There are other companies in the self-publishing space. Yesterday, one of them, Author Solutions, Inc. bought a rival self-publishing company, Xlibris, further narrowing the field. Author Solutions, based in Bloomington, Indiana, also owns the imprints AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, iUniverse, Wordclay,and Inkubook. Author solutions is owned by San Mateo, California-based private equity firm Bertram Capital Management LLC. Bertram acquired Author Solutions in January 2007 and added iUniverse to the portfolio in October 2007. Author solutions estimates it published 19,000 titles in 2008, while Xlibris, based in Philadelphia, says it has over 20,000 titles in print. Xlibris brings marketing tools to Author Solutions, something that Walt discussed in his column. The publishing on demand companies he dealt with handle printing, order placement, payment, and shipping. They don’t market your book for you. How much marketing do self-published books need? That depends on why the author wants to publish. If, like my friend, you’re creating a book for family and friends, marketing is not an issue. If you want a best-seller, marketing is essential.