http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/site/index/ en lisa@lisadearaujo.com Copyright 2010 2010-07-06T17:34:48+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/rockin_rollin_and_castin/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/rockin_rollin_and_castin/#When:17:34:48Z The clue is in the name, but we’re not just about publishing here at Yellow Horse. Those who know Scott, know that besides the day job as a copywriter and video producer, he’s also a talented screenwriter and director. Those who know me know that besides my day job in marketing, web and graphic design, I’m also a photographer and relatively recently, a video editor. Scott’s hard at work casting a screen adaptation of his novella HorrorCon for production in the spring of 2011. Current plans are to broadcast it online as webisodes, so keep watching for more news about that. We’re passionate about music at Yellow Horse - Scott, of course, has been performing for years with the incredibly hard-working Surrounded by Idiots. More recently, Scott’s been doing the solo acoustic thing in Sea Isle. If you’re ever down the shore and want to check him out, keep an eye on his website - it’s frequently updated with new gig dates. My passion isn’t peforming (I briefly took up the ukulele, only to find I had no musical talent whatsoever), but I’m an avid listener. Soul music is my great love, so I’m really proud and excited to be associated with The Chancellors of Vice, a funk/soul band in Cambridge, England. Next weekend they’ll be on the big stage at the Big Weekend so I’ve been shooting some test video in preparation for that. (pop on over to YouTube if you want to see the clips in HD) And what’s new in the small press and self-publishing world? Between investigating graphic novel and children’s book printers, casting, shooting, and the long holiday weekend, you probably know as much as we do. Catch us next week and we’ll give you a double dip. PS, many thanks to Poppet for her kind words about the Blog de Suck and sWitch! yellow horse 2010-07-06T17:34:48+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_news_of_the_week_old_macdonald_had_a_nook/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_news_of_the_week_old_macdonald_had_a_nook/#When:14:14:26Z Last week we discussed our various options for printing sWitch and since we know you’re all on the edge of your seats wondering what we’ve decided, we can exclusively reveal that we’ve gone with “all of the above”. Not really, but we have come up with a strategy that combines the best of two solutions in order to offer the quality that traditional printing allows, as well as the speed of delivery and low initial costs that Print on Demand can (sometimes) provide. For books sold via Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as to any bookstore who will inevitably be beating our doors down, we’ll go with Lightning Source. With less than 48 hours turnaround for orders, this means that books purchased online will arrive to readers’ hands quickly. The alternative would be to sign up to Amazon’s Advantage scheme which would keep only two books in stock. Once those are sold, we’d have to hustle to send more copies, adding considerably to the lead time. These editions won’t have the covers we like, nor will we make as much per book, but we think that’s a small price to pay for our loyal readers’ need for immediate gratification. For the books we will be selling direct from the Yellow Horse website, we’re going with a small print run via a local printer. These will feature the pretty matt covers we want and will allow anyone who orders directly from us to get a personally signed copy of the book. You can’t really get better than that, right? We will, of course, endeavor to get the books out as soon as possible. There may be a slightly longer wait for delivery, but we think it’ll be worth it. With that out of the way, we now wade into the morass that is e-book formats and distribution and rather than bore you with more questions than we have answers for right now, we’re going to close off today’s post with some e-book news that caught our attention this week. The Huffington Post reports on another self-publishing success story that got author Boyd Morrison a 4-book deal with Simon and Schuster; Random House has made the decision to release a high-profile book as an e-edition before the print version; Ken Geist from Scholastic Press Picture Books makes an impassioned plea for e-picture books (ooh, we may be able to help you there, Ken - stay tuned!); and Kindle and Nook prices drop in fear of the iPad. In related news, adult hardcover sales show a marked increase in sales for April, rising nearly 50% for the month, while adult paperpacks rose 19.6%. E-book sales increase a whopping 127.4%. All combined for a 24.8% increase in all formats. Exciting news for authors, publishers and booksellers. yellow horse 2010-06-22T14:14:26+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/switch_trailer_released/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/switch_trailer_released/#When:09:37:37Z The book trailer for Yellow Horse author Scott Norton’s new book has now been released and was subsequently announced with the new sWitch website. Both the triler and the website were produced by Yellow Horse Productions. See the trailer here and visit the website at www.cul-de-suck.com. artist news, books 2010-06-17T09:37:37+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_news_of_the_week/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_news_of_the_week/#When:11:00:02Z Oh look, it’s Tuesday again, and as previously promised, we have put together a selection of news and information from the world of self-publishing and the small press. Biggest news was probably one of the most tweeted, forwarded and re-posted articles of the week--goodness knows we passed it amongst ourselves several times--a Wall Street Journal article about the changing face of publishing and Karen McQuestion’s runaway success in self-publishing her book on Amazon Kindle. Business loves disruptive innovations and e-books and Print-on-Demand are definitely going mainstream. Expect lots more POD printers, services and associated technologies cropping up in the next year. Maybe even some from that disruptive little start-up, Yellow Horse P&P? Gosh, you never know. It’s all related to the “Long Tail” in retailing, whereby large quantities of unique items sold in small quantities create significant profits for businesses with the ability to take advantage of distribution and inventory methods that allow this strategy. With enough choice and lots of potential customers, a market will favour the upper 20% of the many, many items offered, to the other 80% available. As we said before, this makes no never-mind to companies like Amazon, who do not care much about that 80% of products as those simply exist to get the customers in the door and their overheads are so low to allow it. For the small press and self-publisher, even being a part of the 80% that the market doesn’t favour can provide results, because it is so very large. If you’re lucky (and hard-working), like Karen McQuestion, you could be part of that magical, profitable 20%. The Long Tail concept is also used in marketing (viral marketing) and in social networks, for example crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing can be a powerful mechanism, by the way. You can use it for startup funding, or to solve complex technological problems. Say what you will about BP (and believe us when we say they are not high on our list of favourite companies), but they have been taking suggestions from the public on how to stop the oil in the Gulf of Mexico and putting those through a four-step process of analysis. Yellow Horse may not be quite ready to save the world, but give us a couple of years and we’ll see what we can do. In other news, Alibris, the online books marketplace, has entered the self-publishing market with their Author Stores; the Guardian reports on photographers who self-publish; and the iPhone 4 will include iBooks (which, by the way, has reported more than 5 million downloads in the 2 months since the iPad was launched). And finally, while there didn’t appear to be much discussion of self-pubbing at the wonderful Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts in Wales this last week, Stephen Fry revealed the winner of the “most beautiful Twitter message ever composed”, Mark MacKenzie (@marcmack) who tweeted, “I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.” Hey Mark, maybe you could crowdsource the answer? If BP have anything to do with it, we’re going to need that world pretty damned soon. yellow horse 2010-06-08T11:00:02+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_publishing_news/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/small_press_publishing_news/#When:17:36:43Z The first of a series of articles about the current state of publishing--both small and large. A lot has happened in the publishing world over the last week and a bit--mainly due to Book Expo America (BEA) taking place in New York. BEA is the largest annual book trade fair in the United States and attracts nearly every large book publisher in the United States and abroad. The conference showcases upcoming titles, presents current catalogues, and buys and sells subsidiary and international rights. Authors, librarians, and book buyers also attend en masse. So, for this huge conference to feature a DIY Authors Conference & Marketplace for the first time is major news for self-publishers and small presses alike. Bridget Kinsella at Shelf Awareness reported from BEA and comment that, while “booksellers have not historically been the most enthusiastic about self-published books”, booksellers and indie authors could work together to their mutual benefit. Leisl Freudenstein, consignment buyer at the Boulder Bookstore, in Boulder, Colorado said that “Independent bookselling is struggling itself, so if we can work together to create a new and exciting bookstore, we’re all for it.” The bookstore now schedules group events with self-published authors. Along those same lines, U.K. bookstore chain Waterstone’s has reportedly revised its inventory control model and seen positive results from the change. The Telegraph reported that previously, nearly all book titles sold in its stores were chosen centrally but that the system has now changed. At the ‘new’ Waterstone’s one third of the promoted titles are chosen by store staff. We think this means authors should be talking to the people who can really promote their books--the booksellers themselves. I’ve had my own positive experiences talking to Waterstones staff about independently published books. They’re knowledgeable and enthusiastic, so go make some new friends in your local bookstores, authors--it could be to your benefit! And finally (for today, at least), both Barnes and Noble and Apple have made announcements potentially to the benefit of self-publishers (and small presses). B&N are launching PubIt in the summer, allowing authors to easily create ePub titles that can be sold in the B&N online store, while Apple have announced support for self-publishers via the iBookstore. Neither have released details as to the royalty structure, and Pimp My Novel suggests that the restrictions Apple will be placing on submissions may make it more trouble than it’s worth. Both the Apple and B&N announcements likely reflect some bandwagon-jumping, with electronic booksellers looking to cash in on the vast numbers of aspiring authors who have discovered the ease at which they can publish themselves, warts and all. After all, quality literature is not necessarily that important to e-booksellers. There’s no physical inventory to worry about and more titles simply means more opportunity for income as the entire process is so automated. The traditional press is still a tiny bit defensive, truth be told, but I really don’t think they need to worry too terribly much. We’ve seen the same thing in music, followed by the games industry more recntly. The big publishers will err on the side of the mass market and, with their giant marketing budgets, will continue to succeed in doing so, leaving the interesting, the unique and the truly creative products to find their own way in a much more democratized arena. It’s a challenge to get attention in a crowded market, but with hard work and a singular vision, the cream may just rise to the top. Likewise, the chaff will, inevitably, be separated from the wheat. Mmm, cream of wheat. yellow horse 2010-06-01T17:36:43+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/switch_by_scott_norton/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/switch_by_scott_norton/#When:19:40:00Z Yellow Horse Publishing is pleased to announce the upcoming release of a new novel by Scott Norton. sWitch is a sophisticated, subversive romp that blends the sexy with the supernatural, knowing just when to turn up the humor and when to turn down the lights. So light a fire, lock your doors, and get ready to turn the tables on everything you’ve ever known about horror fiction. sWitch will be released by Yellow Horse Publishing in paperback and e-book in August, 2010.  artist news, books 2010-03-03T19:40:00+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/norton_is_the_voice_of_campaign_satire/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/norton_is_the_voice_of_campaign_satire/#When:19:13:46Z Yellow Horse’s Scott Norton has just completed a voice-over promo for Moviestorm, an animated moviemaking software package. Norton acted as the voices of George Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain in the animated video. Created in Moviestorm artist news 2008-09-26T19:13:46+00:00 http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/horrorcon_by_scott_norton/ http://www.yellowhorseproductions.com/index.php/news/horrorcon_by_scott_norton/#When:11:13:22Z A young woman trying to move on after a personal tragedy, attends a horror convention where she sells “authentic monster artifacts” and meets a mysterious author who becomes strangely obsessed with her. For anyone who has been to a horror convention, or is just interested in what they’re about, this book covers the experience in significant depth while placing you in the center of two fascinating and harrowing journeys. Read more about it or buy it now at Amazon.com artist news, books 2008-09-01T11:13:22+00:00