Publishers Weekly and Indie publications

About time, too!

Dianna Dilworth on GalleyCat @ mediabistro.com communicates some great news for Indies.

The hardest part about Indie publishing is getting great books noticed. Now, with the premier review magazine incorporating reviews of the independently published with the traditional, it is quite a bit easier.

Publishers Weekly doesn’t care if a book is published by a transitional publisher or is self-published. Both types of books will now be fully integrated into their magazine publisher’s regular review pages both in print and online.

The magazine reviews about 9,000 books a year. Self-published titles will now be considered among other submissions. PW is pushing into the self-published market with the launch of a new website dedicated to self-publishing called BookLife. The site will go live on May 29, 2014 and will focus on three main subject areas: book creation which includes editing and cover design; publishing which is all about the physical manufacturing of a book; and book marketing, which will include information on distribution, publicity and sales.

“Publishers Weekly leads the way in integrating self-published and traditional book reviews, and this change reflects the growing acceptance within the book publishing industry of self-published books,” stated George Slowik, Jr., CEO and owner of PWxyz LLC, the parent company of Publishers Weekly. “Booksellers and librarians want to know which self-published books to carry, and publishers and agents want informed, critical reviews in order to solicit authors for publishing deals.”