Some very interesting recent news for small publishers from the Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au on September 2, 2011.

Dymocks to turn up the volumes..

Jason Steger writes: DYMOCKS, the largest bookshop chain in Australia, is adding a publishing arm to its business. It plans to launch a web-based operation in October to entice local authors keen to see their books in print. D Publishing, will upload manuscripts to be turned into a ”properly laid-out publishable book” and offer editing, design, production and printing of finished books for sale at dymocks.com.au. Some authors who opt for the full service might see their books on the shelves of Dymocks bookshops. The chain has 70 shops across the country and claims 17 per cent of the market. Chief executive Don Grover said Dymocks had been working on the scheme for more than a year. He declined to say how much authors would have to pay and said costs would be announced later.

Dymocks did not see itself as building an operation to compete with standard publishers, and he said the systems and service it offered would separate it from other self-publishing companies. At a time when the Australian book industry was feeling the pinch because of the lacklustre retail sector, Mr Grover said Dymocks was hoping to embrace many of the hundreds of Australian publishers that produce fewer than five books a year.