Book View Café (BVC) is an authors’ cooperative publisher, whose members come from all genres, from science fiction and fantasy to romance to historical to mainstream. The members are all veterans of traditional publishing, including award winners and nominees in all fields, and many of them continue to be published through the traditional press, as well as in affiliation with BVC. The origins of BVC lie in members helping each other to bring their out-of-print works back into circulation via ebook publishing. The founding members of BVC include such luminaries and award winners as Ursula K. LeGuin, Vonda McIntyre, Katherine Kerr, Pati Nagle, Judith Tarr, Sherwood Smith, Patricia Rice, and Linda Nagata. I have been a member for several years.

As BVC has grown, so have its avenues of publishing and assisting members in publishing. Original works are appearing, and print books, as well. Members function as volunteer editors, copyeditors, ebook formatters, print typesetters, cover artists, website maintainers, bloggers, publicists, distribution managers, and basically any other volunteer job that needs doing.

BVC acts both as a publisher—with an ebookstore and distribution to libraries and other outlets—and as a supportive community, whose members publish their own books independently through the major bookstores, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and Kobobooks. We never give up control of our own books, and in many cases we operate under our own imprints, such as my own Starstream Publications, in association with BVC.

It’s a great place to shop for DRM-free ebooks, from some terrific writers. Check out the blog, too, as well as the monthly newsletter!

www.bookviewcafe.com