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Tod Shuttleworth, Senior Vice President HarperCollins International representing Thomas Nelson

We recently had a chance to interview Tod Shuttleworth, Senior Vice President HarperCollins International representing Thomas Nelson. Shuttleworth’s responsibilities are for Children’s, Gift, and New Media domestic publishing and international publishing across Latin America. At the 2012 Integrated Print Forum, Shuttleworth, along with John Conley, Vice President, Publishing and Commercial Print, at Xerox Corporation, will be delivering a presentation about opportunities for printers in the self-publishing market.

How can printers take advantage of the growth of the self-publishing market?

Do what they do best…be a great service provider to the firms providing these self-publishing services. There are many companies helping authors achieve their goal of getting their thoughts into a finished product through self-publishing. If you are going to go beyond manufacturing, I’d suggest partnering with someone who can provide editorial services, cover design, marketing, and distribution (digital & print).

Do you think the self-publishing market will continue to expand?

It is already huge, and I suspect it will continue to grow. The reason is that people have something to say, and they want to be heard. Just look at the explosion of social media. That’s about the same desire to be heard, even though often no one is listening.

How is e-publishing (Kindles, Nooks, etc.) affecting the self-publishing market?

E-publishing makes self publishing easier. There are a couple of primary barriers to getting published—creating compelling content, building inventory, and discoverability. E-publishing helps to lower one of the barriers; building inventory. It may in some cases even help with discoverability. It does not, however, help with the most important thing to a successful book, creating compelling content.

What will attendees to your session at the Integrated Print Forum learn?

They will see why one of the largest traditional book publishers in the world has entered the self-publishing space.

What do you hope take away from the Integrated Print Forum?

Learning from others about issues that my help our publishing business.