Welcome to NOVO ink! Why NOVO Ink? The story behind our name is simple. NOVO Ink means "new link." We are living through a revolution in publishing. For centuries books were created by using ink on paper.

Today, however, readers like you are rapdily moving from the traditional world of ink and paper into an era of instant publication delivery through the Internet and reading eBooks, eMagazines, and other epublications of all kins on a variety of eBook readers and devices, none of which use ink or paper. Thus our name. Digital is the new ink of our time, and eBooks are the way to read.

Our goal at NOVO Ink is to bring you a remarkable selection of life-enhancing eBooks and eZines. We hope you'll enjoy a wide variety of choices that will help grow your faith and strengthen your values, as well as enrich everyday life and business.

Anybody who says the book is dead hasn't been keeping up with current events. Truth is, more books are being published now than ever before. Way more.

More than a million book titles were published in 2009--a quarter of those by "traditional" publishers and the rest by self-publishers and micro-niche publishers--including five titles by ConversantLife writers published by Conversant Media Group and Harvest House:

• Apologetics for a New Generation by Sean McDowell: Helping you effectively share the answers to life's big questions with a new generation.
• I Can't See God Because I'm in the Way by Stan Jantz and Bruce Bickel: Showing that a fresh view of God is more accessible than you think.
• The Last TV Evangelist by Phil Cooke: Knowing why the next generation couldn't care less about religious media, and why it matters.
• The God Question by J.P. Moreland: An invitation to honestly explore an entirely new way of living--the way of Jesus.
• The Forecast by Caroline Ferdinandsen: A counterfeit memoir the lets the author lie the entire time and still tell you the absolute truth.

“How can I get published?” I regularly get asked this question. I have read incredible article pitches, and incredibly horrible article pitches. In return, I have a set of 10 unpublished rules. Some of my 10 unpublished rules are obvious, some are not. All are reminders to me that I can’t be oblivious to an editor’s needs when emailing them.

Remember, I was once unpublished. And if you really want it, someone will publish something by you too. We all start by being unpublished.

My first publication was not my magnus opus. It was just a creative take on something everyone knew intuitively, but few scholars were bold (or naïve) enough to say. (I caught a bit of scholastic flack for it, because I was daring enough to offend dead people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Scholars get mad about all kinds of stuff.) The article was called “Early Evidence of Subjective Interpretation in the Pesharim of Qumran.” Yep, that was the title, and someone published it. Did it have original ideas? Yes. Did I think it was good, and did they? Well, of course. But who were “they”? They were a niche French publication out of a Canadian university, who published my article as the only English article in their academic journal. How many people read it? Probably five, not including my family and friends. But it mattered. Why? Because from that point forward I was published, and my career officially began. Now, I am the Editor-in-Chief of Bible Study Magazine, the author of a forthcoming coming book called The Resurrected Servant in Isaiah, and have published (or have forthcoming) over 50 articles.

Question:  What's the difference between LeBron James and Tiger Woods?  Answer:  One is vertical and the other is horizontal. 

LeBron James runs, jumps, leaps, flies.  He's vertical.  Tiger Woods drives, walks, putts, and occasionally pumps his fist.  He's horizontal.

Here's another way to look at it:  LeBron James is new media, while Tiger Woods is old media.  That's because new media is vertical, while old media is horizontal.

The idea that media can be vertical or horizontal has been around for a while.  Mike Shatzkin (aka "Mr. Vertical") has written extensively on the subject.  He says new media is characterized by "vertical, subject-specific organization.  It naturally facilitates clustering around subjects."  New media is Google, facebook, twitter, mogulus.  New Media is community, grassroots, bottom-up, messy, unpredictable, improvisational, tattoos, fun.  New media is LeBron.

Attention authors and those who aspire to be. The following was a top story in today's Publisher's Weekly newsletter. It will be interesting to see how this impacts an already ailing book/publishing industry, especially in light of the Kindle.  

Amazon Launches Publishing Program

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 5/14/2009 7:50:00 AM

In its most significant foray into publishing, Amazon has acquired world English rights to a self-published novel by a midwestern teenager called Legacy. The acquisition is the first for the e-tailer's newly launched publishing banner, AmazonEncore. Amazon is re-releasing the fantasy title, in hardcover, in August. The book, by Cayla Kluver, is part of a planned a trilogy--it was published under the banner Forsooth Books, founded by Kluver and her mother--and, according to Amazon, is the first in a currently unknown number of titles from AmazonEncore.

Jeff Belle, v-p of books at Amazon, said the new publishing program, while focused on self-published books with promise, could also target out-of-print titles from major houses. Belle was vague about both the criteria used in the selection of Legacy and the terms of the deal with Kluver. (Kluver does have an agent, but Belle would not disclose any details about the nature of the deal Amazon struck with her.) 

In terms of the criteria used to select Kulver's title, and future AmazonEncore titles, Belle said the company is relying on a combination of sales data and customer feedback. When asked what feedback was used, in addition to the customer reviews on the site, Belle said "customers have many ways of interacting with us" and would not elaborate. And, when asked about the validity of the customer reviews, which in the past had come under question with certain customers (or authors) submitting multiple reviews, Belle said "certain controls are built into the process for customer reviews." (Kluver currently has 15 customer reviews for Legacy, 12 of which are five-star reviews.)

Belle said that Legacy was one title on a lengthy list of potential AmazonEncore books, although he declined to say how many books Amazon may release annually, noting the list will be decided by "how many great books we can identify." As for the editorial process used by AmazonEncore, Belle said a "team of editors" read a number of manuscripts on the list and their literary judgement were taken into consideration along with "what they think the incremental sales opportunity might be."

In addition to the hardcover, Amazon will release Legacy as an audiobook (through Audible) and as an e-book (as a Kindle edition). Belle said the company will make a decision about a first printing--the company's using an offset printer for the title--based on pre-order information and other data. And, moving forward, print runs will be made on a title-by-title basis. Amazon will also work with wholesalers to get the title into bookstores.

When asked if he thought publishers might be leery of the industry's most dominant online retailer moving into what looks like traditional publishing, Belle said he doesn't see why AmazonEncore would make anyone fearful. "I wouldn't say this is a new model; there are other examples in the marketplace of retailers who've done similar things," he said. He then added that a number of publishers he spoke to about the program gave positive feedback, noting that "publishers want to see how we could work together on this model," returning to the example of AmazonEncore bringing back into print a publisher's top title.

Yet another delivery method for written content. Check out this video and tell me what you think...