Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Book Publishers Network Wins Alaska Award

The Alaska Pen: An Illustrated History of Unga received the Alaskana Award on March 1 at the Alaska Library Association Conference held in Fairbanks. The book was compiled and edited by Thor Lauritzen, Peggy Arness, and Edward Melseth, and published in 2007 by Book Publishers Network in Bothell, WA.

The award is presented annually by the Alaska Library Association to acknowledge an outstanding work of fiction.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

PNBA Author Proposals Due June 27

Appoximately 400 booksellers from more than 130 Northwest stores and librarians from as many as fifty libraries to attend Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association's Fall Trade Show. Proposals for author signings are due at PNBA on June 27.


Send books or ARCs, along with your proposals, author bios and reviews to PNBA at the address below. Contact Thom Chambliss at 541-683-4363 or thom@pnba.org, and visit www.pnba.org for more info about the PNBA show.

SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES
PNBA has spots for eight nationally-known authors to speak:
· four at the Book & Author Breakfast Tuesday, September 16.
· four at the Book & Author Breakfast Wednesday, September 17.
(Publishers donate 150 pre-signed books or ARCs for these events)

AUTHOR FEAST
PNBA has twenty spots for nationally and NW-known authors to meet with booksellers during dinner. Authors will rotate through tables of booksellers, spending 20 minutes with each group, at a banquet on Tuesday evening, September 16.
(Publishers donate 150 books or ARCs for this event)

AUTOGRAPHING SLOTS
PNBA has 50+ autographing spots of one half-hour each:
· Monday, Sept. 15 from 8-10 p.m. at a dessert party
· Tuesday, September 16 from 4:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., at the close of the exhibits
· Wednesday, September 17 from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the exhibit show floor
(Publishers donate 50 copies of each book for these signings)


PNBA MUST RECEIVE YOUR PROPOSALS AND BOOKS BY THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 27.

If there is a day that your author is NOT available, include that information with your materials. A contact email address must be sent with each proposal.

The list of the proposed authors will be submitted to PNBA's Selection Committee, which will supply a priortized list to PNBA staff by July 7. PNBA staff will begin sending invitations for authors on Tuesday, July 8.

To help off-set the expense of promoting authors, PNBA charges $350 for breakfast authors, $250 for feast authors and $125 for each author at a signing.

Authors' expenses are their publisher's responsibility.

Send proposals to:

PNBA's Fall Show Author Proposals
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
214 East 12th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97401-3245

Monday, June 23, 2008

Self-Promotion for the Chronically Humble Writer

Wendy Call is organizing an one-week marketing blitz to the boost a writer's literary life needs. Call recently spoke to BPNW as part of our Editor's panel.

"We’ll start on Monday with time management and goal setting," said instructor Wendy Call. "On Tuesday we’ll tackle queries to editors and publishers, also touching on book proposals. Wednesday, we’ll grapple with grant writing. We’ll finish up on Thursday by writing our way to a writers’ conference or residency. (The dizzying pace will keep us from remembering we’re shy, introverted writers!)"

Each class session includes hands-on practice, examples and resource lists.

Wendy Call is co-editor of the craft anthology TELLING TRUE STORIES: A NONFICTION WRITERS' GUIDE (Plume/Penguin, 2007). In the last two years her writing has been supported by 4Culture, Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, Jack Straw Writers Program, the Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and the Washington State Arts Commission, and she has served on peer review/selection panels for three of those six organizations. She recently completed two years as Writer in Residence at Richard Hugo House.

Meets: Monday, July 07, 2008 - Thursday, July 10, 2008
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM each day
maximum of 15 students
$145.00 for non-members
$130.50 for Hugo House members

Scholarships are available! contact Brian McGuigan (registrar@hugohouse.org) for more information.

Register here: http://www.hugohouseservices.org/home/SubPages/Classes/Classes.aspx
If you have questions, contact: wlc@wendycall.com

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Seattle Graphic Artists: Web Design with CSS

Seattle Graphic Artists Guild June 2008 Workshop:
WEB DESIGN II WITH ERIK FADIMAN

Rock Salt Steaks and Seafood on Lake Union
1232 Westlake Ave. North , Seattle , WA 98109 206-284-1047
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 . Arrive 11:30 a.m. , meeting noon to 1:30 p.m.

Learn How to:
Build web pages with Cascading Style Sheets
Use CSS to change how a web page looks without changing content
Lay out web pages with CSS in Adobe Dreamweaver
Use list for navigation

Understand:
The CSS Box Model
The importance of DIV tags and structural mark-up
The separation of presentation and content

Tour: The CSS Zen Garden site

Erik Fadiman is a freelance graphic designer working in Seattle , Washington . His business services include branding, corporate identity, marketing collateral, web standards, interactive media, packaging and advertising. In his web design classes at Seattle Central Community College , Erik teaches the importance of creating clear, compelling content with current web design techniques and considerations.

Walk-in members and students : $35. Students must show current, full-time student ID. Walk-in non-members : $40.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

One Bookstore Opens, Another Closes

From our friends at Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, some Oregon bookstore news:

PNBA member JoAnne Kohler plans to open a general interest bookstore, Tea Party Bookshop, in downtown Salem by the end of July. The store will be located opposite the Phoenix Inn and the city's convention center at 420 Ferry St SE, Salem, OR 97301.

Kohler says the name for the store came to her while reading Stacy Mitchell's Big-Box Swindle. Kohler was inspired by Mitchell's reference to the Boston Tea Party being the first instance of Americans rebelling against a corporation controlling their buying options.

At the end of May, Bend’s downtown bookstore, The Book Barn, closed after 35 years of business. Linda Torres, the store's seventh owner (and who'd owned the store for the last seven years), was quoted in the Bend Bulletin as saying "competition from online retailer Amazon.com and big-box stores, coupled with a slow spring, spelled the end" of the Book Barn.

Friday, June 20, 2008

FPA Accepting Books for Display

The Florida Publishers Association, Inc., is offering cooperative display of publishers'/authors' titles in its booth at the FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) Annual Conference, September 24-26 in Orlando. Over 1,100 school librarians (now called "media specialists") will be in attendance, and they represent schools K through college.

The FPA booth at FAME always features a great selection of books (always displayed face out) and other products (digital media, videos, audio tapes, and sidelines such as plush toys, apparel and other logo or character items), drawings for door prizes, and free giveaways (as recommended by FAME organizers).

FPA will prepare a packet of flyers on displayed titles to hand out to show attendees.

Details on participation in FPA's booth can be found at www.flbookpub.org/fame.html. Details on FAME and its members can be found at www.floridamedia.org.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Selling Books by the Ton

During today's meeting, member Mike Mihalik (October Mist) discussed the large bookfair groups Imagine Nation and Books Are Fun. Both organizations stage large corporate book sales and can buy literally thousands of books from publisher -- although they ask very high discounts of 80% to 90%. Still, given the volume sold, this can become a lucrative outlet for publishers able to gear up for large runs.

Mihalik sent this follow-up:
Here's a link to the article I mentioned today regarding Books Are Fun:
http://www.publishingcentral.com/articles/20030323-1-6d76.html

The article is kind of old, but I was successful contacting Tim using the information in the last paragraph of the article.

Also, here's Imagine Nation's website:
http://www.imaginenationbooks.com/

And Books Are Fun (now owned by Reader's Digest):
http://www.booksarefun.com/

June 19 Meeting: Working with a Sales Rep

How does a sales rep actually represent a publisher? If you're trying to expand the distribution of your books, come to the June 19 meeting of Book Publishers Northwest. Our speaker will be Kathleen Tuura.

A sales representative for 30 years and, for the past 15 years, concentrating on the gift and card market, Tuura mostly sells to independent gift and book stores. "The product lines are in the Northwest theme," she said, "but I do stray and take on things that speak out to me. I tend to go to the arty things, as my college degree was Music and Art for Elementary Education."

The June 19 meeting takes place 4 pm to 6 pm at the Good Shepherd Center, 649 Sunnyside N., Room 221, in Seattle. This meeting is free for members of Book Publishers Northwest.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

BPNW Directory Live on Issuu

Book Publishers Northwest's newest Members Directory can be seen as a flash document on Issuu.

Monday, June 09, 2008

SCCC Students Display Publishing Arts


Graduates of Seattle Central Creative Academy's Publishing Arts program will be displaying their work at the grand opening of the new 38,000 square-foot, $8.1 million facility, located on the fifth floor of the main campus.

Portfolio Show and Open House will be open to the public from June 10 through 12 at Seattle Central, 1701 Broadway, Seattle.

More information about the Seattle Central Creative Academy show is available at the student-created Web site: www.scccshowcase.com.

SCCC's Publishing Arts program is offers training in latest publishing software with advanced color computer labs (PC and Macintosh), a full range of digital imaging technology, and creative courses. More information about the program can be found at SCCC's website.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Debt Up for Award

Debt is Slavery: and 9 Other Things I Wish My Dad Had Taught Me About Money has been chosen as a finalist in the Business category of the 2008 National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA).

“It’s an honor the NIEA has picked Debt is Slavery as one of the top business books produced by independent publishers,” remarked BPNW member Michael Mihalik. “A lot of effort was put into the production of this book by a strong team of industry professionals. Debt is Slavery wouldn’t have become a reality without the excellent book cover and interior design by Peri Poloni-Gabriel and Monica Thomas of Knockout Design, the insightful editing of Heidi Thomas from SunCatcher Publications, and the quality printing of Color House Graphics.”

The popular personal finance website TheSimpleDollar.com recently selected Debt is Slavery as one of only eight books (out of 200 reviewed) to be included in its "Essential Bookshelf."

Mihalik authored the book, which he published under the imprint October Mist.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Blog Tour Highlights Book Reviewers

To promote the release of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, co-author Mayra Calvani will be interviewing 15+ reviewers and review editors during the month of June. Learn all about the business of book reviewing and what's in the mind of some of the most popular reviewers on the internet today. Some of the guests will include: Alex Moore from ForeWord Magazine, James Cox from Midwest Book Review, Irene Watson from Reader Views, Andrea Sisco from Armchair Interviews, Magdalena Ball from The Compulsive Reader, Sharyn McGinty from In The Library Reviews, Lea Schizas from Muse Book Reviews, Linda Baldwin from Road to Romance, Hilary Williamson from Book Loons, Judy Clark from Mostly Fiction, and many others!

To see the complete lineup, visit: The Slippery Book Review Blog.

Between June 1st and June 30th, stop by Blogcritics and leave a comment under the reviewer interviews for a chance to win a Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tour (coordinated by book marketing guru Dorothy Thompson), OR, as an alternative to a non-author winner, a $50 B&N gift certificate!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

PNBA Trade Show Registration Forms

Here is the link to PNBA's web page with information about the fall show and the vendor registration forms. Please note, too, that if you choose to exhibit for two days, you must register by FRIDAY, JUNE 27. The link to the two-day registration forms will be removed on Friday, June 27.

To find out more about PNBA's changes to the Fall Tradeshow, check link above or read the interview with Thom Chambliss.