Small Press Story #21: Metacreative Press

Metacreative's books address creativity, spirituality, and transformation. This Bellevue publisher's titles include Joyous Child Joyous Parent: 60 Ways to Have More Fun and Joy with Your Child by Connie Allen, MA.

In Joyous Child Joyous Parent, Allen encourages parents to focus on their behavior, to look at what actions they can take that will nurture their child’s emotional, social, and physical wellbeing.

Small Press Story #8: Blogging to Book

Blog to Book & Beyond (Orion Wellspring) outlines a new approach to writing that helps authors successfully create an audience for their work while they write.

BPNW president Tom Masters explores why publishers are starting to view the blogosphere as a fertile ground to find promising writers. As he pointed out during a recent BPNW meeting, an author who blogs can identify and quantify the audience for their work and this is attractive to risk averse publishers.

Small Press Story #7: Nixon Book Debuts on President's Day

Book Publishers Network has released an intimate look into the family of one of this country's most influential, innovative, and controversial American Presidents: Richard Milhous Nixon. The life of Richard Milhous Nixon will forever be a focal point of 20th century American history.

Written by Nixon's youngest brother, Edward Nixon , tells the story of the family both before and after Nixon's term in office in The Nixons: A Family Portrait.

Publisher and BPNW board member Sheryn Hara said this is the first book that she has ever launched at a presidential library. Ed Nixon appeared at the Nixon Presidential Library Musuem in California on February 16 to reminisce about the family, growing up in Orange County, the early influences of the community on his brother, and to sign copies of the hardback.

Small Press Story #6: Exxon Valdez skipper says he’s sorry

A new release from Epicenter Press, The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster, is creating some news in Alaska because one of its interviews contains an all-out apology to Alaskans from Capt. Joe Hazelwood, who commanded the oil tanker that went aground in Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound twenty years this month, spilling an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

In the new book, sixty-two men and women share personal stories in their own words describing what they saw, how they reacted, and how they coped with North America’s worst tanker spill. Reliving their experiences were fishermen, Alaska Native villagers, biologists, environmentalists, sociologists, Exxon executives, the governor, mayors, journalists, workers who washed oil rocks—even Hazelwood.

“I was the captain of a ship that ran aground and caused a horrendous amount of damage,” Hazelwood told co-author Sharon Bushell. “I can’t escape responsibility, nor do I want to. I would like to offer an apology, a heartfelt apology to the people of Alaska for the damage caused by the grounding of a ship that I was in command of.”

The book and Hazelwood’s apology were the subject of a front-page lead story in the Anchorage Daily News on March 5.

Other first-person accounts tell of a shockingly slow response, the struggle to save the stricken tanker, the often heroic but largely futile efforts to limit the spread of oil and clean the beaches, a heart-breaking loss of fish and wildlife, and a loss of innocence among Alaskans who believed this spill never would happen.

Epicenter Press printed an initial press run of 5,000 copies of The Spill in a trade paperback original with a list price of $17.95. Among its 288 pages are 18 pages of color photos and an elaborate two-page map. Epicenter is a regional trade publisher based in Fairbanks, Alaska and Kenmore, Washington specializing in nonfiction titles about Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, visit www.EpicenterPress.com or contact Kent Sturgis at info@epicenterpress.com.

Small Press Story #2: Idyll Arbor Mails Book Weekly To President Obama and Gary Trudeau

To highlight the plight of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Idyll Arbor is mailing a copy of their new book, Faces of Combat: PTSD & TBI, each week to President Obama and cartoonist Gary Trudeau. Each package contains letters and other material from veterans.

"It's a race to see who will be the first to recommend the book to the American public," explains publisher Tom Blaschko on the website www.FacesOfCombat.us.

Both men are concerned with the issues raised by Faces of Combat. During his campaign, President Obama met with veterans and discussed how better care could be given to the men and women returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder and TBI.

Blaschko points out that Trudeau's characters Melissa and B.D., two veterans in the Doonesbury comic strip, demonstrate the cartoonist's commitment to helping our veterans.

"We are asking both of these men to recommend Faces of Combat so all Americans can understand why our returning veterans need and deserve our help when they come home," Blaschko added.

Oguneye Heard on KUOW

BPNW member Kunle Oguneye recently appeared on KUOW's "Sound Focus" to discuss his first children's book called "Sikulu and Harambe By the Zambezi River."

This first in a series of picture books was adapted from a tales that Oguneye heard growing up in Nigeria.

Listen to an archive edition of this interview at KUOW's website.

ASL Tales of Portland

New BPNW member ASL Tales of Portland, OR (www.ASLTales.net) publishes a line of children's picture books told in American Sign Language and English. The richly illustrated books are shipped with DVDs providing voice translation in 8 languages and interactive web tools. The books, performed by ASL storytellers, introduce ASL structure, vocabulary and Deaf Culture to hearing children, Deaf children, reluctant readers, children with language development challenges and children learning English as a second language.

The company, founded in 2008, has produced three titles so far. ASL Tales: The Princess and the Pea is available now. ASL Tales: Rapunzel and ASL Tales for Tots: Annie's Tails will be available for distribution December 2008.

Epicenter's Kent Sturgis on NPR

Local publisher Kent Sturgis started off this fall with the only biography in print of Sarah Palin. 500,000 copies sold later, he calls this unexpected windfall the publishing equivalent of a gold rush. Oh, and he's still voting for Obama.

Catch the latest on Epicenter's rollercoaster ride at NPR.

BPNW Display at Fall Trade Show

On Sept 16, Book Publishers Northwest joined with Northwest Association of Book Publishers and IBPA to display members books at the PNBA Fall Trade Show for booksellers and librarians.

Celeste Bennett sent us the following photos of the display and trade show floor.



Members at the show reported that traffic appeared to be up from the 2007 show.



BPNW's display included books and sales literature demonstrating the wide range of material published in the Northwest.

Update from Bright Ring

Bright Ring Publishing, Inc. has been selected as one of the best art websites for teaching art by The Link Homeschooling Magazine, 2008.

The company recently published its first full color art education activity book, August 2008, Great American Artists for Kids: Hands-On Art Experiences in the Styles of Great American Masters, with a first print of of 7000 printed in Korea. More than half of the first print run was sold as of September 2008 according to publisher and author MaryAnn Kohl.

Parenting Press Issues First POD

Twenty-nine-year-old Seattle publisher Parenting Press chose print-on-demand through Amazon.com’s BookSurge for its new “Internet Safety and Your Family” (ISBN 1884734944, $9.95) for two reasons:

The company wants to be able to update the 38-page guide often, as new risks and new safeguards need to be publicized; and it wanted to test the quality of Amazon.com’s POD program.

The book is also available as a PDF at www.ParentingPress.com.

Written by Linda Carlson, who creates Parenting Press’s monthly newsletter for parents and quarterly newsletter for parenting education professionals, and writes for the Independent Book Publishers Association’s newsletter, “Internet Safety and Your Family” points out that even if your own family isn’t online, the Internet has all sorts of information that cyber criminals can use to stalk kids or parents, or to spoof, phish or bully. Almost all of this personal data is free—and it doesn’t take a computer geek to find it. The guide emphasizes that parents may inadvertently be putting their families at risk by what is posted to personal blogs and web sites, and to user groups.

The concise overview also explains how to research what is online about you and your children, how to control spam, hackers, viruses and access to risky and offensive web sites, and how to report cyber harassment. It describes virtual worlds, social networking, and how kids can be abused online.

Rosemary has a new book out

BPNW member and blog editor Rosemary Jones has a new title out: Encyclopedia of Collectible Children's Books. This hardback from Collector Books was co-written with Diane McClure Jones.

Big River Announces New Release

Big River Press will publish a 2nd expanded edition of R. J. BROWN's memoir Standing the Watch: The Greatest Gift.

In Standing the Watch, 89-year-old Lincoln Brown is in a Seattle hospital when his doctor gives him three months left to live. He chooses to return to his cabin on the Olympic Peninsula rainforest where he can die at peace in his own bed, cared for by his son and daughter-in-law. Weaving excerpts from her medical log which she had to keep for the State with memories, e-mails, essays, and useful lists, R. J. Brown gently shares what it took to stand the watch of her beloved Poppa's final days.

STANDING THE WATCH: The Greatest Gift
Author: R. J. Brown
Publisher: Big River Press
Genre: Memoir, Health, Medicine, Aging
ISBN-13: 978-0-9798744-3-7
ISBN-10: 0-9798744-3-2
Binding: Perfect Bound Trade Paperback
Price: $13.95

New Title from Bright Ring

Bright Ring Publishing, Inc. is publishing its first full-color art activity/art appreciation book for children, due July 4, 2008. The book is in process with Doosan Printing, Korea.

Great American Artists for Kids: Hands-On Art Experiences in the Styles of Great American Masters (July 2008)
MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga
144 pages • $18.95
ISBN 9780935607000

Take a pre-peek at the book at www.brightring.com

MaryAnn Kohl was the guest expert April 10 with the State University of New York's video conference, Leo Lionni: An Author Study, offered to 6000 teachers and childcare workers interested in providing quality art experiences for children. Kohl will be the keynote speaker at the Crayola Factory, May 5, for the Abrakadoodle art franchise owners' annual training conference.

Pig Becomes Poet

Snyder: The Pig's Tale
Author: Morten Nilsen
Format: Cloth hardcover with dust jacket
Publisher: Counterbalance Books
ISBN: 978-0-9774906-0-8
Price (US$): $24.95

The biography of a pig who escapes the farm to become a poet and street performer.

To learn more about Snyder, visit http://www.thepigstale.com.

Counterbalance Books is a member of Book Publishers Northwest.

Chocolate for Haiku

In honor of the fifth book in the Basho Press Haiku series, Haiku for Chocolate Lovers, Jack Bateman and the Rose Hill Chocolate Company of Mukilteo has designed a special Haiku Truffle.

"Our family absolutely loves it! It’s a dark chocolate truffle with a light creamy ginger flavor and a small piece of dried ginger to decorate the top," reported Basho founder David Ash.

New Title From Dogwise

When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs
Author: Jane Killion
Price: $17.95
Binding: Paperback, 192 pages, 180 B&W photos, Indexed
ISBN: 1-929242-44-1
Available: Immediately

Distributed by: Dogwise Publishing, Ingram, B&T
Intended Audience: Pet Dog Owners, Dog Sport Competitors, Trainers, Veterinarians, and Vet Techs

More about BPNW Member: Dogwise focuses on creating humane, understandable and scientifically sound books for people who work with, live with or care about dogs. To learn more about this publisher and other Book Publishers Northwest members, click on the Member's Directory in the right column.