October is the first month that Lightning Source has been knocked off the top spot. A surge in titles being published through CreateSpace and continued strong email feedback has led to their jump from the number 4 spot on the index. Other notable surprise mover on the up is Xlibris, up ten places, again based…
POD INDEX and Self-Publishing Analysis
A couple of weekends ago we launched the POD INDEX for author solutions services—a rating index of publishing services we have reviewed over the past three years. I made the following comments when we first introduced the POD INDEX for June 2010: “The POD INDEX for author solutions services is something we have been working on for the…
Troubador Withdraw Matador’s ‘Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons’ Book
June 7th should have marked the official release of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons, written by Carl Toms, and published by Matador (256.20), a self-publishing imprint of Troubador Publishing UK. However, on May 27th, Troubador Publishing announced the following: “Troubador has ceased distribution of a self-published book written about Michael Jackson. Following new information that came to…
Raider Founder Sets About Putting Things Right
Raider International Publishing (RAI 208.16) has been in the author solutions service business for five years. Actually, May 31st was the exact date of their foundation. Company owner and founder, Adam Salviani, made his annual address, and you can find that here. I have a lot of time for Raider International Publishing – their core approach…
Lightning Source – Reviewed (Updated June, 2011)
Lightning Source has become synonymous with authors pursuing what is described as ‘true self-publishing—whereby an author sets up their own imprint, purchases a block of ISBN’s and uses Lightning Source’s global print and fulfilment services to publish and make their books available for distribution. Lightning Source US Lightning Source UK “Lightning Source, an Ingram Content…
POD Index – June 2010
The POD INDEX for author solutions services is something we have been working on for the past couple of months and over three days of the weekend we compiled the June 2010 index (56) which marks the first month of flotation for all the author solutions services we have reviewed. More details on the POD Index…
Diadem Books – Reviewed (Updated May, 2010)
Diadem Books are a Scottish author solutions company based in Fife, Scotland, and run by Charles Muller, a South African born academic and former hotelier. An author in his own right, he founded Diadem Books in 1997 and for many years used iUniverse’s print on demand service to issue Diadem’s published books. Diadem became a…
Schiel & Denver – Reviewed (Updated, May 2010)
(Updated, May, 2010, see footer) Founded by authors in April, 2008, Schiel & Denver is pretty much a new kid on the block. One of those founding authors is Director, Tunde Reid-Kapo (3rd comment down on link). Schiel & Denver describe their company as an international publishing services infrastructure provider, dedicated to meeting the needs of…
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…
Self-Publisher Experience Days: (Author’s Choice) – Overview
The Author’s Choice Partnership is a an endeavour set up by UK self-publishing service, Matador (imprint of Troubador Publishing), and MPG Biddles (MPG Books Group), a book manufacturer specializing in short-to-medium print-runs (lithographic and POD). Although both companies operate in the print and publishing industry independently, Author’s Choice will offer a host of bespoke self-publishing…