Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Boolarong Press is going to Melabourne to do a "How to Publish your Book" seminar.
Come and learn how to publish your book. We will be covering:
The Australian book market.
The Publishing market.
Update on ebook and update on ereaders.
How to sell and market your book.
Some tips on Microsoft Word.
Location: Ross House 247 Flinders lane Melbourne.
Date: 1st April 2012
Time: 9am - 11am
Cost: General admission $55 and Victorian Writers Group members $50
Bookings essential. Bookings will close on the 28/03/12. So if you would like a site call Karen on 07 3373 7855 or register on our website.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
ebooks in Australia for the large publishers have reached 10% but it is not across the board. It seems the printed version stilumates the sales of the best sellers. Those printed books that sell smaller quanties don't achieve the 10% for ebooks.
So the same principle applies. The author has to be well known or received significant publicity to achieve the sales.
Amazon is by far the largest share of approximately 70-75% with Kobo next.
Boolarong is now keeping Marie Mahood's books in stock. "Icing on the Damper" is back in stock now and the others will follow. This book is one of the best I've read on outback life.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Well now we have Dymocks taking feeds from google along with Booktopia. Kobo will feed Collins book stores rather than just linking to Kobo. It is going to take some time in Australia for the ebook to take hold like in the US. I rarely see people with ebook readers and every time I get a seminar or group together maybe one has an ebook reader.
Amazon continues to dominate in this market and their new Kindle Fire which I have in my hot little hands is very good. It's the power of the brand again and first in the market that wins out nine times out of ten.
The Fire's only problem is the battery length compared to the standards Kindle. I love the way these machines start up quickly. Oh to have a laptop or desktop that does the same.
Bookish, the new player with a novel idea, has not made any inroads yet. My ebook sales are still heavily weighted to Amazon which is lousy for Australian small publishers in terms of a reasonable return.
We can only sit back and wait to see what the consumer does. By the way if you can get everything you want without leaving your home; is that good for you????
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The famous bushie and outback tour guide, Rex Ellis, has signed to Boolarong. Rex has been integral to the growth of outback tourism in South Australia. See his web site www.safarico.com.au for bush tours. Lake Eyre is booming this year again.
Rex's books that will be back in print are:
Ten Thousand Campfires
Boats in the Desert
Outback author, Jack Drake has joined Boolarong Press. "It's great to see another Queensland publisher support country authors," Jack said from his home in Stanthorpe. Jack's books include The Cattle Dog's Revenge which is full of bush poetry, The Wild West in Australia and America and The Outback vs The Wild West.
"It's important to keep these books in print as they are part of our Queensland heritage," commented Boolarong General Manager, Dan Kelly.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
At last we have our outback picture book by Norah Kersh as an app. It is available on the Apple App store and the Android market. It's only $10 or so. Every child will love singing along with great Australian songs while looking at the beautifully illustrated paintings by Norah Kersh.
Not all books are conducive to ebooks or epub format. Amazon has focussed on novels or as John Birmingham puts it "the disposable words". There are no images, charts, tables etc to confuse the reading of plain text. When it comes to novels the Kobo, Kindle, Sony and other similar readers are great. When the reader has control of the font and size images in an ebook will change the appearance. You may find the text some spaces away from the image. Don't worry about that as the publisher has typeset the ebook to a certain font size and if you change that then you change the appearance of the page.
But if you want an enhanced experience of picture books, books with images, charts, tables etc then you would need to choose an alternative. It's horses for courses. Apparently 30% of ipad owners have a Kindle.
Be careful when looking at books that talk and move. These are not ebooks but apps. Our Outback Songs picture book is now available as an app from the Apple app store and Android market.
Monday, December 12, 2011
THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Boolarong Press is going to Toowoomba with its Books vs eBook Seminar. We will be at Cathedral Centre on Febuary 11th.
So if you want to learn the following:
1. The Publishing market
2. The book market - bricks vs clicks
3. eReaders and epub files
4. Marketing
5. Distribuition - Australia and overseas
Come up and see us.
Price is $55
Bookings can be made through our website or you can call Karen 07 3373 7855 to book a seat.
Friday, November 25, 2011
We at Boolarong Press would like to say welcome back to Angus & Robertson - Brookside. I would also like to thank them for continuing to do book signing for our clients.
1/ Thursday 01/12/11 Kevin Crowe "Whistle up a Storm" from 5.30-7.30pm.
2/ Saturday 03/12/11 Graham Smith "Shadows of War on the Brisbane Line" from 1.30-1.30pm.
3/ Thursday 08/12/11 Ian Callinan "Betrayals" from 6-8.00pm.
4/ Saturday 10/12/11 Bernadette Mercer "How to be your own Therapist" from 11.30-1.30pm
(this is a book on Home Remedies).
5/ Thursday 15/12/11 David Jones "Wings on the River & Subs Down Under, 1942-1945" from 5.30-7.30pm.