CEO Newsletter
Hi, my name is Wilfried F. Voss, and I am the owner and president of Copperhill Media (the little guy in the picture is my son Patrick).
Rather than calling this section “Owner and President Newsletter” we decided to use “CEO Newsletter.” It’s shorter and explains better what this is about.
I started my business back in 1993, originally as Copperhill Technologies Corporation. At the time I provided software programming services for the motion control industry, and over many years I developed a servo motor sizing program called “VisualSizer.”
The transition into a publishing company started back in 2005 when I self-published my book on Controller Area Network. I never considered contacting a traditional publishing company, because, honestly, I didn’t like their slow processing and the low author royalties.
After all, I operated my own business and could do things way faster than any large publishing company and create better profit. I did some initial research on the book publishing process and found that nothing really goes without an ISBN for my book. Again, I had my own business, and it was easy to get a set of ISBNs through the Bowker service.
I had the first 250 copies printed through a local print shop and sold it through my website. After a while I learned of the Amazon Seller program, and from that time on my book was listed on Amazon.com. After all those years, it still sells very well.
Another transition came with the increasingly popular print-on-demand (POD) technology, and I had my books printed through Lulu.com. This allowed me to maintain a small inventory without going through larger investments.
I wrote three further technical books and even published a book for some friends. In 2007 I decided to make the official transition from software programming services into a publishing company (officially Copperhill Media is considered a micro-publisher). However, the intention then was to merely maintain my books and that of the before-mentioned friends.
Another important step for Copperhill Media was the release of my first novel The Bleeding Hills in September of 2009. Honestly, my intention was not to be the next Hemingway (wouldn’t have minded to make some millions through sales, though), but to get a look & feel of fiction publishing. Well, I was in for a big surprise! Publishing a novel is easy, but marketing it is most probably the toughest task in the entire business world. Consider, the author is unknown, the product (=book) is nothing new, competition is vast, and the price is higher than those of traditional publishers.
Simultaneously, while writing my novel, I engaged into some more intense and serious research of the publishing industry. I found that there is a vast number of aspiring authors out there, all looking for a publisher. The problem is that only a devastatingly small number of them will be accepted for publication, because the vast majority of those writers don’t meet the requirements set by traditional publishers. Talent is only one major requirement; the potential to sell more than 10,000 copies of your book is the main aspect. It all comes down to profitability for an oversized, excruciatingly slow, and ineffective business.
The rejected authors have only few options: 1. Hanging in until they will be accepted (that may take a lifetime, or will not happen at all), 2. Simply give up writing, or 3. Self-Publishing. All these options, with very few exceptions, will come to the same result: Giving up a writing career.
The most dangerous option is self-publishing. I have done it, but, still, I don’t sit at my swimming pool, sipping my Vodka Martini (shaken, but not stirred), and work only Wednesday’s from 10 to 12. The self-publishing industry is a shark tank. The rule of thumb is, you spend several thousand Dollars with one of the sharks in the business and you will still not see any success. Don’t even think about ROI (return of investment).
With the knowledge I gained through my research I have developed a fairly unique business model for Copperhill Media. First, as of April 2010 the business will accept new authors, and it will concentrate on a book sales potential of 500+, not the previously mentioned 10,000+. For quite a long time I had contemplated being a vanity publisher and charge for publication without consideration of author talent and salability. Believe me, that business model still has a great potential, but by the end of the day I wanted to be able to look into the mirror.
That being said, Copperhill Media will look for style, readability, and salability of the submitted work. We do not expect a new Hemingway, but at the same time we need to assure sufficient quality. We are a small print-on-demand (POD) publishing house, and we provide printing, distribution, and marketing services for our authors. Our books are listed in online stores such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks.com, and more. In addition we maintain our own online bookstore.
That’s the business model in a nut-shell.
In addition, I will accept submissions by young authors up to 25 years of age, regardless whether their work is complete or not or whether it has been edited or not. We will accept only two new authors per year for our “Young Author Project,” and I will personally mentor them during the writing process. In the end, i.e. when the work is finished, we will publish their book.
In the meantime I will follow up with further “CEO Newsletters” right here on this website.
Last, but not least, please feel free to Contact Us at any time. We are not the typical publishing company, and we encourage communication with aspiring authors.
