Sony ramps up e-book self-publishing options
After watching Amazon make huge headway in the e-book self-publishing game with its Digital Text Platform, Sony is finally making a real push into this area with a new Publisher Portal and partnerships with self-publishing companies Smashwords and Author Solutions.
While Sony stressed that the portal was for large and small publishers alike, it is clear that the company is targeting the announcement at independent publishers.
"New authors can select a self-publishing path and get their work published and for sale on Sony's eBook Store in as little as 10 days," Sony representatives said. "As Sony completes the conversion of its eBook store to the industry-standard EPUB format, Smashwords and Authors Solution will expand the offer to all existing Author Solutions and Smashwords authors to get their titles up on the Sony site."
Author Solutions, one of the larger self-publishing companies, with several brands under its umbrella offers a full suite of self-publishing "services," most of which are fee-based. Meanwhile, start-up Smashwords is focused exclusively on e-book creation and sales, and it is free to use (you simply upload a Word file, make some tweaks to your formatting based on a style guide, and presto, you have an e-book).
According to Sony, Author Solutions and Smashwords will offer authors the option to publish content in the EPUB format, "the International Digital Publishing Forum's XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications." Amazon, on the other hand, uses its proprietary e-book format.
This is obviously good news for self-publishers. When it comes to e-book stores, Sony may not have the traffic that Amazon does, but it certainly offers a large customer base of avid readers interested in e-books.
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
A vanity press makes most of its money by selling services to writers -- not by selling books to readers. A vanity press often overcharges writers and produces bad books that few people read.
Just as no one can take a bath for you, go to school for you or commit suicide for you, no one can SELF-publish for you.
There?s no such thing as a ?self-publishing company,? because only you can self-publish you. A customer of Author Solutions is NOT a self-publisher.
Michael N. Marcus
http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
author of "Become a Real Self-Publisher," due in October
But one advantage of Amazon is that you have easy (free) access to their bookstore. Could someone buy a book (that is published through Smashbooks) directly from Sony's bookstore, without paying an online fee?
- by Kirsten_Osolind October 6, 2009 8:19 PM PDT
- The media landscape is changing; entertainment properties are being shaped to fit the pace of technology; books are being written on Twitter 140 characters at a time, digital soap operas like CHICAGO TO CORONADO (www.C2CSoap.com) are leveraging user generated content and featuring fans in the online storyline. It's great to see entertainment leaders like Sony open the door for online publishers, both small and large. Publishers and independent authors are always looking for a home online and they may have found it in Sony's Publisher Portal. Stories and entertainment properties can now leverage technology to grow an engaged audience base. Digital entertainment is what?s next.
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(8 Comments)Kirsten Osolind
Creator
CHICAGO TO CORONADO
"the first digi-soap opera"
www.chicagotocoronado.com