seller, there is no reason why more
first-time, unknown authors should become best-sellers! Just look at J.K. Rowling and the "Harry Potter" books, she did it, and so did Dawn McCooey of Victoria!
Free classes and information on the InspireABook system is available at http://www.inspireabook.com/
Fastpencil Offers Free Printed Book And Ebook
FastPencil today announced a promotion offering the first 1,000 people to register at https://www.fastpencil.com/offer/consumerpromo a free paperback and eBook copy of their work. FastPencil gives these authors an end-to-end authoring and publishing platform where they can maintain control of the content creation, price, distribution and sales activity every step of the way.
FastPencil blends social media, marketing, production and distribution while offering total flexibility in choosing when and where they distribute to hardcover, paperback and eBook. The authoring service strips out the cost and complexity of publishing and distributes books to over 32,000 book and eBook retailers accessing the broadest possible audience.
"FastPencil has put this promotion together to start the year with an incentive for authors to finish their book projects," said Steve Wilson, FastPencil Co-Founder and CEO. "There are hundreds of thousands of new authors every year and our goal is to make it as easy as possible for aspiring authors to write, publish and distribute their books in whatever format they prefer."
FastPencil gives authors the opportunity to take advantage of new distribution opportunities instantly and the write-once, publish anywhere approach ensures an author's book can be read anywhere today and in the future.
Promotion Details:
-- What - A free* printed book, a free eBook and free shipping & handling
-- When - This offer is valid through Feb. 27th
-- Who - The first 1,000 FastPencil users to sign up
-- How - Visit https://www.fastpencil.com/offer/consumerpromo
FastPencil Features:
-- Select from a variety of free book templates
-- Flexibly publish original works, blog to book or import existing
stories
-- Connect and share through Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN
-- Print on Demand or to eBook formats
-- Distribution at over 32,000 online retailers including Amazon and
Barnes & Noble
-- Capture inspiration from anywhere with an iPhone or iPod touch
-- Author concierge services including consulting, design services and
formatting
-- Collaborate with your book creation team, personal network of friends
or industry professionals
-- Integrated self-publishing wizard for step-by-step assistance
-- Access to many royalty-free FastPencil Classics including Tarzan of
the Apes and Cinderella
Pricing and Availability
The FastPencil promotion is available https://www.fastpencil.com/offer/consumerpromo
FastPencil blends social media, marketing, production and distribution while offering total flexibility in choosing when and where they distribute to hardcover, paperback and eBook. The authoring service strips out the cost and complexity of publishing and distributes books to over 32,000 book and eBook retailers accessing the broadest possible audience.
"FastPencil has put this promotion together to start the year with an incentive for authors to finish their book projects," said Steve Wilson, FastPencil Co-Founder and CEO. "There are hundreds of thousands of new authors every year and our goal is to make it as easy as possible for aspiring authors to write, publish and distribute their books in whatever format they prefer."
FastPencil gives authors the opportunity to take advantage of new distribution opportunities instantly and the write-once, publish anywhere approach ensures an author's book can be read anywhere today and in the future.
Promotion Details:
-- What - A free* printed book, a free eBook and free shipping & handling
-- When - This offer is valid through Feb. 27th
-- Who - The first 1,000 FastPencil users to sign up
-- How - Visit https://www.fastpencil.com/offer/consumerpromo
FastPencil Features:
-- Select from a variety of free book templates
-- Flexibly publish original works, blog to book or import existing
stories
-- Connect and share through Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN
-- Print on Demand or to eBook formats
-- Distribution at over 32,000 online retailers including Amazon and
Barnes & Noble
-- Capture inspiration from anywhere with an iPhone or iPod touch
-- Author concierge services including consulting, design services and
formatting
-- Collaborate with your book creation team, personal network of friends
or industry professionals
-- Integrated self-publishing wizard for step-by-step assistance
-- Access to many royalty-free FastPencil Classics including Tarzan of
the Apes and Cinderella
Pricing and Availability
The FastPencil promotion is available https://www.fastpencil.com/offer/consumerpromo
Monday, January 25, 2010
Social Science and Humanities Publishers Stood Up to Challenges in 2009
Faced with challenges from disruptive technologies, an uncertain future for its traditional publishing model and a titanic global recession, the market for social science and humanities publishing has still managed to grow, according to "Social Science and Humanities Publishing 2009-2010" (http://www.simbainformation.com/redirect.asp?progid=76566&productid=2071801), the latest strategic market report from Simba Information, a leading media industry forecast and analysis firm.
The global social science and humanities publishing market grew total sales 1.6% to $2.4 billion in 2009. Poor economic conditions in the U.S. hurt book sales and put publishers' recurring journal subscription revenue in question as library budgets tighten.
Social science and humanities publishers often take a back seat to the scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing sector because revenue is tied to scholarly monographs with niche appeal and journals that don't attract the commercial interest of their STM counterparts. Still many small commercial publishers specializing in social science and humanities sustain levels of profit sufficient to satisfy their investors.
These presses confront substantial challenges, but also encounter significant opportunities. Advanced software and techniques for composition, cheaper digitization and file storage mechanisms, sophisticated online content management systems, and short-run and print-on-demand services all help presses lower costs for new publications and give renewed life to their backlist titles. Similarly, the growth of the Web, powerful discovery tools such as Google and the other search engines, and the opening of new distribution channels such as Amazon.com have made it possible to reach new markets beyond university libraries.
To exploit these opportunities, social science and humanities publishers must make strategic investments in existing and emerging forms of publication, continuously review their more specialized processes and make technical and other investments wherever possible to reduce costs. In addition, presses need to form strategic alliances among themselves to strengthen and improve the publishing services they provide to the scholarly community.
This report provides an overview and financial outlook for the global social science and humanities publishing markets based on specific research and analysis of the leading competitors' performance. This research was conducted in conjunction with a larger study of the overall market for professional publishing.
The market for social sciences and the market humanities are divided into four content delivery channels: books, journals, online services (including abstracting and indexing) and other, a category that includes audio, video and CD-ROM information.
The global social science and humanities publishing market grew total sales 1.6% to $2.4 billion in 2009. Poor economic conditions in the U.S. hurt book sales and put publishers' recurring journal subscription revenue in question as library budgets tighten.
Social science and humanities publishers often take a back seat to the scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing sector because revenue is tied to scholarly monographs with niche appeal and journals that don't attract the commercial interest of their STM counterparts. Still many small commercial publishers specializing in social science and humanities sustain levels of profit sufficient to satisfy their investors.
These presses confront substantial challenges, but also encounter significant opportunities. Advanced software and techniques for composition, cheaper digitization and file storage mechanisms, sophisticated online content management systems, and short-run and print-on-demand services all help presses lower costs for new publications and give renewed life to their backlist titles. Similarly, the growth of the Web, powerful discovery tools such as Google and the other search engines, and the opening of new distribution channels such as Amazon.com have made it possible to reach new markets beyond university libraries.
To exploit these opportunities, social science and humanities publishers must make strategic investments in existing and emerging forms of publication, continuously review their more specialized processes and make technical and other investments wherever possible to reduce costs. In addition, presses need to form strategic alliances among themselves to strengthen and improve the publishing services they provide to the scholarly community.
This report provides an overview and financial outlook for the global social science and humanities publishing markets based on specific research and analysis of the leading competitors' performance. This research was conducted in conjunction with a larger study of the overall market for professional publishing.
The market for social sciences and the market humanities are divided into four content delivery channels: books, journals, online services (including abstracting and indexing) and other, a category that includes audio, video and CD-ROM information.
Amazon Announces New 70 Percent Royalty Option For Kindle Digital Text
Amazon.com announced details of a new program that will enable authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell. For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option. This new 70 percent royalty option will become available on June 30, 2010.
Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today's median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.
"Today, authors often receive royalties in the range of 7 to 15 percent of the list price that publishers set for their physical books, or 25 percent of the net that publishers receive from retailers for their digital books," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "We're excited that the new 70 percent royalty option for the Kindle Digital Text Platform will help us pay authors higher royalties when readers choose their books."
DTP authors and publishers will be able to select the royalty option that best meets their needs. Books from authors and publishers who choose the 70 percent royalty option will have access to all the same features and be subject to all the same requirements as books receiving the standard royalty rate. In addition, to qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:
-- The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
-- This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
-- The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
-- The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
-- Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.
The 70 percent royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). At launch, the 70 percent royalty option will only be available for books sold in the United States.
The Kindle Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their books for sale in the Kindle Store. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform, visit http://dtp.amazon.com/
Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today's median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.
"Today, authors often receive royalties in the range of 7 to 15 percent of the list price that publishers set for their physical books, or 25 percent of the net that publishers receive from retailers for their digital books," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "We're excited that the new 70 percent royalty option for the Kindle Digital Text Platform will help us pay authors higher royalties when readers choose their books."
DTP authors and publishers will be able to select the royalty option that best meets their needs. Books from authors and publishers who choose the 70 percent royalty option will have access to all the same features and be subject to all the same requirements as books receiving the standard royalty rate. In addition, to qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:
-- The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
-- This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
-- The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
-- The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
-- Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.
The 70 percent royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). At launch, the 70 percent royalty option will only be available for books sold in the United States.
The Kindle Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their books for sale in the Kindle Store. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform, visit http://dtp.amazon.com/
Monday, January 18, 2010
Amazon Expands Kindle Digital Text Platform
Amazon.com, Inc. announced that authors and publishers around the world can now use the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to upload and sell books in English, German and French to customers worldwide in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Until today, DTP was only available to authors and publishers based in the United States. Now, authors and publishers outside the United States can take advantage of this same opportunity and start offering their books to Kindle customers at http://dtp.amazon.com/.
"We are excited to make the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform available to authors and publishers around the world," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "Now any content owner can offer English, German or French-language books to the fast-growing audience of Kindle owners around the globe."
Additional language options with DTP will be added in the coming months. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform visit http://dtp.amazon.com/.
"We are excited to make the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform available to authors and publishers around the world," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "Now any content owner can offer English, German or French-language books to the fast-growing audience of Kindle owners around the globe."
Additional language options with DTP will be added in the coming months. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform visit http://dtp.amazon.com/.
FastPencil Announces Ebook Publish-Ready Format for eReaders
FastPencil announced their eBook Publish-Ready Format for eReaders offering the only authoring solution that ensures an author's book can be read anywhere today and in the future. FastPencil (http://www.fastpencil.com/) provides authors with an end-to-end publishing platform where they can maintain control of the content creation, price, distribution and sales activity every step of the way.
Authors are frustrated by the inability of traditional publishers to quickly take advantage of new distribution opportunities and in today's market eBooks are increasingly constituting a larger percentage of sales. No matter the device or manner in which authors want to distribute their content, FastPencil puts more money in authors' pockets by stripping out the cost and complexity of eBook and print publishing.
FastPencil gives eBook authors immense flexibility. For instance, authors can take individual book chapters and create eBook editions to promote the larger work. Short-story writers can also use FastPencil to quickly and easily create and publish their stories. Also, as eReaders become powerful and incorporate multi-media, such as video, audio, animation, slides presentations and games, FastPencil authors can rest assured that their books can be edited and new eBook editions can be first-to-market for the richest reading experience.
With the influx of eReaders there will continue to be a variety of eBook formats and with the FastPencil eBook Publish-Ready Format authors can protect themselves by future-proofing their work. Authors using FastPencil to create and store their projects have access to the broadest distribution and complete flexibility for when new destination devices are released and existing devices are upgraded.
"Nearly 25 million eBooks were downloaded in 2009 and FastPencil is committed to making sure that projects written through our platform can be read in print and on any eReader that ever comes out," said Steve Wilson, FastPencil Co-Founder and CEO. "As eReaders progress to incorporate multimedia and new technologies, our write-once and publish anywhere approach ensures your book can be read anywhere today and in the future."
FastPencil Publish-Ready Format Features:
-- Auto-generate table of contents
-- Auto-pagination
-- Auto-merge into professional book design template
-- Auto-merge into eBook formats
-- Uphold Industry standards compliance (title page, copyright, ISBN)
FastPencil Features:
-- Select from a variety of free book templates
-- Flexibly publish original works, blog to book or import existing
stories
-- Connect and share through Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN
-- Print on Demand or to eBook formats
-- Distribution at over 32,000 online retailers including Amazon and
Barnes & Noble
-- Author concierge services including consulting, design services and
formatting
-- Collaborate with your book creation team, personal network of friends
or industry professionals
-- Integrated self-publishing wizard for step-by-step assistance
-- Access to many royalty free FastPencil Classics including Tarzan of
the Apes and Cinderella
Authors are frustrated by the inability of traditional publishers to quickly take advantage of new distribution opportunities and in today's market eBooks are increasingly constituting a larger percentage of sales. No matter the device or manner in which authors want to distribute their content, FastPencil puts more money in authors' pockets by stripping out the cost and complexity of eBook and print publishing.
FastPencil gives eBook authors immense flexibility. For instance, authors can take individual book chapters and create eBook editions to promote the larger work. Short-story writers can also use FastPencil to quickly and easily create and publish their stories. Also, as eReaders become powerful and incorporate multi-media, such as video, audio, animation, slides presentations and games, FastPencil authors can rest assured that their books can be edited and new eBook editions can be first-to-market for the richest reading experience.
With the influx of eReaders there will continue to be a variety of eBook formats and with the FastPencil eBook Publish-Ready Format authors can protect themselves by future-proofing their work. Authors using FastPencil to create and store their projects have access to the broadest distribution and complete flexibility for when new destination devices are released and existing devices are upgraded.
"Nearly 25 million eBooks were downloaded in 2009 and FastPencil is committed to making sure that projects written through our platform can be read in print and on any eReader that ever comes out," said Steve Wilson, FastPencil Co-Founder and CEO. "As eReaders progress to incorporate multimedia and new technologies, our write-once and publish anywhere approach ensures your book can be read anywhere today and in the future."
FastPencil Publish-Ready Format Features:
-- Auto-generate table of contents
-- Auto-pagination
-- Auto-merge into professional book design template
-- Auto-merge into eBook formats
-- Uphold Industry standards compliance (title page, copyright, ISBN)
FastPencil Features:
-- Select from a variety of free book templates
-- Flexibly publish original works, blog to book or import existing
stories
-- Connect and share through Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN
-- Print on Demand or to eBook formats
-- Distribution at over 32,000 online retailers including Amazon and
Barnes & Noble
-- Author concierge services including consulting, design services and
formatting
-- Collaborate with your book creation team, personal network of friends
or industry professionals
-- Integrated self-publishing wizard for step-by-step assistance
-- Access to many royalty free FastPencil Classics including Tarzan of
the Apes and Cinderella
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