In September, 2006, my wife and I launched a new venture, Iota Publishing. Our goal was to publish fiction, primarily for new authors. We wanted to see if we could bring new books and new authors to the reading markeplace. We were successful in this endeavor, publishing four novels (even though one was a re-print). It was a phenominally satisfying journey, but also a costly one. In short, we've determined that this is not a viable financial model and, therefore, Iota Publishing will close its doors as of December 31, 2008. We will continue to support and sell the current four titles through December, 2009.
For those interested, the cost to bring a new novel to market was about $25,000 per title. You can do it cheaper, you can spend more -- but this is what it took to get the quality we wanted. We are proud of our books and proud of our authors. We loved working with each and every one. Each title became personal to us. We hope that showed.
Where is the fiction marketplace going? We think it is going electronic. Lots of people disagree. We are all entitled to our opinion. However, we simply don't see how brick and mortar bookstores can carry printed fiction titles beyond the 'name' authors. Yes, there will always be new names, but the finances just don't work for sales under 10,000 copies per title. In fact, with our economic times, 2009 may become the year of disappearing bookstores. Stay tuned.
For those of you who submitted manuscripts, we thank you. We thoroughly enjoyed many of the reads, though it is clear that the desire to write does not automatically give one grammar skills! :-) The range of imagination was astounding. In particular, we hope that Tomorrowville will find a publishing home and will be a highly successful book for David Isaak. Baron Birtcher's next novel, Hard Latitudes, will certainly find a publisher, as well.

Thank you for your support. Keep writing!

Terry R. Cooper