iUniverse, founded in October 1999, is an American

self-publishing Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fro ...

company based in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...

.Kevin Abourezk
"iUniverse to move to Indiana"
incoln Journal Star, January 22, 2008 It has been owned by

Author Solutions Author Solutions, LLC is the parent company of a number of vanity presses, including AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, Xlibris, Palibrio, and Booktango. The company is headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, and has been owned by Naj ...

since 2008 (which has been owned by Najafi Companies since 2015).

History

iUniverse focuses on print-on-demand self-publishing and a service the company refers to as "assisted self-publishing" which critics say is indicative of

vanity press A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a book printer that is paid by authors to Self-published, self-publish their books. A vanity press charges fees in advance and does not contribute to the development of the ...

since authors are asked to pay from to $15,000 for additional services. Soon after they were founded,

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

purchased a 49% stake in the company. As part of the agreement, Barnes & Noble offered select iUniverse titles both in their online bookstore and at their physical stores. In 2004, Amy Fisher's memoir, ''If I Knew Then'', about serving seven years in prison on first-degree aggravated assault charges for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco, became the best-selling book in iUniverse's history, selling more than 32,000 copies up to 2004. According to a 2005 ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' article, out of the more than 18,000 titles published by iUniverse until 2004, only 83 had sold at least 500 copies and only 14 titles had been sold through physical Barnes & Noble stores. In September 2007, iUniverse was purchased by

, the parent company of

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

-owned rival AuthorHouse. In 2008, iUniverse operations moved from

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

where Author Solution's headquarters are located.

References

External links

iUniverse Official site
{{Penguin Random House Book publishing companies based in Indiana Publishing companies established in 1999 Companies based in Bloomington, Indiana Self-publishing companies 1999 establishments in Indiana

History

See also

References

External links