Abstract:

Traditional models of Publication and Distribution have limited both the market and availability of worthwhile scholarship and creative works to what a handful of editors in a handful of cities have decided is important. In much the same way that web resources have changed the way music and news are produced and marketed, print on demand and the public relations resources of the internet will also change the way books are designed, produced, and marketed. Amazon's Create Space print on demand service, which has recently been expanded to Europe and beyond, allows "Indie Authors" to make their works available to an audience outside the traditional models of publication, in much the same way that MP3s have made music available outside the monopoly of the music industry and CDs, or bloggers have made hardhitting investigative journalism available worldwide outside the traditional model of the Mainstream News Media. Not just Amazon's Kindle (which is now available in over 100 countries), but Ebooks in general and print on demand services allow Indie Authors access to a market which can then be promoted using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and even You Tube videos. Indie Authorship opens up an entire new space in the publishing world, allowing writers to bypass the traditional models of publication, including journals and magazines, and produce works for specialized and generalized audiences alike. This paper will be based upon my own experiences of successfully writing, designing, producing and marketing a book outside the traditional publishing industry.

Keywords:

Indie Author, Print On Demand, Schoalrship, Creative, Web, Public Relations, Publishing.