PUBLISHED OCTOBER  2017 by Angela Bole, CEO, Independent Book Publishers Association — It’s been a couple years, so in this month’s Director’s Desk, I thought I’d pull the curtain back on a recent IBPA Board of Directors meeting. IBPA’s board is a 14-person leadership team—13 voting members, plus the chair—tasked with setting the association’s strategic …

PUBLISHED JULY 2017 By Deb Vanasse, Reporter, IBPA Independent – To achieve designs that help books get noticed in a crowded marketplace, publishers need to choose a designer well-suited to their project and foster an environment of open communication and collaboration. Everyone knows the cliché about not judging books by their covers. But, in fact, …

PUBLISHED JUNE 2017 by Brooke Warner, Publisher, She Writes Press — You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the publishing industry who disagrees with the sentiment that a book should be judged on its merit. And yet, the industry promotes an environment in which books are instead judged on how they get published. Authors who …

PUBLISHED JANUARY 2017 by Deb Vanasse, Founder, Running Fox Books Warehousing, orders, fulfillment, payment, shipping, returns. From a publisher’s perspective, the complex system through which books enter the marketplace can seem daunting. By partnering with a book distributor, independent publishers can gain access to this system and stand to benefit from the advice of industry …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2016 by Brooke Warner, Publisher, She Writes Press — Most independent publishers today get on the path to publishing by bringing their own book into the world. Then, having written and been published, they become an author, but something else too: an expert. There’s a beauty and a burden that comes with this …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2016 by Angela Bole, CEO, Independent Book Publishers Association IBPA has served the independent publishing community since 1983. Today, as self-publishing, e-books, print on demand, hybrid publishing, and an ever-increasing number of other options make it possible for anyone to publish—or at least print—books, the precise definition of “independent publisher” seems to have …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2016 by Brooke Warner, Publisher, She Writes Press Recently, I had dinner with several publishing colleagues. We were an industry mash-up: a traditional publisher, two independent publishers, two booksellers, an agent, a publicist, and a reporter. The conversation about the indie publishing landscape was largely encouraging, but a few disparaging comments about self-publishing …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2016 by Deb Vanasse, Reporter, IBPA Independent magazine — Even in this era of online retailing, publishers covet shelf space in brick-and-mortar bookstores. There’s just no substitute for a sales venue where the reader can pick up the book and leaf through it. “Shopping for physical books in a physical space offers an …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2015 by Brooke Warner, President, Warner Coaching, Inc. When and why did “print-on-demand” become a synonym for “self-published”? The cynical among us may even ask when and why “print on demand” became a putdown for “self-published.” Print-on-demand (POD) is a term for a printing process that can produce one copy or several or …

In 2012, I launched She Writes Press with a fairly simple idea in mind. I envisioned curating manuscripts and basing decisions about which books to publish solely on the merits of the writing. During my eight-year tenure as executive editor at Seal Press prior to that, I’d witnessed, and become tired of, publishers’ increasing emphasis …