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Following the success of the hugely popular TV series True Blood, HBO and IDW Publishing are planning to release a comic book series this summer. The announcement was made at a recent WonderCon comic book convention in San Francisco, with both fans and those involved with the show getting excited about the project.

In the comic book series, fans can expect the same characters existing in the same world as in the TV show, but there will be noticeable differences. The creator of True Blood, Alan Ball, explained how the story will be slightly different and more adventurous in this new format, as there are no budgetary or time restraints to hinder creativity.

The comic book series of True Blood is expected to be launched in June 2010.

With the latest advances in digital technology it was not surprising that sooner or later they would make an electronic version of the book. These come in the form of e-readers that allow you to download electronic versions of hundreds of titles and read them in a similar way to reading a pdf document on a pc or laptop. From a publisher’s point of view this can be a real help or a disaster as e-readers will completely cut out allot of overheads such as paper, printing and binding costs, but may eventually surcome to pirating and putting allot bookshops out of business. What do you think are the new e-reader a blessing or a curse?

The Periodical Publishers Association (more commonly known as the PPA) has opened their doors again to all those wishing to enter the Independent Publisher Awards, 2009. To be eligible for the Awards, each entrant must be an independent publishing company or individual, who are operating with less than a £7 million pound turnover per annum.

For the 2009 event, the PPA has expanded the number of categories to eleven this year, by including Customer Magazine of the year and Team of the year. This year’s event is taking place at Vinopolis, located at the heart of uba cultural Bankside in London, commencing on the afternoon of Tuesday, 1st December. It’s expected over 150 people will attend the awards ceremony which is to be presented by entrepreneur and business mogul James Cann, famed more recently for his fiery joint hosting of the BBC’s Dragons Den television series.

The PPA expects to be inundated with entries as the closing date of the 12th October looms closer. Now in its 6th year of running, the awards have gained great momentum and create a lot of interest in the independent publishing sector, with just a nomination for a campaign being a big accolade to anyone who entries, as it pushes them up the ranks to wider markets and exposure of their brand.

The digital revolution has had another victory over the more traditional paper-based book publishing market, as E-book publisher MP Publishing, situated in the Isle of Man, agrees a deal to release e-books up to six months before the offical hardback publication date.

MP Publishing has partnered with the San Fransico based MacAdam/Cage Publishing, to provide full e-book versions of popluar written works half a year prior to the hardback verison general release.

With the ease of use of e-books comes the users need to be access books immediately. Why should they have to wait for the printing, storage and for the distribution of a title, when it’s ready to go on electronic format. As well as saving time, e-books reduce the publishing bills made up of the print and paper plus any transport costs incurred.

Because the e-book market still in it’s infancy, there is a continual development of new technological advancements providing new and alternative options to view them. As well as using PC’s, laptop’s and specific e-book readers, advocates for the new style of literature can now enjoy an e-book on their Blackberry or Apple iPhone, now utilising video and sound clips making the whole e-book experience very user friendly and interesting.

As England relish in the glory of winning the Ashes this summer, UK book publishers are planning to cash in on our sporting success at the recent cricket tournament with over seven titles for proposed publication in the autumn and winter period of 2009.

Winning Captain Andrew Stauss is compiling his autobiography entitled ‘Testing Times and Bringing Home the Ashes’ which recalls events throughout 2009 Test series. Sitting at around 30,000 words, his book has a release date of mid September. Former England captain Michael Vaughan’s autobiography ‘Time to Declare’ will follow on mid October.

With the news of Andrew Flintoff’s Test cricket career ceasing this year, he too is publishing his thoughts of this last summer’s Oval excitement and the events pertaining to his retirement from the Test Series, which is to be called ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and expected on shelves in early October.

Other cricket titles due soon

The first expected tie in to this years’ Ashes win is due from Simon & Schuster who are publishing Mike Atherons words, entitled Atherton’s Ashes, due for release on the 1st September.

Publisher Aurum is finalising the works of cricket journalist Gideon Haigh, whose book ‘Ashes 2009: The Full Story of Test’ is due to publish at the end of October.

A&C Black’s title ‘Wisden on the Ashes’ may get a revamp with author Steven Lynch adding in details of the 2009 season win over Australia. No firm decision to re-launch this at this stage, as it was previously published in May this year. Still there’s plenty to go at to keep every cricket enthusiast happy during this autumn.

When it comes to publishing your own work – whether it be your autobiography or a fiction piece you’ve being working on, there are several routes to choose to get your written work designed, printed and distributed.

One option is to find a publisher suitable for provide these services for you. Firstly, search for a publisher who is going to be likely to be interested in your topic. If it’s your life story or someone else’s, then seek a publisher who focuses on biographies. If it’s a fictional romance, thriller or sci-fi for example, then find a publisher who already publishes similar works. This will utilise their design skills when helping you create your styling of the book and the all important cover and dust jacket.

These establishments will have contracts in place with plenty of book printers who specialise in monochrome printing and case binding, so you won’t have to worry about setting up accounts or paying up front for the printing process. They will also have the most suitable contacts within the sales and distribution arena by choosing a publisher of similar ilk’s of work. Don’t see other books as competition – see them as potential leads for generating interest in your title, when they are all sat on the shelves together. Remember, especially in book stores, people will spend a long time browsing.

By piggy backing on their established routes to market you’ll get in to the right point of sale quicker and more efficiently time wise than doing it yourself, as your book will be fed into their chain of distribution along with multiple others. All this will come at a cost, literally. Each publisher will have a pricing system in place for all these services, so do a cost comparison of a few relevant publishers first to gauge which offer the best benefits and package to best promote your time.

Alternatively, there is the option to self publish. This can be more time consuming but could save you money. The self publish theme will be followed up in more detail in a later post.