Book Sanctuary - new eBook publisher

[BookSanctuary]

Hi,

I am new to this forum, and am posting this thread in order to talk about an e-publishing project that I have developed and launched with my family.

We launched our business in September 2009 and have since been developing our website www.booksanctuary.co.uk. The principle behind the business is to be an eBook publisher that focuses its energies on promoting new writing, and particularly supporting previously unpublished writers. We want to utilise the social networks of the internet, such as discussion forums, Twitter, Facebook, MSN Messaging, to enable Book Sanctuary to be a hub for literary debate and a platform for writers to sell their work.

Our website has a lot of content and information: a variety of informative articles, a forum, a Twitter account, and a Facebook page. The Book Store will launch soon with some exciting new writing and everyone who registers on the site will receive a free copy of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (courtesy of Gutenberg.org) by email, in pdf, ePub and Kindle compatible mobi formats, adapted and formatted by the Book Sanctuary Team. Authors’ profiles, surveys, and social networking events (such as online chats) will follow soon. In the future, the website will also publish an e-zine, progressing into a journal, the contributors of which it is hoped will be you, the online community.

Although this is a business, my personal goal is to ensure that pricing on Book Sanctuary is structured to remove any financial risk to the prospective writer while setting affordable prices on the eBooks to attract readers to try new writing. A typical eBook on the site will cost around £4.00; pricing will be scalable to accommodate for short stories and poetry. The mission of this project is to drive this opportunity for new and unpublished writers, with the online community being able to share their writing, without high setup costs and monthly subscriptions.

In order to build the collection of writing on Book Sanctuary, the submissions process is structured to attract a broad range of exciting writing and to allow the author the correct platform and pricing to share their work. If publication is agreed, the writer would pay a registration fee to cover the costs of converting files and general maintenance of the website. The author's registration fee will be £20; there is potential for a scalable fee for articles such as individual short stories. Future submitted publications will be at a reduced rate of £15. This fee covers the conversion of the book into three formats; pdf, ePub and Kindle ready mobi. This registration not only covers the file conversion but also the upload and hosting of the eBook in the store. There will not be any additional monthly charges to be met by the author. We will also have an in-house proofreader who can provide a proofreading service for an additional but highly competitive fee. Writers will receive 50% net profit as royalty on their writing, and most importantly retain intellectual property rights to their work at all times.

I would be delighted if you could have a look at www.booksanctuary.co.uk and let us know what you think. You can also register for free, giving you access to post on our forum and receive your free eBook by email. In addition we are, of course, looking for submissions that will be the first batch of publications on Book Sanctuary. You can see details on the process for submissions here, and you can email questions or articles to submissions@booksanctuary.co.uk.

There are three email addresses below: my personal address, our enquiries address, and most importantly the submissions address. Please visit www.booksanctuary.co.uk and tell us what you think.

Kindest regards,

Thomas Whitehead
Marketing and Creative Director
Inclusive et al Limited
E: thomas.whitehead@booksanctuary.co.uk
enquiries@booksanctuary.co.uk
submissions@booksanctuary.co.uk

[simonroyle]

Hi Thomas,

As an author I am always interested in new channels.

Could you explain the difference between say your services and Amazons where I can get a 70% royalty, convert my files and retain all rights?

For instance what marketing resources would you put behind my book if I decided to go with your store?

Thanks,
S.G.Royle

[GeoffC]

May I be bold as to ask, you launched in September 2009. It is now late August 2010, what has happened in the year, as the contents of the website seems limited after nearly 12 months of operations...

[BookSanctuary]

Originally Posted by simonroyle

Hi Thomas,

As an author I am always interested in new channels.

Could you explain the difference between say your services and Amazons where I can get a 70% royalty, convert my files and retain all rights?

For instance what marketing resources would you put behind my book if I decided to go with your store?

Thanks,
S.G.Royle

Thanks for taking to time to respond. In terms of the difference between Amazon and what we are trying to achieve, I hope the following points help:

- The goal is to utilise social networking as much as possible to develop an online community. The idea is that as the community grows authors and reader can interact via forums and social mediums, encouraging people to try new eBooks at an attractive price.
- The target period for the store launch is mid to late September, with the first group of submissions included. The aim is for the users in place to then start the process of discussing literature and trying the writing.
- The registration costs include the full conversion of your piece into pdf, ePub and mobi formats, there is an 'Author's Soapbox' area on our forum where people can discuss the book, and the book itself will have a synopsis and author's profile; we could even offer free excerpts.
- If someone purchases your book they receive all three formats for the best reading experience; the idea is that the reader can enjoy your book without worrying about format and device limitations.
- In terms of rights, the copyright and intellectual property of your work is yours, and you retain control in that respect.

Hope this helps, but contact me on any of the email addresses or via this forum if you have any queries.

Kind regards,

Thomas Whitehead

[BookSanctuary]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

May I be bold as to ask, you launched in September 2009. It is now late August 2010, what has happened in the year, as the contents of the website seems limited after nearly 12 months of operations...

Hi Geoff,

No problem. I now realise the wording of my post wasn't quite right. The family company was incorporated in September 2009; in that time we've tried different web building applications and ideas, and I've also been fulfilling a full time role as an IT Contractor. This iteration of the website started being built in Spring, and I stopped my IT work in July to focus on this site and prepare for upcoming postgrad study (part-time). In terms of making the site live, this only happened yesterday so we're now trying to attract users to have a look and let us know what they think.

Apart from building the site in the past few months and writing the articles and content that is there, this is day 2 since the site was unlocked and made available to the public. We're aiming to include as much as we can with Twitter, Facebook, forums and a potential eZine, but will continue to develop this in the coming weeks and months.

I'm open to any feedback as this is a new venture, so any thoughts and comments are gratefully received!

Kind regards,

Thomas

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by BookSanctuary

Hi Geoff,

No problem. I now realise the wording of my post wasn't quite right. The family company was incorporated in September 2009; in that time we've tried different web building applications and ideas, and I've also been fulfilling a full time role as an IT Contractor. This iteration of the website started being built in Spring, and I stopped my IT work in July to focus on this site and prepare for upcoming postgrad study (part-time). In terms of making the site live, this only happened yesterday so we're now trying to attract users to have a look and let us know what they think.

Apart from building the site in the past few months and writing the articles and content that is there, this is day 2 since the site was unlocked and made available to the public. We're aiming to include as much as we can with Twitter, Facebook, forums and a potential eZine, but will continue to develop this in the coming weeks and months.

I'm open to any feedback as this is a new venture, so any thoughts and comments are gratefully received!

Kind regards,

Thomas

No problem, thanks for the reply.

I notice you recommend the Kindle for PC to read mobi books, instead of mobipocket reader which has a longer history....

I wish you well in this venture, and hope some of the authors we have on here will make it a mutual success ..... We'll be watching ....

[GeoffC]

two added questions

would be DRM or not ?
Geographic Restriction or not ?

[BookSanctuary]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

two added questions

would be DRM or not ?
Geographic Restriction or not ?

Hi,

To answer your questions:

- No DRM, opinions vary but I feel it can have a negative impact on the user's experience; it also prevents the way real books are used, such as passing a book to a friend to read and sharing writing that way.
- I certainly don't see why there should be a geographic restriction, the Book Store will be using a major e-commerce merchant service, that should accommodate major payment methods regardless of location. Our goal is to avoid any issues with this side of things.

Hope this clarifies.

Kind regards,

Thomas

[GeoffC]

Brilliant News .....

[BookSanctuary]

One final post from me on the thread (unless responding to queries). We've decided to drop the £20 author registration fee. Once publication is agreed there will be no fees for the author; file conversion etc will be free. This is on our website blog, but for reference I've pasted the message below:

It has been a busy week so far for the Book Sanctuary Team; we’ve been attending events at the Edinburgh Book Festival, as well as receiving initial feedback since our launch on Monday. One key message that we have picked up from feedback and events at the book festival is that money flows to the author. It is with that in mind that we have decided to drop the proposed £20 fee for author registration; if publication is agreed with an author the conversion of their files to eBooks, as well as hosting on the website, will have no cost. The author will now incur no financial cost at all while retaining the promised 50% net profit as royalties.

This decision was taken following feedback from our initial posts on some forums this week, so our thanks for these comments. This site is for authors, to help them share their writing with an online community; the primary goal of this site is to develop that community and act as a hub for literary debate and sharing of new writing.

For those that would like the service we will have a comprehensive proof reading option, pricing will be confirmed in the coming days. In addition, we have an experienced audio transcriber in our team and we will be offering this as a service. If you have something that you have dictated onto a recording, we will be able to produce a typed transcript of that recording for you. Alternatively if you have a hand written hard copy of an article, we can type this for you. If you have any interest in these services please email enquiries@booksanctuary.co.uk for an initial discussion.

Finally, we have our first three registered users on the site, a landmark for Book Sanctuary. I’d like to welcome our new users and we hope they’re enjoying their eBook copies of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. In the coming days and weeks we will be committed to building the Book Sanctuary community on our forum and social networking sites.

Please keep checking our blog, as more is on the way!

Warmest regards,

Book Sanctuary Team