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IN THIS ISSUE:

Publishing Industry News - What to Expect in EPUB3
                                      What Is Going On With Borders?

Trade Show News - BookMasters Group Attends ALA Midwinter Meeting

Marketing & Distribution - You Don’t Need Random House

Blog Reminder - e11even

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What to Expect in EPUB3
By Bob Kasher, Business Development Manager for Integrated Solutions

There are three key areas EPUB3 is focused around: language support, greater accessibility, and increased multimedia support. Language support will allow EPUB3 to save and search non-Roman scripts — such as Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic — as font characters rather than JPEGs, as in current EPUB support. This will make a much broader range of literature available to current and future reading devices from base EPUB files. It will truly internationalize EPUB.

EPUB3 will also be better at integrating the current DAISY accessibility standards, to help make reading devices of greater usefulness to visually impaired readers.

EPUB3 will be much more adept at supporting multimedia capabilities for both HTML5-based devices and the coming generation of tablets supporting both Flash and HTML5. It is hoped that in doing so, EPUB3 will help develop an enhanced eBook standard that can be used across a variety of media and content.

Other developments include enhanced metadata support for discoverability, better facilitation support for touchscreen devices, and support for MathML, which we hope will open up greater opportunities for textbook publishers. EPUB3 will be a quantum leap forward in capabilities for future device support, but still backward compatible with current devices on the market.

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What Is Going On With Borders and What Does It Mean for Me?

Back on December 31, news broke that Borders was suspending payments to some publishers. If you haven’t guessed already, it is pretty big news in the industry when one of the major booksellers has a problem like this.

A question many of you may be asking right now is, “What does this mean for me?”

You may have seen in the news that some in the industry have decided not to ship directly to Borders for now. This is the stand AtlasBooks is taking. In fact, it is the stand we have been taking for about 2 years now.

We’ve known that Borders has been struggling financially for years. We made this move in an effort to ensure that we, and therefore, our publishing partners, will be paid for inventory sent to Borders. Though we do not sell direct to Borders, the chain still has had access to and has sold books by our publishing partners. We also still present new titles to them. They order the books through wholesalers that we work with. This means that our payment comes from the wholesalers and per their payment terms with AtlasBooks. We have been preparing for a dilemma like Border’s for years, and now others are catching up.

There is speculation that Borders may file for bankruptcy.  We will be watching and waiting, like everyone in the industry, to see if this comes to pass.

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Self-Publishing: You Don’t Need Random House to Publish and Market Your Book
by Stewart Truelsen
Article taken from STET, The Newsletter of the Independent Writers of Chicago

By now you should have written your New Year’s resolutions for 2011. The Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC) wishes you luck in keeping them. We can’t help you get fit, stay on a budget, join a cooking class, or back up everything on your computer, but we can help you in resolving to publish and market your book.

If you haven’t already started writing a book, that’s all right too. The first IWOC meeting of the year, January 11, was the perfect time to give it serious consideration.

The program focused on marketing and distribution to the book trade for self-published authors. The speaker was Randall McKenzie, vice-president of sales for BookMasters Group/AtlasBooks Distribution of Ashland, Ohio. BookMasters Inc. handles all facets of print production and provides warehousing and fulfillment services. AtlasBooks is a division that markets and sells books to wholesalers, chains, online retailers, and other retail markets around the world.

With over 40 years of experience, McKenzie is a leading expert in book sales and distribution. Prior to his affiliation with Atlas, he held positions with publishing houses such as Meredith and Health Communications Inc. As director of sales for HCI, McKenzie worked with New York Times best-selling authors and books that included the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

McKenzie works with national accounts for AtlasBooks, managing 19 field sales representatives and developing programs to help sell new titles. To put it plainly—he can help sell the book you’ve poured heart, soul, and countless uncompensated hours into writing.

If you have doubts and a bias against self-publishing, you’ll definitely want McKenzie to answer your questions. “Buyers have had a negative attitude toward self-publishing, but that is slowly changing,” he told us. “Consumers don’t care where the book is published so long as it looks like it came from a New York publisher.” One of the titles he worked with recently is Change Your Aura, Change Your Life by Barbara Martin, an award-winning book about using one’s spiritual power.

"Basically, you (or anyone else) can look as if you’re published by a small, independent publisher, as long as you don’t have a bad cover, bad interior, and poorly priced book", McKenzie said. “It’s not hard, if you do your homework.” He recommends working with a distributor six to eight months in advance of publication so the book can be shopped to major booksellers.

If the bookseller doesn’t like the dust jacket, price, or something else, there may still be time to make a few changes.

Writing a book and seeing it in print is a great source of pride as some already know. However, before anyone becomes too starry-eyed at the prospect of a first book signing, you need to consider the costs and effort. At the IWOC meeting, McKenzie shared examples and cost information for independent publishing and compare it to royalty publishing. With a self-published book, the author is responsible for all the upfront costs, including design, editing, and printing. The distributor receives a percentage of sales it helps generate.

Even if you don’t have a book proposal in mind, you could very well run across a client who needs a book written for a commemoration or to help sell a product, service, or idea. You could easily land that job — and score points with your client — if you’re knowledgeable about self-publishing and can steer the client in the right direction. Many clients want books for one reason or another. They just need a nudge to take the plunge. Presto! You’ve got a book under your belt, and your client pays you and picks up the cost of publication.

 

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BookMasters Group Attends ALA Midwinter Meeting

Randy McKenzie, Vice President of AtlasBooks Distribution and Mark Levine, Vice President of BookMasters Distribution Services, attended The American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting on January 7- 10.  This meeting attracted Library and Information Technology professionals from across the country, which represented more than 450 exhibitors and over 8,000 Librarians.

“It was good for us to try and establish direct relationships with our Librarians, to find out buying trends, and to learn more about the overall library market,” said Randy McKenzie.

For more information about upcoming trade shows, please see our
2011 ATLASBOOKS TRADE SHOW SCHEDULE

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International Shows

2011 Taipei International Book Fair
Taipei World Trade Center
Taipei, Taiwan
February 9-14, 2011
www.tibe.org.tw

Abu Dhabi Book Fair
Abu Dhabi, UAE
March 15-21, 2011
www.adbookfair.com

Bologna Children's Book Fair
Bologna, Italy
March 28-31, 2011
www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/en/

London Book Fair
Earl’s Court
London, England
April 11-13, 2011
Visit The BookMasters Group at Stand #G405
www.londonbookfair.co.uk

Beijing International Book Fair
Beijing, China
August 29, 2011- September 2, 2011
www.bibf.net

Regional U.S. Shows

Writer's Digest Conference: The Business of Being Published
Sheraton Hotel & Towers
New York, New York
January 21-23, 2011
www.writersdigest.com

Michigan Reading Association
55th Annual Conference
Grand Rapids, MI
March 12-14, 2011
www.michiganreading.org

Association of College and Research Libraries
Philadelphia, PA
March 30, 2011- April 1, 2011
www.ala.org

New York State Reading Association
Saratoga Springs, NY
April 3-5, 2011
www.nysreading.org

Texas Library Association
Austin, TX
April 12-15, 2011
www.txla.org

Pennsylvania School Library Association
Hershey, PA
April 28-30, 2011
www.psla.org

Connecticut Library Association
Stamford, CT
May 2-3, 2011
www.ctlibraryassociation.org

New Jersey Library Association
Long Branch, NJ
May 3-4, 2011
www.njla.org

Florida Library Association
Orlando, FL
May 4-6, 2011
www.flalib.org

BookExpo America  
Jacob Javits Center
New York, New York
May 24-26, 2011
Visit The BookMasters Group at Booth # 3040-3055
www.bookexpoamerica.com