Ebook licensing deals are now available for publishers, self-publishers and authors via Amber Communications Group, Inc. (ACGI). The company, found online at www.AmberBooks.com, has been in the book publishing business for twelve years, and has sold and licensed over one million books worldwide.

As the first African American book publisher to have an imprint/co-publishing contract with John Wiley & Sons, Inc, they are also the first to do television commercials, the first to have a literary television show (“Literary Living” on the Black Family Channel), and the first to use television commercials to promote ebooks for downloading.

Authors and publishers who have entertainment books (biographies about major music & film celebrities) that they wish to license as ebook downloads can contact Amber Communications and their book(s) can be made available for purchase and promoted on television internationally. All titles will be distributed with over 100 major international download stores and advances are available.

In other ACGI news, Carol Mackey, best selling author of Sistergirl Devotions – Keeping Jesus in the Mix & on the Job and Editor-In-Chief of Black Expressions Book Club, has recently acquired and licensed book club rights for the following Amber Books titles: Tom Joyner Presents How To Prepare For College and The African American Family’s Guide to Tracing Our Roots – Healing, Understanding & Restoring Our Families.

Reliable bookseller distribution is one of the major stumbling blocks for independent authors, preventing their work from being stocked in ‘brick and mortar’ bookstores, and thereby limiting the potential readership that even the best independent authors can achieve without the support of a traditional publishing house.

Selling to the book buying public has always required two essential but elusive assets: (1) easy in-store availability and (2) good word of mouth from an effective marketing campaign.

There are a number of different types of publishers. New or first-time authors should make themselves familiar with their characteristics before they venture out into the publishing marketplace.

Royalty Publishing – Publishers of this type bear all the costs of publishing a book and bringing it to market.

Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission has been making some noise about reviewers/bloggers, claiming that there has been some sort of ongoing quid pro quo arrangement between publishers and reviewers: reviewers provide books in exchange for reviews that encourage book sales.

Kevin Glennon has created guerrilla and viral campaigns for IKEA and Barack Obama, and now he’s using those same techniques to get his first book published.

Normally a new author would have to write perhaps hundreds of letters to get the attention of a book publisher.