Publishing Opportunities Continue to Grow

Publishing Opportunities Continue to Grow The debate between traditional and self publishing continues, sometimes becoming very heated. In the midst of this debate a new publishing opportunity has arisen called Cooperative Publishing, sometimes billed as a middle option between traditional and self publishing. Sidebar: According to the Small Business Association, sba.gov/content/cooperative, the definition of a cooperative business is â€Å"a business or organization owned A publishing cooperative, in its purest sense, includes a group of authors, editors, proofreaders and sometimes graphic designers and marketing experts, who join together to publish one another’s books. No one in the group receives a salary and they each receive royalties from the sales of the books. This is a fairly new business model for publishing that is growing in momentum around the country. One such coop is the Columbus Creative Cooperative http://columbuscoop.org/about_columbus_creative_cooperative.php in Columbus, Ohio led The CCC has grown to a larger model over the six years they have been together according to Pauquette. It’s decentralized with each person doing their own thing. No one receives a salary and they receive a percentage of the profits at the end of the year. In addition to the publishing opportunities CCC offers writing workshops, writing critique sessions and writing contests to develop their writing talents. Columbus Creative Cooperative publishes print and e-books and thus far has stayed with the anthology genre. Pauqette decides on a theme and announce the call for submissions; the paid members go through several layers of review until Pauquette makes the final decision on which stories will make the final cut for the book in process. Authors then sign a contract for the sales and profits for an equal share of the profits. Once the choices are made the book goes through the editing, proofreading and final production stage. The group has three different member levels, each with a different cost and having different benefits, all of which are explained on the website. Although there are not required responsibilities for the members Pauqette feels it works out fairly for everyone because, â€Å"You get back what you put in.† Pauqette says they sell their books through several local retailers such as coffee shops, restaurants, etc. as well as attending festivals. Their vendor program encourages authors to attend the festivals and to submit their other books for consideration to be included at local vendors, festivals and on the CCC website if accepted. They also offer a self publishing option for authors looking for a quality and affordable means to self publish their own books. CCC has no benefactors so our titles have to be successful in the book market. If we dont put out quality books that people want to buy, the cycle breaks down. Other publishing cooperatives include: Maine Authors Publishing maineauthorspublishing.com Book View Cafà © http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/about-book-view-cafe Vala Publishers valapublishers.coop/about-vala Word Branch Publishing wordbranch.com/faqs.html