Book Publishers Slam Shut The Door On First-Time Authors

It is the old story of David and Goliath - only this time Goliath is standing on top of a 40-storey New York building. Sadly for a first-time author the pavement is the closest they're ever going to get to ever meeting an executive of big six book publishing conglomerates.

Want proof? Go to any of their websites. Random House, Penguin Putnam, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster all say 'Sorry we do not accept unsolicited submissions, proposals or manuscripts of any kind'.

That's fine if you're already in the door or you're the latest winner of Donald Trump's 'Apprentice'. But where does it leave everyone else?

Dale Beaumont, creator of http://www.getpublishedsecrets.com/, is one such author that proves there is hope. After months and months of struggling with the big end of town he decided to go down the path of self-publishing.

"It just got to the point where I realised that if I was ever going to get my book published I was going to have to do it myself", says Dale Beaumont.

Two years after making that decision Dale Beaumont is the author of fifteen published books which have collectively sold 250,000 copies. Not a bad effort considering he funded the entire process himself.

What's more, Dale Beaumont believes that he can now teach any first time author to duplicate his book publishing success any where in the world through a new program available at http://www.GetPublishedSecrets.com He bases his new program on the knowledge that he learnt from his experiences and journey as a self publisher as well as the expertise from world renowned book publishing experts from all over the world such as Dan Poynter and Mark Victor Hansen.

"Since releasing my books I've had literally hundreds of calls from writers, totally frustrated after years of rejection from big book publishers. So I interviewed every book publishing expert I could find and put together http://www.GetPublishedSecrets.com," say Dale Beaumont.

"The program teaches aspiring authors how to get through the back door of any book publisher or how to do-it-your and self publish like I have" he explains.

The program starts from the real basics, from actually writing your manuscript to editing, proofreading, choosing between book publishers or self publishing, distribution, marketing and other strategies to become not just an author but a best-selling, successful author.

Dale delves into unique strategies such as the internet and re-purposing that he has used to achieve great levels of success and openly shares how people all over the world can duplicate the implementation of these strategies.

"Thank you Dale for providing such in-depth information on how to get your book published. Some very important things I learnt were the ideas about producing a series, the pros and cons of publishing and self publishing, giving bonuses in your book and getting bookmarks done at the same time as printing. It has to be the most informative program I've been to. You gave us your all" says John Bates, one of Dale's publishing students.

So if you every dreamt of becoming a published author, you can download a free information kit containing a publishing CD and guide at http://www.getpublishedsecrets.com/

Scholastic Unveils One of Only Seven Original Copies of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales Of Beedle The Bard"

Scholastic unveiled one of only seven original copies of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," created, handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling. The volume will be on view from December 4 through January 4 in a free exhibit at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The display coincides with the international publication of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." Besides the once in a lifetime opportunity for Harry Potter fans to view the interior and exterior of the original book the exhibit also includes a video of the owner reading one of the tales, and visuals of several pages of the book.

In addition, to celebrate the launch of the exhibit and the publication of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," Scholastic will donate 3 copies of the book to each of The New York Public Library's 87 branches, which are located throughout the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island.

The original copy, 157 pages bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones, is made available for public viewing with the permission of Arthur A. Levine, Scholastic co-editor of all seven books in the Harry Potter series. Arthur was one of only six people to receive an original edition of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" as a personal gift from J.K. Rowling.

The seventh copy was given to the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J.K. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, MEP to make life better for vulnerable children. CHLG auctioned off its copy which was acquired by Amazon for $4 million in December 2007. The limited run New York Public Library exhibit is the only planned viewing in the U.S. of any of the seven original books created by J.K. Rowling.

In response to the many requests from fans who sought copies of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," The Children's High Level Group will publish three versions of the book in cooperation with Scholastic, Bloomsbury and Amazon. These books will hit stores in the U.S., U.K. and online on December 4, 2008 and all net proceeds will go to supporting the work of the charity.

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is a wizarding classic which first came to Muggle readers' attention in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." One of these tales -- "The Tale of the Three Brothers" -- is recounted in the seventh Harry Potter novel. The remaining four stories are revealed for the very first time in "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." Thanks to Hermione Granger's new translation from the ancient runes, Scholastic proudly presents this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J.K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore.

For images and footage of Arthur Levine and J.K. Rowling reading from "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/beedlethebard

DailyLit Launches Book Samplers

DailyLit (http://www.dailylit.com/), an innovative digital publisher, launched its newest feature, Book Samplers, which combine short excerpts from different books. The Book Samplers are sent to readers in DailyLit's customized, scheduled installments that arrive by email or RSS, allowing readers to receive a short sample of a new book each day.

The Book Samplers are designed to make discovering and selecting new books on DailyLit easy for readers. Any book featured in a Sampler contains a link that lets readers instantly access the book on DailyLit or add it to their To-Read list on the site. The Book Samplers are entirely free, and the books that are sampled are available in full in prices ranging from free to $9.95.

Each Book Sampler has a unique topic, which will allow readers to discover new books in genres they like. Romance novels, science fiction, and motherhood are three of the eleven topics currently available, with more to come in the following months. Also available is a special Gift Ideas sampler, which features books on DailyLit that are ideal for giving as gifts. Readers can easily send the books as gifts to friends using DailyLit's gift feature, which allows readers to include personalized messages with their gifts.

"Having a free daily tasting of books delivered right into your email inbox is a great way to find new books to read," said Susan Danziger, CEO of DailyLit. "And if you like a book, you can continue reading it almost immediately."

The samplers can be viewed at: http://dailylit.com/tags/book-samplers

Internet Novel Writing Project That Everyone Can Join

Make Literature Online, the fastest growing collaborative writing community, today announced the launch of its first fiction book writing project: The novel "People";

"A tale of people that collide into each other. That fight with each other. That seek for acceptance, friendship and love."

Since its launch in April 2008, Make Literature Online website was quickly became the favorable collaborative writing environment for writers, readers, pros and enthusiasts, and has quickly gained a substantial following.

Armed with little more than a desire for a fresh literature experience, users of all backgrounds and skill levels have unique opportunity to take equal part in shaping the storylines of new novels, by submitting inspiring ideas for new stories, new chapters for ongoing fiction writing projects, or by selecting the best writings from an online catalogue and discussing the submitted stories in forums.

"People" – the novel, is the first result of this collaborative community effort. One which storyline was selected among numerous of other submissions as most interesting and inspiring to launch new novel creation process that everyone can and should contribute.

The proof of this open concept is the storyline author itself: Raluca Enescu - young student of sociology and philosophy from Romania, in her words "a bit of a hippie, a bit of a thinker and somewhat feminist":

"I've seen the movie »Crash« a while ago-and I guess that's where I got the idea of people of different backgrounds, views and mentalities colliding into each other. Let's just say it's a »critical thinking« experiment. It's an exercise of »how to see trough the eyes of the other« - which, I believe, is much needed for living in the real life, among real people."

Asked to comment on how does she anticipates her storyline developing on the course of this project, Raluca said:

"Well, I wouldn't want to make any predictions. I think this is up to the ones who will write the story, not to me. The thing is- everyone who will contribute will have a very different view on the storyline and the characters. There can be very conflicting views. That's the beauty about collaborative writing."

At the dawn of the 21st Century and Social Media revolution, new media is forcing the rapid evolution of communications and is reinventing the conventional fiction writing into the art of "personalized" storytelling. This is the practice of matching our stories with the preferences of those we wish to reach, through the active communication and interaction with the audience.

The destiny of "People" novel is now entirely in hands of the online community and its vast creative potential demonstrated so many times in recent years. If successful, this project may mark a new chapter in the history of modern fiction literature, and be the roll-model for many similar ventures that are jet to come.

You'll be able to follow "People" daily progress on its official blog at http://www.makeliterature.com/.

Self Publishing Made Easy - iPhone App Publishes Directly To Millions Of Users

eBookApp.com (http://www.ebookapp.com/) is launching a brand new service, designed to provide authors with worldwide exposure and readers with content that can be read right on their iPhone. This marriage of convenience has the potential to revolutionize the publishing industry and eBookApp.com is at the forefront.

Thanks to this new application, authors will have access to millions of readers via the popular iPhone. The service converts existing books into iPhone friendly reading material, which can then be purchased and downloaded, right from the iTunes store. eBookApp is also designed with readers in mind, giving them one of the best iPhone reading experiences in the industry.

The CEO/Founder of eBookApp.com Roger Lichfield stated, "I am always amazed at how quickly developers can produce some great applications so quickly, we feel we are one of the first to the help lay people access to the best and most affordable iPhone applications, without needing technical knowledge. Our goal is to help Authors / Publishers put their content into reader’s hands, we expect developers to want to use this app engine as well.”

For a limited time, EBookApp.com is offering free service to authors who wish to take advantage of this technology, at their main site - http://www.ebookapp.com/

New Hampshire Authors Launch Publishing Company

New Hampshire authors Rick DeCost and Bob Griffin have launched a new publishing company and an online presence.

Absent Willow Publishing LLC is an independent book publisher that will provide its readers with high quality stories of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Its online efforts include The Absent Willow Review. The Absent Willow Review plans to publish fictional stories in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genre while allowing its readers access to the magazine anywhere in the world. Additionally, the Absent Willow Review will publish paperback anthologies from their collected works.

"We're huge fans of the genres we publish," remarked Griffin. "We started this company to find greats works of fiction and to locate the next generation of great writers." With its online magazine spotlighting new works and its print publications soon to be available through Amazon.com and other retailers, the Company is planning to renew interest in short works of fiction. "For new and established authors of short fiction in the horror or fantasy vein, the market is light," DeCost added. "We are hoping to change that."

Website: http://www.absentwillowreview.com/

NY Publisher Announces Plans to Become Bank

Dolyttle and Seamore, the NY-based publisher of Dr. Young's Guide to Demotivating Employees, announced today that it would become a bank-holding company to give it access to the same level of support that is available to other financial institutions.

"The economy is in a bit of a spot now and this makes it very difficult to sell books," said Mark Young, president of Dolyttle & Seamore. "Rather than take a chance by publishing books that may not sell, we've decided to take the easy route and ask the government to bail us out.

"While there are some disadvantages, such as having the Federal Reserve as our regulator, we believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages 10-to-1. Like American Express, we don't anticipate any changes to the way we do business.

Young went on to say that economy would not turnaround in the short term and his decision was made out of necessity.

"The government has already started nationalizing the banks and insurance companies and will soon move into car manufacturing. But banking is where the money is at the moment at we want our piece."

Young said he was unsure how much money his company would receive, but said he hoped it would be enough to take over his competitors such as Bertelsmann, Harper Collins and Scholastic. "It would also be nice if we could spend a few months in South Pacific devising our strategy."

For more information about Dr. Young's Guide to Demotivating Employees go to http://www.dolyttle.com/ or http://www.demotivationist.com/.