Courier Corporation, a large US book manufacturer and content management provider, has agreed a deal to sell its self-publishing service provider and writing community FastPencil back to former owner Steve Wilson. Wilson and Michael Ashley founded FastPencil in 2007, but sold it to Courier six years later for $5 million. While outwardly FastPencil has grown — providing the publishing…
Blurb Partners with Design Observer for the Thesis Book Project and New Imprint
More and more publishing service providers are developing white label partnerships. We reported on two such partnership ventures last week; German booksellers alliance Tolino formed a self-publishing platform with Neobooks, and we also revealed that Books-A-Million’s (BAM) new publishing platform was powered by FastPencil. Well, these new ventures are coming thick and fast. Today DIY self-publishing platform…
E-Readers Vs. Print Books
Which is the More Eco-Friendly Choice? Reading just got a whole lot more complicated: Once confined to print materials, today’s readers now have a plethora of devices to choose from to get their literary fix. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and e-readers are transforming the reading landscape. On the surface, this may seem like a good thing—the…
5 Tools for Successful Facebook Content Marketing | Guest Post | Robert Morris
One of the most important elements of an effective marketing campaign is building an engaged fanbase of the brand in the Facebook community. Although social media users are attracted by an instinctive incentive that rarely turns them into real customers, popularity on Facebook is crucial for a brand’s success. As always, the key to a…
Amazon Launch KDP Kids Software for Self-Published Authors
Last week Amazon announced the launch of Kindle Direct Publishing Kids, book creation tool specifically aimed at self-published authors with illustrated children’s e-books. What particularly useful about the new book creation software is that it can be downloaded to your PC and used offline. Manuscript can be prepared in Microsoft Word or a similar word…
Hillcrest Media Group: Publishing Engines For The Future (Overview)
One of the biggest challenges facing publishers in the industry is shifting their role and identity from operating as curators and gatekeepers of literature to being providers of content and technologists. Publishers have pretty much steered the ship on a steady and established path over the past hundred years, but the emergence of digital technology…