Telemachus Press is a “work for hire” author services company — a new delivery model in the publishing world that stands fully apart from the the traditional publishing houses and the realm of the vanity press. To better understand where we fit in the publishing world, neither a traditional house nor a vanity press, authors, agents and publishers need to open their minds to a new and exciting avenue for both new authors and for authors bringing back traditionally published material that had gone out of print.

Historically, a hopeful author who had not been successful in either directly getting the attention of a publisher or landing a literary agent, might consider approaching a vanity press to have some number of books printed for personal distribution. This approach was only available to authors with significant resource as it was easy to spend $10,000 to $20,000 on a short run of books. At the same time, the traditional publishing world was still a tightly controlled funnel guarded by literary agents with divine powers selecting authors based upon one page query letters. Given the track record of these very same agents at picking winners, these heavenly bestowed powers have always seemed questionable. Irrespective of the mechanism employed, one truism remains. Only good books sell in numbers of any significance.

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Things are finally changing for self-published authors. Well, maybe not everywhere.  Not yet.  Certain book stores and publishing houses still look down their noses at us, and maybe some of our snooty friends are still arching a brow and sneering, ”So…you’re SELF-published?”

Well, don’t fault them for it. There will always be those who fail to spot trends. IBM squandered the chance to buy Microsoft for peanuts.  Microsoft blew the chance to buy Apple.  And Decca Records turned down the Beatles, going so far as to say “The Beatles have no future in show business.”  Instead, they signed The Tremeloes, who auditioned the same day.  (Who?)

But I digress.

It only takes two words to explain why self-published authors are the wave of the future: Electronic Books.

In July, Amazon.com reported eBooks were outselling hardcovers nearly two to one!  And why not?  They’re cheaper, they’re environmentally friendly, they don’t require a trip to the bookstore, you can download them in seconds, free of postage, and you can carry hundreds of them onto an airplane without adding an ounce of weight!

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In today’s book publishing world, old publicity techniques are no longer enough.  Talking your local paper into writing a small blurb about your opus won’t get you anywhere.  Social networking and Internet promotion are the keys to success in the new world of eBooks and print on demand.  One way to stir up a lot of really good noise about your book is a multimedia book trailer.

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Telemachus Press is an experienced provider of author services. We take your manuscript, cover ideas, and prepare all the necessary files and formats so that the end result is a professional, high-quality product. That is why Telemachus Press uses Lightning Source (LSI) for all Print On Demand (POD) requirements.

Lightning Source, owned by Ingram, is the leader in providing inventory-free on-demand print and distribution services for books to the publishing industry, both domestic and international.

Telemachus Press Author Services for POD include (but are not limited to):

• Color Cover
• Cover proof for your review (PDF)
• Interior Formatting (Book Size Options)
• PDF proof of book for your review before printing
• ISBN Number and Barcode
• Quality Service from People Who Care

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Bad formatting, especially in an eBook where page endings and special formatting do not exist dramatically affects the experience for the reader.  And unfortunately, can reflect very badly upon the author.  The reader becomes so distracted by the formatting that the story is forgotten, no matter how well written. And, as some authors know, can bring bad book reviews.

At Telemachus Press, we quality test your book on our in-house eReaders before the files are uploaded.  We care about the presentation of your book.

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