Mick Rooney's Page

I have noticed a particular rise over the past few months from readers of POD, Self Publishing & Independent Publishing asking me to review specific author service companies which they have not yet seen on the site. The array of author service companies is vast and I am slowly working my way through the ones I wish to include—meaning—there are already quite a number I have looked at but have decided not to review. There are many reasons why I deci… Continue

In life, certain things have a way of happening just at the right time. This week’s book publishing news was no exception. I have two quotes below from two senior principles from very diverse areas of the book publishing world, who in their own right believe they are making a difference. Here are the quotes. Follow the theme.

Quote One:
"We regard ourselves as independent in the sense of independence of third-party corporate ownership and feel at home with the other members."

Quo… Continue

Blackwell booksellers will take ownership of the latest version of the Espresso Book Machine in April and showcase it at this year's London Book Fair on April 17th.

Blackwell, who sell academic books, will have the Espresso Book Machine in their Charing Cross store as part of a pilot test commencing on the last week in April. If successful, they plan to introduce machines to other Blackwell stores.

Blackwell's plan will focus on testing the machine as well as gauging the market and demand for… Continue

Independent book publisher Faber is one of one of those to watch for new trends and different approaches to publishing. On April 27th, they will release the ebook, ‘What Price Liberty?’ by Ben Wilson, inviting buyers to pay what they deem appropriate, even if that means the download is for free… Continue

Over the past few months I’ve noticed that AuthorHouse have been making a particularly worrying use of their Referral Program. This type of program is used by a number of large Self Publishing companies using digital POD (print on demand) services to authors. Here is AuthorHouse’s own description of the Referral Program. The following are from AuthorHouse’s US and UK websites.

https://secure.authorhouse.co.uk/AuthorCent… Continue