New York Times Mentions "Two-Minute Heist"

Hewlett Packard Enters the POD Business with Magcloud

The New York Times reported the new magazine publishing venture by Hewlett Packard, Magcloud. The service uses the traditional “free” print on demand model – it costs nothing until you print it up. From Magcloud’s site:It costs you nothing to publish a magazine on Magcloud. To buy a magazine costs 20¢ per page, plus shipping. For example, a 20-page magazine would be four bucks plus shipping. And you can make money! You set your issue price and all proceeds above the base price go to you.

In contrast, a 20-page saddle stitch publication on Lulu runs as high as $9.50, so this seems a far better avenue for magazine publishing. This is a very good development not just a self-publishing platform, but for further reducing the stigma of self-publishing, as POD is no longer considered a second-rate method of publishing. Magazines are, by and large, a different animal than books and regarded differently, but this is another step towards making self-released books as legitimate as other types of media.

Magazines as MarketingThis also gives self-publishers another marketing avenue. Writers could make a press kit for a book – possibly combining all of a book’s reviews within one cover. For instance, take a look at the media kit for the independent film Two-Minute Heist – be sure click Preview to peek inside. Another idea would be to create a teaser with the first couple of chapters of a book, which could potentially be a collector’s item. Or writers could release short stories in individual volumes.Who knows – maybe the Self-Publishing Review will bind together some of the better articles into a print magazine. Given the extremely low cost of putting one of these magazines together, there are a lot of good possibilities for Magcloud – which makes it one of the better developments in print on demand technology.