Penguin owners snap up self-publishing biz

[H.P. Lovesauce]

Everything that rises must converge. Alternately, corporate money will ensure that everything eventually gets consolidated.

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the world’s biggest publishers, Pearson, has purchased one of the biggest self-publishers.
Pearson announced Thursday that it had acquired Author Solutions Inc. for $116 million. Author Solutions, a Bloomington, Ind.-based company that has released self-published works by some 150,000 authors, will become part of the Pearson-owned Penguin Group (USA).
The success of such self-published writers as E.L. James and Amanda Hocking has encouraged traditional publishers and the online retailer Amazon.com to seek out authors who can build word-of-mouth followings. Penguin chief executive John Makinson said in statement that buying Author Solutions “will allow Penguin to participate fully in perhaps the fastest-growing area of the publishing economy.”

[HomeInMyShoes]

Booo...

[elcreative]

And yet everyone want publishers to start to move into the 21st Century... and when they show signs of doing it we get "Booo..." Double standards as usual...

[fjtorres]

Double standard?
Maybe, or maybe some of the disapproval (and I've seen a lot) comes from folks familiar with how Author Solutions imprints work.
Here's just one of many at WRITER BEWARE:
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2006/0...ublishing.html
Check the comments on how things changed *after* Author Solutions took over.

The line between "assisted self-publishing" and vanity press scam is thin and faint, but it is real and you can usually smell the difference.
So far, it sounds like Pearson/Penguin can't.

(Not that I personally care, mind you. I'm still educating myself on how things look like from the authors' side. So far, not pretty.)

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by elcreative

And yet everyone want publishers to start to move into the 21st Century... and when they show signs of doing it we get "Booo..." Double standards as usual...

My boo is that I don't feel Penguin controlling more of the book market is of any value to readers or writers. Yes, I'd like Penguin to join the 21st Century, but I have a feeling that this move will just make fewer authors available for librairies.

[teh603]

Tomorrow's news announcement: Author Solutions closed down, customers to be merged with the scam imprint Penguin Book Country.

[Top100EbooksRank]

http://indiereader.com/2012/07/pengu...iting-writers/
Penguin’s New Business Model: Exploiting Writers

What does Author Solutions bring to the table? Well, for starters, around $100m in annual revenue. Roughly two-thirds of that money comes from the sale of services to writers, and only one-third from the royalties generated by the sale of their books.

Pause for a moment and consider that statistic. Penguin isn’t purchasing a company which provides real value to writers. They are purchasing an operation skilled at milking writers.

. . . .

For example, Author House will provide you with a “web-optimized press release” for the bargain price of $1,199. In case it isn’t obvious, you would likely receive greater promotional value from setting fire to that money on YouTube.

. . . .

Before they leave the clutches of Author Solutions, however, writers are subjected to never-ending phone calls hawking a string of overpriced, useless services, including the press releases described above. As such, the average customer spends around $5,000 over their “lifetime” with the company,but only sells 150 books.

[Top100EbooksRank]

http://janefriedman.com/2012/07/20/s...of-the-future/

Some writers have reacted to the news by saying, “This means self-publishing is the future!”

This is a misunderstanding of Author Solutions on a variety of levels, as well as what Pearson might have to gain from acquiring them. Two-thirds of Author Solutions’ revenue comes from selling services to authors—not from selling books.

Saying that this is the future is kind of like saying: “Authors paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to publish a book that never sells more than 100 copies is the future! Yay!”

This is how confused writers are.

But I know what they’re thinking. They see self-publishing in terms of all those success stories you hear about in the media—like JA Konrath, Amanda Hocking, and John Locke.

Well, I challenge you to find one of these phenoms that used Author Solutions as a service provider. Rather, the self-publishing authors making big bucks are folks primarily using Amazon KDP or related “free” services.

[khalleron]

Seriously. When I first began looking into self-publishing, everywhere I went I heard really toxic stories about Author Solutions - like, stay away! Run away!

So this is not good news or a sign that Penguin is being 'progressive'. It's a sign they want to leech off amateurs, not help them to become professionals.

[stonetools]

I think we have to wait to see what Penguin does with its new self-pub venture.IF its a bad deal for authors, Penguin might reform it into something good for self-pubbers and for Pen guin.
Would it have been better for Penguin to continue to avoid self-publishers altogether?
More on Penguin's move to self-publishers:

Last year Penguin was the first conventional publisher to launch its own self-publishing service, Book Country, and they’ve followed that landmark venture with the acquisition of Author Solutions, a self-publishing firm with around 1,600 employees, revenue of just under $100 million in 2011 and that that has published nearly 200,000 books by more than 150,000 authors in print and e-book formats. The company has net income of $4.2 million laat year. Author Solutions also partners with about six other houses—Thomas Nelson and Hay House among them—to provide “white label” self-publishing services and both Makinson and Weiss said those ASI partnerships will continue. Bertram Capital began looking for a buyer for ASI this winter.



Answering questions from the Author Solutions offices, Makinson said “there’s no other acquisition like this with systems of scale behind it.” Makinson also said there will be no layoffs. “We’re looking to upsize not downsize. There are no plans for layoffs, this is an opportunity for growth,” he said. Weiss said they will not change Author Solutions name, “the brand will not change but we have time and we will decide what makes sense.”



Citing its own launch of Book Country, Makinson said Penguin has been looking at the self-publishing market “with growing respect and admiration,” noting that “we try to keep up with the game.” Makinson said, “It’s become more professional and added more value for writers and readers.” Makinson pointed to the growing number of self-published writers like E.L. James and Amanda Hocking, “self-publishing is growing and converging with traditional publishing. It's an important market and it's not unusual for self-published titles to hit the bestseller lists.”

LINK

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Would it have been better for Penguin to continue to avoid self-publishers altogether?

It makes sense for them to put some resources into finding a few outstanding self-published authors who they want to recruit by offering advances.

What's not good is to pay negative advances AKA most revenue comes from authors, not sales AKA blurred vanity publishing.

Then, I am also against lotteries. A business where most people lose just feels wrong to me. This makes me much more anti-Penguin than non-cooperation with Overdrive.

[MikeB1972]

According to a lot of people here Vanity Publishing is the way to go for self pubbers.

If you need all the editing services etc that a traditional publisher used to provide but without handing over your rights then you need to pay up front for them (i.e. what used to be called Vanity Publishing).

Looks to me like Penguin is doing the sensible thing and offering the same kind of services they would offer a signed author but for an up-front cost.

[Suzanna]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

According to a lot of people here Vanity Publishing is the way to go for self pubbers.

If you need all the editing services etc that a traditional publisher used to provide but without handing over your rights then you need to pay up front for them (i.e. what used to be called Vanity Publishing).

Looks to me like Penguin is doing the sensible thing and offering the same kind of services they would offer a signed author but for an up-front cost.

There is a huge difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing. I plan to self-publish a novel and a novelette in January/February 2013. I've arranged for a freelance editor to edit my manuscript and will be commissioning a professional cover. Yes, I'm paying those costs up front. However, when I upload my books to Amazon and all the other etailers, I'll be keeping the full amount of royalties. My full length will be priced over 2.99, so I'll get the full 70% royalty from Amazon.

From everything I've heard, vanity publishers don't actually edit your books. They throw them up on an etailer's site pretty much as is (with a cover they created, I assume), charge the author for various marketing promotions, and then they also take a cut of your royaties, so you're no longer making the full 70% royalty but much less.

If you're going to pay someone to edit your book and design a cover, get recommendations from other authors who've gone before you and oversee all that stuff yourself. You can even hire someone - for a flat one-time fee - to format your books for you before you upload them to the ebook stores. Don't go with a vanity press and give up a sizeable portion of your earnings forever in exchange for no editing and constant phone calls that you send them more money.

What Penguin's owners are doing is monetizing their slush pile. They know gullible new authors will jump on this as an opportunity to say "I'm published with Penguin!" I'm sure, however, that there will be a clear distinction made between this venture and Penguin's traditionally published authors. The only one who wins in this scenario is the vanity press, who will continue to milk the author for money.