Emerging Leader in the eBook and Print On Demand Markets
Interviewed by DIANNE OCHILTREE, www.ochiltreebooks.com
The back story: Telemachus Press is today’s equivalent of the classic ‘private press publisher’. Their attention to detail has earned the company its reputation for quality and value. Telemachus Press authors and illustrators can bring out-of-print titles or original work to the marketplace in all formats at once: eBook, paperback and hardback. Recently, I sat down with Claudia Jackson, founder and partner of Telemachus Press, to find out more about the company, its products and the creative community it serves.
Q: Why did you decide to establish Telemachus Press?
I’m neither a writer nor do I have any desire to become an author of popular books for the masses! I gave that up many years ago after writing and publishing several software training manuals (before they widely existed). Since then, I’ve spent many years as a computer consultant specializing in desktop publishing and printing. Recently, I found myself in a strange predicament where I had to publish a book for a friend. OK, it was my husband, Steven H. Jackson, who wrote a murder mystery titled, “Death of a Cure.” It was a tough decision that we jointly made. (Do you wait for a literary agent to sell your book to a publisher or should you publish it yourself?) I already had the background, the skill set and the software – all of the tools to get the job done. What I lacked at that time, however, was a working knowledge of the process that takes a completed manuscript and turn it into a novel or non-fiction work. Countless days and nights were spent reading, researching, studying opinions (everybody has one) and comparing the various options available.
There are many publication services on the Internet and they continue to grow in number every day. Costs can be high, complicated and very confusing. Many of the business models employed by these author services companies were anything but transparent value propositions. To be honest, there was a lot of “bait and switch” leading the author to pay and pay without any upfront, full disclosure. Be all that as it may, it doesn’t take long before the brain is overloaded with everybody’s advice, not to mention having to weed through a multitude of Internet scams. It proved to be a long and frustrating experience, not unlike the experiences read about in blogs and forums as other authors travel down this same road.
Not being one to sit around and wait for things to happen, I woke up one day and decided to not only publish this book, but to go all the way and start a publishing company focused on providing all the technical publishing services a self-published author needed in a simple and fair model.
Telemachus Press has come a long way since that first book. We have expanded our resources and continue to build an excellent network of people who not only care about the job, but care about it getting done professionally. Our references are our most important asset! At Telemachus Press, you will have someone to actually talk to, and, more importantly, someone who will not only care about the finished product, but take responsibility for it as well.
We are an advocate for you, the author!
Q: What makes your publishing company different from the many other publishers in today’s marketplace?
Full transparency to the author. We are a work-for-hire