Republicans voted with the democrats to Petition Congress to act. We now have a republican cosponsor for a constitutional amendment that walter jones from the carolinas. Saying, you know, look as a conservative republican, i think it has to happen. We have to have a fair fight. Our argument is that our job is to go out and say, look, we can have honest differences on all sort of fundamental issues. We ought to have a politic that work in this country. I think theres a ton amount of space. We have not begun to occupy that space. We have not begun to make the demands for the structure changes. Its time to do that. Its time to say that a conservative republican and a liberal democrat ought to be able to agree that everyone should be able to vote. Our elections should have meaning and that votes taught matter more than the dollar. Im delighted. If thats the frame work of the debate ill debate anybody on the issue. I think we might have some fun there. One final thing, constitutional amendments have been proposed not all have been passed. The era still is isnt on the books. I like to think ill live to see it added to the constitutional amendment. You know what happened as it was proposed when we aim high for real fundamental reforms, sometimes we gate lot of other things along the way. At this point, we need automatic of those other things along the way. Right. Im afraid from the that is going to have to be it. They have a ton of energy. Theres going to be a book signing. Im going take my chairs prerogative and ask one question. Will you sign my book while we all thank them for their incredible contribution . [applause] [inaudible conversations] visit booktv. Org to see any of the programs you see here. An overview of the current status of the u. S. Selfpublishly industry. Featuring input from the organizers and presenters after the fifth annual selfpublishing book expo. This is about half an hour. New york city, a place most of the u. S. Publishing industrya once called home. Bu in recent years, the prominentun publishing houses have on consolidated and selfpublishing has exploded to a lucrativelucrt industry in iits own right. Ight. Is york o the celted tsishing book expo which now its fifth year in 2013. Handinhand was there were a lot of editors suddenly their own freelance companies, a lot of book designers out of work, and freelancing a lot, and so as a result, the Little Cottage industry started to sprout up. From 2009 until now, the number of companies that have started because of selfpublishing, to me, is really amazing. You know, its the growth of these sort of, you know, little companies that grew to be bigger companies, and these companies that are now like middlemen that help authors decide which book designer to use, which editor to use, and so theres a number of those companies. I think a lot of people who a lot of traditional people who lost jobs in the economic turn down found new life with selfpublishing because now they are catering to that segment of the industry, and its growing. They have a need. According to an october 2013 report, the bib graphic Information Management company, 391,000 selfpublished titles were created in 2012, 40 of which were electronic books, selfpublished titles jumped 22 between 2007 and 2012. Industry leaders include create space, a greater than 33,000 increase in titles over a fiveyear period. Smash words, which has become number two in the industry in four years, and lou s, a greater than 800 increase since 2007. Booktv spoke to diane, the founder and organizer of the selfpublishing book expo about how the industry has grown so fast. You know, first of all, i think its a sheer number of books publishes is tremendous now, and i think that they have a lot more they have a lot more available to them now. Theres things like crowd funding, kick starter, our pub flush, strictly publishing, where people go and raise money on their own to do the things that they really need to do to publish we like to say to publish smarter, you know, and i think a lot of people now the more they sort of learn, the more they realize that there are things they can do themselves. I think before that, a lot were going to the selfpublishing company, whichever company it be, and purchasing the package. Now, i also think that now there are a lot of traditionally published authors that are hybrid authors. You know, theres publishing traditionally, and choosing to selfpublish on their own, and so i think its a mix, but i think just the sheer numbers come from the idea that people are starting to learn how to do it right, detouring the amount quicker, writing them better, and its finding an audience and the need. Now theres the demand. She also explained how the annual expo has both reflected the growth of the selfpublishing industry and assisted it. In the beginning, we really had to reach out to find people, to find exhibiters, to find sponsors. Now, were, you know, in a nice position where people are coming to us and saying, can you speak . You know, and wed like to be an exhibiter, can we have a table, what does sponsorship entail, and so, you know, the tables turned because i think that people recognize there are not areas like this, you know, they do a nice job, and its part of the bigger bea, and were separate enough timewise so one does not infringe on the other, but really other than us and them, and, you know, theres small shows here or there that pop up and some are internetonly and things like that, its really not a lot out there. I think because of that, we benefited year after year after year, and i think, you know, now people sort of look to us as being kind of thee show in selfpublishing, and, you know, thats a nice thing, and were going to go into the future, who knows. First and foremost, what we do is try to come up with ideas for the panel. What do we think authors could benefit from . In the beginning, it was easy going through the basics in our own heads, you know, both having inhouse experience, long inhouse experience, we thought, okay, editorial, needs help with the cover, they definitely need distribution. You know, it was sort of very simple, you know, go through the basics of publishing, and thats what they needed, and we use a lot we leaned a lot on friends and colleagues over the years, on the traditional side and said, you know, would you please come . You know, i have to say the rest of my life, and i have very good friends in the industry and people rose to the occasion, and anybody i asked to do a publicity panel, marketing panels, people said sure, well do it, you know, and we got lucky with whatever sponsors we had that year, they had ideas for panels, and thats how we wound up with panels, and in the beginning, i think we had something, like, 15 to 16, this year, i think were up to 18. The expos keynote speaker was judith, president and publisher, and gave a room of aspiring authors her perspective on the selfpublishing industry advising how to make a success of selfpublishing. Hes an an excerpt of her address. Before i talk about exciting things were doing in our selfpublishing program, i wanted to sort of share the point that selfpublishing is not a new trend. The time line of publishing. We can see in the paintings of the last quote in southern southwest france, a form of selfpublishing taking place 17,000 year ago. These drawings are pigment on rock representing animals, symbols, and signs for their fellow tribes people. They were permanent, but not portable. Then came the illuminated manuscript of the middle ages like these gospels for monks, selfpublish the story. Usually, a rich patron or for somebody in the church, permanent and only slightly portable. In 19 in sorry, in 1439, the media expert javas called the First Technology entrepreneur invented the mechanical movable type used to print the Catholic Church because they couldnt light them up by hands fast enough because they sold so fast. In 1454, there was the movable type to create the first bible, an important moment. With the movable type, it was no longer a sifng l october written or reproduced by request. The publication of multiple copies of the book was a business enterprise, the production and market for distribution. The cost for books was lowers enormously, in turn, increased the distribution of books, books now became permanent, portable, and affordable. In 15 17, Martin Luther nailed the thesis to the door of the Castle Church in whysenberg, germany. He was angry about the Catholic Church selling indulgences, and it was printed on the recently invented press, and sold 300,000 copies. This was the first best seller. There was the partisan reformation and enlightment. The next big step was not until 1949, a teacher names anglo ruth from spain invented and pa tented the first electronic book to increase the number of and way the weight of the books the pupils carried to school. With the creation of prishing companies that printed and sold books in the modern era, selfpublishing continued. It became expensive and cumbersome. Fast forward to the interpret with selfpublishing platforms available, there are now or very little barriers to entry. Anyone can write and publish a book. The important thing is that no matter what form it takes, publishing is still communication from a writer to a reader. Publishing requires specific skills, writing, publishing, editing, marketing, sells, managing budgets and communicating with the readers. When you selfpublish, you do all these things, either yourself or hire someone to help you with them. In fact, youll find hundreds of people at this expo who have created businesses around providing these services. The important question to ask yourself is, which one do you want to do . Which ones do you not want to do . Which ones are your particular skill . Before we continue, a little about my publishing group, which i founded in 2002. Today, we have ten separate prints, which you seen the screen. Here are some, and there are many others. Theres value, important to always state intentions. Always begin as you mean to proceed. They began with the idea that a name should be the publishing intention, plural of atrium, a place open to the sky and open to new ideas. We want to create an environment where we grow and flourish and produce with books that had created meaning and purpose for peoples lives. We wanted to build a bridge between the writer and reader just in the same way the and gent city was connected to the ocean by a series of canals. We also asked ourselves what could we do thats not already being done . We looked at where the gaps were both in the simon and Schuster Family and where Market Opportunities presented themselves, we had to think about what would we be good as developing and publishing. Selfpublished authors. The queen of clean the queen talking dirty with the queen of clean was an opportunity selfpublished book that presented it to ourselves. They wrote an article for minnesota newspapers about stain removal, and the way to do that and published a little book that came to our notice. We took it over, republished it, started a category for her, and sold over 2 million copies of these books. I dont think you could actually publish this book in the same way today because the information is now available on the internet so when once you needed a book as a source for some information, you now have options for having that information free and exists elsewhere, something to think about. Since then, those of you who may not know that then started a selfpublishing term limits. He was working as a bartender in minnesota when he selfpublished a first novel. They bought rights, published ever since very, very successfully. We have 80 books in print, and, unfortunately, passed away earlier this year. Then is an interesting story, writing erotic short stories to pass the time after her children went to bed. She copied them and mailed them to her girlfriends who loved the stories and asked for more. She selfpublished her novel addicted, came to our attention, and we republished it making a corner stone. The movie will be out next year, and its still in print. Rose wrote hard Cover Historical Fiction for us. Introducing in the office, and in 2012, there was a sudden explosion of selfpublished books, original commercial novels selling like hot cakes. The ebooks best seller list was filled with selfpublished authors who weve come to call indy authors signing many of them, some which youll see on the screen and this year we published eight authors who wrote 18 books. Can they add to the process to make them valuable . What does the author want . Selfpublish and have total control and total responsibility of the way their books are designed to packaged, marketed, and sold, or would they like to work with an editor and focus attention on developing their writing skills while allowing a team of designers, marketers, and sales people to contribute to their experiences and skills to the books publication. Without trading secrets, we look to authors with an ability to tell compelling stories. Is there a sphaiing resolution . Do you like the characters . Do you hate them . Are you supposedded to . Engaged in the resolution of the conflict is there a clearly defined act . Many of the selfpublished authors with us have a talent for keeping the reader glueded to the page. The next thing we look at is how many readers reviews there are. We knew when we bought beautiful disaster that she had already had 2200 reviews, mostly two and a half, four and a half stars. We look at what actually people are saying in the reviews, not just the number. Its very important. Is the passion with which the reviews are written, are the readers and are the readers obsessed with characters like travis, the main characteristic . We look at how many fans are on facebook, how many twitter followers were there, are they interested in reading groups and writing groups . What are the bloggers saying . In building our list, we had to change our publishing behavior. Weve had to be faster and much more flexible. Weve had to be open. As the name implies. Sometimes we publish the ebook first and time sometimes its the ebook and trade paperback edition simultaneously. Occasionally, we add hard cover collective edition. Were there to support and build readerrership doing things done by a mainstream publisher like getting dprix into physical stores, price clubs, libraries, ect. , but we are not here to mess with things that made them successful in the first place. A strong and intimate connection to their readers, and its deep its of what the readers want from the book. You run your own business and take on the multitude of time souping responsibilities that have come along with that. Signing with us allows you to focus on writing with a dedicated group of marketing, advertising, production, and sales at your disposal working to the goal of building your audience. Well be able to provide worldwide distribution throughout english language countries and selling rights on behalf of the authors. A good way of thinking of making a transition, if thats what you decide from being an author to selfpublished to a publisher is think twitter going public. Its a selfpublishing equivalent. Good decision making. The most important thing any publisher or author can do is make a good decision. I make the story of what happens in our office. The other day, one of our editors became an american citizen, and we decided to have a celebration cake for her. The way we wanted to surprise her and asked her to come in at the end of the one hour long meeting, and the cake was in the middle of the table, december cretely there, and 45 minutes into the meeting, a staff said, do you know what kind of cake that is . She said, its an ice cream cake. [laughter] which was starting to become obvious. Because so i use this example, when i want to know if i got all the information that i need to be able to make a good decision, i just say way kind of cake is this . I mean, tell me everything i need to know. You need to know everything you can possibly, and thats about asking the right questions. I have six questions throughout the publishing career, and in my everyday work with the editorial staff. The six questions of publishing are and if you publish yourself or published by a traditional or publisher, these are all the things that you must attend to. You must sort of ask questions that you find the answers that satisfy you because if you whatever you do, you want to establish the book to the best possible ability considering everything and that its not melted on the table. Why this book . This is about the editorial quality of the book. Is my story interesting . Does it have good characters . Is it well edited . Have i proofread files properly . Is there a place in the market for it . Is it something i passionally believe in . Is it the best book for me . These days, when you put a book up on amazon, for example, and you get bad reviews, you can take it down, rewrite it, and Pay Attention to what the critics say, but in a publishing house, all those things take place prior to the book being published. Basically, the editorial process and Selection Process that we go through is about having people who you know, clearly identified, and who have a lot of experience in a world of a particular character, category, making those decisions. Who will read it . Is your book start thinking about who you readership is going to be. Is it a woman 8525, College Students, teenage boys, or other africanamerican readers . Have a clear idea. Once you identified the readers, you can now find ways of communicating with them. Youre not just shouting to everybody on the street. Youre saying, hello, hello, you there in the red sweat e i want to talk to you. How will you tell people about the book . This is where publicity and marketing come into the picture. Theres primary vehicles to get in communicating and starting the word of mouth. Examples here, traditional advertising on the pin board, authors, publicity on television, many, many things, but always in there will be a limit to what you can do. You will have a limited amount of options available to you because it is for everyone, and you have to decide whats the best way to community kate to your audience . Is my reader, my 25yearold College Student going to be reading this blog, so therefore i can be theres a chance of communicating with them . Theres marketing also running the gamet of getting posters in bookstore windows, publishing online sweep staix, fun give aways, anything you can think of to bring your book to someones intention. Think back to the pencil that dick simon attached to the first crossword puzzle. How many books will you sell . I think this is the crucial question everybody should ask because all your Financial Decisions are going to be based on