Group Offers Manuscript Publishing Online

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February 19, 1999 (12:03 PM EST)

By Mo Krochmal,

NEW YORK -- Would-be authors can publish their own digital manuscripts with help from the Writers Club.

The group, which formed around an America Online discussion group almost a decade ago, is linking technologies to give unpublished writers the chance to get their works into print. The service costs $400.

"This is creating a market that will be driven by the consumer and the authors," said Bradley Kirkland, CEO of Writers Club, on Thursday here in New York at Book Tech, a trade fair and conference for the book publishing industry.

Falls Church, Va.-based Writers Club has 40 authors already involved in a process that is beginning to transform the publishing industry. The company lets authors submit manuscripts online and set how much they would like to receive in royalties. The company does all the processing and paperwork and makes $2 per each book sold. The company handles the paperwork and markets the titles on its website.

When the manuscript has been processed into a file that prints out as a standard paperback with a four-color cover, a customer can order the title and have it shipped within 48 hours.

If a book takes off, the writer is free to make a deal with another publisher.

As part of the package, the book can be browsed online through software made by Electric Press, based in Reston, Va. The company has an online viewer that works with any browser, letting users read a title but not be able to download it or copy it without permission.

With permission, the online copy can be printed out or downloaded into an electronic book, said Duffy Mazan, CEO of Electric Press.

The titles are to be published by Xerox or IBM, which are just venturing into the publishing-on-demand market. Both companies have developed hardware and software combinations that allow immediate high-speed offset quality printing of books.

IBM reportedly has a dozen million-dollar book machines in the United States, Canada, and France that can print more than 700 pages per minute. Xerox has also rolled out a book-on-demand service that uses the Electric Press software to deliver to its Docutech machines globally.