AuthorHouse, formerly known as 1stBooks, is a

self-publishing Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

company based in the United States. AuthorHouse uses

print-on-demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

business model and technology.

History

Originally called 1stBooks, the company was founded in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...

, United States, in January 1997. Its first

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

appeared in June of that year. In January 1999, it started using

technology to produce paper books. The AuthorHouse website states the company has published over 70,000 titles by 50,000 authors since 1997. The company opened an office in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, United Kingdom, in May 2004. In October 2005, AuthorHouse was nominated by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for the Small Business of the Year Award. AuthorHouse won the Silver Award under the Service industry category. The

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

-based investment group Bertram Capital purchased AuthorHouse in 2007 from Gazelle TechVentures, which had owned AuthorHouse since 2002. Later in 2007, Bertram established

Author Solutions Author Solutions is the parent company of the self publishing companies/imprints AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, Xlibris, Palibrio, and Booktango. Author Solutions also maintains partnerships with traditional book publishers Simon ...

and acquired AuthorHouse competitor

iUniverse iUniverse, founded in October 1999, is an American self-publishing company based in Bloomington, Indiana.Kevin Abourezk"iUniverse to move to Indiana" incoln Journal Star, January 22, 2008 History iUniverse focuses on print-on-demand self-publi ...

, before relocating its operations to Indiana in early 2008.

Brandewyne lawsuit

In August 2006, a Kansas trial court ordered AuthorHouse to pay $240,000 in

punitive damage Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit ...

as well as $230,000 in actual damage to romance author

Rebecca Brandewyne Rebecca Brandewyne née Wadsworth (born March 4, 1955 in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States) is an American bestselling writer of romance novels. Brandewyne has been published in multiple languages in over 60 countries. Biography Personal l ...

and her parents for publishing a book by her ex-husband that was "harmful" and

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

ous of them. AuthorHouse was also ordered to pay $20,000 each to Brandewyne's parents for the damage. Although the court acknowledged that AuthorHouse employed a

business model A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, social, ...

that placed a degree of responsibility for the content of works upon the authors, in this case they found that AuthorHouse had failed to act when it was informed that the book might include libelous content.

References

External links

* {{self-publishing book publishing companies based in Indiana companies based in Bloomington, Indiana publishing companies established in 1997 self-publishing companies