The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design is now available on Apple’s iBookstore, so those of you with iPads can grab it directly from there if you prefer. (It’s available on Amazon’s Kindle store, too — the difference between buying from them or directly from us comes down to DRM, of course).

One of our Twitter friends even snapped a photo for us:

Check out this guest post by Cooperative Press author/owner Shannon Okey at BookTour.com about recent innovations in book promotion and how BookTour.com helped us promote The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design.

We’re pleased to announce that Cooperative Press will be publishing Hunter Hammersen’s book Silk Road Socks. (Read her post on the agony of waiting to spill the beans here). Every time I see another sample knit from this book, my heart nearly explodes. I hope you will all love it just as much.

In addition, we will be publishing What Would Madame Defarge Knit, a literary knitting romp edited by Heather Ordover of the inordinately popular knitting + books podcast CraftLit, with contributions from a number of the knitting community’s luminaries. They call CraftLit’s format “book-on-tape with benefits,” and with over 80,000 downloads per month, clearly its listeners are getting the message. The WWMdFK book subsite is located here.

No question. If you order an ebook directly from Cooperative Press, unless otherwise stated (and believe me, there would have to be a lot of convincing on our end to get it to happen), there will NOT be DRM on the file. We say this now, clearly and for the record, because digital editions of our title The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design will soon be available in Apple’s iBookstore, and also directly from Amazon for the Kindle.

Cooperative Press can’t control what Apple and Amazon do, DRM-wise (in the case of Amazon, it’s financial suicide for us not to submit to their DRM preferences, as it slashes our royalties from 70% to 35%), but we can control what we do here, and we choose not to add DRM to our files. We trust you, our customers, supporters and friends, to do the right thing and respect our copyrights, and so we don’t see the need to tack an extra layer of something-that-could-go-wrong on.

Speaking of ebooks, if you ordered the ebook edition of The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design, the updated file was sent out today, and in addition, part one of many conversations between Knitgrrl Guide author Shannon Okey and author Donna Druchunas about ebooks went live on Donna’s site today.

From yesterday’s Financial Times:

The severing of ties between publisher Random House and Andrew Wylie, one of the world’s most powerful literary agents, left many executives fearing the showdown over e-book rights would lead to the death of the 500-year-old publishing business as it is known.

The split with the Bertelsmann-owned publisher was sparked by Mr Wylie’s deal last week to sell the electronic versions of 20 classics such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children exclusively through Amazon.com.

Random House accused the long-time enfant terrible of the publishing world of “undermining our longstanding commitments to and investments in our authors” and said it would immediately halt entering into new business with the agency.

Wylie is known as ‘The Jackal’ in publishing circles, apparently, for his willingness to swoop in and scoop up good stuff that other people apparently can’t be bothered to pay the proper amounts of attention. I don’t care. He’s my new hero. He sees where the industry is going and he’s not afraid to forge ahead.

See Odyssey Editions for some of the available titles — when you click on the “buy for Kindle” link, you are immediately redirected to the title’s Amazon Kindle edition page. The Author’s Guild has spoken out on the issue, but their message is strangely disjointed. On one hand, they support Wylie’s right to sell ebooks, but on the other, they seem to think it odd an agency would step in and do such a thing. To quote them: “A major agency starting a publishing company is weird, no matter how you look at it.”

No, not really. When you’ve been in the trenches watching the fight, it makes perfect sense, actually. Some publishers are kicking and screaming and seem to want to hop in a time machine straight back to Johannes Gutenberg’s office. Authors want their books for sale in multiple editions, realizing that ebooks are not only popular, they’re actually outselling hardbacks. Two+ years ago, my [CP owner Shannon Okey's] agent sent letters to all the publishers representing my dozen or so books, asking for them to be digitized and placed for sale on Kindle, etc. One did. I think it’s up to two, now. So when you see your clients being thwarted at every turn and denied the chance to earn additional income (thereby earning you additional income, since you get a percentage), starting a publishing imprint at your agency is not weird, it’s downright sensible.

Random House has been the target of an awful lot of ire in recent months from the other side of this war (I lobbed a firebomb over the barricades myself when The New Yorker published some spectacularly clueless quotes from RH execs — search that last linked post and you’ll find them). But when you really drill down, you start to notice that Amazon is the company the publishers really love to hate. One of the major objections raised by the Author’s Guild to Wylie’s deal was its Amazon exclusivity. Well, let me tell you something as a small publisher: the competition sucks.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook platform is nigh-on inaccessible to smaller publishers, and I have a delightfully clueless form letter to prove it. We’ll continue to sell and support .ePub-formatted books here at Cooperative Press, because the iPad and other devices use them, but unless B&N gets their act together soon, don’t expect to see our ebooks for sale on their site.

So where does that leave smaller publishers? We work with Amazon. They’ve changed their royalty structure to our benefit. They make it easy to publish our content. They have a giant userbase. Why shouldn’t Wylie make a deal with them?

Diane Gilleland writes about crafting, business, the internet, and other splendidly geeky things at CraftyPod.com. She’s also been known to publish an indie book or two herself, and today she’s written a guest post for Cooperative Press on a topic dear to our hearts…

Why Your Favorite Indie Books Need You

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: publishing is changing mightily.

On the one hand, this state of affairs is creating a whole new breed of indie publisher – and this is amazing. Cooperative Press is a stellar example – books by a professional crafter, written for professional crafters. And others are doing similar work all over the craft community.

It’s a great time for indie publishers, and it’s a time of evolution for book-buyers. If you buy indie books, this moment in publishing means two things for you:

A) Increased Choice

Yippee! You are no longer at the mercy of the publishing establishment to choose what’s good for you. You’re living in a long-tail world. If there’s a craft book you think should exist, there’s a pretty good chance that a fellow crafter is making it. Or, that you could make it yourself.

Imagine the potential for creative learning and growth here! It makes people like me wave our arms about and spout superlatives.

B) Increased Responsibility

Wait — what? How does buying independently-published books translate to something as un-sexy as responsibility?

Ah, stay with me a moment. Back in the old days of publishing, most of us got our information about new books from a handful of sources: magazine and newspaper reviews. Print advertising. Best-seller lists.

This meant that it was simpler for publishers to promote books, and that all publishing needed you to do was buy stuff.

Well, magazines and newspapers are now in trouble. Print advertising has never been less effective. And these days, we book-buyers get our information from an incredibly diffuse network of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, other book-review websites, and recommendations from friends.

So, your new responsibility? If you like an indie book, help the author out. Spread the word!

If you have a blog, by all means, post a review. (Many authors will gladly donate a giveaway copy for your readers, so why not ask?) If you’re on Twitter, tweet about it. If you’re on Facebook, tell your friends about it. If the book is available on Amazon, post your review there.

In other words, if you like a new book, play a more active part in its success.

But I don’t have that many readers/followers/friends!

In the online space, that doesn’t matter! If your blog has only a handful of readers, but they all like you, then your enthusiastic recommendation is meaningful to them. And a handful of meaningful word-of-mouth endorsements frankly trumps a mainstream, mostly-ignored ad campaign these days.

As a book-buyer, you are now a vitally important part of keeping indie publishing alive and growing. So don’t just buy — recommend! Review! Share!

A gentle reminder from CP:

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design’s blog tour details are here.

If you preordered the book and want to help us get the word out, click here for a PDF that lists some easy ways you can help tell your friends about the Guide, such as using the #knitgrrlguide hashtag on Twitter. Thank you from the bottom of our heart for all your support during the pre-order stage!

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design: How to Keep Your Knits About You by Shannon Okey is now available from Cooperative Press.

Retail price: $22.95 USD
Size: 7.44 x 9.69 inches (19 x 25 cm)
Pages: 254 (print edition; digital may vary by format)

978-0-9792017-1-4 ISBN

The Knitgrrl Guide To Professional Knitwear Design is the first-ever book targeted to designers of all experience levels who want to create, communicate and sell their work professionally to magazines, publishers, consumers and other markets. Written by an industry insider, the Guide takes a comprehensive, unflinching look behind the scenes that no knit or crochet designer can afford to be without. Includes interviews with top designers, editors and professionals who tell it like it is so you can hit the ground running, a guide to responsible social media use, information on distribution, printing, online publishing, book and magazine proposals and much, much more.

All prices are USD, and Ohio residents will be charged sales tax.

Update on shipping prices: Good news! We have updated our shipping system to automatically calculate shipping prices. US shipping is $5, Canada is $8 and rest-of-world is $12. Shipping prices are only applied to the print and print + digital package, of course!

Print only: $22.95

Digital only (PDF): $16.95

Print + digital: $22.95

Amazon Kindle format (.mobi)¹ or iPhone, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader and other e-reader formats (.epub)²: $14.95

Make sure admin@knitgrrl.com is added to the ’safe’ list inside your email program to ensure you receive any emails relating to the download. For e-book readers, please let us know which file format you need in the comments during checkout.

The Guide is also available on Amazon. If you find it useful, we’d certainly appreciate a review there!

Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

1) You will need to manually load the file onto your Kindle, either via USB cable or by emailing it to your assigned Kindle email address. We plan to offer direct downloads from Amazon after 30 June 2010. Prices may change at that time at Amazon’s discretion.

2) Load the file onto your iPhone or other e-book reader according to the device’s directions. We hope to offer direct downloads for the B&N Nook soon, but prices may change depending on factors currently beyond our control.

Two interesting recent articles from the New York Times:

Former Book Designer Says Good Riddance to Print

The killer quote (bolding mine):

As someone who long reaped a paycheck from the sale of books, Mr. Mod isn’t looking at the transition with any form of glee. Instead, he argues that it doesn’t really matter which vessel we choose to read on, since the content will always be king. He writes, “For too long, the act of printing something in and of itself has been placed on too high a pedestal. The true value of an object lies in what it says, not its mere existence.”

With a Kindle Hiring Spree, Amazon Gears Up for Battle With Apple

The summary:

Since Apple announced its plans for the iPad, Amazon has shared few details about how it would respond to the competition for its Kindle. But over the last few weeks, it has offered some more clues.

Lab 126, the division of Amazon responsible for building the Kindle, has been on a hiring binge, with dozens of new job listings on its Web site. Some are positions for testing and readying new products. And this suggests that the company might be preparing a new device.

You might also be interested in this recent post by CP owner Shannon Okey on digital readers, traditional publishing vs. independents and much, much more, sparked by a recent New Yorker article about the iPad and Kindle.

Miriam Felton’s brilliant new book Twist & Knit is being published by Cooperative Press this spring. You can preorder it on her website here (for the regular version) and here (for the limited edition, hand-bound version).

Every knitter knows the frustration of running out of yarn. This nagging fear is compounded when the yarn is one-of-a-kind or hand-dyed and simply heartbreaking when you’ve spent hours spinning the yarn yourself. This book offers twelve patterns specifically designed to get the most out of your unique yarn. All of the patterns have small repeats, very flexible gauge, or carefully selected construction to allow you to use every yard of yarn without sacrificing wearability.

• 12 patterns
• 27 pages of supporting material, including technique tutorials.
• Highly versatile patterns for a variety of yarn weights, with instructions given for modifications in width and length.
• Fully charted patterns

The amazing patterns in this book are Cleite Shawl, Colonnade Scarf, Comfy Shawl, Dropleaf Wrap, Gable Mitts, Lune Shawl, Motte Shawl, Porifera Socks, Transverse Scarf, Tudor Stole, Vinca Shawl and Windward Cowl.

If you want to store the patterns in your Ravelry library, you can purchase the printed book plus the digital add-on for only $2 more. The digital add-on gives you the full patterns for all of the designs except Cleite (which is under contract for digital distribution), with all the tutorials you will need as a supplement PDF. The digital add-on also has the text translations of the charts, which the printed book does not have. (Choose ‘print PLUS digital’ from the dropdown at the bottom of the page).

If you want the digital files without purchasing the printed book, you can buy them individually or in Collections #1, #2 and #3 through Ravelry. All digital versions are available immediately.

Love lace but need help? Miriam is teaching two classes with Stitch Cooperative in Columbus, OH this June. “Fixing Lace Mistakes” and “Triangular Shawls” are enrolling now.

Cooperative Press is publishing a new series called Fresh Designs. We are seeking pattern submissions from designers of all experience levels for books on the following topics: shawls, scarves, hats, mittens and gloves, kids, sweaters, home, designs for men, toys and bags. Each book will consist of 10 patterns, except the 11th book in the series, Best Of, which will contain 30 patterns (or more) taken from the previous books. These books will be published in multiple formats, both print and digital.

How is this different from the usual publishing deal? In the spirit of our overall operating philosophy (single-book authors share directly in the proceeds of their books at a percentage level that can be 4-6x the typical publisher royalty rate), all book contributors will be awarded a share in the total earnings of the title after costs, payable monthly instead of the usual twice per year.

(Please note: all numbers are hypothetical and for the purposes of illustration only.)

Let’s say that a printed book sells for $20, and it costs $5 to produce. Cooperative Press takes 5 total “shares” in the book to pay for its operating costs, such as tech editing, advertising, tradeshow promotion, a small profit, etc. There are 10 designer contributors. The $15 that is left after production costs is divided 15 ways (10 designer shares + 5 CP shares) and you, the designer, receive $1 for each book sold. 500 copies sell? You just made $500 on your design. 1000 copies? $1000. And so on…

What are the benefits of operating this way, apart from the potential for a much greater upside than the usual low $75 or $100 book design fee? There are 9 other contributors on each book, and you all have a great incentive for promoting it! (Cooperative Press will also provide you with help in organizing various promotions, whether blog tours, knitalongs or anything else that you’d like to do).

We think it’s a smart way of doing business. You get the backing of a publisher who has your best interests in mind, you get to concentrate on designing instead of the million little details involved in a large publishing project, and we get to make an amazing book together.

Interested? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch!