 | |
| Parent company | Author Solutions |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Bloomington, Indiana |
| Publication types | Books |
| Imprints | Writers Club Press |
| Official website | iuniverse |
iUniverse, founded in October 1999, is an American self-publishing company based in Bloomington, Indiana. [1] It has been owned by Author Solutions since 2008 (which has been owned by Najafi Companies since 2015).
iUniverse focuses on print-on-demand self-publishing and a service the company refers to as "assisted self-publishing" which critics say is indicative of vanity press [2] [3] since authors are asked to pay from US$400 [4] to $15,000 for additional services. [5] Soon after they were founded, Barnes & Noble purchased a 49% stake in the company. As part of the agreement, Barnes & Noble offered select iUniverse titles both in their online bookstore and at their physical stores. [6]
In 2004, Amy Fisher's memoir, If I Knew Then, about serving seven years in prison on first-degree aggravated assault charges for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco, became the best-selling book in iUniverse's history, selling more than 32,000 copies up to 2004. [7] According to a 2005 Publishers Weekly article, out of the more than 18,000 titles published by iUniverse until 2004, only 83 had sold at least 500 copies and only 14 titles had been sold through physical Barnes & Noble stores. [7]
In September 2007, iUniverse was purchased by Author Solutions, the parent company of hedge fund-owned rival AuthorHouse. [8] In 2008, iUniverse operations moved from Lincoln, Nebraska to Bloomington, Indiana where Author Solution's headquarters are located. [1]
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software, and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, comic books, newspapers, and magazines. With the advent of digital information systems, the scope has expanded to include digital publishing such as ebooks, digital magazines, websites, social media, music, and video game publishing.
Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints in single or small quantities. While other industries established the build-to-order business model, POD could only develop after the beginning of digital printing because it was not economical to print single copies using traditional printing technologies such as letterpress and offset printing.
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of October 2023, the company operates 592 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states.
A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a publishing house where the author pays to have the book published, and signs a restrictive contract which involves surrendering significant rights. It is not to be confused with hybrid publishing, or assisted self-publishing.
AuthorHouse, formerly known as 1stBooks, is a self-publishing company based in the United States. AuthorHouse uses print-on-demand business model and technology.
Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries.
Xlibris is a self-publishing and on-demand printing services provider, founded in 1997 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. In 2000, The New York Times stated it to be the foremost on-demand publisher. The current president is Bill Elliot.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. is one of the largest operators of college bookstores in the United States. As of the end of 2020, Barnes & Noble Education operated 760 campus bookstores and school-branded e-commerce sites through its Barnes & Noble College Booksellers division. The company is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
Trafford Publishing is a book publishing company for self-publishing authors. Formerly based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Trafford Publishing is now based in Bloomington, Indiana, US.
Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of a broad range of subject areas, with multiple imprints and more than 5,000 titles in print. Founded in 1949 by David A. Boehm, Sterling also publishes books for a number of brands, including AARP, Hasbro, Hearst Magazines, and USA TODAY, as well as serves as the North American distributor for domestic and international publishers including: Anova, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Carlton Books, Duncan Baird, Guild of Master Craftsmen, the Orion Publishing Group, and Sixth & Spring Books. Sterling also owns and operates two verticals, Lark Crafts and Pixiq.
Follett Corporation is an American technology company headquartered in Westchester, Illinois. Follett is a provider of educational services and products to colleges, schools, and libraries.
Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form. Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publishes text-driven books on American history and folklore.
Author Solutions is the parent company of the self publishing companies/imprints AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, Xlibris, Palibrio, and Booktango. Author Solutions also maintains partnerships with traditional book publishers Simon & Schuster, Thomas Nelson, Hay House, and Guideposts ; as well as with Writer's Digest.
Pronoun was a New York–based company that provided free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using print on demand technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, games, video content, artwork, and zines. Web fiction is also a major medium for self-publishing.
Amazon Publishing is Amazon's book publishing unit launched in 2009. It is composed of 15 imprints including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and TOPPLE Books.
Opyrus is an American self-publishing start-up founded in 2008 as FastPencil by Michael Ashley. They offer a web-based publishing engine that allows authors, publishers, and enterprises to create books in print and EPUB formats and have those books distributed online and in brick-and-mortar stores through partnerships with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, and others.
Chelsea Green Publishing is an American publishing company which specialises in non-fiction books on progressive politics and sustainable living. Based in Vermont, it has published over 400 books since it was founded in 1984, and now releases between 25 and 30 titles each year.
A hybrid press is a publishing house which can be broadly defined by its source of revenue. The revenue source of a traditional publisher is through the sale of books that they publish, while the revenue of hybrid publishers comes from both book sales and fees charged to the author for the execution of their publishing services.
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