1stBooks Becomes AuthorHouse

Posted on April 2, 2004

Print-on-demand (POD) publisher 1stBooks announced that it is changing its name to AuthorHouse. AuthorHouse president Robert McCormack said the company's new identity is driven by its growing presence in the book publishing industry and its strong commitment to an author-centric business model. AuthorHouse competes with other POD services including iUniverse, Trafford and Xlibris.

"We're a publishing house built around the needs and goals of today's authors," said McCormack. "We have proven there is tremendous demand for our services among authors and, at the same time, a large market for the books we publish."

AuthorHouse claims it published close to 8,000 manuscripts last year and that its complete list of books includes over 20,000 titles in print, with more than 600 new titles added monthly.. Since 2001, the company reports that it doubled its title count, tripled its employee count and printed and sold 1.65 million books.

Founded in 1997, AuthorHouse (then 1stBooks) was an early pioneer in ebook and print-on-demand self-publishing. The company's initial focus was on first-time authors who were finding difficulty breaking into traditional publishing. AuthorHouse also offers promotional services to help authors market their book.

"The AuthorHouse approach to publishing has proven so successful for many authors that more and more authors are deciding they prefer to publish this way," said McCormack. "AuthorHouse gives them the control and flexibility to achieve their publishing goals."

Thomas Hamburg, author of Surface Driven (AuthorHouse, 2004) says that self-publishing was his preferred method of getting his book to readers.

"I chose AuthorHouse over traditional publishing because I wrote an unconventional novel that I wanted to get to market fast, rather than working past the firewalls inherent within the industry," said Hamburg. "AuthorHouse offers a way to bring a book to press and globally distribute it via Ingram and the Internet within a matter of months - as opposed to years when going the conventional route."