The Self-Publishing Review (SPR) has launched what it describes as a ‘hybrid publishing house’ this week. And what exactly is that you might ask? ‘A traditional on-demand publishing model without the gatekeepers,’ says Henry and Cate Baum of SPR. Kwill Publishing House is targeted at authors who want to focus on writing and leave book production and marketing to the…
Reedsy Launches Global Author Survey
Reedsy provides an online marketplace to help connect authors with freelance publishing service professionals. It launched in 2014 as a new startup and opened its marketplace to authors that November. This week Reedsy founder Ricardo Fayet contacted TIPM to tell us about a new global survey it has designed, coded and launched. Fayet explains: The idea is to shed a bit…
Kobo Begins Development of Expanded Publishing Services
Kobo e-book retailer is currently developing new expanded author services for its self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life (KWL). In a posting on the KWL blog on Monday, the e-book retailer explained a new feature that had appeared for authors on their account dashboards: Many of you have noticed a new “Author Services” tab popped up in…
Author Solutions Lawsuit is Discontinued & Settlement Reached
Judge Denise Cote has ordered the lawsuit filed by two authors (originally three) in April 2013 ‘discontinued without prejudice’ when she was informed earlier this month that both parties had reached a settlement. This follows on from Judge Cote’s decision in July to deny class action status to the plaintiffs because certification requirements had not been met and that…
PubSlush Acquired by Colborne Communications
We reported on Monday that crowdfunding platform PubSlush had announced its closure on August 23rd. Well, the platform has had an eleventh hour reprieve with news via a press release that Colborne Communications has acquired PubSlush as of August 24th. Colborne is a publishing services provider and the good news for authors is that it will ‘continue to take submissions…
Book Design Templates Announces Agreement with Ingram Content Group
A couple of years ago Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer website launched Book Design Templates, a service dedicated to providing professionally designed book templates for indie authors and small publishers who prefer to use MS Word. Friedlander and his team set out to push the everyday word processing application to its limit in an effort to…
Crowdfunding Platform PubSlush Set to Close This Month
PubSlush is a global pre-publication platform that offers crowdfunding and pre-order options for authors and publishers. Founded in 2011 by mother and daughter entrepreneurs, Hellen and Amanda Barbara, PubSlush originally began as a crowdfunding publisher (think Unbound in the UK) and later developed into a platform created to connect writers with readers. Primarily it hosted a dedicated crowdfunding system much like Kickstarter,…
Pearson in ‘advanced discussions’ to Sell Financial Times Group
Publishing group Pearson is reportedly in advanced discussions with Germany’s largest newspaper publisher Axel Springer to offload its iconic newspaper, the Financial Times. The Financial Times Group includes a 50% stake in The Economist magazine and several other titles. In recent years Pearson has been concentrating on consolidating its brand as an educational publisher and over the past few…
Self-Published Title Makes Polari First Book Prize Longlist
Al Brookes’ The Gift of Looking Closely has been selected in the Polari First Book Prize longlist of ten books. The longlist was announced last night at the Polari Literary Salon in London’s Southbank Centre. The award was created five years ago to celebrate a writer whose first book explores the LGBT experience, whether in poetry, prose,…
Troubador Publishing Acquires The Book Guild Ltd
This week Troubador Publishing Ltd (UK) has completed the acquisition of Brighton-based self-publishing service provider The Book Guild Ltd. TIPM understands that discussions between Troubador and The Book Guild had been on-going for several months and a final deal was agreed recently for an undisclosed sum. Troubador will continue to run The Book Guild Ltd as an independent company. Troubador already…