Dorrance, the oldest name is subsidy publishing, is celebrating a ninety-year history that
is unique in the subsidy publishing field. Colonel Gordon Dorrance, a member of the
distinguished Main Line Philadelphia family that owned Campbell's Soup Company,
originally founded the company in 1920. Throughout its history, Dorrance has had only
five owners; all have held the company for long periods of time and were committed to
its mission of offering excellence in publishing opportunities to authors, most of who
have been new and unknown, and who believe in their work and wish to exercise their
rights of self-expression.

The Dorrance family owned and operated the company for five decades, then during the
1960s the ad agency Dorrance had worked with in promoting its books, Briggs &
Associates, purchased the company. After a number of years Anthony Parrotto, who was
the ad agency's accountant, bought the firm and took on the role of president until the
early 1980s. While building Dorrance, Parrotto had spun off a new ad agency and
printing firm, The Kingswood Group, and wanted to direct more of his energies into the
development of that other business. Elizabeth and Robert House, both of whom had many
years of experience in traditional publishing, then purchased the company from Parrotto.
Finally in 1989, a successful Pittsburgh businessman, who had founded and owned
several businesses in Pittsburgh, purchased the Dorrance name, assets, and inventory.
Elizabeth House stayed on as managing director for sixteen years. From its first location
in downtown Philadelphia, to Ardmore and Bryn Mawr on the Main Line, the company
moved in 1989 to western Pennsylvania and took up headquarters in downtown
Pittsburgh where it remains to this day.

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Last year in a widely read and discussed article that appeared in Time, Lev Grossman commented on the digital age with regard to literature stating that "an unprecedented configuration of financial and technological circumstances"  had brought about major changes in publishing in the early 18th century and that those same factors are poised today to repeat history with the emergence of new paradigms in publishing. He spoke of how a literate middle class and less expensive printing technologies brought about the rise of the novel in the early 18th century and that similar transformative variables are at work in shaping the revolutionary changes in publishing today. Grossman posed that new publishing, that is digital publishing, is "cheap, and unconstrained by paper, money or institutional tastes." In addition to being a technological revolution, he purports that the digitalization of publishing is a cultural revolution in that  digital publishing reaches cultural sectors of our society that have not been served by conventional publishing.

And now this week Publisher's Weekly reports that last year e-book sales jumped 176 percent in what was otherwise a flat year in book sales according to the American Association of Publishers. Previously reported at about 2 percent of total book sales, in 2009 e-book sales rose to make up 3.3 percent of total sales. Mark Coker, an e-book publisher, predicts that in ten years 95 percent of reading will be done on screens. It seems the growing trend in digital publishing, in e-books and other electronic formats, is, as they say, unstoppable.

Also just this week Kindle announced an application for Blackberry users to use to search for, purchase, download, and read Kindle editions of e-books on their smart phones.

Additionally Publishers Weekly writes, "Scribd has unveiled its 'send-to-device' feature that allows consumers to send the more than 10 million documents on the site directly to their e-reader and smart phones. The company also launched mobile APIs, or Scribd Open Content Platform for E-Readers and mobile devices." 

All of this points to the increasingly important role electronic publishing is playing in today's marketplace. << MORE >>

Several authors have contacted me asking how to create a blog and become a blogger. The truth is that it takes a bit of time and commitment. I became a blogger about a year and a half ago so I can describe the process I followed with the hope that it will be instructive for others who wish to start their own blogs.

The first thing to do is to research the world of blogs. By this I mean to find out what blogs are out there and what you like about them. Determine which blogs you do not like as well and why.Discover other blogs that are promoting books, or authors, or writing by searching for your topic on the blog search engines, such as Technorati or Google Blog Search, and looking there for your niche topic. After you have looked at and read a number of blogs, start commenting on blogs. By that I mean,post your own comments on others' blogs to get a feel for what it is like to write for a blog. This will allow you to find your own voice for blogging and will make you much more comfortable when starting to post on your own blog.

After you feel you have a good understanding of blogs and blogging, you need to find a blog platform to use to create and host your blog. << MORE >>

Social marketing is becoming an increasingly popular and effective means for authors to promote their own books.There are now so many different ways to reach potential readers via the Internet, it's worth listing the various methods here.

First there's bogging. Authors can begin by commenting on other people's blogs and getting their names and titles out there. Once comfortable with the bogging process, it is a great idea to create a blog featuring a book or books, or one that helps reinforce the author's brand and platform.

Other ways to use social media include networking, such as Facebook or My Space, microblogging, such as Twitter, virtual reader comments, such as Goodreads, YouTube where authors can post videos of readings or events, and online forums dedicated to a relevant and related topic . All these media provide excellent opportunities to connect with readers.

Before beginning it is wise to target the market for a book and try then to determine where those people can be found on the Internet. Pick the platforms that will successfully reach those people and include people of influence in the target audience, those who share their own opinions and sway others.

In addition the Internet offers opportunities to distribute news releases through online newswire services and to send excerpts or articles related to a book for possible publication on a magazine site or blog. As with any worthwhile effort, to be successful at promoting a book on the Internet takes time and research. But the results can be surprisingly effective. << MORE >>

Amazon has just announced that the Kindle digital platform is now available to authors and publishers all around the world to upload and sell their books in English, German, and French. Up until now only authors and publishers based in the United States were able to sell their books in the Kindle format. This is great news for authors and for readers since it opens up the e-commerce of books to everyone who has access to the Internet.

Twenty-five million e-books were downloaded in 2009. That number is expected to grow at geometric proporions in 2010. A new record was set, in fact, on Christmas Day 2009.  That day, for the first time, Amazon sold more e-books than paper and ink books. Why? The reason for the buying bonanza was the high number of people who received Kindle readers as Christmas gifts and went online to purchase their first downloads.

Look for more news on digital publishing formats when the anticpated introduction of the Apple Tablet occurs next week. << MORE >>

Recently both discussion and controversy have sparked around the notion of assigning a separate ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for electronic publications. Some have suggested there should be a separate number for each kind of electronic format in which a book is distributed, that is, for example, separate numbers for Kindle, Sony Reader, and pdf editions. And some suggest just one distinct number for all electronic editions of a book is adequate, while others believe there is no need for a distinguishing assignment beyond the book's original ISBN. To understand how to approach this question, it is good to review the purpose and history of ISBN numbers.

The ISBN is a way of organizing the commerce of the book publishing industry which has been suggested for more than forty years by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). This non-governmental group, based in Geneva, Switzerland, consists of 163 member countries that come together to create standards for business, government, and society with the goal of creating more efficient ways of working internationally. All compliance to ISO standards is voluntary. There are no laws involved. However the ISBN (managed by the Bowker Company) has been an extremely successful method for tracking books internationally since its inception and is widely used. The notion that different formats of books should have different ISBNs is not a new concept. In fact, the idea goes back to the 1970 ISO consensus that each book format should have a distinct ISBN assigned, and specifically in 2005 the ISO addressed the electronic editions of books as separate formats requiring separate numbers. << MORE >>

Many literary pundets continue to make claims that authors should aim their efforts strictly towards traditional publishing; that other forms of publishing, self-publishing, subsidy publishing, print -on-demand publishing, are scams because the author does not realize the kind of support, promotion, and sales they expect. Critics of the self-publishing services industry paint a picture in which authors at traditional houses sell lots of books and are fairly compensated, while authors who use publishing services receive promises alone. Now one bestselling author, published by a very prestigious publishing house, and listed on the New York Times bestsellers list, tells a very different personal story.

As an established author, Lynn Viehl received a $50,000 advance from Penguin Group to publish her mass market novel Twilight Fall. The book has been very successful, having sold almost 90,000 copies. Her earnings to date on the book have been $24,500 with no money due currently, and she thinks it will take several years to earn back the full advance. Even after she does earn the full advance, she believes that after taxes, commissions to her agent, and other expenses, she will net $24,500 on this bestselling book. By her calculations, the publisher has grossed $450,000 on sales. A full accounting of her experiences including her last royalty statement can be found on her blog, Genreality.

The image portrayed by traditional publishing houses and by literary pundits about all the benefits and advantages of traditional publishing overlook much of the reality. << MORE >>

Content remains king, but technology is challenging the realm. Newspapers, magazines, books, and television will all continue in flux and encounter dramatic changes as the year unfolds.

The recent mega media deal between Comcast and NBC Universal signals the increasing importance of the Internet in delivering television shows and films. Newspapers and magazines are working on delivering their content through readers and finding new ways to earn money to support their base organizations. And in the world of books, the technolgoy is already in place. But the players are changing roles.

The arrival of the Nook will shake up Amazon and Sony. The Kindle and Sony Reader will have a run for their money. And because more and more applications for e-reading are being produced, many more dual screen notebooks and movile devices will eat into the e-reader market.

It should be a very exciting year. << MORE >>

Simon & Schuster cannot be at all pleased that Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Successful People and Principle Centered Leadership, has signed on with Amazon.com for the publishing of the e-book edition of his bestsellers on the Amazon Kindle. The obvious reason for Covey's decision is that Amazon is offering 50 percent royalties on his e-book sales while Simon & Schuster is offering only 25 percent.

Traditional publishers are concerned that this phenomenon will occur frequently with more of the most popular and bestselling authors. They may hold on to digital rights while negotiating contracts for new books. Furthermore in older book contracts, digital rights were not normally delineated. Therefore authors are claiming they hold those rights.

To make matters worse, as I reported earlier in this blog, traditional publishers are delaying in publishing books in e-book format because they want to sell as many copies of the hardback version as they can, and they fear e-books, which carry a lower retail prices, will cut into sales and profits of hardback, more expensive book sales. It would seem traditional publishers continue to hold on to an outdated model. Print on demand and e-book publishing is much more in sync with today's technology and Internet marketing. By clinging to outdated models, the traditional book publishing industry is following the path of the music industry into oblivion. << MORE >>

Television commercials for the Sony Reader abound. Kindles are the most popular selling item on all of Amazon. The recently released Nooks are flying out the warehouses faster than Barnes & Noble can make them. So then it is certain. The publishing industry is finally embracing e-books. But actually that's not quite the true picture. In reality, the resistance of traditional publishers to the technological advances of e-books remains. Just recently Simon & Schuster announced they will delay the publication in e-book form of their most highly anticipated books next year by four months. << MORE >>