One year after launching its author-subsidized publishing company in Berkeley, Calif., She Writes Press has announced a distribution deal with Ingram Publisher Services effective immediately.

Since its launch, She Writes has 30 titles in print, all published simultaneously in paperback and as e-books. Publisher Brooke Warner, who previously worked as an editor at North Atlantic Books and executive editor at Seal Press, approached IPS after literary agents told her that while they recognized the potential in She Writes, its lack of distribution was a liability. “I come from a background of traditional publishing,” Warner said, “so I went in pursuit of a big, traditional distributor. IPS saw the skill in our editorial vetting process.” Among the company's new titles, Shanghai Love: A Novel by Layne Wong, was recently given a starred review in PW Select.

In addition to signing with IPS, Warner said She Writes streamlined and improved all of its metadata. “Making it accurate was much harder to do than I thought,” she said, “but its value has been immeasurable.” Not only did this make She Writes more attractive to IPS, but it also helped establish a better relationship with Amazon, from whom Warner felt shut out.

Warner’s partner in the press is Kamy Wicoff, who founded the She Writes online social network of women writers in 2009; it now has 22,000 members. “It’s an amazing community of women,” Warner says. “Kamy has always believed in the importance of supporting one another to reach individual publishing goals.” Now She Writes Press is making that possible in a tangible way. Of its 30 authors, five have literary agents. “Hopefully this will drive more writers to us,” she adds.

She Writes authors, whose manuscripts are carefully vetted before being accepted by the press, pay the press $3,900 to be published and in turn receive a 70% royalty on net. The package includes custom interior and cover design, print-on-demand set up through Lightning Source, a marketing plan, e-book file preparation and upload to Amazon, B&N, and iBookstore; warehousing; proofreading; and – to Warner and Wicoff’s great satisfaction - distribution to the trade via IPS.