About "Patroned Publishing"

Books at a New Price… FREE!

Combining collaborative content creation with new technologies to serve readers

A proven, centuries-old "business model" has been adopted by Brass Tacks Publishing Inc. to provide free books to the millions of readers who are adopting new digital technologies.

Patroned eBooks and audio books

To download a free e-book CLICK HERE

The Naples, Florida, publisher is offering Patroned eBooks and audio books free of charge to readers and listeners who can access them through eBook readers, digital audio listening devices, traditional PCs, and mobile platforms like pads and smart phones. Production and distribution costs are defrayed by Patrons – underwriters and commissioners – who get prominent recognition through four discreet cover and content “messages” that appear in each publication. The eBooks are available in formats that can be read on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Pocketbook, Sony, and many other reading devices as well as on PCs, iPads, PDF readers, Android devices, PDAs, and Smartphones.

Universal access

Readers can request Patroned digital books via e-mail or the Internet in PDF, ePub, Mobipocket, and MP3 audio formats. The publications are also downloadable through the publisher's popular web portal, BrainFoodToGo.com.

In addition, Patrons can make books available through their web sites and proprietary distribution channels as well as traditional trade book conduits. The publisher provides a number of book delivery programs that are designed to enhance Patrons’ marketing, community service, library support, and client relationship activities. For example, to facilitate point-of-contact marketing, Patron’s are provided with a single page book “cover” that describes the publication and provides an access code that allows for a free book download via the Internet. This cover is designed for in-store, personal contact, and direct mail distribution.

Patrons are also entitled to a branded page on the publisher’s portal to feature their offerings as well as other Patron-specific news and information.

Importantly, readers can request a traditional paperback version of an eBook for an “at cost” printing and shipping charge. Patrons often make these print versions available at no cost as well.

Patrons and Sponsors

Patrons include individuals as well as corporations, foundations, professional associations, affinity groups, media companies, small publishers, and advertisers. Sponsors include organizations that agree to distribute Patroned works. These facilitators receive recognition and appreciation from their constituents for the valuable literary gifts they make available.

If a Patron designates a title or subject for which it wants a publication created, BTPi commissions a qualified author(s) to create the work in accordance with the Patron’s requirements. Typically, Patrons arenot allowed to contribute to or significantly influence the subject content of the publications they commission. However, Patron-created content that is identified as such can be an important component of a book.

Variety topics

Most eBooks are non-fiction and focus on a single contemporary topic of interest to business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, enterprise leaders and students, and are the equivalent of less than one-hundred-and-fifty 6in. by 9 in. pages. eMicroBooks_™are typically twenty to thirty pages in length and 5.5 in. x 8.5 in. in size. Some are in the form of anthologies. All provide experienced, real-world know-how to enterprise leaders. A Patroned program for eTextbooks complied by instructors and students is also in development.

Collaborative content creation

Content is solicited from academicians, authors, students, consultants, coaches, bloggers, professional experts, and “debut” writers seeking to build a reputation. Collaborating authors earn valuable exposure through prominently displayed attributions, including e-mail addresses, URLs, and social media links. This affords them on-going opportunities to make important connections in the business community and to attract other publishers to their work.

Since contributors' materials are used on a non-exclusive basis, writers maintain their copyright protections. All content is screened by the Center for Business Ownership Inc. to ensure relevance and suitability.

Student benefits

Students, individually and in class work groups, are actively solicited – and rewarded – for contributions. Such collaborative participation abets their learning in a very practical way and affords them opportunities to enhance their research and writing skills. BTPi provides simple content construction guidelines to assist them. Student creations facilitate recognition among potential employers, internship administrators, and admissions directors at institutions of higher learning. Their work product – that can be produced as a “yearbook” – provides far greater satisfaction that the traditional “term paper.”

About Brass Tacks Publishing Inc.

BTPi has long-catered to business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, and enterprise leaders through seven, non-fiction print and audio imprints. Its publications are not magazines since they contain comprehensive, single topic content, and feature only a very limited number of terse Patron institutional messages “messages” that do not directly promote products or services. While Patrons can commission specific titles but do not contribute or influence editorial content. Patroned publishing is very affordable because of the low production costs, collaborative platforms, virtual distribution networks, and zero inventories facilitated by new digital technologies.

An age-old business model

According to Paul Willax, Chairman of Brass Tacks Publishing Inc., “The patronage model was the prevailing practice in the world prior to the nineteenth century – especially during the Renaissance – and was responsible for bringing the talents of writers like Shakespeare, Jonson, daVinici, Chaucer, Barbour, Wycliffe, and others to new and larger audiences. Eventually, new printing technologies, mass production techniques, and increased consumer affluence allowed readers to purchase creative works in the marketplace. Today, new technologies and market realities make it possible to provide the works of aspiring and accomplished authors to anyone in the world at no cost. This is the basis of our Patroned publishing model.”

Unique advantages

BTPi’s unique publishing techniques greatly compress the time between the perception of needs in the marketplace and the availability of on-point books.

According to Willax, “These digital books actually leverage the power of the Internet. At 20 billion pages and growing, the web can be a frustrating and time consuming place to find the specific know-how you need. A search for ‘small business assistance,’ for example, will turn up over 14 million web pages to scour. Our booksprovide access to carefully aggregated selections of information and insights that are key to a reader’s mission. No more hunting, gathering, and carpal tunnel pain!”

In addition, BTPi’s publications are “ever-fresh” in that they can be perpetually updated. Readers can request additional new information relative to a published topic as soon as it becomes available. New content can be automatically forwarded to readers, at no charge, via e-mail or RSS internet feeds.

With its novel business model, BTPi – a self-proclaimed "profit-free" company – provides readers with contemporary insights, relevant information, and inspiration; affords writers opportunities for both exposure and income; truncates the time between topic identification and publication availability; reduces costs to all participants; furnishes web authors and bloggers with wide, supplemental distribution for their posts and blogs; and, makes optimum use of new technologies that enhance convenience, accessibility, and affordability.

Most importantly, the BPTi approach to publishing facilitates the exchange of tacit, experiential know-how between "those who have learned the hard way" and "those who need practical help NOW. “

Brass Tacks Publishing Inc. is a division of Electromedia Technologies Corporation, which has been providing print, audio, and video materials to the business community since 1963.

To learn more about its offerings click on www.BrainFoodToGo.com/Publications

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