To those of you brave souls who have stepped forward I salute you. Just so you know unlike many of the groups here at the Society, the Self-Publishers Coalition is the test bed for a real organization. In the months I've been involved with the BSFS I have seen the deep pool of talented writers, artists, filmmakers, book editors, animators and so much more. The one thing I haven't seen is a unifying group dedicated to bringing all those elements together. The Society is the gathering place and the Coalition will be the force in which those of us who go forth to publish our books, comics and films can band together to pool these tremendous resources we have at hand.

So, saber rattling and flag waving aside I'll be the first to share some of the research I have been acquiring on how to protect content online and much more. One thing I do want to stress; the Coalition is to be a 'Give and Take' arrangement. The goal is to build an active organization whereby we self-publishers can move towards breaking the literal chains upon us set down by companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Companies are not doing us any favors by allowing us to 'publish' with them. In fact, you the actual publisher puts forth the Lion's share of money to develop your projects while they take the Lion's share of the profits! What large publishing house, film, comic or animation studio would roll over for a deal like that? None of them do. So why do we?

We roll over for it because we don't know how or have the resources to get the tools to make it possible to have greater control over our work and where it gets distributed. Companies like the ones I mentioned should be the last point of distribution after your works initial run is over. That's how the big 'boy's have done it and it's worked well for them. So be prepared to become a link in what should become a vast web of content creators, publishers and supporting personnel. If you're still up for what's to come, welcome aboard!