Penguin Group has launched a self-publishing service through its Book Country subsidiary that will allow writers to publish their own work via digital book outlets and print-on-demand. The Wall Street Journal reported that fees for the service range between $99 and $549, with authors receiving "70% of revenue for titles sold directly from Book Country that are priced at $2.99 or more, and 30% on books priced from 99 cents to $2.98. Book Country also will take a fee for each sale on other online retailers, which also will take a percentage of each sale."
David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Group (USA), said the publisher has invested "a substantial amount of money" in technology to launch the new service. "If some of these books hit the bestseller lists, it could be very successful."
Writers already post manuscripts to Book Country, an online community for genre fiction fans that Penguin launched last spring (Shelf Awareness, April 26, 2011); it "has attracted about 4,000 members who have posted an estimated 500 manuscripts, some finished, some not, with at least three authors finding agents to represent them," the Journal wrote.
"Our proposition is that this is the best place to self-publish genre fiction because that's what we're focused on," said Molly Barton, Penguin's global digital director. "Everything we do in self-publishing is tailored to genre fiction, including formatting and design, as well as how to describe your book, position it, and discover it."
