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One of the great trends I'm seeing in the publishing world is that people who have spent decades in the publishing industry are venturing out on their own and building innovative new companies. That's the story with Shelf Unbound from Shelf Media Group, founded by Margaret Brown, who had a 25-year career as an editor at leading national magazines.

She writes on their About page:

"Shelf Unbound is the happy convergence of my long-standing interest in small press and indie books, my interest in techie gadgets such as the iPad, Kindle, and Nook, and my love of and experience with the magazine format. I had the idea of launching a magazine to help promote the fantastic array of books coming out of small presses and from self-published authors, and am thrilled that as we move into our second year we are distributed to more than 100,000 readers in the United States as well as 17 other countries."

Indeed. And not only is this a publication committed to profiling and promoting self-published and independent press books, it's focused on literary fiction, a genre that doesn't get the same kind of love as crime, romance, or self-help. As they say:

"Variously referred to as a digital magazine, an online magazine, and an e-zine, the point is: Shelf is digital, which means all books featured are hotlinked to an information and purchasing source, and each issue includes multi-media bonuses such as video book trailers and audio book excerpts."

Savvy. Not only is Shelf Unbound about independently produced books, they get the imperative of making it connected to the online ecosystem and bring in elements from all digital fronts.

Readers can subscribe for free, which is a great value and opportunity. I'm excited that this kind of opportunity to read about and participate in the expanding online literary fiction community is available and of high quality. You can check out their April 2013 issue here as a preview.

What do you think?

Image courtesy of screenshot via Shelf Unbound