1stBooks Library Announces Industry-First Program to Kick Off 2002

Program Offers Authors The AbilityTo Control The Price Of Their Books
Print-on-demand and e-book publishing services provider 1stBooks Library is offering authors the ability to choose the retail price of their books. The purpose of the new program is to increase the amount of control the company's authors have during their publishing experience.

By choosing the final price of their book, 1stBooks authors now have a direct influence over how the book is presented to the retail market. The author can decide whether to opt for a higher book price at retail and retain a larger percentage of each sale, or a lower priced book and corresponding lower sales percentage. As with the entire 1stBooks experience, choice always remains with the author.

"We are extremely pleased to introduce this new program," said Mr. McCormack, Chief Operating Officer of 1stBooks. "This system further empowers our family of authors, and we are excited about the possibilities. By choosing the final price of their books, 1stBooks authors now have a direct influence over how the book is presented to the retail market. The author can decide whether to opt for a higher book price at retail and retain a larger percentage of each sale, or a lower priced book and corresponding lower sales percentage. As with the entire 1stBooks experience, choice always remains with the author."

"This provides added flexibility within our existing structure, and as a result, enables the company to deliver our authors a new form of freedom," Mr. McCormack added. "The fact that our authors already retained an industry leading 30% of each book's sale has helped pave the way for this unique program. 1stBooks already pays its authors upwards of 100% more than existing competitors."

In addition to granting 1stBooks authors the ability to control the final price of their books, the company continues to provide a full range of ever-growing design, production, distribution and marketing services, access to a full-time promotions staff, personal project coordinators, and nationwide distribution through thousands of book stores and book retailers.

The current 1stBooks basic publishing package entails a $399 fee to publish an e-book from scratch. Of that total, $300 is a deposit, which is subsequently refunded through the payment of a 100% commission on the author's e-book sales until the amount is completely returned. An extra $199 fee is charged for paperback publication. Under this new pricing program, authors can choose to retain 50%, 30%, 20% or 10% of the proceeds of each sale for sales through the 1stBooks web site (www.1stBooks.com), and 15%, 10%, or 5% of the suggested retail price for sales through other retail outlets.