News

Wil Wheaton, popular blogger, best known for his roles in “Stand by Me” and as Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” has released his next collection of work on Lulu.com.  Wheaton’s already published books before via Subterranean Press and O’Reilly Media, but he chose to self-publish the collection himself.  As he says on his blog,

Sunken Treasure is doing great, and if the last two days are any indication, my Operation Crazy Idea to release more original material using this kind of POD technology and distribution is going to quickly become Operation Awesome Idea that

Via Pod Peep comes the news that Osprey, a leading Military book publisher, is going to refer rejected books to the self-publishing service, AuthorHouse. This comes on the heels of Chronicle Books, primarily known as a publisher of illustrated books, though they publish others, to Blurb, which specializes in photography and other graphic-based books.

In both cases, Emily Veinglory of Pod Peep took the publishing houses to task. Mick Rooney – who writes for this site – wrote an informed article about how this takes advantage of writers. I’ll take the part of contrarian.

This could potentially be […]

The Kindle 2 was released today to some fanfare and one very major problem: it costs the same as the first generation kindle – $359.  Last week, it was rumored to go down by $100.  Though the Kindle has made significant improvements on the first generation Kindle, the main criticism of the device is its cost.  And because Kindle books can now be accessed on other devices, such as the iPhone, this will likely not signify a new revolution in e-books.

It is a case of two steps forward, one step back.  While the Kindle is an attractive device, it […]

What could improve the widespread use of ebooks could also increase the perception that ebooks are not readable. Google is allowing its huge library of 1.5 million public domain books to be available on mobile phones, such as the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1.

Proponents say this is a step in the right direction but hardly the end of the line. More so, it’s the beginning of a process where ebook reader, phone, computer, and even TV set will all be on the same device, possibly the same size as a Kindle is today – with a removable handset […]

The subject of some amount of controversy, this week signals the beginning of submissions for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award.  People have accused Amazon of creating the contest merely to get people to publish via CreateSpace and BookSurge.  This may well be true, but Amazon fires back saying that 4 out of the 10 finalist from last year’s contest were offered publishing contracts.  Last year’s winner, Fresh Kills, has a hardcover out on Putnam.

Additionally, Amazon has cut down the number of submissions this year, as it has also been criticized for a sort of factory-line approach to reading submissions, […]

Andrew Sullivan, political blogger for The Atlantic, weighs in on print on demand. He says,

My own view is that the publishing industry deserves to die in its current state. It never made economic sense to me; there are no real editors of books any more; the distribution network is archaic; the technology of publishing pathetic; and the rewards to authors largely impenetrable. I still have no idea what my occasional royalty statements mean: they are designed to be incomprehensible, to keep the authors in the dark, to maintain an Oz-like mystery where none is required.

The future

Via Mick Rooney’s print on demand blog comes news of the Espresso Book Machine – a print on demand book machine that can print up books in-store.  The implications for the self-publishing industry are huge, as the main problem for print on demand books is the inability to find its way into bookstores.  This way book buyers will be able to buy a print on demand book when they make a purchase.

The problem is that print on demand books will still face some of the same problems they’re facing today.  The problem with POD currently is not that the […]

In a story from the Wall Street Journal, Author Solutions, Inc. has bought Xlibris, furthering the consolidation of the print on demand industry.  Author Solutions now runs three of the most popular print on demand houses – AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Xlibris.  Eyebrows were raised when AuthorHouse joined forces with iUniverse, and this acquisition will have people raising the specter of “monopoly” and the potential for the three POD outlets to corner the market on print on demand publishing.

Generally, the three companies offer the same types of services.  Unlike Lulu.com, which lets authors print up books one at a […]