However, from what I have seen from the Simon & Schuster “sample” “vook”, it is offensive to my sensibilities because, once again, New York publishers are trying to take a proprietary approach to something I believe is relatively simple to implement but trying to lock out other parties.

I am a proponent for the the independent author and publisher who wants to reputably take their work directly to the open market. To date, I have mostly seen “cheese” because people make very little effort to respect some publishing conventions.

I had already made plans to make an announcement on a different note but this whole proprietary vook thing has got me bothered.  I launched “The TurnKey Publisher” series as a direct attack and alternative to the traditional publishing model but now comes the vook.

As such, I feel I need to respond rapidly. I don’t have time to write a book on it, so I am simply taking my proof of concept and giving it away.  Essentially, it is my hope to put a damper to any proprietary vook / video books formats.

On December 1, I will be releasing my non-proprietary version of the vook for FREE.  I will also be providing instructions how to do it for FREE.  My Twitter subscribers will be the first to find out about this. With any luck, people who like what they see will spread the word and rally around this open-implementation of vook.

I have finally launched The TurnKey Publisher Channel on YouTube. Although centered on the subjects of independent publishing, book publishing, audio publishing, and accelerated publishing, I will be stretching myself and producing videos that are tangential to publishing.  If you don’t know what that means yet, you probably will as time progresses. As a teaser, I will be discussing the importance and strategy of educational marketing and credibility marketing.  In a time where trust is harder than ever to earn, learning how to do educational marketing and credibility marketing will be essential to long-term survival in these difficult economic times.

The videos will be an ongoing work-in-progress.  I will give everyone fair warning that as I add new and better videos, I will be removing the videos that I feel are a bit substandard. However, if you can get past my clumsiness and awkwardness of a few of these videos and focus on the information I am presenting, I trust you will get some value out of it.

I am very passionate about the independent publishing business and the power of the printed word. Although I will continue to write articles and blog posts, I am adding recorded videos to my body of work as a way to get the message out and reach more people.

Look for the first videos to start coming out in August.