Learn how Zack Price is helping Bloggers become Authors with his startup

If there is someone who should be running a publishing startup for bloggers, its Zack Price. Before he hit 20, Zack founded Price World Publishing to help connect authors to digital publishing. Noticing the proliferation of blogs in recent years, Price knew there had to be a way to help thousands of bloggers monetize their content and broaden their reach. Enter BlogIntoBook.com, Price’s latest venture helping bloggers turn their content into professionally published e-books distributed to all the major digital book marketplaces.

(to view the original article & interview click this link)

Operating out of Chicago’s 1871, BlogIntoBook.com offers a free service that allows bloggers to earn passive income from their posts and content for minimal time and effort. Knowing just how difficult and time consuming self-publishing can be, Price strives to create a company that truly partners with bloggers and lets them grow their readership and earn royalties every time their e-book is bought and downloaded, all while ensuring bloggers retain all the rights to their content.

Considering the growing popularity of Kindles, iPads, and various tablets, BlogIntoBooks.com is growing at just the right time, and big time bloggers are starting to take notice. Thousand’s of sports fans got an insiders glimpse into Michigan’s impressive and exciting run to the Final Four last season thanks to Wolverine guard Josh Bartelstein. Price, a UM alum, saw a great opportunity and teamed up with Bartelstein to help publish his blog into an e-book. Check out my interview with Zack to learn more about his startup journey and BlogIntoBook.com

Q: How did you get so involved in the publishing / digital book space? How is this industry unique or different from others?

I started my first publishing company in 1999 while still in college. Back then I was able to test ideas and get immediate feedback on marketplaces such as eBay. Nowadays we have Google Adwords and Analytics and Amazon seller accounts to commercially test our ideas leanly and cleanly.

Q: A few years ago, you founded and eventually sold TheDiag.com, a craigslist for the Ann Arbor community. What was your biggest takeway from that project and what made it successful?
Do what you are passionate about. TheDiag.com was just a hobby for me, I was full-time running my publishing company (www.PriceWorldPublishing.com) but I saw this huge need for a good website to allow Michigan students to buy/sell Textbooks and football tickets with each other. As a former student myself I felt this pain and designed a simple fix for it. If I had gone into this as a job or with a business plan it would have never gotten off the ground.

Q: Have you developed any guiding business principles or tenets from the various companies you founded during your time as an entrepreneur?
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Q: What is the revenue model behind Blog Into Books?
Blog Into Book is completely free for bloggers, which is a huge selling point. We take on all the time and costs of publishing so the blogger can keep blogging, and the proceeds are generally split 50/50.

Q: Is there one particular e-book retailer marketplace (iTunes store, google play, amazon kindle, etc) which works best for something like Blog Into Books?
So far Kindle and iTunes have been the most popular, however the Google Play store is coming on strong. I see all three of those stores (and the devices that access them) as perfect platforms for reading blogs compared to your traditional computer screen or web browser.

Q: How do you go about getting bloggers to sign up for your service and turn their blog into books? What has been the response when they use it?
I have not yet marketed the service to bloggers aside from being interviewed by the press or showcasing at events. There are hundreds of millions of bloggers out there, so getting them to sign up for a free service isn’t the hard part. Finding bloggers with the largest followings is what’s important. So far the response has been extremely positive, since Blog Into Book is essentially monetizing their blog and promoting their brand, completely free of charge. It’s a win-win for both parties.

Q: Are all blogs meant to be read like a book? Does this service work well with some blogs in particular and not so well with others?
It works with all blogs, they don’t all have to read like a “book”. I like to call some of our projects like a bag of popcorn … you can just reach in and tap on any chapter/blog post and enjoy a tasty morsel.