USA Africa Dialogue Series - History Of iUniverse

History of iUniverse

 

I recall when we started publishing through iUniverse our Africa-United States relations and other books the big kahuna presses did not think would be profitable for them how many folks poo-pooed them. But as our books were being read by personnel at many government agencies and other stakeholders, and used by professors in their courses, the poo-pooing stopped. This and other similar successes forced iUniverse to strengthen its operation and add editors and reviewers. Today, iUniverse boasts of many of its books that have made the Best Seller Lists. The following is a brief chronology of iUniverse:

 

History of iUniverse

2008

• To offer authors an increased range of publishing services, improve efficiency and decrease book production costs, the Lincoln, Nebraska and Shanghai, China iUniverse operations were moved to the Author Solutions Inc. headquarters in Bloomington, Indiana.
• iUniverse unveiled the RISING STAR recognition program to give authors an even greater opportunity for commercial success. RISING STAR titles are presented to national, regional and local booksellers by iUniverse's national sales force.

2007

• Author Solutions Inc., the leading company in the world focused on helping authors publish, promote and sell their books, acquired iUniverse in September.

2006

• iUniverse teamed up with Barnes & Noble to offer the Publisher's Choice designation. Publisher's Choice rewards authors whose books met key editorial and industry retail standards with the opportunity to have their titles placed in a local Barnes & Noble store for eight weeks or longer.

2005

• iUniverse launched the Star Program. The Star Program focuses on identifying talented individuals within the growing community of iUniverse authors who have proven commercial publishing success and have the potential to earn a traditional contract publishing a book.

2004

• The first iUniverse title hit the New York Times best seller list when author Amy Fisher published her book If I Knew Then. The title climbed to number 14 on the list and eventually became the best-selling book in iUniverse history, selling more than 34 thousand copies.
• Publishing veteran Diane Gedymin was hired for the newly created position of editorial director, and iUniverse became the first publishing services provider to introduce an extensive selection of professional editorial services, which previously were unavailable to most self-published authors.

2003

• iUniverse received the coveted Editors' Choice designation from PC Magazine in a comparison of six print-on-demand companies. The article was published in the magazine's May 27, 2003 issue.
• Susan Driscoll, traditional publishing industry veteran of more than 20 years, was named iUniverse president and CEO. Driscoll's publishing and marketing expertise were noted as the key attributes necessary to position iUniverse as the only publishing services provider with the proficiency and knowledge to help authors achieve their publishing goals.

2002

• iUniverse began to focus primarily on author publishing.

2001

• Warburg Pincus, a technology group, invested in iUniverse, supporting the rapid expansion of the iUniverse digital platform that eventually emerged as the key technology for providing mass customization, personalization and print-on-demand publishing services within the publishing industry and beyond.
• Partnerships were formed with IDG Books Worldwide, Frommer's Travel Guides, CliffsNotes, Microsoft, Adobe, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Publishers Group West.
• iUniverse set a new industry milestone by selling more than 500 thousand books with nearly 10 thousand titles published.
• iUniverse author Ralph Fertig took his book Love and Liberation: When the Jews Tore Down the Ghetto Walls to number four on the Los Angeles Times best seller list.
• iUniverse and Weekly Reader, the leading educational publisher of elementary and secondary periodicals, announced a partnership to implement a publishing program allowing students and teachers in classrooms across the country to create and publish their own high-quality paperback books.

2000

• iUniverse expanded its focus to include a business-to-business (B2B) emphasis by creating a format neutral content repository that would be used by publishers for custom and print-on-demand publishing.

1999

• iUniverse was founded in October 1999 and quickly became the leading provider of publishing technology solutions. The company initially focused on business-to-consumer (B2C) print-on-demand publishing with two facets: new title publishing (through the Writer's Club Press imprint) and back-in-print publishing.
• Barnes & Noble invested in the company and soon started offering iUniverse books for order online and through Barnes & Noble retail stores.