Mark Levine of Minneapolis, Minnesota is a book publishing CEO and author of several books. Mr. Levine is the CEO of Minneapolis, MN based Hillcrest Media Group, .a book publishing company with divisions that provide an array of services to individual authors and small publishing companies, including: self-publishing, editing, ebook conversion & distribution, fulfillment, distribution, book printing, and book marketing.
Mark Levine’s journey to book publishing CEO began when he wrote and published his first novel in 2000. In 2003, Mr. Levine wrote the first edition of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, a popular book analyzing the services of 78 self publishing companies. Originally, only sold as a PDF (remember it was 2003), The Fine Print quickly became established as a “go-to” book for authors deciding which self-publishing company to use. In 2006, Mark Levine published the second edition of The Fine Print which was in print. That led to even more sales of the book and more speaking and consulting opportunities for Mr. Levine within the field of self-publishing.
In 2006, Click Industries (a Minnesota-based company of which Mr. Levine was then CEO) along with several other investors, invested in Mill City Press, a new self-publishing concept that at the time had a unique business model – giving authors 100% of the net sales of their books. Such positioning helped Mill City Press grow quickly, and forced many competitors to start giving authors higher royalties (now 100% net royalties is the virtual norm in the industry).
In 2008, Mr. Levine released the third edition of The Fine Print while continuing as CEO of Click Industries. The third edition published in 2008 was awarded a gold medal for best writing / publishing book from The Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2009.
In 2009, Click Industries was sold, and Mark Levine became the CEO of Mill City Press on a full-time basis. In 2009, Mill City Press expanded into to other areas of book publishing, including book printing only division, BookPrinting.com
In 2010, the company launched its ebook publishing division, PublishGreen.com. Publish Green invented patent-pending ebook conversion software that can instantly take one master ebook file and create four distinct files – one for all Kindle devices, one for all Apple devices, one for all Nook devices, and a general EPUB file for all other tablets and smart phones.
In 2011, Mark Levine published the fourth edition of The Fine Print. That edition was awarded a bronze medal at the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards. In 2012, The Fine Print won the “Best Business Book” award from The Midwest Book Awards at a ceremony held in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The fifth edition of The Fine Print was released in January 2014. The book has a new format, different from all previous editions. It compares the services of self -publishing companies head-to-head in areas like printing costs, royalties, return of files, and more. The book also has sections devoted to book marketing, ebook publishing and includes publishing checklists and other resources for authors.
You can buy a copy of the fifth edition of The Fine Print at Amazon.com or from Mr. Levine’s website BookPublishersCompared.com (which usually has better pricing than Amazon!). Also, make sure you read the “Conclusion” of the book as Mr. Levine offers a way for a free 30-minute publishing consultation. And, the best part is, you don’t have to travel to Minnesota to meet with Mark Levine.
UPDATE 2018: Since this post was written, Mr. Levine wrote a sixth and final edition of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing in 2016. Later that year, Mr. Levine sold Hillcrest Media to a large, national media company. Mr. Levine is now the CEO of Domain Theory, LLC. Visit DomainTheory.com for more or to contact Mr. Levine.
Mark Levine - Minnesota Entrepreneur 