Hi David -

Have you read "The Publishing Game" - a book about self-publishing? I found it quite an interesting read.

I've written an article on my blog (http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com) recently about "Social Media and Corporate Responsibility" - I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

Kind regards,

Fiona

This Time I Dance was orignally self-published. I believe some of these have done well http://cipabooks.com/awards.htm . The Celestine Prophecy was first self-published, as was Fine Art of Small Talk. A list of several here. Several more are described in this very old article "The Rise of the Self-Published Best Seller."

A variation on that is what Seth Godin and Robert Scolbe did by publishing their stuff as WIP online and then handing over to a publishing house. The same was done with The Cluetrain Manifesto. It's a proven model that works very well if you can establish a reliable and active network. That should not present a problem to you David as you have a track record and you have an active community that respects your track record. 

In the software world, the authors of The Pragmatic Programmer (Andy Hunt and David Thomas) decided to start self publishing. http://pragmaticprogrammer.com

Well, I am in the process of being published... so I'll be a shining example soon!

As you know, the mainstream publishing industry is in peril:  They definitely help with book distribution, but publishing has gone digital... fueling the self-publishing surge.  Mainstream publishers also expect the author to do much of the grassroots marketing & personal branding.

Since we'd market our book anyways, the real advantage of a big-box publisher is the distribution access.  There are really only two major companies that distribute books to B&N, Borders,  Amazon, and your local mom'n'pop bookstores (if your town has any left):  Baker & Taylor -and- Ingram.

If you're in their catalogs (now electronic inventory), then B&N will offer to order it for you under no obligation for you to buy... they will just stock their shelf with a copy.  If you're not in Ingram's (or B&T's) catalog -- you are virtually non-existent... that is, you are only -virtually- existent.

Ingram has decided to get into the boutique, digital, self-publishing industry... they launched LightningSource.com a few years ago.  They are very reasonable in cost, provides full binding ("perfect binding"), hardcover & softcovers, with no minimum orders!  Best of all, they will include you in the Ingram catalog... thus providing full distribution (and fulfillment) to bookstores and your website buyers.

I hope it helps...
~ Vikram
<a href="http://www.personalbrandmarketing.com">PersonalBrandMarketing.com</a>