Children’s Book Press Seeks Board Member

Children’s Book Press is a non-profit (501c3 Federal Tax ID#: 94-2298885) independent publisher of bilingual, contemporary, first voice stories for children by and about people from the Latino, African American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and multiracial communities that helps to ensure these communities are authentically represented and not misrepresented in children’s literature. The publisher is currently seeking a board member with either a strong background in fund raising or strong ties to endowments, foundations, or other grant-making institutions.

Books published by Children’s Book Press are in high demand by teachers in bilingual, multicultural and multiracial communities. Unfortunately, Children’s Book Press does not have enough revenue on hand to reprint these high-demand books which are currently on back order. Printing presses will not print books, even those on back-order, without an up-front payment. To help raise the up-front revenue, Children’s Book Press is seeking a board member (or members) who can provide contacts and introduction to potential donors. Attendance at the board meetings in San Francisco would not be mandatory for this board member.

If you or someone you know would like to serve on the board in this capacity, please email Leslie Poynor at lpoynor@WestEd.org and please feel free to forward this post to any interested parties.

For more information please go to:  http://www.childrensbookpress.org/get-involved

Sign Up Now for Our February Program: SECRETS OF A BRANDING GURU

Wednesday February 17, 2010, 12:30 to 2:30
Salon Meeting Room at Hotel Rex
562 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA (between Powell and Mason)

SECRETS OF A BRANDING GURU

Join us this month for an exciting presentation on branding co-produced by NCBPMA and the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). Branding is critical to long-term marketing success, but how do you go about building a winning brand, and why do some brands take off and others tank?

Robert Friedman, founder of Fearless Branding, will deconstruct a few of the most effective branding campaigns and reveal key take-away lessons from them. He’ll also discuss the top principles of strong branding, the branding mistakes that even experienced marketers make, and how branding concepts can be best applied to the publishing world.

Our speaker:
Robert Friedman is the founder of Fearless Branding. He has nearly 20 years of branding and marketing experience. His clients have included Nestle’s Coffee-mate and NesQuik brands and One World Networks’ fitness and beauty products. As Brand Manager on Kraft’s $330 million The Budget Gourmet frozen food brand, Robert was responsible for new product introductions and the development of annual marketing plans.

Our event co-producer:
Founded in 1948, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) is the nation’s professional organization of independent nonfiction writers. Its membership consists of more than 1,400 outstanding freelance writers of magazine articles, trade books, and many other forms of nonfiction writing, each of whom has met ASJA’s exacting standards of professional achievement. ASJA brings leadership in establishing professional and ethical standards,
and in recognizing and encouraging the pursuit of excellence in nonfiction writing. ASJA headquarters are in New York City and the Society has six active regional chapters, including Northern California. www.asja.org

Please RSVP BEFORE 5pm Friday February 12, 2010 to ncbpma@ncbpma.org with your lunch choice:

1. Seared chicken with risotto and sautéed baby arugula with mushroom marsala sauce
2. Cream cheese and portabella mushroom tempura with mashed potatoes and oven dried tomatoes and garlic aioli. This can be made into a vegan entrée, please note if that is your preference.

All meals include dessert (chocolate molten cake with berry compote), bread and butter, and soda, coffee, and assorted teas.

NCBPMA Members (and ASJA special guests this event only): $30.00
Non-members: $45.00

Payable at the event by cash or check made out to NCBPMA. We cannot accept credit cards, sorry. RSVP cancellations must be received at least 3 busines days prior to the event or you will be billed. Thank you for your understanding.

Hotel Rex is located at 562 Sutter Street between Powell and Mason. The nearest BART station is POWELL. For driving directions, visit: http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/rex/contact

We look forward to seeing you there!
Adrienne Biggs, VP
http://www.NCBPMA.org
Fan and communicate with us on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ygz8nfx
Follow and connect with us on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/NCBPMAtweets (@NCBPMAtweets)

A Biggs Eye ReView: HEART STONES by Josie Iselin

Book Review by Adrienne Biggs, Biggs Publicity & Events
www.biggspublicity.com, @AdrienneBiggs

Just in time for Valentine’s Day (and American Heart Month) comes a subtle yet powerful picture book, the perfect gift for yourself or someone you adore: HEART STONES by San Francisco-based artist Josie Iselin (http://www.josieiselin.com). This hardcover book is just one title in her popular series of nature-based photo books, which also includes Beach Stones, Leaves and Pods and Seashells (Abrams publishers).

For HEART STONES, Ms. Iselin captured images of a magical collection of dozens of heart-shaped beach stones using a flatbed scanner and computer. Like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack, collecting and capturing nature’s anomalies has been a fifteen-year love affair for this Harvard and SFSU-trained artist. For this visual subject, she explains, “Heart stones, lifted from their obscurity, with all their cracks and blemishes, lopsided and imperfect,…(their) shape arises, without artifice, from the geologic weaknesses and variations within them…Love is where you find it.”

In this 5-1/4” x 5-1/4” book, each stone expresses a universal feeling: Love, strength, wonder, imagination, sensation, esteem, adventure, congruence and many other human emotions inspired by the solace found in nature. Some of the stones included in HEART STONES were graciously loaned to the author “in a leap of faith” by friends who consider them powerful talismans, intimate vessels that contain deeply intimate connections. My favorite heart stone images were titled Intrigue, Reliance, Gesture and Solitude. Spend some time with this book and discover which resonate most deeply for you.

Josie Iselin has exhibited her work at several coveted art spaces, including in the Bay Area at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Intersection for the Arts, SF Camerawork, SF Art Commission City Site and other venues. She lives with her husband and three children on a steep hill in San Francisco.

The next book in Ms. Iselin’s popular picture-book series, Beach: A Book of Treasures, will be available mid-April, published by NCBPMA member Chronicle Books and available here http://tinyurl.com/y8zu62o. Look for a Biggs Eye ReView of Beach in a summer edition of the NCBPMA Newsletter!

P.S. Did you know that February is also American Heart Month? Annually since its congressional approval in 1963, the President has issued a proclamation to this effect, to help raise public awareness of heart disease, the leading cause of death among women. For more information, please visit http://www.americanheart.org and http://www.goredforwomen.org/ – Adrienne Biggs

Writers: Get Your Work Published

Register for the BAIPA 2010 Get Published! Institute

When: Saturday, March 13th, 8:30am-5:30pm
Where: Dominican College, Guzman Hall, San Rafael
Specialized Breakout Sessions & Keynote Speakers
Lunch and refreshments included
For more information and to register: www.baipainstitute.org

Speakers:

• Danny O. Snow, Senior Fellow, The Society for New Communications Research – “The e-Book Bandwagon”
• Scott James, a.k.a. Kemble Scott, best-selling author – “Advice from the Front Lines of the Future of Books”
• David Mathison, media expert and consultant – “Using Social Media to Build Your Brand to Sell More Books”

Member Receives Press for New Book

Member Jacqueline Widmar Stewart of Lexicus Press received great publicity for her new book, Finding Slovenia: A Guide to Old Europe’s New Country, on PaloAltoOnline.

In the spirit of sharing information about what works, we asked Jacqueline how this coverage came about:

The Palo Alto Weekly is our city paper with a wonderful staff of people concerned about both local and global matters. When we set up a foundation for education of East Palo Alto youth in 1993, they supported – and continue to support – our effort to help the children. Whatever community issue we’ve undertaken, the paper has taken an active interest.

I dropped off a copy of my first book to them when it first came out, and I did the same with my second. Since a local bookstore was having my book-signing on Saturday, they put it in Friday’s newspaper – nice for both of us!

From my perspective, building relationships founded on common purpose in a community benefits the parties in myriad ways. I’m using ‘community’ in the larger sense, whether an actual political entity or a group of writers. Trust plays an important role here because it develops over time and circumstances.”

Thanks for sharing the back story, Jacqueline, and congrats!

Happy Tuesday

What an exciting time it is to be in the publishing industry! As publicists and marketing professionals, we are coming up with innovative ways of publicizing and marketing books. And authors, who are more than often faced with no or a very small marketing budget, also are exploring interesting ways of promoting their work.

I’m really impressed with how author Stephen Elliot promoted his new book. He wrote an essay in The New York Times describing his do-it-yourself book tour in which he did readings in people’s homes.

I look forward to more stories like this as the publishing industry evolves.

Are you registered yet for the January event? We are accepting walk-ins so don’t miss this opportunity to learn effective ways of pitching and planning events at some of the Bay Area’s premier venues for authors.

Have you renewed your NCBPMA membership? I just sent in my membership in time to take advantage of the $25 discount if you get it in by January 31st. You might have received a letter in the mail about the many benefits of membership.

Haiti

Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti at this time. The effects of this crisis reverberate across the world and have created a much-needed interest in Haiti.

Writers Edwidge Danticat and Simon Winchester are both doing their part to get the word out about Haiti.

Danticat has created a book list for those interested in the history of Haiti.

Author and founder of the Haiti chapter of PEN, Georges Anglade and his wife were lost in the quake.

Author Madison Smartt Bell contributed a literary sampler of works about Haiti for The New York Times.

Opportunities abound to send support to Haiti. Please email us if you have news of how the SF Bay Area book and publishing community is helping and we will post it on The Monthly Muse.

New Year, New Job?—Career Opportunity

New Village Press Seeks Fun-loving Book Publicist

New Village Press, a public-benefit, non-fiction trade book publisher based in Oakland, is ready to hire a high-spirited marketing maven and book publicist. Required: ability to envision brilliant book promotion strategies and efficiently manage the complexities of producing major launch events, while writing pre-sales tip sheets for the subsequent season, booking radio and readings, and finessing sales of longtail backlist.

New Village loves to play—block party book launches, dance party book launches, prison poet postcard campaigns! If your style is lively, eclectic and progressive and you can be as passionate sending traditional news releases as experimenting online you are the perfect candidate. With several significant books coming out in the current spring season, the Press is engaged in diverse campaigns in the US and Canada.

Freelancers as well as those seeking a salaried position please apply. Come beat the drum for this publisher of inspired, educational, community-building books about social justice, urban ecology and the arts.

http://www.newvillagepress.net

Please respond with resume, references, and writing samples/URLs to:
Lynne Elizabeth
Director
New Village Press
PO Box 3049
Oakland, CA 94609 USA
510-420-1361

Litquake 2009: A Book Lover’s Dream

By Tanicia Bell, Features Reporter

Consisting of readings, discussions, and themed events held at different Bay Area venues, this year’s Litquake will be a nine-day long event featuring over 500 mostly-local authors.

San Francisco’s annual literary festival opened on October 9^th with Black, White and Read: Litquake’s Book Ball to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The ball, loosely based on Truman Capote’s famous Black and White Ball, will be a place for writerly and readerly types to connect for a reasonable $19.99. Attendees are encouraged to dress the part and, if inclined, bring along their own custom Mardi Gras harlequin-type stick masks inspired by favorite books or writers. The night will feature performances from the worlds of opera, jazz, classical music and… the circus.

Local Book for Review

City Lights sent an announcement for a new title that just came out, Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin.

Beauty Salon is a dream-like account of a plague-ridden city and one hairstylist’s attempt to save as many of the sick as possible. This poetic tale of survival and seclusion, published in translation and written by renowned Mexican author Mario Bellatín, examines the process of death through the dual lens of the hairstylist’s collection of exotic fish, living and observing from their aquariums, as well as the dying passing through the salon.

Check out this review in The New York Times today.

I have one copy available for a review — if you’re interested in reading this and writing a short piece for the September Monthly Muse, email Cynthia Shannon at cshannon@wiley.com by Monday, August 17.