Thomas Nelson
What an odd juxtaposition of traditional publisher and self publisher – a self publishing story breaking today in the Wall Street Journal indicates that the venerable religious publisher has decided to enter the fiercely competitive landscape of self publishing. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson will launch West Bow Press, their self-publishing imprint, and will utilize Author Solutions (AuthorHouse, xLibris, iUniverse, Trafford) to design, publish and distribute the product line. So, basically, it’s AuthorHouse by another name?
I can’t quite see the fit or benefit to authors – other than the emotional (and statistically irrelevant) benefit of a perceived association with a traditional publisher. (How’d that work for Random House and xLibris or Barnes&Noble and iUniverse? Not at all … both companies divested themselves of their investments in both companies…) The article goes on to make it clear that Thomas Nelson editors are not editing the authors’ self published manuscripts (nor will the Thomas Nelson marketing wizards be supplying any horsepower behind the self published book’s release) but it is stated that “they will monitor sales to identify potential big sellers.”
The impact to the self publishing world could be interesting – specifically targeting the Christian publishers like Tate Publishing (whose services I’ve discussed on the self publishing site Dog Ear Publishing) and Xulon. The broader impact to the market I expect will be muted. Kudos, though, to the business development team at AuthorSolutions – a brilliant move into a under-served (and overpriced in most cases – at least for the services provided by many Christian self publishing companies) segment of the self publishing market.
Filed under: self publishing, Self Publishing Companies, Tate Publishing
