Review of 2008 POD Publishing Articles

I thought I’d take the opportunity on the final day of 2008 to look back on some of the articles and subjects we have touched on during the year.

Overall, the Irish book retail sector has recorded stronger sales than for 2007, a surprise to me in light of the economic downturn and the continued reported news about retailers, publishers and distributors struggling in the final quarter of the year. While the industry may be finding the going rough, it seems the book buying public, certainly in Ireland, are buying more books than ever. It will be interesting to see if this trend is mirrored in the UK and USA.

During the year I wrote three articles about my own experience of publishing two of my books, Academy and Filigree & Shadow through Lulu.com and some findings about other POD publishers. The experience was highly rewarding and I learned a considerable amount about book layout and design as well as the process of book publishing. You can find the articles on the links below:

Adventures with POD Publishing
Adventures with Lulu – Part 1
Adventures with Lulu – Part 2
Adventures with Lulu – Part 2 (Update)
Adventures with Lulu – Part 3

We also ran a well-supported poll here and asked you the question; What POD publisher did you find in your experience to be the most reputable? You can find the results of that poll at the link below:

POD Publisher Poll

Following the poll we took a close look at the POD publishers who topped the poll and reviewed the publishing services they offer. You can read the findings of those reviews at the links below:

Outskirts Press
Lulu – (see above Adventures with Lulu links)
IUniverse
Xlibris
Booklocker

You can find the results of the book ranking analysis and the kinds of books that do well with these publishers, Outskirts Press, Authorhouse, Lulu, IUniverse and Xlibris at the following link:

Book Ranking Analysis

Throughout the year we have also being following Amazon’s strategy of bringing some publishers who use print-on-demand digital technology to sign up to Booksurge’s print program. So far this does not seem to have caused the wide scale sea change initially predicted, but this story should continue to unfold through 2009. You can follow this story by clicking on the ‘Amazon’ label tag lower down and to the right.

In October, in light of the continued economic downturn and continued belt-tightening and layoffs in the industry, we examined where modern publishing is, why it’s gotten into such a state, and what might lie ahead. You can read the article ‘Change or be Damned’ by clicking the link below:

Publishing Industry – Change or be Damned

There is also a further article on the buying trends in books and the manner in which self-publishing books are treated. Here is the article link:

Big Guys n Poor Guys in Publishing

Regular visitors of this site will also be aware that I have also posted updates on the current dispute between Diggory Press and some 70 disgruntled authors. In fact a lot of inspiration to creating and writing articles for this site and discussing POD issues on many writing forums that I visit have very much come from my following of this whole story. You can follow that ongoing story by clicking on the ‘Diggory Press’ tag lower down and to the right. Hopefully, in early 2009, this story, which has been running since late 2006, will reach a final conclusion for all involved. As a salutary thought, you might also like to read my article on my own opinions on the necessary standards needed in POD Publishing at the link below:

POD Publishing Standards

May I finally take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. I seem to have set myself a lot of books to write/publish in the new year, relaunched my publishers, Aquarius Communications Publishing, and of course continue to make this site grow from strength to strength. But, most importantly, that I can continue to help, advise and inform any author taking a step into the world of publishing.

Happy New Year!

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