Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review publishes the following monthly book publications specifically designed for community and academic librarians, booksellers, and the general reading public:
- The Bookwatch
- California Bookwatch
- Children's Bookwatch
- Internet Bookwatch
- Library Bookwatch
- MBR Bookwatch
- Reviewer's Bookwatch
- Small Press Bookwatch
- Wisconsin Bookwatch
We post our reviews on the Internet with a number of thematically
appropriate web sites, databases, and online discussion groups such as
alt.books.reviews and Pub-Forum. Our reviews are also available through
Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com. We archive our reviews on the
Midwest Book Review web site for a minimum of five years.The Midwest Book Review has contracted with Cengage Learning to
provide them with electronic copies of our book reviews. Cengage
Learning then makes our reviews available to library systems nationwide
in their print, magnetic tape, and diskette series, Book Review Index
(an interactive CD-ROM series designed for use by community, university,
and corporate library systems throughout the U.S. and Canada), as well
as online databases such as Lexus-Nexus and Goliath
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
The Midwest Book Review 8/2011
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Fond Memories ... I remember when ...
When PrintPlanet.com merged with WhatTheyThink.com, research and news joined user forums packed with technical know-how.
"I am interested in implementing color management through our company," wrote Marko Rakar, general manager of a Croatia-based printer, in a post in PrintPlanet.com's CTP Pressroom e-community. "We have all the required parts: a printing press, a proofer, an ICC profiler with spectrophotometer and even a RIP that supports ICC profiles. What is the right thing to do?"
Looking for a little free advice yourself? Have an arcane printing question that you haven't been able to get answered? Chances are, someone at PrintPlanet.com, an online print production news and information center, will have a solution. Most of the Web site's 25,000 members-- who have a wide variety of printing, prepress and publishing backgrounds--voluntarily share their expertise, advice and technical know-how. For more than two years, PrintPlanet.com has been the hub of 15 online forums for use by its screened membership of production employees. To join, users simply plug in personal information--there is no subscription fee. Then these members, through Internet bulletin boards and e-mails, play "Dear Abby" to a skyrocketing number of other PrintPlanet.com subscribers by troubleshooting problems, discussing trends in printing, answering questions about providers, etc. And now, due to a recent merger, the site has expanded from peer-to-peer advice forums to include late-breaking news and market research.
In late March, PrintPlanet.com separated from its parent company, Digital Art Exchange (DAX), and merged with WhatTheyThink.com, a printing market news and research Web site owned by City Information Services, Inc. (The new PrintPlanet.com now operates independently of its parent corporations, although it is still jointly-owned by both.) About three weeks later, the Web site relaunched using WhatTheyThink.com's content, research, breaking news and Q&As with industry pundits--and added three more free forums for e-community subscribers (the Print Buyer, Digital Rights Management and Mac OS-X forums).
Since the merger and relaunch, subscriptions have increased at a clip of about 1,000 per month; as of early May, the number of PrintPlanet.com members reached 25,462. The company, which derives revenue solely through the sale of banner ads and various sponsorship opportunities, expects to make a profit by September of this year. And now, it says, charging for subscriptions and/or syndicating content may be in a revised business model one day in the future.
The news and market research components of WhatTheyWant.com are the perfect complement to the forums, says PrintPlanet.com CEO Randy Davidson. "The foundation of the site is the information provided by the users themselves," says Davidson. "But now, with the merger and WhatTheyThink.com's content, it also provides research and data focused on those end-users. It just made perfect sense for us to lay our content on top of theirs."
COO Dave Mainwaring puts into perspective the amount and caliber of discussion that goes on in PrintPlanet.com forums: In the month of March alone, he says, 5,833,224 e-mails were sent and received in the CTP Pressroom forum. Some members have titles like vendor prepress specialist, technical operations manager, production director and color consultant. And postings have come from "experts" across the United States and throughout the world; members hail from such countries as New Zealand, the Netherlands and, of course, Croatia.
For publishers, the most valuable aspect of the new PrintPlanet.com seems to be those e-communities. "There's a real open exchange of information that goes on in them," says Richard Franklin, senior technical analyst for Cahners Business Information, who checks the site six to 12 times a day. "And members usually have a lot of expertise and a lot of good feedback."
Says John Dunn, production director for Wizards of the Coast Periodicals, "There's a good number of vendors who post, and some of the forums are a little prepress heavy."
Dunn adds, however, that feedback from all types of members helped his department through a recent workflow transition: "The forums are really useful from that interactive standpoint. We got a lot of answers to some difficult questions. We would have been making a lot of phone calls otherwise. Those forums saved us time--and, as any production director knows, time is money."
A One-Stop Web Shop For Graphic Arts News and Advice | Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management | Find Articles at BNET
Monday, November 09, 2009
top-line research summaries
Print in the Mix: A Clearinghouse of Research on Print Media Effectiveness brings together valuable information and research from a wide-range of credible sources on the role and effectiveness of print in the marketing media mix.
Covering all areas of print, including direct mail, magazines, custom publishing, newspapers, and more, Print in the Mix’s concise facts and top-line research summaries demonstrate print’s effectiveness and role in generating return on investment -- alone and working synergistically with other media to drive results.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Kathleen Parker on the enduring role of newspapers - washingtonpost.com
The good-news story
By Kathleen Parker
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death-row inmate counting the warden's footsteps.
The latest echo of doom arrived a few days ago: U.S. newspaper circulation dropped 10 percent from April through September, compared with the same period last year. The largest decrease recorded thus far, the decline was attributed to the usual -- advertising and readership lost to the Web. Industrywide, ad revenue, which constitutes newspapers' main source of income, is on track to drop $20 billion by 2010. Even so, most newspapers remain profitable, and circulation is astoundingly good, all things considered.
That's the delightful view of Alex Jones -- fourth-generation member of a newspaper-owning family, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and now author of "Losing the News." In his book, Jones, who also heads Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, manages to combine a dispassionate look at the news business with a page-turning story of traditional journalism's highs and lows.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Boston’s teens in print, powerful writing -
BOSTON IS known for its writers, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Phillis Wheatley to the more than 75 authors who will appear at the inaugural Boston Book Festival in Copley Square on Saturday. But there are thousands of other writers who are as diligent, creative, thoughtful, and articulate as their more famous peers. They are Boston’s high school students and their powerful stories, arguments, opinions, and analyses can be found in classrooms, newspapers, and literary magazines all over the city.
Students are doing all kinds of powerful writing, from personal narrative to analytic essays to journalistic exposes. They are using writing to understand everything from their school experiences to biology, literature, and history.
Friday, October 09, 2009
4th Annual Print Buyers Conference Will Save Your Firm Money
Print This Out and Hand It to Your Boss!
4th Annual Print Buyers Conference
November 3 - 5, 2009
Westford Regency Inn & Conference Center
Westford, MA
Here's Why Attending the 4th Annual Print Buyers Conference
Will Save Your Firm Money
It's no secret your budget is tight. If you are responsible for scheduling, print production and delivery of your company's creative and print work, then you need to attend the 4th Annual Print Buyers Conference. You'll learn ways to work faster, smarter and more effectively - and save your firm money at the same time. Here's how.
-
You'll find out how to strategically source printing - without sacrificing the quality of your work
-
You'll get a leg up on your competition with the latest printing insights and intelligence not available anywhere else
-
You'll discover the inside secrets of print-buying pros during face-to-face networking with peers from across the country
-
You'll look beyond print to identify ways to improve your company's marketing & communications strategies
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You'll explore time- and money-saving trends with #1 experts in printing, paper, design, new media and digital printing: Frank Romano, Daniel Dejan, Gary Jones, Peter Muir, and Xerox VP/GM Gavin Jordan-Smith
-
You'll examine how the outlook for print, new media and the economy will impact your business from the industry's foremost economic consultant, Dr. Joe Webb
Now through October 15th, take an additional 20% our affordable Conference price with our 10-year anniversary special. Just use "tenyears" (no quotes) as your Priority Code when you register online at www.printbuyersconference.com to receive a great discount on your 2-day Conference pass. All meals, learning sessions, networking Roundtables, four inspiring keynote presentations, cocktail party, and exhibit hall pass are included. Parking is free, too.
We are so confident that this year's Conference will give you more ideas than you can use, more value than you possibly imagined, and more ways to improve your firm's print & media campaigns, that we're offering a money-back guarantee.*
Don't wait. Go to www.printbuyersconference.com now to register and start your savings now.
We look forward to seeing you in November at the 4th Annual Print Buyers Conference!
Margie Dana
Print Buyers International, LLC
Boston Print Buyers
PS: Sign up for our Print Tips email to get all future event info plus a weekly tip about working with printers. Go to www.printbuyersconference.com. The sign up box is on the right below the Featured Speaker.
*This guarantee applies only if you attend the entire 2-day Conference on November 4 & 5, and call PBI by November 11th to explain why you learned nothing valuable for your current job responsibilities, about printing and new media, or got any insights for your career development.
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Different Paper Company by Gail Nickel-Kailing
Business Strategies Etc., was launched by Gail Nickel-Kailing in 2001 to provide outsourced business planning and marketing services and help clients increase revenue and profits through strong marketing and product management processes and implementation of software and other technology.
Here is a terrific a article:
http://www.business-strategies-etc.com/2009/grays-harbor-paper-a-different-paper-company/
Grays Harbor Paper - A Different Paper Company
Friday, June 12, 2009 | Posted to Business Strategies, Sustainability
<Gail> At this week’s Action for a Sustainable America, held in Seattle, I had the opportunity to meet some great folks. The event was one of a series of three where corporate leaders and green innovators examined sustainability as a corporate strategy.
David Quigg, Grays Harbor Paper, introduced the company his father helped rescue with a team of local investors when the Grays Harbor paper mill closed 15 years ago putting hundreds of people out of work in rural Washington.
Housing two of the remaining five pieces of paper making equipment in Washington, the company produces FSC-Certified copy and printing papers containing recycled post-consumer recycled in a “fossil-free” manufacturing process using energy produced on-site.
Friday, May 15, 2009
used laser imaging parts,
iFix.com Delivers First Online Resource for Purchasing Equipment Parts
Graphic Arts Service Agents Gain Immediate Global Access to
New & Used Laser Imaging Parts
Amesbury, MA.– May 15, 2009– iFix.com Inc., global provider of new and used laser imaging parts, is pleased to announce availability of the industry’s first online resource store for finding and replacing platesetter parts. iFix.com delivers instant access to a broad range of hard to find service parts; initially focusing on Agfa, Fuji, Heidelberg or Screen equipment. All used parts include an extended 6-month warranty, currently the most comprehensive guarantee offered by any supplier in the industry.
President and industry veteran, Rick Littrell states, "For years there has been a real need in the Graphic Arts Service Market to have immediate access to quality components at economical prices. iFix.com is committed to becoming the "go-to" source around the world known for their expertise and fast turnaround."
iFix.com was created to meet the needs of graphics arts dealers, independent field service reps, and end users who are qualified to service their own equipment. Certified Parts Experts are on call to answer questions, verify pricing and parts availability. Same day shipping is available on any item in stock; additional parts can be sourced with minimal lead-time. All orders are placed online and can be drop-shipped to any location across the globe.
In addition to providing comprehensive website and telephone resources, iFix.com will feature a forum for general support and discussions leveraging social networks including Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/iFixParts) and a LinkedIn Group "iFix Parts" (http://tinyurl.com/LI-iFixParts).
For more information visit: http://www.ifix.com
About iFix.com
iFix.com, Inc. was founded in January 2008, by Rick Littrell, a 30-year veteran of the print and electronic imaging industry. As a former worldwide Product Line Manager for platesetting solutions at a major imaging equipment and media supplier, Rick spent years visiting customers throughout the world and saw firsthand, the need for a reliable and economical imaging system parts supplier to the graphics industry. Getting the right parts, on time and for the right price helps Rick’s customers operate at full capacity and extend the life of their publishing equipment.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Writing Made Simple
THE EASY ESSAY WORKS FROM SPECIAL ED TO COLLEGE ED, ED REHAB, BUSINESS AND MORE
In a world where they put a man on the moon before they put wheels on suitcases, the same strange mind set still holds amazingly true with writing. Remember the dread of a report? Essays, for example, are really easy to write.
“I have used this technique with my corporate clients, my theology students, and soon with my students at Kaplan University.”
Dr. Kathleen A. Bishop, M.B.A., PhD, ThD.
“It works for reports from my secretary to our construction personnel. This process saves my associates time, saves my employees time and best of all it, saves me time.”
Gary E. Hunt - Chief Manager, Just Be Green, LLC
“I had wanted to wait until I got feedback from the teachers. They love it and we are looking at using it with some of our AT devices.”
Dr. Suzanne Pope Dobson - Calhoun High School (Special Education Department Head)
“As a physician I recommend The Easy Essay almost daily to patients to help them organize their thoughts and improve their ability to concisely communicate their medical histories…”
Dr. Ernest G Hope MD PhD (Stanford University, USA)
FREE AUTOMATED INFORMATION ORGANIZATION PROGRAM
www.TheEasyEssay.com, a free site, can teach almost anyone how to logically organize a proof format (as an essay, speech, business memo etc,) for any fact, concept or idea in 5 minutes.
www.TheEasyEssay.com uses an automated information organization program. It has been taught to people from eight to eighty, LD and ADHD students, Special Education classes, in high schools and for home schooling. It has also been used for basic expository writing, as prep for the SAT, FCAT and the ACT, as well as a college class and for post graduate work. The program is additionally beneficial for interoffice communications, speech writing, and business, technical and scientific reports. The Easy Essay can even be used for educational rehabilitation purposes; it’s logical, color coded, repetitive functions lead one to believe that it could have beneficial effects in retraining or helping to reopen neural pathways.
Our concept is based on our belief that in most conversations, the majority of the conversation deals with one person telling the other person why something is true; that is, giving reasons for its validity. That is all that we ask you to do on this site, except in writing. We use the essay form because it is the most efficient form of organization available and we automate the organization so that you limit your statements to proving only the things that you have already stated were true.
For those with no information available, the thesis, or main idea you are going to prove, is linked to Google® to help begin your accumulation of that information. Then we show you, very simply, how to prove said fact or idea.
It can be taught to a varied group of individuals at the same time and each will learn to his or her own unique capacity. It is especially helpful for mainstreaming students with special needs. The Easy Essay is easy enough for the user to learn the process and make the use of the automated portion of the program unnecessary in situations where a computer is not at hand or if a teacher wants to make sure his/her students understand the process. The process is limited only by the capacity of the user.
For longer papers it can automatically expand into a 17 paragraph thesis.
The Easy Essay Process is usable in any language.
A noted side effect of the program is that users begin to communicate logically.
www.TheEasyEssay.com is free because we feel it is too important to charge for.
We would appreciate any feedback (use the “Contact Us” section of the site) but in any case:
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO WHERE EVER IT CAN HELP
Patent Pending 2007- ©1989,2006
The Easy Essay Inc.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The First Real Digital Newspaper Printing Operation
WTT Premium Content {pay for access}
Tribute Tuesdays
The days of digitally printed newspapers seem to be finally arriving. This is not to say that we have not had such newspapers before. In fact in the past week I have received information from Océ that at their largest digital newspaper printing operation at Stroma in London, the five millionth digitally printed newspaper copy has rolled off their Océ monochrome presses after eight years of operation.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Barnes & Noble Buys an E-Book Retailer By MOTOKO RICH, NYT
Barnes & Noble Buys an E-Book Retailer
By MOTOKO RICH
With overall book sales flat or falling and electronic book purchases up, the bookstore chain has acquired Fictionwise, an online retailer of e-books.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Wayland company is the first in the United States to offer a combination of green large format printing
By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jan 26, 2009 @ 12:58 AM
Last update Jan 28, 2009 @ 03:44 PM
WAYLAND —
At EcoVisual Communications, green is good.
Launched in November, the Wayland company is the first in the United States to offer a combination of green large format printing for trade show graphics, interior decor images and museum-quality display art. It also provides personalized consultation to corporate marketers on improving the environmental impact of their marketing efforts.
"For too long, excessive direct mail campaigns printed on virgin papers and the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in printing processes have created excessive waste and negative impacts on health," says Rick Colson, EcoVisual’s founder and president. "On average, 40 percent of landfill content is paper. Now, the best marketers are beginning to embrace green technologies and even those who lag behind are becoming more environmentally aware."
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html
The Kindle 2 is a portable, wireless, paperback-size device onto which people can download a virtual library of digitalized titles. Amazon sells these downloads, and where the books are under copyright, it pays royalties to the authors and publishers.
Serves readers, pays writers: so far, so good. But there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.
True, you can already get software that will read aloud whatever is on your computer. But Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved, multimedia version of books — every title is an e-book and an audio book rolled into one. And whereas e-books have yet to win mainstream enthusiasm, audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing. Audio rights are not generally packaged with e-book rights. They are more valuable than e-book rights. Income from audio books helps not inconsiderably to keep authors, and publishers, afloat.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
It’s all a thousand times more convenient ...
Kindles (dream on, Amazon), all of them remember where you stopped reading in each book. (This feature will be more useful if, as Amazon has hinted, you’ll soon be able to read your e-books on other machines, like your laptop or iPhone. And why not? The Kindle is just the razor. The books are the blades — ka-ching!)
The Kindle catalog is bigger, too; now 240,000 books are available. New York Times bestsellers are $10 each, which is less than the hardcover editions. Older books run $3 to $6.
That said, Amazon is still a long way from its “any book, any time” goal. You don’t have to look far to find important titles still among the missing; they include all Harry Potter books; “An Inconvenient Truth”; “The English Patient”; and “The Associate” (the No. 1 fiction best seller) or anything else by John Grisham.
You can have any of 30 newspapers, including this one, wirelessly beamed to your Kindle each morning ($10 to $14 a month) — minus ads, comics and crosswords. Magazines (22 so far, $1.50 to $3 monthly) and blogs ($2 a month) can arrive automatically, too.
Finally, you can send Word, text, PDF and JPEG documents to the Kindle using its private e-mail address — a huge blessing to publishers, lawyers, academics, script readers and so on — for 10 cents each. Or transfer them over a USB cable for nothing.
So, for the thousandth time: is this the end of the printed book?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
cloud computing, you rely on applications running on the Interne
If you're a Google Docs user, get a copy of Gears. This free program, available at gears.google.com, lets you download your Google-generated documents onto your computer. Work with them even when you're offline, and when you log in again, Gears uploads your modified documents to the Google Docs Internet server, so your up-to-date document is available on any Internet-connected machine.
Gears isn't just for Google Docs fans; it works with other cloud computing services, including Zoho, a rival online document editing service, and Google's Gmail messaging service. You can plow through your e-mail on the plane, write up replies, then transmit them once you're back onlin
Monday, February 16, 2009
librarians believe that literacy includes, but also exceeds, books.
Some of these new librarians teach children how to develop PowerPoint presentations or create online videos. Others get students to use social networking sites to debate topics from history or comment on classmates’ creative writing. Yet as school librarians increasingly teach students crucial skills needed not only in school, but also on the job and in daily life, they are often the first casualties of school budget crunches.
<snipped>
"More than 90 percent of American public schools have libraries, according to federal statistics, but less than two-thirds employ full-time certified librarians."
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
new ways to get the message across
"was home to the first American newspaper. A Medford radio station was among the first to try selling advertising to support its programming, in the early 1920s. Researcher Ray Tomlinson was working in Cambridge when he sent the first e-mail over the Arpanet, the predecessor to the Internet, in 1971."
"Each innovation created a huge industry, and changed the way we communicate."
"Now, at this moment of tumult in the media world, entrepreneurs in Boston and the wider New England region are trying to develop the next successful models for conveying information. But even as advertisers and consumers spend an increasing amount of money and time on the Internet, building a profitable digital media business isn't exactly a cinch."
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Posting headlines and short summaries stories linked to from other sites.
As such, the settlement left unresolved the legal issue that drew the attention of news and technology companies, as well as Internet bloggers: whether news websites - especially aggregation sites, including Google News and Yahoo News - can continue with their current practice of posting headlines and short summaries for stories they link to from other sites.
Under the agreement, Boston.com will be able to refer to stories from GateHouse sites, as it has done in the past, and to manually "deep link" to individual articles without presenting the links with headlines or lead sentences.
No damages were awarded under the settlement, and each party agreed to pay its own legal fees. Neither The Times Co. nor GateHouse admitted wrongdoing.
"This agreement is not binding on anyone else," said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "It has no legal precedent per se. But it could persuade a judge in another case that what Boston.com was doing here was not defensible under fair use" in copyright law.
Ardia, however, described the settlement as a victory for GateHouse. "They seem to have achieved everything they wanted to in their lawsuit except for receiving monetary damages," he said. "It does result in the cessation of Boston.com using GateHouse content as it has done."
Monday, January 26, 2009
In bad times, you’re forced to see if there is a technology” that will help.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/technology/26spend.html
"Penny-pinching shoppers like Mr. Title could have the most
immediate effect on the tech industry, particularly if more people
consider canceling their cable subscriptions to watch video online, or
drop their landline telephones to depend on their cellphones or on
Internet calling services like Skype.
Many consumers appear ready
to abandon the costly desktop computer altogether. Analysts expect PC
sales to fall in 2009 for just the second time in the last two decades,
with desktops falling even faster than they did in 2007 or 2008.
The
only bright spot in the PC industry is netbooks. Analysts at the
Gartner research company said shipments rose to 4.4 million devices in
the third quarter of 2008, from 500,000 units in the first quarter of
last year. Analysts say sales could double this year despite a deep
worldwide recession.
Dell, missed the first wave of these tiny, stripped-down machines,
allowing Acer of Taiwan to grab market share. Acer pushed Apple out of the No. 3 spot behind H.P. and Dell as sales soared 55 percent. Dell and H.P. are making the devices now."
Sunday, January 25, 2009
It's a natural impulse. You want to write a book.
How hard can it be? Rockheaded jocks write books. TV talk show hosts write books. Dogs write books. Why not you?
wake up tomorrow and your hard drive is dead
"We found that the only thing that sells our product is fear," says Carbonite chief executive David Friend. "The fact that you might wake up tomorrow and your hard drive is dead and all your photos are gone."
Mozy and Carbonite are two of the leaders of the online backup business, a rare bright spot in a gloomy tech economy. Rather than buying their own hard drives to save a copy of their data, consumers and small businesses pay a fee (Mozy's is $59 a year, Carbonite's is $50) to send their information securely over the Net, and have Mozy or Carbonite keep a copy that can be retrieved any time. IDC, a Framingham research firm, predicts that online backup services will generate about $715 million in annual revenue by 2011.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
New England Center for Investigative Reporting
NECN is proud to be a founding member of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a collaborative effort from some of New England's preeminent journalism organizations and Boston University.
The Center was launched in January 2009, with the goal of producing multimedia investigative journalism for print, broadcast and online audiences. The Center gives Boston University students a chance to work with skilled B.U. faculty and the investigative teams at the Boston Globe, Boston.com, WBUR-FM, New England Ethnic News and NECN, to develop local and regional investigative stories.
The Center, a first in the nation, is funded by its partners and private contributions and grants from foundations, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes journalism excellence worldwide.
To visit the center online, donate to the effort or submit your own story ideas for the Center partners to explore, click here or go to www.necir-bu.org.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Digital Nirvana blog
The Digital Nirvana blog will focus on educating the printing community about how evolving technologies can fuel opportunities for business growth. Featuring authors from WhatTheyThink.com, prominent industry analysts and other thought leaders, it will be the catalyst for a lively exchange of the most current thinking and a variety of viewpoints.
--
Terrific contributors ! Important Topics.
imho, Dave Mainwaring, UncleDaveM_IFM
Friday, December 05, 2008
PIA/GATF Is Now Printing Industries of America
On November 16, 2008, the Boards of Printing Industries of America
and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation approved the renaming of
PIA/GATF to Printing Industries of America, as well as a new logo and
tagline.
The new logo depicts the technology, artistry, and dynamic growth of
the industry, while the new tagline, “Advancing Graphic
Communications,” captures the organization’s innovative,
forward-thinking approach.
This change is the result of a comprehensive, 14-month branding
research project. The goal of this project was to strengthen and
streamline the messaging to the graphic communications industry, its
suppliers, partners, customers, and lawmakers and to better reflect the
activities within the organization.
A number of changes will be taking place as a result of this
initiative, including the renaming of the organization’s website from www.GAIN.net to www.printing.org. Plus in 2009, the website will be completely revitalized and re-launched with a more user-friendly format
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Ghostwriting & Book Producing - PUBLISH-L
I hope all parties, ghostwriter, client and publisher, realize that
there are substantial issues presented in this relationship in terms of the proposed Google settlement. The settlement agreement does not define "authors" in anything but the broadest of terms and would certainly include a ghostwriter (as well as an editor and potentially other parties). Therefore, in any agreement with a ghostwriter, the unresolved issues in this settlement, which are expressly left up to the underlying agreement between and among the parties, have to be addressed. If your ghostwriter agreement was drafted before this settlement, it is likely already out of date and should be reviewed by an experienced publishing attorney so that it can be appropriately revised. Without such revisions, all parties may be in for some very unwelcome surprises.
Read "How Does The Google Settlement Affect You?" on my site. {Ivan Hoffman} Click on "Articles for Writers and Publishers."
And if you do not have a valid, written and signed ghostwriter
agreement, well then you have bigger problems than the above to resolve.
This posting and any articles referred to in this posting are not
legal advice and are not intended as legal advice. This posting and any articles referred to in this posting are intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information. This posting and any
articles referred to in this posting do not create any attorney
client relationship and are not a solicitation.
IVAN HOFFMAN, B.A., J.D.
Attorney at Law
Lawyering With Integrity. Proudly in my 35th year of practice.
Entertainment Law, Publishing and Writing Law, Copyrights,
Trademarks, Internet Law, Web Design Law, Intellectual Property
Law. *A Winner of 8 Prestigious Web Site Awards.*
http://www.ivanhoffman.com
Thursday, November 20, 2008
WhatTheyThink Blog » Blog Archive » Getting press operators more involved at PrintPlanet
August 6th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
How about a webinar featuring a panel of PrintPlanet’s most knowledgeable regular posters on press-related topics? Gordon Pritchard and Offset Guy come immediately to mind, and there are others. Give them some provocative talking points, and they will do the rest. I volunteer to moderate.
PrintPlanet is a tremendous resource. I wrote about it years ago, not long after Dave Mainwaring launched it, and its forums have been gems of inside information ever since. PrintPlanet is the place to go for the kinds of straight talk and unvarnished opinions that can’t get an airing anywhere else in the graphic arts trade media. A press-focused webinar will encourage other press operators to add their voices as well.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop
By Gail Nickel-Kailing on November 12th, 2008
Lean manufacturing principles are also green manufacturing principles; here is a book that tells you not only what to do, but how to do it.
Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop, Second Edition, Gary Conner, Society of Manufacturing Engineers (2008)
Thousands of people at hundreds of companies have used the Shingo-Prize-Award-winning first edition of “Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop” as their how-to guide to shortening delivery times, eliminating waste, improving quality, and reducing costs.
Monday, November 10, 2008
GOOGLE SETTLEMENT: HOFFMAN'S NEW ARTICLE
Publishers and authors alike (and other parties with "copyright interests") need to be aware that this is only a settlement *among the publisher-author classes and Google*. The settlement itself leaves some parties apparently uncovered, such as perhaps some illustrators for example, and significantly, leaves authors and publishers to resolve many questions between them that are contractual in nature. Given that you are all using or have signed agreements that were drafted before this settlement including author-publisher agreements as well as illustrator agreements and perhaps other agreements, it is likely that those agreements need to be substantially revised to cover issues presented by this settlement. These should all be reviewed by an experienced publishing attorney to have them comply with the issues left unresolved by the settlement and as to which, the settlement agreement expressly refers the parties to their respective agreements.
In this regard, I have written a brief overview of some of the contractual problems presented by the settlement and you can read about these at http://www.ivanhoffman.com/settlement.html
**Please feel free to forward this notice to your associates and colleagues if you feel they may be interested in this.** Thanks.
This posting and any articles referred to in this posting are not legal advice and are not intended as legal advice. This posting and any articles referred to in this posting are intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information. This posting and any articles referred to in this posting do not create any attorney client relationship and are not a solicitation.
If you no longer wish to receive these educational mailings from me, you have the right to be taken off my list by simply replying to *me* (DO NOT REPLY TO "ALL") and asking not to receive such further mailings from me and I shall be happy to comply. If you are receiving this posting as a member of any other list, you should contact the administrator of that list.
IVAN HOFFMAN, B.A., J.D. Attorney at Law Lawyering With Integrity. Proudly in my 35th year of practice. Entertainment Law, Publishing and Writing Law, Copyrights, Trademarks, Internet Law, Web Design Law, Intellectual Property Law. *A Winner of 8 Prestigious Web Site Awards.* http://www.ivanhoffman.com
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Fwd: [PUBLISH-L] Jim Cox Report: November 2008
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008
Subject: Jim Cox Report: November 2008
Dear Friends & Family:
Some people write and publish because they seek to make money at it.
Others write and publish because they have a cause to promote.
Personally, I've always felt that it was the best of all possible
worlds if I could do what I wanted to do while improving the world a
bit and supporting my family at the same time.
I'm turning 66 on November 6th and have now been at this business of
being editor-in-chief of the Midwest Book Review for what amounts to
half of my life time. Therefore I count myself among the truly
fortunate in having been able to do something that I really have
enjoyed doing on a daily basis for a living, and that this work is
adequate to my creative and practical needs, and, judging from the
responses of what now has cumulatively amounted to thousands of men
and women over the last three decades of my life, has been generally
perceived as being of genuine service to aspiring authors, novice
publishers, conscientious librarians, struggling booksellers, and
grateful members of the reading public.
I'm now semi-retired with my daughter and her two stalwart associate
editors taking over more and more of the daily chores of running the
Midwest Book Review. I've even received my first Social Security
check this past month. Nevertheless, I will continue in my role as
Editor-in-Chief for as many years as I have the health to permit it.
It's clear to me now that I will always have the interest and the
motivation to do so. I find that life as the editor-in-chief of the
Midwest Book Review -- even in these troubled times -- is a good one.
But enough of my personal musings. You folk who read the "Jim Cox
Report" are really looking for writing and publishing "tips, tricks &
techniques" to help you accomplish your own literary and professional
goals in the wonderful world of publishing.
I've followed a recent discussion thread about how to deal with malicious
reviews when they are posted on Amazon.com with great interest. I
have some very
firm opinions about the Amazon review system. These opinions are based upon my
being among the first to post reviews on Amazon back when Amazon
originally made it
possible to do so. The practice of posting reviews on Amazon now stretches over
many years and includes tens of thousands of reviews from the Midwest Book
Review and our freelance publicists.
Opinion #1: The five star system is completely arbitrary, and because it is,
the value of such a system is both defective and dysfunctional. A quicky
rating system, whether in the form of stars, thumbs up or down, or any of the
other commonly employed symbols, actually serves as a disservice to
authors and
publishers because it acts as a kind of visual short-cut for the public so
that they don't have to read through the reviews themselves to determine
whether the reviewers are competently providing a positive or negative
recommendation. Unfortunately Amazon requires their stars, therefore
almost all of our
reviews get five of them on the basis of the books in question being able to
survive our selection process and receiving positive recommendations from
their assigned reviewers.
Opinion #2: Posters of reviewers are not held to any kind of standard with
respect to competence or civility. This is reflected in how so many positive
reviews and so many negative reviews are presented without a foundation of
cited justifications. All too often reviewers confuse nastiness with
competency
in panning a book, with others confusing platitudes with justifiable (and
justified) praise. Therefore anyone who relies on reviews as part of their own
book selection process should remember that reviewers, like authors and
publishers, fall into three basic categories: The Good, The Bad, and
The Mediocre.
Opinion #3: There simply are not enough places where authors and publishers
operating with limited budgetary resources can present their books to large
masses of the reading public -- especially in the sheer numbers that
Amazon can
turn out -- and therefore those authors and publishers of limited means must
invest in time and effort what they lack in financial capital to take
advantage of Amazon as a marketing tool to bring their titles to the
attention of
customers. Simply boycotting Amazon is ultimately self-defeating as a
marketing strategy for most authors and publishers.
As to how to handle a truly nasty review? My advice is to drown it out with
positive reviews. Take advantage of Amazon blogs, and all manner of
other online
guerrilla marketing strategies and techniques. Among those remember to include
utilizing the "Other Reviewers" database housed and maintained on the
Midwest Book
Review website at _http://www.midwestbookreview.com_
(<http://www.midwestbookreview.com>http://www.midwestbookreview.com)
Incidentally, this "Other Reviewers" section of my website includes all of
those MBR freelance and volunteer reviewers that have book review websites of
their own and who utilize the Midwest Book Review as a secondary forum for the
purpose of expanding the readership of their reviews.
Finally, I want to close with what I feel is the central and critically
important role of the book reviewer. A book reviewer should have as his or her
"mission statement" the task of helping writers to write better, publishers to
publish more effectively, bookstores and libraries to stock their shelves more
successfully, and readers to read with greater satisfaction.
Now here are some reviews of the latest 'how to' books for writers
and publishers to have recently crossed my desk:
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
A Book Inside
Carol Denbow
Plain & Simple Books
PO Box 1506, North Bend, OR 97459
<http://www.BooksByDenbow.Weebly.com>www.BooksByDenbow.Weebly.com
9780615199245, $18.95, www.amazon.com
It seems that every season there are more and more 'how to' books
being published for aspiring writers yearning to be published. One of
the latest is also one of the best. "A Book Inside: How To Write,
Publish, And Sell Your Story" is a succinct 104-page compendium
packed from cover to cover with practical, real-world information,
strategies and techniques dealing with the necessity for completing a
saleable manuscript, compiling its pages into book form, identifying
and selecting an appropriate publishing option, selling the book in
traditional and non-traditional markets, and publicizing, promoting,
and marketing the book without significant capital expense. Carol
Denbow writes with a particular, experienced-based expertise as the
author of three books and the editor of nine websites including 'A
Book Inside' online. Especially appropriate for, and recommended to,
the novice author needing to master the 'learning curve' for become a
successfully published author in today's highly competitive
marketplace, "A Book Inside" is a welcome and highly recommended
addition to personal and professional Writing/Publishing reference shelves.
Writer's Block Busters
Velina Hasu Houston
Smith & Kraus, Inc.
PO Box 127, Lyme NH 03768
9781575255972, $17.95, <http://www.smithandkraus.com>www.smithandkraus.com
'Writer's Block' is the term used to describe the condition of being
unable to come up with any ideas -- and well articulated ideas are
the core source of any professional writer's livelihood! Drawing upon
her many years of experience and expertise, Velina Hasu Houston
(author of more than 20 plays, and who is the Professor of Theatre,
Director of Dramatic Writing, Resident Playwright, and Associate Dean
of Faculty at the University of Southern California School of
Theatre) offers "Writer's Block Busters: 101 Exercises To Clear The
Deadwood And Make Room For Flights Of Fancy". This compendium of
succinct 'things to do' will break through this often encountered
author's nemesis and trigger the flow of creative ideas. Superbly
organized and thoroughly 'user friendly' in form and format,
"Writer's Block Busters" should be considered a high priority
addition to the reference shelf of anyone seeking to make their
living through the written word.
Time To Write
Frank Milligan
Quill Driver Books
1254 Commerce Avenue, Sanger, CA 93657
9781884956768, $16.95,
<http://www.quilldriverbooks.com>www.quilldriverbooks.com
As we grow older, one of the best ways to create an enduring legacy
for future generations is to record in writing our own life stories,
our experiences, observations, values, the products of our
imaginations and our perspectives. Frank Milligan draws upon his
experience and expertise in publishing fiction and nonfiction, as
well as teaching creative writing and business writing in "Time To
Write: Discovering The Writer Within After 50", a comprehensive and
'user friendly' instruction guide that will take aspiring older
writers with an initial concept or idea and walk them through each
stage to crating a finished, ready-to-publish manuscript. "Time To
Write" is a 304-page compendium of practical tips, techniques,
insights and shortcuts that will enable the reader's writing, talent,
desire and drive to crate a written document with a minimum of
distraction. Although specifically intended for older readers, "Time
To Write" has a great deal of value for younger writers seeking to
put their own ideas and stories down in a publishable form.
Success
Maralyn D. Hill & Brenda C. Hill
Infinity Publishing.com
1094 New Dehaven Street, #100, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713
6322 South Sky Court, Gilbert, AZ 85298 (author)
0741448483, $14.95, <http://www.BooksByHills.com>www.BooksByHills.com
It isn't necessary reinvent any wheels when it comes to the writing
and publishing of books. Not when there are so many experts in the
field who have produced so many notable, practical, informative,
reality-based instructional guides for aspiring authors seeking to be
published, and novice publishers seeking to produce commercially
viable works in the highly competitive marketplace. Expertly
co-authored by Maralyn and Brenda Hill "Success: Your Path To A
Successful Book" is a combination seminary and do-it-yourself
workshop that covers cogent information on writing, marketing, and
publishing. Of special note setting "Success: Your Path To A
Successful Book" apart from other instruction manuals are the
sections concerning journaling, writing in tandem, and understanding
target markets with respect to book sales. The section focusing
specifically on publishing covers agents, traditional publishing,
print-on-demand options, ebooks, and the 'vanity presses'. Enhanced
for beginners with additional material dealing with contact
information and experience based tips by Maralyn and Brenda,
"Success: Your Path To A Successful Book" features workbook pages for
notes and notations by the reader. "Success: Your Path To A
Successful Book" is a thoroughly 'user friendly' and strongly
recommended addition to personal and community library
Writing/Publishing reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
The Autobiographer's Handbook
Jennifer Traig
Holt Paperbacks
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
9780805087130, $15.00, <http://www.henryholt.com>www.henryholt.com
It has been said that everyone has one good book in them. "The
Autobiographer's Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your
Memoir" is a collection of tips and advice from masterful writers on
putting down one's life story onto paper, and in a format that would
be appealing to read for your audiences. A basic writing course with
a focus on memoirs, "The Autobiographer's Handbook" is a must for
someone who wants the world to read their story.
The Art of The Personal Letter
Margaret Shepherd
Broadway Books
1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
9780767928274, $16.00, <http://www.randomhouse.com>www.randomhouse.com
The personal letter is a lost art in this day of quick e-mails and
instant messaging. "The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to the
Connecting Through the Written Word" is a guide to bringing back this
lost skill and putting it to its best use, and doing what the
internet can't do, provide personality and feeling through the words.
With advice and tips to making one's letter something to be cherished
and loved, "The Art of the Personal Letter" shows that snail mail
isn't dead yet
and still has quite the value in the world of fast communication.
--
{snipped by Dave Mainwaring}
All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on
the Midwest Book Review website. If you'd like to receive the "Jim
Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to
be signed up for it.
So until next time, goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
<http://www.midwestbookreview.com>http://www.midwestbookreview.com
--
My thanks to Jim Cox for permission to share his reviews on the blog.
Dave Mainwaring
Monday, August 04, 2008
Jim Cox: Midwest Book Review, / Report: August 2008
Dave Mainwaring
-----------------
The wonderful world of publishing continues to evolve. Some of the changes are due to technological advances, some are the result of an increasingly grim economic environment, still others seem to be the end product of a combination of technology and economics.
One case in point is how an increasing number of publishers are switching from a print catalog of their titles to an online catalog of their books. A few publishers have now replaced snail-mail submitted Reviewer Request Check List forms with on online form for which reviewers are provided with a special link to access it.
While there remains an abundances of snail-mail publicity releases, more and more PRs are going out as emails. This seems especially true among freelance publicists.
Follow-up contacts to ascertain the review status of books submitted are currently split fairly evenly between telephone calls and emails.
I see a distinct trend toward substituting publishing industry traditionally printed materials (catalogs, letters, publicity releases) with electronic versions of these once mainstays of book review solicitations.
Some publishing houses have asked me to send our tear sheets (copies of the reviews we do) to them via email. Apparently it's a time saver for them at their end because they can just do a simple "copy & paste" into their databases (and do email notifications to their authors) without having to first having to type in the review manually from a physical tear sheet.
All of these changes and the trends they represent are less than ten years old. This past decade in which the publishing industry has been transformed in so many major and minor ways with the advent and advance of computer technology.
Sometimes it all makes me feel me feel my age! I began in an era of electric typewriters and the Rolledex. An era of filing cabinets and rotary phones and three-by-five index cards.
But there is an upside to all these newfangled ways of conducting a book review operation. Back in the days of typewriters and rolledexs, I did business with approximately 175 publishers (mostly the New York houses and the major university presses, with a smattering of small presses and a rare appearance of a self-published author). Today the number of publishers I deal with exceeds 1600 publishers. The bulk of these being self-published authors of one kind or another, with another 60 or so being publishers from other countries.
Only the Internet could make possible our reviewing books published in India, England, Ireland, Japan, Australia, etc. in the numbers that we do now These folks send us email PRs to which I provide an email response. They snail-mail me their book(s). When reviewed I email them an electronic version of our publisher notification letter (which includes a copy of the review).
None of that was possible just a decade earlier. Now it's fairly commonplace. Every month within the pages of one or more of our book review publications there will be reviews of titles published in other countries. Sometimes these reviews include snail-mail addresses overseas, sometimes just the publisher's website address, occasionally the contact information will be that of an American-based distributer.
That's why one of the trends I see in the publishing industry is that of globalization. Not just in the production of books (like expensive coffee-table art books being printed in South Korea) but in the marketplace that makes these books known to and available to an American citizenry, as well as readers anywhere else in the world.
What prompted all this is my having just received two beautiful (and beautifully published) Chinese/English bilingual architectural books from a publisher in mainland China. These are the first from this particular publisher -- who found the Midwest Book Review website on the Internet, then sent me a PR e-mail asking if I was interested, and to which I sent an e-mail response inviting the submission. A couple of weeks later they arrived in our mail room.
That's publishing industry globalization in action!
Now here are my opinions and assessments with respect to the new 'how to' titles for authors and publishers to have crossed my desk this past month.
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper
SARK
Three Rivers Press
c/o The Crown Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
9780307341709, $18.95, www.crownpublishing.com, 1-888-523-9292
Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy is a personal growth teacher, an artist, an inspiration speaker, a bestselling author, and under the pen name SARK has written and compiled "Juicy Pens, Thirsty paper: Gifting The World With Your Words And Stories And Creating The Time And Energy To Actually Do It", a compendium of creative games and techniques that aspiring writers will find to be invaluable in the practice of their chosen craft. There are any number of excellent 'how to' books on how to write better, more effectively, and even more profitably. The unique focus of "Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper" is an emphasis of practical 'how to' exercises to generate ideas, become inspired by people and things, make time to write within the context of a busy schedule, deal with writer's block and 'bad writing blues', -- even tips on getting published. Enhanced with personal anecdotes, uplifting quotes, interviews with artists, and more, "Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper" is a welcome and recommended read for all novice authors and holds a great deal of benefit for experienced writers as well.
The Half-Known World
Robert Boswell
Graywolf Press
2402 University Avenue, Suite 203, Saint Paul, MN 55114
9781555975043, $15.00, www.graywolfpress.org
Writing fiction requires a combination of expertise, talent, experience, and imagination. In "The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction", Robert Boswell (the published author of five novels and an instructor in creative writing at the New Mexico State University, the University of Houston, and in the Warren Wilson MFA program) draws upon his more than twenty years of personal experience and earned expertise to compile nine compelling informed and informative essays on the craft issues facing every literary writer and author. Comprising this extraordinary compendium of observation, insights and advice are Process and Paradigm; Narrative Spandrels; On Omniscience; Urban Legends, Pornography, and Literary Fiction; The Alternate Universe; Politics and Art in the Novel; Private eye Point of View; You Must Change Your Life; and the title piece, The Half-Known World. Enhanced with a two and a half page listing of referenced works at the end, "The Half-Known World" will prove to be a fascinating and educative read for anyone who aspires to literary success as a writer of deftly crafted fiction.
The Power of the Darkside
Pamela Jaye Smith
Michael Wiese Producations
3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Suite 1111
9781932907438, $22.95, www.mwp.com
A world where everything goes according to plan isn't terribly interesting at all; a good antagonist is essential to a great story. "The Power of the Darkside" is a guide for screenwriters who want to craft a truly memorable and believable villain, someone viewers will talk about as much as they talk about the hero. And a good hero, of course, needs an excellent villain. Sound and wise in its advice on the shadier side of the script, "The Power of the Darkside" is a must for aspiring writers and for community library collections.
Now for some Q&A from the Midwest Book Review email box:
In a message dated 1/30/2008 9:51:03 A.M. Central Standard Time, Jodi5565@aol.com writes:
Dear Mr. Cox:
Several books I've read about writing covers and queries recommend comparing my manuscripts to similar, successful, published books. How can I find statistics about how successful a comparison book was for its publisher? I wouldn't want to compare my manuscript to a title that didn't sell well. Also, does the comparison book need to be published by the publisher to whom the cover or query is addressed? This would mean I'd need to find a comparison book per publisher. The cover or query is supposed to be limited to one page, but when I include a comparison paragraph I have trouble keeping the letter to one page. Is the comparison a commonly expected part of a cover or query, or is it optional? Thank you for reading my questions and for any advice you can offer.
- Jodi L. Daly
Dear Jodi:
That kind of information is usually considered proprietary by publishers and usual not available to casual inquiries by others. Your best bet would be to try and determine how a particular book did in the marketplace by looking at its ranking on Amazon.com
With respect to comparing your book with other successful titles by other authors in your promotional materials, I wouldn't do it. Leave such comparisons to book reviewers and literary critics.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
In a message dated 2/11/2008 1:27:23 P.M. Central Standard Time, aeonix1@mac.com writes:
I checked Amazon, and I can't see where this occurs. Is this one of
the MBR publications? If so, it would make sense for MBR to sell
their publications to those who want to buy it. After all, MBR does
need a source of revenue.
To which I responded as follows:
The Midwest Book Review does not sell our reviews to Amazon.com or anybody else. They are all given away for free to anyone who wants them -- especially to the publishers (and through them the authors) of the books that make the final cut here at the Midwest Book Review and get reviewed in one or more of our nine monthly book review publications.
When our reviews are posted to Amazon (for whom we are a content provider and have been for great many years now) they always carry a credit citation of either Midwest Book Review, or the title of one of our various publications (The Bookwatch; California Bookwatch; Children's Bookwatch; Internet Bookwatch; Library Bookwatch; MBR Bookwatch; Reviewer's Bookwatch; Small Press Bookwatch; Wisconsin Bookwatch).
The reviews posted on Amazon by our volunteer reviewers (like Harriet Klausner) which appear in either Reviewer's Bookwatch or MBR Bookwatch are by posted those reviewers with that particular reviewer's name as the citation credit.
In the past, Amazon has had two eccentric assertions concerning the book reviews posted on their website:
1. They claimed ownership of all reviews posted by readers.
2. They tried to offer for sale some of those reviews.
With respect to the first assertion, all rights to a review belong to either the reviewer that made them or the publication that paid the salary for that reviewer to write them for that publication. Unless the reviewer has specially sold or otherwise given up ownership rights to the review. I've never heard of that happening.
With respect to the attempt at making money ($9.95!!!) from selling a review, that makes no fiscal sense at all. The market for such a thing would be an author and/or publisher wanting to use that Amazon posted review for a marketing campaign. But (at least with respect to the Midwest Book Review) all publishers (and through them the authors) are provided the review for free -- and accompanied by a publisher notification letter outlining all the various places that the review has been posted or published.
The Midwest Book Review gives those authors and/or publishers automatic and complete permission to utilize the review in any manner they deem useful in their efforts to publicize, promote, and market their book.
So what's the incentive to pay out cold cash for a review that they've already gotten for free?
Then there's the little matter of anybody being able to simply do a 'copy & paste' of a posted review from off the Amazon website and onto their own computer.
Still, Amazon has been trying to sell reviews for a few years now -- and not with any success that I've ever heard about.
I think maybe the fiscal logic behind their attempts is that kind of logic that underlies those Nigerian SPAMS -- send out a couple of million emails and perhaps a few scattered and naive people can be tricked into parting with some cash.
Bottom line -- The Midwest Book Review provides Amazon with our reviews because it increases the audience for them in behalf of our reviewers, the publishers, and the authors. We've never charged anyone (especially not Amazon) for doing this. It's part of fulfilling our mandate to promote literacy, library usage, and small press publishing.
And posting reviews on Amazon (along with our reviews appearing on such other online databases as Lexus-Nexus, Goliath, Book Review Index, etc.) helps to make us a very popular book review resource for the publishing community.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
I'm now going to conclude this issue of the "Jim Cox Report" with "The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating postage stamps this past month:
Leland W. Cross
Henry Hoffman
Fran Smith -- "Friendly Feathers"
Debra Purdy Kong -- "Fatal Encryption"
Maureen Cain -- "Let Your Dough Ri$e"
Annette Haws -- "Waiting For The Light To Change"
Sam Moffie -- "The Organ Grinder And The Monkey"
Thomas A. Leenerts -- "There Is Only You Beholding You"
Roswitha McIntosh -- "The Mad Man And His Mistress - History in the Making"
Chery A. Bazzoui -- "Runaway Grandma"
Avail Press
Best Fairy Books
Enrichment Books
Dark Sky Publishing
Broad Reach Publishing
Clumsy Ducks Publishing
Safe Goods Publishing
Cable Publishing Inc.
RMJ Publications
Kunati Books
Glenda Selvage -- Axios Press
Liana C. Lovell -- Mystic Publishers
Lily G. Stephen -- Blooming Rose Press
Edward R. Wood -- "Summertime Books"
Bill Klemm -- Benecton Press
Leila Joiner -- Imago Press
Barbara Peters -- Poisoned Pen Press
Susan Alcorn -- Shepherd Canyon Books
Alyce Barry -- Practically Shameless Press
Kate Miller -- Terrific Science Press
Brian Stepanic -- Panic Press
Betty Hugh -- Clay Dog Books
Kathy Stevens -- Global Advance
Janet Terrill -- W.S. Beetle & Company
John Errett -- Free Enterprise Press Inc.
Maryglenn McCombs -- Oceanview Publishing
Wayne E. Stahre -- Habitation of Chimham Publishing
Mary Kay Lazarus -- MKL Public Relations
Elizabeth Waldman Frazier -- Waldmania!
Nigel J. Yorwerth -- Yorwerth Associates
Anonymous -- Studio City, California
If you have postage to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys or uncorrected proofs), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.
All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.
So until next time, goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Graphic Arts and Printing Career Resources
VOCATIONAL
INFORMATION CENTER
Graphic Arts and Printing Career Descriptions
Explore careers in Graphic Arts with the following links to job descriptions, which include information such as daily activities, skill requirements, salary and training required. To learn more about Graphic Arts and the Graphic Arts Industry, follow the related links below the career descriptions section."
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Print Buyers International 3rd Annual Print Buyers Conference
The Sheraton Boston Hotel
Boston, MA
Produced by Boston Print Buyers, a Division of Print Buyers International"
How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to the 3rd Annual Print Buyers Conference
You know you need the education and professional connections at our September Conference - but your boss doesn't understand.
So we've put together the Top 10 Reasons to Attend to help you state your case.
-
You'll learn how to save money, time and resources on your print projects
-
You'll hone your skills in print and cross-media campaigns
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You'll unlock the secrets of going green and improve the payback on your printing budget
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You'll learn when to use digital vs. when to use offset
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You'll network with hundreds of print buying professionals and benefit from their insights
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You'll learn what new printing technologies are around the corner - and what new media you need to master
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You'll meet printers, paper people, direct mail specialists and other service providers whose services might just match your needs
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You'll get great value for your dollar - no other print buyers conference offers so much knowledge for so little money
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You'll sneak away to Fenway Park and snag your boss some red-hot Red Sox memorabilia
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You'll return to work with a terrific handle on the best resources, information and technologies from the people who know print buying best
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
YouTube - Plaxo talks about OpenSocial Networks
In the Printing or Publishing Industries?
Join the PrintingPublishing Industries group on www.plaxo.com
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Powerful global conversations, Relevant knowledge is exchanged with blinding speed, For businesses on the Inernet
"The emergence of email groups, webboards, on-line people to people networks and Web 2 models has now enabled powerful global conversations. Relevant knowledge is exchanged with blinding speed. For businesses 'Markets are Conversations' on the Inernet.
Now anyone connected to the internet has access to and can participate in a virtual marketplace and once again achieve such a level of communication between people. Anyone can bypass formal hierarchies. This can totally rattle organizations and businesses. They often fear their loss of holding 'command and control' of knowledge management."
Ink Companies Price Hike
Flint Group North America Publication Inks Division announced a crude oil surcharge of $.10 per pound, effective July 1. The increase is in response to rapidly increasing raw material, energy and freight costs, and will affect all heatset, coldest and newspaper inks sold in North America, Flint said.
Meantime, Central Ink Corp. said it will hike its prices July 1, also citing raw materials costs. The increase includes an extra $0.12 per pound on all non-heat black inks, an 8 percent increase on all non-heat colors and a 6 percent increase on all heatset inks."
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Margie Dana's Print Buyers Conference 08
PBI is our umbrella organization that includes Boston Print Buyers (BPB), our member-based professional association that caters to those who purchase or oversee the purchase of print and other media. PBI is not a replacement for Boston Print Buyers.
BPB continues to be an active, member-driven division of PBI. Boston Print Buyers will continue to hold regular dinner programs in the Boston area."
Print Buyers International more accurately reflects our association's market and global reach.
Why "Print Buyers International"?
There are three reasons:
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Our weekly enewsletter, Margie's Print Tips, is currently read by industry professionals worldwide, throughout 26 countries. We have been marketing globally since the Tips began back in 1999.
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Print buyers the world over share many of the same issues, including a universal need for more education about the industry. PBI provides this education through numerous channels.
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Printing is global - and print buying is, too. As they evaluate printing resources worldwide, print buyers need and deserve information to help in their decision-making process. PBI strives to provide this information to help buyers everywhere.
PBI's Mission Statement
In recognition of the fact that print buyers around the world share the same issues, face the same challenges, and seek the same information about the printing industry, Margie Dana's Print Buyers International (PBI) strives to serve this group of professionals.
We will serve them through programs, conferences, and a variety of online communications tools, to bring them relevant news and information that will enhance their working relationships with providers of printing and the related graphic arts.
In doing so, we hope to open doors between print customers and service providers in the industry, in ways that build bridges and strengthen business relationships the world over.
--Get a Clear Edge on Print Buying Success
3rd Annual Print Buyers Conference
September 10-12, 2008
Sheraton Boston Hotel
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Gene Weingarten - Corrections: Yamp Sox - washingtonpost.comnks Thu
"If you are like I, you are pretty sick of reading articles about how the financially-troubled newspaper industry is making desperation budget cutting moves: Downsizing its products, laying off staff, buying prostitutes for advertisers, and so forth. But believe me, you'd be even sicker of it if you were INSIDE a typical American newsroom these days, where it's sometimes hard to hear over the 200 decibel background drone of human whining.
"How good a copy editor would you be?See how many of the 57 errors of fact, grammar, syntax and style in this column you can catch, and then read the corrections below."
Monday, June 16, 2008
Editorial Observer - In a Changing World of News, an Elegy for Copy Editors - Editorial - NYTimes.com
I was one for a long time, and I know that obscurity and unpopularity are part of the job. Copy editors work late hours and can get testy. They never sign their work."
Monday, May 26, 2008
TechGirlz - A Documentary about Women in Technology » News
TechGirlz - A Documentary about Women in Technology » News: "You can now subscribe to the TechGirlz RSS feed available through Feedburner. Simply past the following feed link into your RSS newsreader. http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechgirlzBlog"
Friday, May 09, 2008
Printable | Self Guided Tutorials
FREE library of FusionPro Desktop training videos!
Basic Functionality l Advanced Functionality l Impositioning l JavaScript Rules l
Here you'll be able to find an abundance of on-demand, detailed, and narrated videos to help you use the full power of FusionPro Desktop. Please be sure to contact us if there are additional topics where a video tutorial is desired. Enjoy!
Basic Functionality
This set of videos covers the typical day-to-day use and functionality of FusionPro Desktop. Topics include working with data files, wizards, and colors, these short tutorials will get you up and running in a matter of a couple of hours."
Advanced Functionality
Moving beyond the basics, this group of videos helps the viewer learn to use the extra features and power of FusionPro Desktop. After spending an hour or so watching these tutorials, the user should start to become more comfortable with creating complex templates and rules.
Impositioning Functionality
The final step for most printers is also one of the powerful features of FusionPro Desktop - the ability to impose the output, regardless of format, during composition. The RIP's resource time is expensive and these videos show how easy it is to use FusionPro Imposer to deliver imposed output to your RIP, resulting in shorter 'first page out' times.
JavaScript Rules
Don't let the name fool you! These videos are designed for everyone from the brand new user who knows very little about business rules to the experienced programmer who simply needs information on the FusionPro-specific functions and objects.
Friday, April 04, 2008
The Midwest Book Review, Internet and Web resource for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and book lovers of all ages and interests.
The Midwest Book Review
Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review publishes several monthly publications for community and academic library systems in California, Wisconsin, and the upper Midwest:
- The Bookwatch
- California Bookwatch
- Children's Bookwatch
- Internet Bookwatch
- Library Bookwatch
- MBR Bookwatch
- Reviewer's Bookwatch
- Small Press Bookwatch
- Wisconsin Bookwatch
We post all our reviews on the Internet with a number of thematically appropriate areas of the Internet such as alt.books.reviews and Pub-Forum. Our reviews are also available through Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com.
The Gale Research Company of Farmington Hills, Mich., has contracted with the Midwest Book Review to provide electronic copies of all of book reviews we publish in our library newsletters, on the Internet, and develop for our weekly television programs. In addition to making our reviews available to library systems nationwide in their print, magnetic tape, and diskette series, the Gale Research Company uses these reviews in their Book Review Index interactive CD-ROM series, designed for use by community, university, and corporate libraries nationwide in the U.S. and Canada.
We also produce a short wave radio book review commentary, the KNLS Bookwatch, that goes out every month to Europe, North America, South America, and the Pacific Rim. It's a lot of fun -- I read my book review commentary into the phone here in Oregon, Wis. My director records it on his studio equipment in Nashville, Tenn., and then pipes it to the KNLS broadcast studio in Anchor City, Alaska. From there it is beamed up to a satellite for worldwide distribution.
We also serve as an Acquisitions Consultant for Dane County Library Services, which is responsible for 52 southern Wisconsin community library systems.
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no financial donations from authors or publishers for our services.
Publisher Information
The Midwest Book Review gives priority consideration to small press publishers, self-published authors, academic presses. Please follow the instructions for submitting books.
Reviewer Information
Ever wanted to be a reviewer? Learn how you can become a reviewer for the Midwest Book Review!
An Unabashed Invitation!
We intend to become a major Internet and Web resource for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and book lovers of all ages and interests. If you have a Web site that you think would interest book lovers, librarians, publishers, and booksellers, we would be very interested in hotlinking your site to the steadily expanding Midwest Book Review resource hotlinks. E-mail your URL to the Midwest Book Review so that your site can be examined.
Good luck and good reading!
Monday, March 03, 2008
Jim Cox Report: March 2008
From: James Cox
Jim wrote:
I've added two new and informative articles to the "Advice for Writers & Publishers" section of the Midwest Book Review website at http://www.midwestbookreview.com. One is called 'Blogs As A Book Marketing Tool' and the other is 'Publishers Judge Books By Their Covers'.
I've written a foreword to a new 'how to' book on the craft of book reviewing. It's to be called "The Slippery Art Of Book Reviewing", favorable cites either myself or the Midwest Book Review four times, and is due out about May from Twilight Times Books. I'll write more extensively about it when its published and available to folks who aspire to do what I do for a living.
I've also completed a rather extensive Q&A on book reviewing in general, and the Midwest Book Review in particular, for Behler Publications to use in one of their upcoming 'how to' titles for writers and authors that is tentatively titled "The Writer's Toolbox" and will be out later in the summer or early fall.
I'm also scheduled as an interview guest on a couple of up-coming Internet podcasts.
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
Writing As A Small Business
Nash Black
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 South Parker Road, #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432716257, $19.95 www.outskirtspress.com 1-888-672-6657
Earning a living as a professional writer is a business. Writing freelance is the equivalent of being a self-employed small business owner and operator. As such, meticulous attention must be made to how that business is structured, operated, and kept track of. Failure to keep aware of the proverbial 'bottom line' can lead to financial and professional disaster. Enter Nash Black's 196-page instructional guide and reference "Writing As A Small Business" covers what every aspiring (and practicing) professional author needs to know about the financial side of their work including whether or not to incorporate or operate as a sole proprietorship, the keeping and storage of financial records, filling out state and federal tax forms, avoiding audits, handling advances with respect to royalties, grants and gratuities; safeguarding the computer from hackers and online viruses, and generally protecting the financial rights and aspects of a written work -- before and after publication. Enhanced with bibliographies of thematically appropriate informational resources on the subject of the economics of professional writing, a glossary of terms, and an index, "Writing As A Small Business" is a critically important, thoroughly 'user friendly', instructional guide that should be on the personal reference shelf of every aspiring writer seeking to financially support themselves and their loved ones through their writing regardless of the genre, category, or discipline they are writing in and for.
Good Writing for Journalists
Angela Phillips
Sage Publications
2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320-2218
9781412919173, $39.95 www.sagepub.com 1-800-818-7243
Written by journalist and college teacher Angela Phillips, Good Writing for Journalists is a no-nonsense guide to improving the quality of one's nonfiction writing. Chapters cover genres ranging from profile writing and interviews to direct reporting, news analysis, investigation, sports writing, personal and opinion columns, "lifestyle" writing, and more. A large portion of Good Writing for Journalists is devoted to sample journalistic pieces that exemplify positive and memorable qualities, all the better to see Phillips' teachings in use. Enthusiastically recommended especially for journalism students and majors.
ACTS Of Teaching
Joyce Armstrong Carroll & Edward E. Wilson
Teacher Ideas Press
PO Box 6926, Portsmouth, NH 03802-6926
9781591585176, $45.00 www.teacherideaspress.com 1-800-225-5800
The art of writing is a learned skill honed through practice. Now in an extensively updated and significantly expanded second edition, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" by academicians Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Edward E. Wilson (both of whom are Co-Directors of Abydos Learning International) is a 501-page compendium of instruction on all aspects of the art and craft of teaching aspiring authors how to write effectively regardless of the genre or discipline they are writing in or for. After an informed and informative introduction, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" is dived into two primary sections dealing with 'Process' and 'The Theory and Pedagogy'. An overview of writing as a process beings with 'Prewriting: More Than the Beginning', continues on with 'Writing and Organizing', 'Writing as a Social Act', 'Grammar and Correcting', 'Grammar through Revision', Grammar through Reformulation', 'Postwriting and Publishing', and 'Assessment'. "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" continues with a major and detailed chapter on the way the brain works in the writing process, before going on to address such issues as 'Learning How to Learn', 'Early Literacy', 'Research', and 'Writing as a Mode of Learning. Enhanced with an extensive and extended bibliography, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" also features nine highly relevant appendices (note especially the first one offering a List of Genres), and a comprehensive index. "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" is note only very highly recommended as an educational curriculum guide and supplement for the teaching of writing in a college or university level course, it is also invaluable reading for any aspiring writer seeking to become as effective as they can be within the demands of any scientific discipline, literary genre, or commercial enterprise they might find themselves working in.
Off the Page
Carole Burns, editor
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
9780393339885, $14.95 www.wwnorton.com
Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Ending, and Everything in Between is an anthology of interviews with a diversity of authors describing the creation process of a literary work. Joyce Carol Oates begins and ends her writing process creating and reworking the beginning of a book; A.S. Byatt assembles a novel from "blocks of color"; and E.L. Doctorow crafts a story from a specific and compelling image that often springs to mind without context. From the intersection of sex, love, and literature (Martin Amis insists that good sex is impossible to write about!) to the reader's part in the creative process (or at least, the effect that readers' imagined reaction has on the mind of the author), Off the Page runs the gamut of influences and effects upon the evolution of a book. Originally typed directly on interviewer Carole Burns' computer as she listened to the interviewees and posted in real-time on the Web, Off the Page is undeniably authentic in his honest portrayal of the authors' mission to write literature worth reading.
Now for some Q&A from the Midwest Book Review email box:
In a message dated 11/19/2007 2:59:37 P.M. Central Standard Time, admin@readerviews.com writes:
Jim, I'm curious. :-) I note the reviews you post on amazon don't acknowledge the actual reviewer. Is there a reason why not?
You also mention in the guidelines you always give 5 stars. Curious on that one too. I notice some of the reviews we've done, as well as you have, our reviewers give low stars - even as low as 1 or 3. This is usually due to poor editing, grammar issues, no character development, etc. Basically, those books that are self-published and the author just didn't do any more with it than run it through the spell-check.
I'm still in the learning mode on all this.
Irene Watson
Dear Irene:
The reviews we generate 'in-house' with our staff members are only given the citation of Midwest Book Review on Amazon. The tear sheets we furnish the publishers (along with their notification letters) will have a more detailed citation as to which of our nine publications the review appears in.
The freelance and volunteer reviewers (like yourself and those you represent) are responsible for posting their own reviews to Amazon. Including their own judgement as to how many stars to award. This is because some of them don't wish to post on Amazon, while others are quite happy to.
With respect to the 5 Star notation for our in-house reviews for Amazon, it is because any book deemed defective is rejected for review in our initial screening process. Then any book deemed by the reviewer to be too flawed to be recommended to its intended readership is also rejected for inclusion into our publications.
I've always felt that a 5 Star point system is so subjective as to be meaningless. One person's 3 is another person's four, and a third person's 5. If I had my way, there would be no such point system, but the reader would discover in the course of reading the review whether or not the reviewer was recommending the book as worth the prospective reader's time.
However, Amazon requires a rating be assigned to any review posted with them. Therefore any book that makes it through our initial screening process when it is competing with more than 2,000 titles a month being submitted for review consideration by making the final cut and receive a review assignment, and the staff reviewer feels is recommendable to the intended readership for that particular book, is automatically awarded a 5 Star rating when posted on Amazon.
Each review will always have a line or two specifically recommending it to what he or she has deemed to be its intended or desired readership. That's the 'failsafe' against "5-Starring" flawed or substandard books in the Midwest Book Review process.
Because we are content providers for Amazon (as well as several other online book review databases) we are obliged to post all of the in-house generated reviews that make it into the pages of The Bookwatch; The California Bookwatch; The Children's Bookwatch; The Internet Bookwatch; The Library Bookwatch; The Small Press Bookwatch; and The Wisconsin Bookwatch.
The MBR Bookwatch and Reviewer's Bookwatch are the two publications set aside for the volunteers and freelancers. It's up to the individual reviewers (who own all rights to their reviews and for whom we merely serve as a forum) to decide if they will post their reviews on Amazon, and if so, what rating to assign them.
For a select number of our volunteer reviewers (including those that you represent) who want us to (because it will expands the readership for their reviews) we also make their reviews available along with our own in-house reviewers available to such databases as Lexus-Nexus, Book Review Index, Goliath, and others aimed at academic, corporate, governmental, and public libraries and librarians.
Your questions are good ones and come up once or twice every year from either new publishers or visitors to the Amazon website. Therefore I'll be including this little Q&A in one of my "Jim Cox Report" columns for the small press community.
I recently went up on the Amazon website and found that there are currently more than 34,000 reviews from the Midwest Book Review posted there. That's a rather impressive number when you think that it does not reflect our individual reviewers such as Harriet Klausner who post their reviews on Amazon independently of us, or those Midwest Book Review reviews that were deleted from Amazon when the books went out of print and were otherwise dropped from Amazon.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
In a follow-up inquiry, Irene asked a further question about Midwest Book Review operations:
In a message dated 11/20/2007 10:04:52 A.M. Central Standard Time, admin@readerviews.com writes:
Thanks Jim for being so patient with my questions. Now the "big" one....lol. Being you give free reviews, where does the money come from to pay your editorial staff? I want to know the secret!
Irene
Dear Irene:
Here is the closely guarded secret to becoming a financially successful book reviewer.
Marry rich!
Otherwise you'll have to depend on getting foundation grants based on a mission statement mandating the purpose of promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing -- and in the case of the Midwest Book Review -- then getting those grants renewed every year for the past 31 years.
Plus the selling of review books to libraries and bookstores, as well as giving them away to charities.
Owning the building which houses the Midwest Book Review and having staff members who work for minimum wage plus their room & board is also a big help (that's me as editor-in-chief, my daughter Bethany as managing editor and webmaster, my wife Nancy and a young man named Jason as assistant editors). While everyone else on the editorial staff volunteers their time and labor for the sheer love of literature.
Especially those among them who never aspired to writing the great American novel, but modestly enjoy the power of life and death over those who do!
By the way, I've covered this subject of how the Midwest Book Review is funded on a more serious note from time to time in my monthly "Jim Cox Report". They are all archived on the Midwest Book Review website, and subscription to the "Jim Cox Report" is available for free via email upon request. If you don't get them already, you might want to sign up for them because I talk about the inner workings of the Midwest Book Review now and then.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
I'd also like to note that Irene Watson now utilizes two of our monthly book review publications for the columns of reviews and reviewers that she edits:
Her 'Reader Views' column is part of our "MBR Bookwatch" and started a couple of months ago.
And debuting in our March 2008 issue of "Reviewer's Bookwatch" will be found her review column 'RebeccasReads'.
Here's another inquiry that comes in every so often.
In a message dated 12/3/2007 4:08:09 P.M. Central Standard Time, RDAVIDH218 writes:
I'm in need of a book distributor, and someone to market the book; the publisher doesn't provide this service
-- David Hughes
Dear David:
Go to the Midwest Book Review website at http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Click on Publisher Resources
You will find a subsection dedicated to distributors and wholesalers. You'll also find a list of freelance book publicists and marketeers. One of them might be appropriate for you.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
The Midwest Book Review is designed to be of specific and practical use to writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and the general reading public. If you've got a question or a need concerning writing, publishing, or book marketing, then you'll most likely be able to find the answer and/or a resource to help you out. If not, I'm as near as your computer keyboard -- email me any time and I'll do my best to help.
All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.
So until next time!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
http://www.midwestbookreview.com