We truly value all of the reviewers who take the time to look at the books that we publish each month.

Thanks very much for that Lynn.

I'm actually working on starting up a blog again. I did one a couple of years back but it's hard to come up with fresh ideas to blog about all the time. And then you think to yourself, is this interesting to anybody out there? But I'm going to try it again. I think the site is The Book Publishing Insider that I reserved....and I'll get cracking.

Those Precious Gems were great while they lasted. They were sold exclusively at WalMart at a very low price to consumers. At its pinnacle we were publishing 12 titles per month in this line. Unfortunately shelf space has severely diminished since those days.

First, I still don't understand why people are harking on about "traditional versus independent publishing". It doesn't matter to the reader - they don't care who published a book so long as it's a quality product - so it shouldn't matter to us, either. An author needs to do what's right for their careers, whatever that may be.

Second, you mention that "The biggest reason that a self-published author will always come to a publishing house is to get the book distributed in print." What do you think about publishers now debating whether or not to even release print versions of a book at all? Here's a link if you haven't read about it already: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/59721-for-major-pubs-will-print-no-longer-be-the-norm.html?et_mid=643610&rid=240990131

And what about digital-only imprints? If print is the main reason authors come to publishers, what can a digital-only imprint offer an author that they can't do themselves?

For example, I pay freelancers for editing, proofing, cover design, and formatting. I have a team of beta readers. I pay advertisers like Bookbub to get me tons of exposure. My titles earn out the cost of publishing in their first month, and earn out the cost of their advertisements almost immediately after the ad goes live. And I pay these people a flat fee, not a cut of my royalties for all future sales. This makes the idea of a digital-only imprint with no advance a very unattractive prospect for me.

Third, in the question "How do we market and promote titles to catch the consumer?" I don't think you mentioned what Kensington actually does to promote an author's book (you allude to "large accounts" but I'm still not sure what you do with them). You do list a few things the authors themselves should be doing, but what do you, as the publisher, actually do to market a title?

Thanks for the interesting viewpoints, we don't get enough of this from people on the other side of the fence!

Nick