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by Eugene G. Schwartz, editor-at-large, Foreward Magazine Each year, Infinity Publishing of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, has sponsored a writers' conference in Valley Forge that provides its self published authors with inspiration and an invaluable and unforgettable experience in professional development and information exchange. To locate a book publishing company with national distribution in West Conshohocken surely establishes that more than location accounts for success.
So, this is a brief report on Infinity's eighth "Express Yourself" big experience held at the end of September, where some fifty authors and a score of industry professionals assembled for three days to hear experts from among their own authors, as well such independent book publishing stalwarts as Eric Kampmann, Dan Poynter, Penny Sansevieri, Brian Jud, and Melanie Rigney. Speaking for the passionate commitment that leads writers to want to publish, book publicist Penny Sansevieri observed that when she first started writing, she wanted to change the world and make a difference, and that "all of you here are changing the world and making a difference. You have to believe in yourself and believe in your book," she said. "Everybody has had a 'no.' But every 'no' you get, leads you closer to 'yes'."
She then introduced Eric Kampmann, CEO of Midpoint Trade distributors, who delivered the keynote. He is, currently, the best example of someone for whom "no" got him to a bestseller "yes," by "staying on mission." He chose to follow his own passion for justice and publish the OJ Simpson confessional, If I did It, on behalf of the Goldman family.
Kampmann spoke to the value of professionalism and competence as paving the way for Beaufort's swift and successful introduction of the Simpson story in a three-week turnaround period. "When you have a system that does the small things well every day, you will be able to do the big things when they come along," Kampmann said. "So, for a small book publishing company that has the right team in place (something that outsourcing now offers to everyone) all kinds of things are possible."
To this observer, Infinity Publishing is an outstanding example of a book publishing company that "does the small things well" and has the right team to do them with. It is also the only book publishing company of its kind that combines an in-house manufacturing, warehousing, and fulfillment operation with the production, sales, and distribution services for its author-partners. Infinity keeps two laser-printers and a four-color digital cover printer busy from five to seven days a week, depending on order volume.
Founded in 1997 by Tom Gregory, Infinity has more than 4,500 titles in print by more than 3,000 self published authors. Gregory and his sons are also in the commercial printing business, and it was as an outgrowth of printing for self publishing author-customers that they saw the business opportunity that led to forming Infinity. Currently publishing 70 new titles a month, Gregory's goal is to reach 100 a month in the coming year.
The company has also launched this year an in-house audiobook recording studio and production service that will enable authors to both publish separately or bind into their books a professional spoken word CD.
Distinguishing itself from the conventional and high-volume author-publisher partnerships that outsource book-at-a-time printing, such as AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Lulu, Amazon/Booksurge, and XLibris, Infinity encourages a personal and real-time interaction between self publishing author and book publisher as the book is emerging from production and being made ready for the author's own marketing push. Its annual conference brings together writers, many of whom establish year-round networking connections among themselves. Some also return to subsequent conferences, sharing their own learning and success experiences with each other as well as the first-time authors just coming on line.
This Infinity Conference, the second I've attended, has sharpened for me a view of the incomparable social, educational, and cultural contributions to our society made by independent and self-publishers. While we are part of a larger industry, we are also very much a collection of autonomous storytelling and self-development networks--much like the neighborhoods and small towns in which people live from day to day that are the foundations on which the strength of the larger society rests.
Mainstream book publishing has no monopoly on literary merit, enterprise, and value added. To paraphrase Eric Kampmann's earlier observation, when you consistently do the small things right--that in itself becomes a big thing. |
