“TurnKey Publishing” is being typeset now.  There are some minor rewrites and re-edits to be done but is on track for an end of year release.

“The TurnKey Publisher’s Guide to Audio Publishing” is entering the major edit phase.  This book should also be released by the end of the year.

Bumped into some writer’s block along the way but slowly pushing through.

The book turned out great. Dealing with the printer was relatively smooth considering this was my first go-around.

My second print-on-demand book will be “TurnKey Publishing”, the long-delayed book on my publishing system.  The manuscript had to be updated and revised for the 6-month hiatus the project took.  The book should be available for pre-sale around the Thanksgiving holidays.

As I suspected, Lightning Source’s print-on-demand technology has tremendous ramifications in the independent and micro-publishing world.  It is getting to the point where startu-up costs on any given book title will be negligible.

I am already at work preparing the next title for print-on-demand.

It has been an interesting experience and I will be writing more about it in my upcoming book “TurnKey Publishing”.

The proof is being sent for me to review.  If all goes well, the new title should be available for sale within the next couple of weeks.

The ongoing problem of publishing is that books and audio programs are “snapshot” products.  These products do not evolve with the onslaught of new information that often needs to be incorporated into existing titles.  As such, I have avoided subjects, such as technology and Internet, that are extremely time-sensitive in nature.

No matter how much current information I gather for a book project, 6-12 months later the information begins to stale and become outdated.  Unless the title is going to be a great mainstream seller, it is simply not practical to do update these titles for very niche titles and subjects.

A technology review and reporting project that I started writing last year continues to sit in my computer unshared and unpublished because it is a niche title that only select readers will want to read.  It is not for the mainstream audience.  It contains valuable and proprietary information I have gathered over the years and incorporated into my technology and online operation.

It is something I want to publish and feel would be a great product but I cannot simply wrap it into a singular eBook because I want the ability to continually update the product.  At the same time, I have to find a way to make sure that updates only reach legitimate buyers of the product.

And so, what I have come up with is the concept of an eBook Subscription.  Specifically, I will be offering a 1-year subscription to a high-end technology eBook that will be continually updated over the course of a year.  People are not going to buy this book based on the literary prose.  They will be buying this eBook for the hard-to-find and hard-to-review information and technology products I use within my various business ventures.  My technology list is updated approximately every 2-3 months because I tend to incorporate updates or new technology into my operation.

I will be launching this within the next few weeks and carefully monitor the eBook Subscription concept.  If it works, I will continue to expand it.  If it does not work as well as I would like, then I need to make adjustments to the implementation.

I don’t want to say too much more until after the event is over.  I do have some thoughts about some of the things I am finding about.

Heck, they may not want to renew my membership after what I have to say about them in this post.  Admittedly, I am a new member of IBPA and have not quite figured the culture of that association but I quickly figured out much of the membership are smaller publishing companies and self-published authors that are not very business or legal savvy.  Many are quite vulnerable in my eyes.

Because of this membership profile, I felt it was highly likely someone in its membership would one day receive a Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter like I did.  Most people receiving this letter uninformed and unwarned, would be intimidated by this letter.

I explained to Terry, both by email and by phone, why I thought the membership should be made aware of this.  He said that the newsletter editor was not interested in the story.  I am thinking to myself, whether you agree with me or not on my take on the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter, that it would be worthwhile for the members to know about it.  Who the hell wants to receive a legally threatening letter?

If publishers and authors knew, more people would either be more careful about the images they use, the graphics they buy, the contractors they hire, and so forth.  No one has to agree with my particular position to appreciate the fact that being loose with image usage can bring about a high price to pay either in time, money, and/or aggravation.

After all, almost every publisher, large or small, hire either employees or independent contractors to create websites, book covers, graphics, page designs, etc.  Almost all of them use images in some way, shape, or form.  A lot of the publishing business is hiring independent contractors to help create and produce a product.  One of the biggest reasons I am publicizing my own involvement with the case is to both educate and warn others.  I also believe that getting publicity for your case helps in supporting and defending it.

And yet, here is Getty Images, one of the largest providers of stock photos in the world runs an underground mail letter campaign to alleged copyright violators.  A casual search of the subject, reveals a ton of information on the subject.  And yet, IBPA didn’t think it was even worthwhile for a mention in their newsletter.

Terry Nathan was pleasant and professional but was pandering to me.  I told him if he thought it was unimportant or irrelevant to tell me directly.  Don’t just be nice to me.  The conversation was becoming painful as I listened to him try to say something that would appease me.  But I am not stupid, a no is a no and it was a waste of time to talk anymore.  I quickly figured out he is an administrator of a non-profit organization that really has no teeth.  They are bottle-necked by their bylaws and committee.

A casual search on Google reveals that my websites are among the dominating sites informing the public about the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter.  The traffic hits coming in are increasing and so are email submissions.

My gripe is centered on Terry Nathan and IBPA, Independent Book Publishers Association. I told Terry that he didn’t have to do anything and I am not overly concerned about my own situation because I feel confident in my ability to defend my position.  However, I told him don’t ever say that I wasn’t try to help the membership.  And if a member in the near future runs into this situation, don’t every say that the IBPA did not have the opportunity to prevent getting a Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter.

If you happen to be an IBPA member reading this, you should realize that they chose not to pass along the information I provided.  I was even willing to be anonymous and let them take credit for reporting this story.  But since they have chosen to turn a blind eye, I am using this blog, my online platform, to get the message out.

Terry mentioned that maybe an article about copyrights would be helpful.  I could not have strongly disagreed more.  It is too generic and too broad.  People want to know about real-life case studies and situations like I am involved with.  If people choose to ignore the lessons that is their choice.  However, I feel a duty to let people know and let people draw their own conclusions.

This is one example why I launched TurnKeyPublisher.com and this TurnKey Publishing Blog.  I don’t need someone’s permission to let people know about what I know.  I can provide the information directly to the readership.  I don’t have to “make space” in some printed newsletter.  The power of the Google search lets people find the information they need directly from the people who live it, not hope or pray that some writer or editor will write about it.  People need to be informed.  Not everything is roses out in the real world.  I like talking about positive things but I won’t shy down from “negative topics” as well.

Terry said he was personally interested in receiving more information from me.  I believe he is only interested in the “soap opera” of it all, not passing the lessons to its members.  As such, I see no point in hand-delivering any more information to him since he has no authority or willingness to share the information.

Given this incident, my lone membership fee will not make or break them.  But I will be watching more carefully what they do and how they do things and I will be reporting information if they don’t.

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One of my pet peeves on the Internet is the phenomena of cybersquatting and domain speculating.  Basically, most cybersquatters are people or companies who register blocks of domains for the purpose of reselling them to end-users or developers who ultimately want to create content around a given domain name.

Because we live in a capitalistic society, I won’t say it is morally or ethically wrong to cybersquat for profit.  However, as a website creator and content developer, I find myself blocked from using many domains that would be appropriate for a project or venture.

If there was a corresponding live website to a registered domain name, it would not bother me so much.  But most of the time when I view a registered domain, it shows nothing or a generic parked page.  That tells me that there are lots of people who either are not developing content for the registered domains or they are cyber-squatting.

There are domains I register and hold on to.  But it is not to resell them.  I have intentions of developing a website around the name.  For the most part, the days of domain speculation are over and yet there are many domains still being sat upon.

With ICANN’s recent expansion announcement, the Internet domain space will soon be expanded to the point where it will become unprofitable to cybersquat.  No longer will we be limited to .com, .net, .org, .info, etc.  We potentially will have a limitless supply of domain names with the creation of new top-level domains.

Up to now, I have been a strong proponent of getting a .com in a domain name.  However, I have softened my opinion on this because I have registered some .org domains as appropriate.  The biggest problem years back was that most of the public was ignorant of Internet conventions.  So if you did not have a .com, you were not as credible and you ran the danger of less sophisticated users not being able to recognize your Internet address as an accessible website.

I am tired of cyber-squattting and domain speculators.  In my eyes, they profit but they really add no value to the big picture.  With domain names soon becoming plentiful and diverse, the power shifts back to the website creators and content developers.  That is what people want, that is what I want to provide.

We are in the middle of 2008.  ICANN claims they will start accepting new applications around this time in 2009.  I predict that sometime in 2010, the domain space will begin to widen.  I also predict that cybersquatters and domain speculators are going to start dumping their domains when they realize it is going to be quite unprofitable unless they have a super-unique domain name.

As far as I am concerned, there isn’t a project I have worked on that I have not been able to be creative and work around cyber-squatters.  I simply will not allow them to profit from me.

Cybersquatting and domain speculating will soon become an obsolete and unprofitable thanks to ICANN’s recent decision.  The end, and new beginning, cannot come soon enough for me.  Start watching domain names not being registered next year.  The dumping will start slow but will eventually come fast and furious.

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Since coming back from the 2008 Book Expo America in Los Angeles, I have been wanting to write my review on Amazon’s Kindle.

My relationship with Amazon is multi-faceted.  Like most book lover, my first relationship with Amazon is as a customer.  In my opinion, Amazon has the best website to research and search for books.  It also has the best book community support.

Secondarily, I am an Amazon reseller.  I resell my books and titles through their Amazon Advantage and Amazon Marketplace programs.  Overall, it is a good business relationship.

Essentially, I have grown to like and appreciate Amazon over the years.

With the launch of Amazon Kindle, I find myself as both a publisher and a book reader evaluating the merits of Kindle.  At nearly $400, I am resistant to buying an electronic device to read books.  Although, I love my computer and everything it does, I still like to read old-fashioned books.  I just like the convenience of flipping through pages and basically jumping around at a moment’s notice.  I am still resistant to the idea of being depending on any electronic device to read.  What happens if the device is damaged or lost?

What I don’t like about books, however, is that they are subject to wear and tear.  They are bulky and take up a lot of shelf space when you have hundreds of books like I do.  They are a terror to move when packed into boxes.  It is an annual ritual to purge books and either sell them or give them away.  And it is difficult to find specific content within a book even with an index.

As a publisher, I would like to do away with the printing of books and sell more content electronically.  There is no hard printing costs, no warehousing costs, and it saves lots of trees environmentally. Having said all that, you will have a sense of my inherent biases and internal battle with Kindle.

At BEA, I was quite happy to see Amazon with their large Kindle booth.  Amazon intelligently and insightfully understood that there is still a huge portion of book readers who have never physically seen and fiddled with the Kindle.  Unless you are on the cutting edge and don’t mind blowing $400 on an untried device, most people including me did not want to spend that money without actually having some hands-on experience with it.

The folks at the Amazon Kindle booth seemed friendly.  They were ready to engage anyone interested in playing with a Kindle.  I awkwardly too the device and admired its design.  It was light and clean looking.  It had a relatively simple and elegant look.  The quality of the reading screen even when viewed at a steep away angle was quite good.

For the most part, Kindle was easy to navigate.  I goofed a few times but I attributed that to my user unfamiliarity.  The browsing of Kindle-titles was easy.  The Amazon employee pointed out that there were still many titles not available on Kindle but work was aggressively being done to get more titles.  As a publisher, I agreed with that.  Amazon has been heavily courting publishers to release their content on the Kindle format.  For me, I am interested but I have taken a wait-and-see attitude.  I will get into why in another post.

Back to the actual Kindle device, what I did not like about Kindle were the placement of the long page-turning buttons on both the left and right side of the device.  I am guessing the idea of having a long elongated button is to accommodate different ways and styles that readers would hold Kindle.  Unfortunately, I found it difficult to hold and adjust the Kindle with accidentally pressing one of the side buttons.

There simply was no easy way to hold the Kindle in my left or right hand.  If I wanted to adjust my seating position or get up, I found myself accidentally hitting the side buttons.  The Amazon employee said that once you get used to it, that would no longer happen.  That may be true but I feel the side buttons are too exposed.  The designers gave too much space.

My view of Kindle, like other electronic hardware or software, that this is a version 1.0.  I asked about future revisions and that subject seemed to make the person helping me uncomfortable.  I am guessing her job was to focus on selling the Kindle in the here and now, not focusing on a possible Kindle 2.0.

I speculate that there will inevitably be a Kindle 2.0.  There will be design enhancements and improvements to the hardware based on the feedback Amazon is receiving.  Perhaps this review will be one they will refer to.  They are likely to improve the battery life and viewing options such as including color.  However, I believe color will come in Kindle 3.0.  I think it is too much of a jump from Kindle 1.0 to Kindle 2.0.  I don’t think Amazon is quite ready to so quickly obsolete Kindle 1.0.

Overall, I enjoyed my user experience with Kindle.  I understand why there seems to be a growing bubble of support for it.  It really is a good device.  But the downsides is still a deterrent for me.  Kindle has to come down in price more.  Even at 50% off, it would be $200.  I am not sure I would still buy it at that price point.  There has to be more titles.  And the annoying side buttons need to be resized, relocation, or redesigned.

It is ironic that I do want Kindle to be successful.  And yet, for me as an individual reader, I still greatly prefer my books.

Chloe Surdyk called late Wed. afternoon.  It was actually a cordial conversation.  I did my best to find common ground.  I understand their need to protect their copyrights and go after people but I did not agree with their tactics.

I told her I especially did not agree with her rationale that victims of Indian web designers should have to pay Getty Images especially when I contracted for a web banner, not specific images.  I also had little or no say in the selection of any images, only whether I liked a web banner or not.

She offered me a lower settlement (from the original $1,300) of $800-something.  I told her I did not agree with her and it was likely we would have to agree to disagree.  In the conversation, I told her I was not ignorant of the law and due legal process.  I have been to court many times to be a plaintiff and occasionally a defendant.  I was not simply going to “roll over”.  I told her I did my research on the Internet on Getty Images and I was informed of their upcoming tactics.  I told her I was not going to sit still and that I would likely publicize my interactions with her and her company.

My sense of embarrassment over this is substantially lower than my sense of outrage at their attitude.  Surprisingly, during most of the conversation, Chloe was cordial.  Even towards the end of the conversation, she said she would put into her notes to give me another 14-days to consider her offer.  Chloe even gave me her direct phone office line:  206-925-6779.

In my mind, there was no way I was going to “settle” with them.  I mentioned to her that she would likely have to sue my company if she wanted anything.  For now, I told her we would simply agree to disagree.

My next move is to get my “official reply” sent out by Certified Mail within the next couple of days.  I am biding my time as I continue to do more research.

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If you want to learn more about this case, visit ExtortionLetterInfo.com.