There is some fascinating analysis by Benedict Evans of media research company Enders Analysis presented at this week’s Booksellers Association Book Industry Conference in London. Essentially, Evans argues global companies like Apple, Google and Amazon are not book publishers and the book industry must understand clearly the approaches and strategies of these companies. Evans describes…
AmazonEncore To Publish Konrath’s New Novel
AmazonEncore, Amazon’s publishing imprint, have announced that bestselling author J.A. Konrath’s latest novel, Shaken, part of his Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Daniels series will be published as a Kindle edition of in October, with a print edition to follow in February 2011. From the press release: “J.A. Konrath’s Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Daniels series is one built on a…
Paid-Publishing or Be Damned
Over the past few days I have refined my opinions on the paid-publishing model offered by mainstream publishers in light of its newest entity, Balboa Press from Hay House Publishing. So far, three of the paid-publishing imprints we have looked at in the past year had one common denominator—Author Solutions (ASI). I do not believe…
Balboa Press – Reviewed
Balboa Press is the paid-publishing division of self-help book publisher Hay House Publishing. All their packages and services are administered and powered by Author Solutions (ASI), a global provider of self-publishing services and solutions. ASI has similar partnerships in place with other mainstream publishers and these types of self-publishing service divisions look set to become…
Authors: Young, Free and Talented or Old, Experienced and Respected??
Today’s Observer newspaper has an article by Robert McCrum positing the question, ‘A literary Career or a brilliant one-off? Take your pick.’ McCrum is reflecting on something Malcom Gladwell said on a book tour in the UK this week about how he is drawn to artists with long careers and consistency in their work, citing…
Subtlety, Hay House Publishing and The Arrival of Balboa Press
Sometimes things get lost in the translation. We apply our own expected template on what we perceive we are seeing. Dig deeper, and the subtleness under the surface can reveal the real changes and message being communicated. There will be some debate about Hay House Publishing and their partnership with Author Solutions (ASI) to create…
IPPY Awards: A Closer Look
The Independent Book Awards (IPPY) have been announced, and this evening I had a chance to look a little closer at the many categories and medal winners. While I have a great deal of time for the IPPY’s, and it has an important role to play in celebrating independent publishing and self-published books – I…
Hay House Partner with ASI to Create Paid-Publishing Imprint Balboa Press
The news just in today is that Author Solutions has formed another partnership with a mainstream publisher – Hay House Publishing – to form a self-publishing service in the shape of Balboa Press. This is pretty much a copybook move replicating the models now operated by Thomas Nelson and Harlequin with Westbow Press and DellArte Press…
IPPY Award Winners Announced
This year’s winners of the Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) have been announced. I have not had time to go through the full list, but I will do so over the coming days and produce some analysis. The IPPY’s are awarded in multiple categories and offer gold, silver and bronze medals in each. A full…
Miller Rolls The Dice on Publisher Risk
The below video of Bob Miller of Workman Publishing Group addressing delegates at last month’s BookNet Canada Technology Forum came this evening via Jason Boog of GalleyCat on Mediabistro. The video from Blip TV may only have recently become available. Miller, former publisher at HarperStudio, looks at the process of ‘risk assessment’ for publishers acquiring…