New HarperCollins Non-traditional Publishing Imprint

In a sign of things to come, HarperCollins announced that it's starting a new imprint that will not pay advances to authors... nor will it take returns from booksellers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new operation "also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the front of bookstores, a common practice. Instead, the as-yet-unnamed unit will share its profit with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet, where a growing portion of book sales are shifting."

I'll bet that this is the first of many new imprints at traditional publishers that will follow this model.

Meanwhile, I can't resist quoting Robert S. Miller, the founding publisher of Hyperion (who'll be leading the as-yet-unnamed HarperCollins imprint), who was himself quoted in Friday's New York Times:

“The idea is, ‘Let’s take all the things that we think are wrong with this business and try to change them,’ ” said Mr. Miller, 51. “It really seemed to require a start-up from scratch because it will be very experimental.”

Methinks Mr. Miller need not reinvent the wheel.

If he's looking for successful models to emulate, he might check out the self-publishing services and independent presses that have been selling via the Internet (mainly using Print-On-Demand technology) for oh, about ten years now!

To read the full New York Times article, click here.

The Future of Print-On-Demand

What does the future hold for independent authors? How about access to the same unlimited shelf space—the kind of space that online booksellers like Amazon currently make available to all—only inside physical "bricks-and-mortar" bookstores, instead?

The day hasn't arrived yet, but all signs point to this happening over the next several years. How will this be achieved?

Basically, by installing print-on-demand printers inside bookstores. Then, if a customer wants a book that a store hasn't got in stock—presto! they'll just print out a copy for you.

Currently, print-on-demand printers take up a lot of space (think "the whole room") but engineers are hard at work "miniaturizing" the machines for retail space.

That means that one day in the relatively near future, any book ever published will be available to any bookstore visitor instantly—or at least, in the time it takes to drink a cappuccino while they're waiting for it to be printed.

The ramifications of this are enormous for independent authors and small presses competing with big publishing houses for retail space.

For more on these ramifications, check out the article at the following link by clicking here.

Distributors and Wholesalers in Publishing

"My book is distributed by Ingram. That means my book has a distributor, right?"

Your book is carried by Ingram, but Ingram is a wholesaler, not a distributor. Ingram does "distribute" as far as getting books to bookstores is concerned. However, a distributor does far more than that. Let's look at the differences between a wholesalers and distributors in the publishing business.

Wholesalers are companies that handle the resale of books in large quantities and serve booksellers. Wholesalers that carry most Wheatmark books include Ingram Book Company (U.S.), Baker & Taylor (U.S.), and Bertram Books (U.K.).

Distributors, on the other hand, are companies that, for a fee, represent publishers by handling the warehousing and shipping of books to retailers. They sometimes request an exclusive relationship with publishers and serve as the source for wholesalers.

In a nutshell, book distributors work for publishers, while wholesalers serve bookstores.