Borders Declares Bankruptcy, Offers Ebook Publishing

Expect signs like this at many of your local Borders stores.

Borders is declaring bankruptcy, but that hasn't stopped them from pushing their new ebook publishing "service" for authors.

Michael Stackpole, a best-selling fiction author and self-publishing guru, has an exquisite takedown of Border's offering here. It's worth a read... the gist of the matter is that Borders is offering to take 25% of your ebook sales for merely preparing your ebook for publication and then offering it to various ebook publishers. Pretty much something you can do yourself, or hire someone to do for a flat fee. It's your classic all-around bad deal, and I fear it's not the last one we'll see offered to authors unsure of how to proceed into the ebook publishing realm.

Of course, with Borders entering bankruptcy, there's the question of whether you'd actually ever see any of your royalties. All in all, this is one to avoid.

What will happen to Borders? I think a merger with B&N is a strong possibility. In any event there will be many fewer retail bookstores around, and many publishers will have taken a hit from the books they shipped to Borders that were never paid for. It's all going to drive business to the remaining stores, and even more strongly boost the burgeoning ebook market.