Printing Publishing Newsbasket

The Midwest Book Review 8/2011

2011-08-02T13:08:00.001-04:00

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

Fond Memories ... I remember when ...

2010-07-28T08:19:00.003-04:00

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

top-line research summaries

2009-11-09T08:10:00.001-05:00

Print in the Mix:

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.

Kathleen Parker on the enduring role of newspapers - washingtonpost.com

2009-11-08T11:48:00.001-05:00

Kathleen Parker - 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.

Boston’s teens in print, powerful writing -

2009-10-22T07:21:00.001-04:00

Boston’s teens in print - The Boston Globe By Betty Southwick October 22, 2009

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.

4th Annual Print Buyers Conference Will Save Your Firm Money

2009-10-09T09:25:00.000-04:00

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
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.

A Different Paper Company by Gail Nickel-Kailing

2009-06-12T20:17:00.001-04:00

Grays Harbor Paper - A Different Paper Company

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.

used laser imaging parts,

2009-05-15T20:04:00.001-04:00

Launching new website iFix.com

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.

Writing Made Simple

2009-04-16T06:15:00.001-04:00

The Easy Essay - Essay 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.

The First Real Digital Newspaper Printing Operation

2009-03-17T09:01:00.001-04:00

Gmail - Cenveo loss, Real digital newspaper operation - davemainwaring@gmail.com

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.

Barnes & Noble Buys an E-Book Retailer By MOTOKO RICH, NYT

2009-03-08T10:04:00.001-04:00

Technology - Internet News - The New York Times

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.

Wayland company is the first in the United States to offer a combination of green large format printing

2009-03-02T06:42:00.001-05:00

Wayland company prints with environmental awareness - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

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."

Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.

2009-02-25T20:44:00.001-05:00

Op-Ed Contributor - The Kindle Swindle? - NYTimes.com
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.

It’s all a thousand times more convenient ...

2009-02-24T18:01:00.000-05:00

State of the Art - Amazon.com’s Kindle Goes From Good to Better - NYTimes.com

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?

cloud computing, you rely on applications running on the Interne

2009-02-19T07:12:00.001-05:00

When your files are online and you aren't - The Boston Globe

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

librarians believe that literacy includes, but also exceeds, books.

2009-02-16T10:16:00.001-05:00

The Future of Reading - In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update - Series - NYTimes.com

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."

new ways to get the message across

2009-02-03T09:04:00.001-05:00

Media entrepreneurs test new ways to get the message across - The Boston Globe

"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."

Posting headlines and short summaries stories linked to from other sites.

2009-01-27T05:25:00.001-05:00

Media chains settle lawsuit - The Boston Globe

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."

In bad times, you’re forced to see if there is a technology” that will help.

2009-01-26T07:31:00.002-05:00

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.

Two lumbering giants, Hewlett-Packard and
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."

It's a natural impulse. You want to write a book.

2009-01-25T05:29:00.000-05:00

An E-Z guide to publishing - The Boston Globe

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

2009-01-25T05:24:00.001-05:00

Dueling data backup firms are rare bright spot - The Boston Globe

"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.

New England Center for Investigative Reporting

2009-01-22T11:40:00.001-05:00

New England Center for Investigative Reporting | NECN

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.

The Digital Nirvana blog

2009-01-21T07:07:00.002-05:00

The Digital Nirvana » About

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

PIA/GATF Is Now Printing Industries of America

2008-12-05T16:52:00.001-05:00

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

Ghostwriting & Book Producing - PUBLISH-L

2008-12-02T08:17:00.001-05:00

PROMO: Ghostwriting & Book Producing - PUBLISH-L | Google Groups

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

WhatTheyThink Blog » Blog Archive » Getting press operators more involved at PrintPlanet

2008-11-20T13:03:00.001-05:00

Patrick Henry Says:
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.

Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop

2008-11-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

WhatTheyThink Environment & Sustainability Section » Blog Archive » New Book: 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.

GOOGLE SETTLEMENT: HOFFMAN'S NEW ARTICLE

2008-11-10T12:12:00.001-05:00

From: Ivan Hoffman

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

Fwd: [PUBLISH-L] Jim Cox Report: November 2008

2008-11-02T10:27:00.001-05:00

From: MWBOOKREVW@aol.com
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

Jim Cox: Midwest Book Review, / Report: August 2008

2008-08-04T06:05:00.002-04:00

Our thanks to Jim Cox for his permission the share his reviews.
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

Graphic Arts and Printing Career Resources

2008-07-22T09:22:00.000-04:00

Graphic Arts and Printing Career Resources: "Graphic Arts and Printing Career Guide

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."

Print Buyers International 3rd Annual Print Buyers Conference

2008-07-10T14:36:00.000-04:00

September 10 - 12, 2008
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
You'll unlock the secrets of going green and improve the payback on your printing budget
You'll learn when to use digital vs. when to use offset
You'll network with hundreds of print buying professionals and benefit from their insights
You'll learn what new printing technologies are around the corner - and what new media you need to master
You'll meet printers, paper people, direct mail specialists and other service providers whose services might just match your needs
You'll get great value for your dollar - no other print buyers conference offers so much knowledge for so little money
You'll sneak away to Fenway Park and snag your boss some red-hot Red Sox memorabilia
You'll return to work with a terrific handle on the best resources, information and technologies from the people who know print buying best

YouTube - Plaxo talks about OpenSocial Networks

2008-07-09T14:46:00.003-04:00

In the Printing or Publishing Industries?
Join the PrintingPublishing Industries group on www.plaxo.com

Powerful global conversations, Relevant knowledge is exchanged with blinding speed, For businesses on the Inernet

2008-07-02T09:39:00.001-04:00

Markets are Conversations" on the Inernet, MainZone Cafe, Dave Mainwaring's business networks:

"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

2008-07-02T08:07:00.000-04:00

Boston Herald to cut up to 160 jobs, outsource printing: "Ink companies announce 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."

Margie Dana's Print Buyers Conference 08

2008-06-25T11:47:00.000-04:00

Margie Dana's Print Buyers Conference 08: "Margie Dana’s Print Buyers International (PBI). PBI is an international organization focusing on the needs of print buyers, while creating a forum that unites buyers with printers and suppliers throughout the graphic arts industry.

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:

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.
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.
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

Gene Weingarten - Corrections: Yamp Sox - washingtonpost.comnks Thu

2008-06-22T17:50:00.000-04:00

Gene Weingarten - Corrections: Yanks Thump Sox - washingtonpost.com:

By Gene Weingarten

Sunday, June 22, 2008; Page W32

"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."

Editorial Observer - In a Changing World of News, an Elegy for Copy Editors - Editorial - NYTimes.com

2008-06-16T15:11:00.000-04:00

Editorial Observer - In a Changing World of News, an Elegy for Copy Editors - Editorial - NYTimes.com: "Ouch. Copy editors are my favorite people in the news business, and many I know are still alive and doing what they do. As it happened, I couldn’t find anything about them on the fifth or any other floor. A call later confirmed that the museum has essentially nothing about how newspapers are made today, and thus nothing about the lowly yet exalted copy editor.

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."

TechGirlz - A Documentary about Women in Technology » News

2008-05-26T10:59:00.001-04:00

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"

Printable | Self Guided Tutorials

2008-05-09T05:48:00.001-04:00

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.

The Midwest Book Review, Internet and Web resource for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and book lovers of all ages and interests.

2008-04-04T07:21:00.001-04:00

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:

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!

Jim Cox Report: March 2008

2008-03-03T15:30:00.000-05:00

Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:40:37 -0600
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

PUBLISHING: Survival of an industry of expression

2008-02-14T08:18:00.000-05:00

PUBLISHING: Survival of an industry of expression: "VILNIUS - It was a bad omen. The first material to be printed in a Baltic language was a Lutheran manuscript that appeared in Estonian in 1525. But due to the seething religious hostilities of the day, it never reached the readers and was destroyed immediately after publication.
Ever since this time, published materials in the Baltic region have been abused and censored over the centuries, becoming a front line in the eternal war for the hearts and minds of the masses.
The first printed texts in Latvian also appeared around 1525, then in Lithuanian a little later, but the efforts were scrappy and it was another 10 years before a complete book emerged - the Wanradt-Koell catechism from the year 1535, published in Estonian."

Active registered publishers

Lithuania: 500
Latvia: 400
Estonia: 351

books from major publishing houses—are full of typos and editing gaffes?

2008-02-14T07:52:00.001-05:00

Dick Margulis writes on
words / myth / ampers & virgule:

"Have you noticed lately that the books you buy—I mean books from major publishing houses—are full of typos and editing gaffes? I see this complaint often. I make this complaint myself from time to time."

-- snipped --

Mostly, there isn’t much you and I can do about this, other than producing books outside the mainstream publishing industry and building up an appreciation for high-quality books.

There is one category where individuals can make a difference, though. If you teach a course—especially at the college level—and you are unhappy with the quality of the course textbook, say something.

Complaining to a publisher that their wurstmakers fell down on the job isn’t going to change the publisher’s process or business model; it will just lead to hiring different wurstmakers. But suggesting to the buyer that you switch to a different brand of sausage will catch the publisher’s attention. I guarantee it. Write a letter to whoever was responsible for choosing that textbook. Explain the problem with the quality, and suggest that a competing book from a different publisher be selected for the following year’s students. Send a copy of the letter to the president of the publishing company. Hit where it hurts—in the wallet.

--

About Dick Margulis:

Once you’ve finished the champagne, it’s time to switch hats and convert your opus into a product. Don’t know where to start? Freelance editor and typographer Dick Margulis can help.

Dick’s first editing job was chief copy editor for his junior high school newspaper–unpaid, of course–46 years ago. But his interest in typography predates that by a couple of years. He got serious about it in seventh grade.

In the intervening decades, Dick has been a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker–yes, all three–and, along the way, has had paying gigs as an advertising copywriter, a magazine columnist, a book editor, a technical writer, a marketing writer, an herbarist [sic], a Web designer, a compositor, a lithographer, and a few other things he’s already forgotten. But through it all, he has remained true to his passion of clear communication through careful editing and appropriate typographic design.

It’s All Online

2008-02-14T07:38:00.000-05:00

"It’s All Online
from The Writing Center by Midge Raymond

When it comes to selling books these days, it’s all about the Internet. Forbes’ Best of the Web features a few literary blogs that have gotten the attention of readers and have had “an impact on the way books are talked about and sold like never before.” Probably among the best features of such sites (like the popular Bookslut) are their informal styles and the fact that they discuss books not reviewed in the New York Times (yes, these books do exist, and are worth reading)."

--

For Internet-addicted writers…
from The Writing Center by Midge Raymond

This Emerging Writers Network blog is, refreshingly, geared specifically toward writers new to the marketplace. The site’s host, Dan Wickett, is out there for the Everywriter, claiming no qualifications other than “a long history of reading literary fiction, in large volumes, and the dedication to passing along my views on such, at as rapid a pace as I can, until the writers of such fiction get more recognition.” It’s well worth a visit, with links to author web sites, literary blogs, and literary magazines — plus news and contests.

Another fun site is 52stories, a site that features a new photo every week to serve as a writing prompt…a great way to overcome writer’s block as well as see your work online — 52stories will publish the stories received by its Friday evening deadline.

And, saving the best for last, San Diego Writers Online is now live! Stop by and join — this new forum will connect writers looking for read-and-critique groups, book clubs, reading and writing events around town, and lively online discussions.

Staples Ends Ties With Asia Pulp & Paper

2008-02-08T07:48:00.000-05:00

Green-Minded Staples Ends Ties With Asia Pulp & Paper: "Green-Minded Staples Ends Ties With Asia Pulp & Paper
Source: Copyright 2008, Wall Street Journal
Date: February 7, 2008
Byline: Tom Wright

"Office-supplies giant Staples Inc. has severed all contracts with Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd., one of the world's largest paper companies, in a move that shows concerns over forest destruction and global warming are having an impact on big U.S. paper buyers.

Until recently Staples sourced about 9% of its total paper supply from APP and used the paper for its own Staples-branded stock, mainly photocopy and office paper. Staples had stuck with the company even as other large paper sellers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Office Depot Inc., stopped buying from APP in recent years because of alleged environmental misdeeds. Staples had hoped that continuing to buy from the company would prompt APP to improve its environmental record."

Jim Cox Report: February 2008

2008-02-04T07:18:00.000-05:00

From: James Cox, Midwest Book Review
--

Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:

The mission statement for the Midwest Book Review is quite simple. Promote literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. I review 'how to' books for librarians in a regular monthly book review column called "The Library Science Shelf". This often includes books from the publishing arm of the American Library Association. I've recently received some information from freelance publicist Emily Howe on behalf of the ALA that should be noted not only by librarians, but by authors and publishers who in my opinion should regard libraries as an important part of their market. Here it is:

From: Emily Howe

Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 10:19 AM

To: 'mbr@execpc.com'

Subject: Hey, Jim: Library Information! :)

Hey, Jim (the multi-media library jackpot!),

It was great hearing a little about what you do. Here's the information about the FINRA grants to American libraries to provide unbiased investing information and money management resources to the American public. As you know, savings rates are down and credit card debt is up in many American families. There is a critical need for financial education for the American public.

People might not immediately think of their local library as the first place to go to receive this financial education, but The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA) recently announced 13 grants, totaling more than $853,000, to public libraries and library networks across the country, giving millions of library patrons and their families, greater access to unbiased investing information and resources.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at 212-245-0510 or at ehowe@pro-mediacommunications.com.

Sincerely,

Emily Howe (On Behalf of the ALA)

------------------------------------------------------

Smart Investing @ your library® to Provide Local Communities with Unbiased Investing Information and Resources

FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association Announce $853,000 in Grants to Libraries Nationwide

Washington, DC— The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA) today announced 13 grants, totaling more than $853,000, to public libraries and library networks across the country, giving millions of library patrons and their families, greater access to unbiased investing information and resources.

The grants are awarded as part of a new program, Smart Investing @ your library®, which is administered jointly by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of ALA, and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

"Libraries are an ideal conduit for individuals looking for unbiased information on investing," said FINRA Foundation Chairman Mary Schapiro, who also serves as FINRA's CEO. "It is our hope that library patrons from small towns to large cities have access to the resources they need to help them make important financial decisions."

Grants last from one to two years, although the projects are designed to be sustained following the conclusion of grant funding. ALA will provide ongoing assistance to the projects throughout the grant period, with a particular emphasis on helping libraries evaluate their progress and engage target audiences through effective marketing and outreach strategies.

"The ALA believes that libraries are places for self-help and lifelong learning," said ALA President Loriene Roy. "Investor education has an impact on people of all ages and economic circumstances, and the grants will assist libraries with the resources needed to provide unbiased investor education resources and programming in their communities."

Smart Investing @ your library® addresses the growing need for reliable investor education at the grassroots level. Increasingly, individuals are responsible for their own retirement planning and for navigating complex financial decisions virtually every day. Even knowing where to turn for quality information can be a challenge. Participating libraries will use available technology, along with more conventional approaches, to reach patrons at library facilities, at home via the Web, at the workplace, and at myriad community locations. Investor education opportunities and materials will be available to patrons at no cost.

The grantees cover urban, suburban and rural communities in equal measure. They will use grant funds to establish online and in-person programs, partner with community organizations, augment library collections, train staff and engage in promotional efforts so that diverse audiences have access to effective financial education resources. The grant recipients are:

• Alliance Library System, East Peoria, IL, $100,000; to offer onsite and Web-based workshops to provide investor information, establish a Smart Investing presence in the virtual world, and to operate a Smart Investing outreach van that will travel to community events and libraries throughout the Alliance's 14,000 square-mile service area in central Illinois.

• Ames Public Library, Ames, IA, $77,672, to partner with Iowa State University Extension to tailor online and on-site investor education classes for (Generation X, Boomers and the Silent Generation) and to train public service librarians on the use of investing information tools and databases.

• Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, WI, $73,370; to improve personal finance collections available at all library branches and online through the library's Web site, to provide advanced training to library staff in the use of print and electronic investment resources and to establish Smart Investing partnerships with organizations serving women, minorities and senior citizens.

• Naperville Public Library, Naperville, IL, $77,848; to create online video tutorials on the use of financial databases, improve the accessibility of investing research tools on the library's Web site, train adult services librarians in investment research strategies and provide high school and college students with money management skills in preparation for financial independence.

• Natrona County Public Library, Casper, WY, $17,600; to provide a five-part investor education series for young adults, host inter-generational community forums on retirement preparedness and augment the library's collections on personal finance and investing.

• Newton Free Library, Newton, MA, $46,100; to sponsor a sustainable, inter-generational retirement planning club for women in partnership with community organizations and to train reference librarians on financial literacy in partnership with the Boston College Center for Retirement Research.

• Orange County Library District, Orlando, FL, $96,360; to organize an eight-part bilingual series on basic investing themes for Hispanic families, to provide investor education video-on-demand for library patrons and staff and to create a bilingual "eGuide" on personal finance for users of the library's Web site.

• Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, CA, $60,000; to organize an extensive lunchtime lecture series that provide information to investors and moderated book groups (with concurrent youth activities) for professional women ages 20 to 64.

• Schaumburg Township District Library, Schaumburg, IL, $31,000; to produce and market an investor education portal for the library, inclusive of videos introducing teen and adult patrons to investing-related library collections and reference services; and to create a traveling multimedia exhibit (and share it with other Illinois libraries) that will provide a high-impact visual lesson about investing.

• Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, Rochester, MN, $99,830; to partner with public television station KSMQ to broadcast 13, half-hour segments entitled Financial Connections in rural and small-town communities, with corresponding library-based programming and Web-based events and resources.

• Timberland Regional Library, Tumwater, WA, $99,044; to produce, market and distribute a multimedia series of Ten Minute Topics about investing in partnership with community television and the Service Corps of Retired Executives; to train information services librarians from 27 branch facilities throughout a 7,000 square-mile rural region; and to upgrade the investing collections available online and at each branch library.

• Winfield Public Library, Winfield, KS, $16,600; to employ a women-helping-women approach of providing educational and supportive services in a format that will encourage better saving and investing practices; to partner with the Chamber of Commerce in reaching out to women small business owners and respond to their learning needs; and to create a series of reference finding aids on investing topics, allowing library patrons to access quality resources efficiently.

• Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Youngstown, OH, $57,950; to partner with community agencies in undertaking a coordinated financial literacy initiative for the county's low- and moderate-income families, with a focus on Earned Income Tax Credit preparation assistance and helping parents save and invest for their children's education.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation supports innovative research and educational projects that give underserved Americans the knowledge, skills and tools necessary for financial success throughout life. To date, the FINRA Foundation has approved $14.7 million in grants and an additional $10.2 million in direct investor education programming. For details about grant programs and other FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit www.finrafoundation.org.

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. Created in 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and NYSE Member Regulation, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business — from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms; writing and enforcing rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.FINRA.org.

Established in 1876, the American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world. Its mission is "to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all." For more information, visit www.ala.org.

Emily Howe

Senior Account Supervisor

ehowe@pro-mediacommunications.com

Pro-Media Communications

244 5th Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10001

(212) 245-0510; (212) 245-1889 Fax; www.pro-mediacommunications.com

Now on to reviews of some new 'how to' titles for authors and publishers.

The Writing/Publishing Shelf

The Art Of The Poetic Line

James Longenbach

Publicity Department

Graywolf Press

2402 University Avenue, Suite 203, Saint Paul, MN 55114

9781555974886, $12.00 www.graywolfpress.org 1-651-641-0077

Poet and literary critic James Longenbach presents The Art Of The Poetic Line, a discussion of the function of the line in metered, rhymed, syllabic, and free-verse poetry. Drawing upon classic examples ranging from Shakespeare and Milton to Ashbery and Gluck, The Art of the Poetic Line demystifies ambiguous elements in creating poetry to evoke mood and experience. "Poems are poems because we want to listen to them. Some poems have a prominent argument; some poems don't. But all poems live or die on their capacity to lure us from their beginning to their ends by a pattern of sounds. This is why a poem we don't understand may seem wonderfully satisfying, and this is why a poem we understand all too well may also seem wonderfully satisfying. A poem may harness the power of meter, rhyme, syntax, and line to establish and disrupt a pattern of sounds, and a poem may with equal integrity reject the power of meter, rhyme, syntax, and line. But the poet needs to understand what she is rejecting as well as what she is harnessing." Highly recommended for poetry connoisseurs, and an absolute must-read for poets and would-be poets of all walks of life.

How To Publish Your Poetry

Helene Ciaravino

SquareOne Publishers

115 Herricks Road, Garden City Park, NY, 11040

0757000010, $15.95 www.squareonepublishers.com

Poetry is an especially difficult field in which to be published. An ideal instruction manual for aspiring poets seeking to have their poetry published, "How To Publish Your Poetry: A Complete Guide To Finding The Right Publishers For Your Work" by book editor, freelance writer, and published poet Helene Ciaravino has compiled a step-by-step 'how to' instruction manual that will materially assist the complete novice to publishing to have their poetry put into print and made available to as large a readership as possible. Writers of poetry seeking publication will be able to maximize their chances for becoming published; will learn how to create an effective submission package; avoid common mistakes in their attempt to become published; learn how to craft a cover letter for their manuscript that will attract the attention of acquisition editors; utilize a simple but practical seven-step system for becoming published; minimize the time, effort, and financial costs of becoming published; take advantage of available resources for the aspiring poet; learn about a diversity of outlets for poetry; and benefit from honing their skills at the craft of writing poetry. Of special note is what Helene Ciarvaino has to say about self-publishing with respect to poetry. Especially recommended for academic and community library Writing & Publishing reference collections, anyone contemplating becoming a published poet should give "How To Publish Your Poetry" a very careful reading. It is a veritable gold mine of practical, useful, time-tested information, ideas, and instructions.

Bylines: 2008 Writer's Desk Calendar

Sylvia Forbes

Sylvia Snowflake Press

PO box 522, Fayette, MO 65248

9781933509044, $13.95 www.bylinescalendar.com

I first became aware of Sylvia Forbes desk calendars for writers last year when I reviewed the 2007 edition of "Bylines". Now aspiring and practicing writers and authors have available to them the new "Bylines: 2008 Writer's Desk Calendar" as an indispensable and invaluable work-a-day reference that will provide useful daily structure for achieving their writing goals and ambitions. Enhanced with the inclusion of literary holidays to celebrate, goal planning suggestions, monthly task lists, pages for conference notes, listings of author birthdays, and extra pages for note taking such as marketing tips and email addresses, this new 2008 edition has been expanded to include a reproducible submission tracker form specifically designed for novice authors and professional freelancers seeking to keep track of manuscript and book proposal submissions to publishers; pages for phone numbers and for tracking writing expenses, plus fifty-three new inspirational and thoughtful essays by successful writers. Simply stated, the "Bylines: 2008 Writer's Desk Calendar" is enthusiastically recommended as the single most practical, utilitarian, and motivational resource any aspiring or practicing writer could have.

Webster's Business Writing Basics

Editors of Merriam-Webster

Federal Street Press

25-13 Old Kings Highway North, #277, Darien, CT 06820

1892859270, $9.98 www.federalstreetpress.com 1-877-886-2830

Webster's Business Writing Basics is a no-nonsense, easy-to-use handbook, self-improvement guide, quick reference, and all-around practical resource for business writers of all venues. From fifty different sample professional letters, to a straightforward handbook of grammar, style, and punctuation guidelines, tips on how to effectively use email in business, "netiquette" fundamentals, and much more, Webster's Business Writing Basics is enthusiastically recommended for anyone in or aspiring to join today's modern workforce. An especially invaluable reference for businesspeople who just graduated from college (the scholarly tone of most college writings differs from the brevity necessary to business writing), and businesspeople who may have learned English as a second language.

The Writer's Journey

Christopher Vogler

Michael Wiese Productions

3940 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, #1111, Studio City, CA 91604

9781932907360, $26.95 www.mwp.com 1-800-833-5738

Originally published in October 1998, "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers by Christopher Vogler is now available in an updated and expanded third edition and continues to justifiably lay claim to being one of the most relied upon and influential instructional reference works for aspiring writers -- especially screenwriters. Drawing from the late Joseph Campbell's groundbreaking work, Vogler explores the historic and fundamental relationship between modern storytelling and classical mythology, and in the process reveals a set of useful myth-inspired storytelling paradigms, as well as step-by-step guidelines to plot and character development. This newest edition of a writer's reference classic includes a revised chapter that looks back on the 'Star Wars' phenomenon and an analysis of all six of the feature films as an epic on the theme of father-son relationships. There are new illustrations and diagrams providing additional perspectives to mythic principles. Of special note is the final chapter 'Trust the Path', an inspiring call to adventure for those aspiring writers seeking to discover themselves through their writing. A basic component of any personal, professional, academic, or community library basic writing reference collection, "The Writer's Journey" will now be of benefit to a whole new generation of movie executives, screenwriters, playwrights, literary critics, academic scholars, writers of fiction and non-fiction, students of pop culture, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the adaptation of ancient myth to contemporary storytelling.

The Complete Guide To Writing Science Fiction

Dave A. Law & Darin Park, editors

Dragon Moon Press

c/o Hades Publications Inc.

PO Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 2L7

www.completeguidetowriting.com

9781896944395, $24.95 www.dragonmoonpress.com

A comprehensive, deftly edited, 311-page 'how to' instruction guide for writing in the science fiction genre and any of its many subgenres, "The Complete Guide To Writing Science Fiction: Volume One" is a collection of superbly presented essays and articles by knowledgeable and successful writers ranging from Piers Anthony, to Orson Scott Card, to Tina Morgan. Beginning with Darin Park's 'Timeline: A History of Science Fiction', there are specific chapters dealing with the science and technology in science fiction, world building, the creating of aliens, the use of humor and drama, writing graphic novels in the genre, and even what to do with your science fiction short story or novel once it is written. Whether an aspiring writer yearning to break into science fiction, or even an experienced author with some publication credits in the genre, "The Complete Guide To Writing Science Fiction" will prove to be invaluable reading and instructive reference.

Beyond The Internet

Barbara A. Chernow

Bernan Press

4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391

9781598881738, $19.95 www.bernanpress.com 1-800-865-3457

"Beyond The Internet: Successful Research Strategies" by Barbara A. Chernow (a career encyclopedist, researcher and reference book editor who founded Chernow Editorial Services, Inc. specializing in producing professional books for a variety of publishers) is a critically important instructional reference book for aspiring authors, as well as anyone else engaged in a research project of any kind. Relying solely on the internet for acquiring information will prove to be inadequate because while the internet is a valuable research tool, the majority of documents and resources in the collections of libraries and archives have not been digitalized and made for internet access. Therefore writers and authors who must research their material need to be able to utilize all available resources at their disposal. "Beyond The Internet" was written for just that purpose and covers all the elements and factors relevant to the research process for best results. Thoroughly 'user friendly' itself, "Beyond The Internet" should be considered essential reading for all aspiring authors and is a core addition to any professional, academic, and community library Research Reference collection.

The Writer Within You

Charles Jacobs

Caros Books

16 Pinecrest Drive, Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677

Atlas Book Distributors

30 Amberwood Parkway, Ashland, OH 44805

9780979363603, $19.95 carosbooks@gmail.com 1-800-537-6727

Specifically written to be of value to retirees and other senior citizens, "The Writer Within You: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing And Publishing In Your Retirement Years" by author, editor, and publishing consultant Charles Jacobs provides the aspiring author with practical, detailed, useful and relevant information and guidance on how to write books and articles in six different genres, select the best publisher for a specific book and market, and how to promote their finished work. All of these principles and procedures are relevant for writers of any age, but are of specific utility to those ages 55 and older who have a wealth of life and career experiences to draw from in what they choose to write. While "The Writer Within You" is a stand-alone, single-volume, comprehensive instruction manual whose chapters cover becoming a writer, writing your book, publishing your book, marketing your book, marketing your book, writing and placing your articles, writing and promoting on the internet, and commercial writing. It should also be noted that Jacobs has created a retirement writing website at http://www.retirement-writing.com; plus a Retirement Writing Blog at http://www.retirement-writing.com/blog. You can even download a free sample chapter from the book at http://www.retirement-writing.com/press_room. If you are a senior who wants to try your hand at writing books and/or articles, the begin with a careful reading of Charles Jacobs' "The Writer Within You".

A Book Is Born

Nancy C. Cleary, et al.

Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc.

15115 Highway 36, Deadwood, OR, 97430

97819332279504, $24.00 www.wymacpublishing.com

The collaborative effort of Nancy C. Cleary and twenty-four published authors, "A Book Is Born" reveals what it is really like to earn a living as a writer. A after a brief foreword and introduction, "A Book Is Born" is divided into two main sections: Part One - '24 Mom Authors Tell All' in which the contributing authors provided informative examples of going through pre-publication work, author platform-building, pitching manuscripts and story ideas to prospective publishers, post-publication publicity and marketing demands upon the author, and even the 'post-partum'-like depression that afflicts many authors after their book is finished, in print, and available to the reading public. Part Two - 'The Secret to Publishing' is actually a writing/publishing curriculum of instruction complete with visual examples for every step of the publishing (and getting published) process. Of special note in this do-it-yourself curriculum for aspiring authors are the Four Principles every writer should understand and apply; the Universal Laws which are essential to a book being written; and Insider Secrets on the four publishing options available to writers -- and determining which particular one is best suited for them. "A Book Is Born" is especially 'user friendly' reading and an invaluable addition to every aspiring writer's reference collection and professional reading list.

Now for some Q&A from the Midwest Book Review email box:

In a message dated 10/26/2007 4:41:46 P.M. Central Daylight Time, PrevMeasures writes:

I am writing to you as a PMA member who has sent two novels to Midwest Book Review in the last year, neither of which has been reviewed by MBR so far. I'm wondering whether you can tell me what went wrong. We read carefully all the material on your website about what to send and did our best to comply with the guidelines, sending review copies and complete publicity kits for each book. Allan N. Press, Ph.D. -- PMI Books

Dear Allan:

I'm happy to respond because you did nothing wrong, nothing amiss. Both of your titles arrived with the appropriate accompanying paperwork and passed the initial screening process with no difficulty.

The problem lay solely in the dilemma facing all of the small presses that submit their books to the Midwest Book Review. That problem is that, because we are so well established and known throughout the publishing community as being particularly friendly to self-published authors, POD published authors, and small press publishers, we are inundated every month with more than 2,000 titles -- and have a roster of 76 reviewers to try to cope with those kinds of numbers.

Even so, we are able to collectively generate roughly 600 to 700 reviews a month. That's with our reviewers averaging about 9 or 10 book reviews each. Some only come in with one or two, a few come in with 20 or 30 or more, but the collective average for book reviews each month ranges somewhere between that 600 to 700 figure.

Even so, that also means that an average of 1300 to 1400 books never make the final cut and obtain review assignments. Not because they were flawed or inferior, but because there were simply too many of them for our available resources to handle.

So why, when the odds are stacked so highly against them, do so many folks try their luck and submit their books to the Midwest Book Review?

1. Because the odds against them getting reviewed elsewhere are even higher.

2. Because we have a reputation of trying our best to accommodate "the little guy".

3. Because we do succeed about one-third of the time.

And for those one-third who make it and get reviewed, that review hits what amounts to a multimedia book review jackpot.

In addition to the review appearing in one or more of our nine monthly book review publications, it is also tagged to Amazon and other online databases, archived on the Midwest Book Review website for five years, posted to thematically appropriate Internet discussion groups and websites, and is faithfully forwarded to the publisher for use in their own promotion and marketing efforts.

There are three or four categories of books that have a particularly tough time because of the sheer numbers of competing titles in their particular areas. They are (in no particular order):

1. Poetry

2. Fiction

3. Biography/Memoir

4. Self-Help

Still, just look at the review columns devoted to these particular subjects and you'll find that every month some dozen or more such titles in each of these categories do make it through and get reviewed.

Because yours is not an uncommon experience, I will be sharing this correspondence in an upcoming "Jim Cox Report" for the benefit of other publishers who might have the same questions you did.

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 generous folk decided to say thank you and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating postage stamps this past month:

Maly M. Kiendl

Robert J. Noonan

Morrie Warshawski

Lisa Earle McLeod

Megusta Publishing

Gerard L. Cullen -- "Areozoo"

Peter F. Crowley -- "Outdoor Follies"

Shelley Parsons -- "Quieting the Storm"

Phyllis Collmann -- "Rose's Triumphant Return"

Donald P. Meyer -- "Jennifer's Plan"

Kelly Lyons -- "One Million Men"

Vivek -- "Lies, Lies and More Lies"

Jeanie Okimoto -- "Winston of Churchill"

Tim Bramlett -- "Sharkey Explores the Unknown"

Ok Soon Schroeder -- "Journey from the Han River"

Bob Gebelein -- Omdega Press

Larry Uri -- Storywright Books

Beth Boyrs -- StarMist Books

E. Andrew Martonyi -- Schoolside Press

Deltina Hay -- Dalton Publishing

Deana Riddle -- Community Press

Lee Hall -- Babbling Books

Ron Kaplan -- Kapland Records

Cathy Feldman -- Blue Point Books

Jocelyn Munroe -- Big Tomato Press

Sylvia Forbes -- Snowflake Press

Linda Austin -- Moonbridge Publications

Wright Giles -- RiverHouse Books

Tolya L. Thompson -- Savor Publishing House

Stacy Kannenberg -- Cedar Valley Publishing

Chris Davis -- Lighthearted Press

Yossi Leverton -- Hachai Publishing

Pat mcDonough -- Terra Sancta Press

Elizabeth Waldman Frazier -- Waldmania!

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!

Jim Cox

Midwest Book Review

278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575

http://www.midwestbookreview.com

Author Rights: Using the SPARC Author Addendum to secure your rights as the author of a journal article (SPARC)

2008-02-04T06:18:00.000-05:00

"KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AS THE AUTHOR

* The author is the copyright holder.
As the author of a work you are the copyright holder unless and until you transfer the copyright to someone else in a signed agreement.

* Assigning your rights matters.
Normally, the copyright holder possesses the exclusive rights of reproduction,
distribution, public performance, public display, and modification of the
original work. An author who has transferred copyright without retaining these
rights must ask permission unless the use is one of the statutory exemptions in
copyright law."
--
What is SPARC? http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/index.html

"SPARC ®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change. Its pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communication models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries. Action by SPARC in collaboration with stakeholders – including authors, publishers, and libraries – builds on the unprecedented opportunities created by the networked digital environment to advance the conduct of scholarship. Leading academic organizations have endorsed SPARC."

Print Me Something Yummy!

2008-02-02T11:21:00.000-05:00

from: Gail http://www.business-strategies-etc.com/2008/print-me-something-yummy/

Print Me Something Yummy!
Monday, January 14, 2008 | Posted to New/Unusual Technology

Sugar SculptureAdd one more to the category of "New or Unusual
Printing Technology" with CandyFab! Using a type of 3-D prototyping -
printing in three dimensions with inkjet deposition technology - you
can print any thing from candy treats to sophisticated sculptures out
of sugar. The image at the left uses a design from a sculptor named
Bathsheba Grossman; see her work at www.bathsheba.com.

Simple Sugar SculptureSo how does it work? Rapid prototyping machines
(3-D printers) are a relatively new form of manufacturing that builds
objects in three dimensions by carefully depositing materials drop by
drop, layer by layer using a form of inkjet deposition. With the right
set of materials and a geometric blueprint, you can fabricate complex
objects that would normally take special resources, tools and skills
if produced using conventional manufacturing techniques.

To read all about it go to CandyFab.org.

The Kailing Name in History

2008-02-01T11:24:00.000-05:00

Data-driven Publishing - Amazon offers “The Kailing Name in History” | Gail Nickel-Kailing | Business Strategies Etc. | Marketing, Analysis, Consulting | Seattle, WA: "Data-driven Publishing - Amazon offers “The Kailing Name in History”
Monday, January 28, 2008 |

Gail wrote: The Kailing Name in HistoryLast night, Amazon offered me a book I was sure to find interesting: “The Kailing Name in History.” For only $29.95!

OK, you say, so why were you searching for your own name on Amazon? Gosh, don’t we all Google our own name or search other online databases?

By combining variable imaging, a dynamic web page, variable data printing, and print-on-demand, Amazon is demonstrating the power of “cross-media” in merchandising customized books."

The Kailing Name in History is a customized book offering a unique blend of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary about the Kailing name. The book is just one of an entire series of family name books in the Our Name in History collection. Each book in the collection is printed on demand and is compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world’s largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.com. This particular book follows the Kailing family name through history and makes the perfect gift for your family members and anyone interested in the Kailing name. In the book you’ll find out about where people with the Kailing last name originated. You may discover the countries and ports they left behind, the ships they sailed and more. You’ll get a better idea of where people sharing the Kailing name settled and where they may reside today in the United States, Canada, England and other countries. You’ll get all this information and much more in your Kailing family name book. If your last name is not Kailing, then check out our collection of nearly 300,000 family name books to find other available names in the series.

Actually, they could have used at least 3 or 4 fewer insertions of my name and still have been as effective. It starts to look like mail merge gone bad!

Dave's Digital Scrapbooking Discussion Group

2008-01-26T06:15:00.000-05:00

Hello Dave Mainwaring

Congratulations: you've successfully created your Google Group, Dave's Digital
Scrapbooking Discussion Group.

Here are the essentials:

* Group name: Dave's Digital Scrapbooking Discussion Group
* Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/daves-digital-scrapbooking?hl=en
--

Scrapbooking got a shot in the arm more than thirty years ago when Marielen Christensen of Spanish Fork scrapbooked her family's memories. She co-authored and published a how-to book, "Keeping Memories Alive". Now in the 21st century Journal writing and digital-scrapbooking are in vogue for preserving memories.

During the past decade the printing industry has seen light speed changes in publishing technologies. Inexpensive high quality digital scanners, home PC's, and remote publishing over the Internet make it easy for scrapbookers with no graphic arts or printing experience to produce very high quality bound alblums and scrapbooks.

David Lewis offers state of the art online Digital Scrapbooking

Top 10 Blogs for Writers

2008-01-13T07:15:00.000-05:00

The Writing Center » Blog Archive » Top 10 Blogs for Writers: "Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers has just listed his picks for 2007’s top ten blogs for writers — a great resource for copywriters and bloggers, and particularly for freelance writers (including beginners)."

Bar Screen | Publishing | BarCasting

2008-01-01T06:39:00.000-05:00

Cambridge firms drawing on digital graffiti - The Boston Globe: "Making the leap to the big screen
2 Cambridge companies let cellphones go public with messages, photos

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | January 1, 2008

Flat-screen digital graffiti boards displaying text messages and photos sent from cellphones are beginning to give the virtual world a foothold in pubs, clubs, and beyond."

"... new technologies allow screens to connect to the Internet, the power for advertisers and content makers expands - content can become local, user-generated, or even tailored to the crowd watching a given screen."

"3D Printing Methods and Applications" internet discussion group on Google Groups™

2007-12-13T17:36:00.000-05:00

3D inkjet printers build physical models from computer-aided design (CAD) data. Multiple parts can be printed (manufactured) simultaneously 3D printers operate like a classics desktop inkjet printers. Some systems offer 24-bit color capabilities just like a document printer. 3D printer systems revolutionized the production of pieces having complex geometries and small, detailed features.
You can buy 3D printers that operate in any standard office environment with no need for a dedicated operator.

Depending on the materials deposited through the inkjet(s) you can manufacture production parts for low volume production runs, test CAD designs, make one-of-a-kind parts, build all sorts of architectural models and related components without having to first create molds and then casting parts.

When the printing industry was transitioning from shooting film and burning printing plates the Internet provided the Computer To Plate Pressroom for printers and manufacturers to share new methods, workflows and made the inkjet printer acceptable as a method to proof high quality color images prior to going to press. The 3D printer will be a desk-top model shop replacing the shop model makers.

We have launched the "3D Printing Methods and Applications" internet discussion group on Google Groups™. Join today, share your ideas, projects, ask questions 24x7, meet your peers. Membership is FREE,

Matt Beals launches Premedia Forum

2007-12-13T06:55:00.000-05:00

"Matt Beals Consultant Enfocus Certified Trainer Markzware Recognized Trainer (206) 201-2320 - Main (720) 367-3869 - eFax mailto:matt@mattbeals.com

Matt wrote:

Friends don't let friends write HTML email

Come visit http://www.premediaworld.com where I am forming a new online forum with three partners. We're tailoring it to the premedia professionals to exchange tips, trick, how-to's and other relevant information. Not just for print/prepress but other forms of premedia as well.

You've pretty much got everything you need right there!!

Fabbers (a.k.a 3D Printers)

2007-12-12T20:36:00.000-05:00

"Fab@Home is a website dedicated to making and using fabbers - machines that can make almost anything, right on your desktop. This website provides an open source kit that lets you make your own simple fabber, and use it to print three dimensional objects. You can download and print various items, try out new materials, or upload and share your own projects. Advanced users can modify and improve the fabber itself. Fabbers (a.k.a 3D Printers or rapid prototyping machines) are a relatively new form of manufacturing that builds 3D objects by carefuly depositing materials drop by drop, layer by layer. Slowly but surely, with the right set of materials and a geometric blueprint, you can fabricate complex objects that would normally take special resources, tools and skills if produced using conventional manufacturing techniques. A fabber can allow you to explore new designs, email physical objects to other fabber owners, and most importantly - set your ideas free. Just as MP3s, iPods and the Internet have freed musical talent, we hope that blueprints and fabbers will democratize innovation."

Print Custom Artifical Bones - 3D Printer Recreates Skeletons

2007-12-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

"Researchers at the Tissue Engineering Department at the University of Tokyo Hospital and venture capitalist, Next 21, use specialized 3D inkjet printers to print custom artificial bones for implantation. Here's the process used to make an artificial bone. First, the patient's actual bone structure is scanned with X-ray and CT scanners. The resulting data is combined to make a three-dimensional computer model of the bone; a set of cross-sections is sent to the special 3D inkjet printer."

ptonline.com - 3D Printers - Rapid Prototyping - 08/04

2007-12-12T17:44:00.000-05:00

Close-Up On Technology - 3D Printers Lead Growth of Rapid Prototyping - 08/04: "The five 3D printer makers include Z Corp., which now offers three models of 3D printers, including its flagship ZPrinter 310; and Stratasys, which offers two versions of its Dimension 3D printer. 3D Systems, which sells both the widely known high-end SLA (stereolithography) and SLS (selective laser sintering) RP systems, launched its first “true 3D” printer, called InVision, in late 2003. Objet Geometries in Israel supplies the higher-end Eden 333 PolyJet 3D printer in North America through Stratasys."

TribalSketch for online scrapbook design and layout

2007-12-11T07:27:00.000-05:00

The online Scrapbooking site http://www.photoalbum.com/ is using TribalSketch for their online scrapbook design and layout. Users can upload images of all types and create beautiful multi-page scrapbooks right in their browser.

Continuous learning is key

2007-12-10T07:05:00.000-05:00

Continuous learning is key
--
Bob Dale wrote: I am sad to announce that this will be my last estimating column for Graphic Monthly. I am proud to have been associated with this fine publication since I started writing this column 10 years ago.

The key message that I have tried to convey is the need for continuous learning. If you arrive at work, keep your head down and work hard without learning something every day, you will find in a few years that you have been left behind. I once did a study of a conventional prepress department with 16 professionals who did great work. But it quickly became clear that their knowledge level was at 30% of where it needed to be to stay current in today’s world of electronic prepress.
Continuous learning does not always mean that you have to attend night school for 13 weeks for years to get a certificate, although that is an excellent way of learning. Continuous learning comes from reading magazines like Graphic Monthly, and participating in trade associations like the Craftsmen Club, which is open to all, regardless of whether there is an active club in your community. Visit IAPHC.org for details.
Attending trade shows should be more than getting posters and free samples. Seminars, demonstrations and meetings are all great ways of learning. Attending seminars, and participating in online forums are great ways of keeping current without investing a significant amount of time. Formal designation and training records are important and should be tracked and kept in your employee file and included on your resume.
Thank you, Graphic Monthly readers for allowing me the wonderful opportunity to stay current on technology, process and management issues and to share these experiences and thoughts with you.
I leave you with a quote from Dave Mainwaring, who leads excellent forums on PrintPlanet.com:

“To succeed, stay focused.
Do what you do best,
up-skill, prepare for
new challenges,
make time for learning”

Bob Dale is president of Pilot Graphic Management Services Inc., a management-consulting and custom-training company. He is also on the executive of the Toronto Club of Printing House Craftsmen. Bob can be reached at (416) 410-4096, or via e-mail at pilotmanagement@rogers.com

Printable Technologies to Demonstrate Integrated Marketing ... - Direct_Mail, Direct_Marketing, Marketing

2007-12-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

Printable Technologies to Demonstrate Integrated Marketing ... - Direct_Mail, Direct_Marketing, Marketing: "

Google will demonstrate Integrated Marketing Solutions including Personalized Cross-Media Direct Marketing and Collateral Management Solutions, at NCDM 2007, Las Vegas, from December 10 through December 12. Printable Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of Integrated Marketing, Web to Print, and Personalized Direct Marketing Solutions. To align with these consumers, marketers are rapidly adopting new online marketing channels and integrating them into their campaigns. The cross-media solutions powered by Printable Technologies take advantage of the vast amount of data available to present personalized messages that make marketing more effective. Printable Technologies is a world leader providing Integrated Marketing Solutions including Cross Media Variable Data Publishing (VDP), One to One Marketing Campaigns, and Web to Print solutions, to corporate enterprises, creative agencies, and the graphic arts industry. The complete marketing campaign execution and tracking solution from Printable Technologies"

MGI Digital Graphic Technology, marketing agreement with Xerox Corporation

2007-12-04T05:50:00.000-05:00

IVRY/SEINE, France (Dec. 3, 2007) -- MGI Digital Graphic Technology, the

multi-substrate (paper and plastic) digital press manufacturer, announced

today that they have reached a marketing agreement with Xerox Corporation

(Europe). Under the terms of this agreement, MGI will provide the UVarnish*

off-line infrared and UV coater as a complement to Xerox's finishing product

portfolio.

MGI, based in Paris, has 25 years of experience in designing, manufacturing,

marketing and supporting the worldwide digital market segment.

Launched in 2007, the popular and successful UVarnish is the first and only

"push-button" UV coater available in the digital graphics market. Easy to

use and with the smallest footprint in the industry, the UVarnish is

designed to complement both digital and offset printed paper or plastic

substrates (paper coated and sealed plastic surfaces such as PVC or PET),

accommodating up to 2400 sheets per hour and sizes up to 36 x 52 cm (14 x 20

inches).

Other unique features of the UVarnish include an ultrasonic sensor to detect

and prevent double feeding, designed to protect personalized VDP sheets. The

UVarnish is also environmentally friendly, utilizing an ozone-free UV curing

technology. Depending on the type of substrate and intended application,

various varnish finishes are available, including matte, glossy and

pre-lamination varnish for plastic hot platen lamination. Optional

accessories for the UVarnish include a high capacity feeder and a high

capacity stacker.

This agreement is valid immediately in Europe and will allow the Xerox sales

force to offer the UVarnish in synergy with Xerox's state of the art color

For more information, please contact:

Michael Abergel

Executive Vice President, MGI USA

Phone: (321) 751-6755

Books don't just appear on the bookshelves by themselves.

2007-11-27T16:59:00.000-05:00

Mordy Golding wrote:

Books don't just appear on the bookshelves by themselves. Thanks to all the folks at Sams Publishing, and to Betsy Brown, Jon Steever, Krista Hansing, and Seth Kerney for their professional and untiring help in publishing this book. Special thanks to Kate Binder, who not only helped make sure this book was technically accurate, but offered valuable advice as well.

This book is a work that finds its words shaped from years of experience and friendship. Thanks to Sharon Steuer, Sandee Cohen, David Blatner, and Bert Monroy for your continued support.

There's no way that I could have possibly completed a project of this magnitude without the support from my friends at Adobe. While it's impossible to list everyone, there are some folks for which a blanket "thanks to everyone at Adobe" statement simply won't do. Thank you to Lydia Varmazis, Leon Brown, Will Eisley, Bob Schaffel, John Nack (congrats, Tiny Elvis!), Addy Roff, Kevin Connor, George Arriola, Ted Alspach, Paul Kim, Ron DiTorro, Lynn Grillo, Joe Smith, and Julieanne Kost.

I can't offer enough thanks to Dave Mainwaring and the entire membership of the Print Planet forums. It's a fun place to be, and I guarantee that I learn more from you guys than what you learn from me.

To the Wrotslavsky family, who welcomed me as one of their own over 12 years ago (and who still willingly admit to that fact today).

For all the times I asked him silly questions, like why the sky is blue, my father has forever earned the right to ask me how to create a mask in Photoshop (and other assorted technical support questions). My mother continues to serve as my role model for everything I do.

Of course, this book would not have been possible without the love and support of my wife, Batsheva, and my children, Chayala, Simcha Bunim, and Chavi. I'm one lucky man.

Mordy :)

The Truth About Bar Codes — Size Matters

2007-10-26T12:55:00.000-04:00

BOOK COVER DESIGN:
From: BookCoverDesigner: bookcoverdesigner@yahoo.ca
Posted to Publish-l forum 10/26/2007
http://bookcoverdesigner.typepad.com/

"Bar codes seem to be a never-ending point of contention. I frequently get eMails from clients about bar codes saying things like, 'it's too big. It's much bigger than the ones on the books I have here.' That's quite possible. Here's why: People often confuse UPC bar codes with Bookland EAN bar codes; since going to the 13-digit ISBN (Jan. 2007), bar codes have to be longer just to incorporate the extra numbers; most authors will now need to have the price embedded into the bar code, whereas this wasn't always necessary in the past. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has conveniently published the guidelines for bar codes on their site, and here's what they say: The Bookland EAN symbol, which always includes the 5-digit add-on, is 1' high x 2-3/16' wide at 100% magnification. At 80% magnification the overall size is approximately 13/16' high x 1-3/4' wide. Magnification may be any size between 80% and 200%. For offset printing it should not be necessary to print larger than 100%. (NOTE: Width is measured with a 3/32 inch 'quiet zone' on either side of bars. Height is measured from the top of the bars to the bottom of the numbers below the bars.)”"

"There is a crisis in print buying By Frank Romano October 26, 2007

2007-10-26T11:23:00.000-04:00

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page: "There is a crisis in print buying By Frank Romano October 26, 2007 -- This week Margie Dana asked the question 'Is there is a crisis in print buying?' and I am here to say there is. In less than a decade we have gone from print buying professionals fully supported by their organizations to production and design professionals who, by the way, also buy print. Printing buying is now ancillary to other jobs. There are 23,000 full-timers who buy print in the United States and they purchase about 70 percent of all print and packaging. Less than 10 percent have print buying in heir titles. Another 92,000 buyers are involved in varying degrees, but virtually everyone else in the nation buys print at some time—from imprinted holiday cards to posters seeking a lost pet."

Information about print buying is scant. The reason is that print buyers, like designers, do not congregate. It is hard to find them because there is no common communication medium. Those that can be found tend to be the really larger print buyers and their data may not be representative of the entire market. But there is hope.

On November 7 and 8 in Westford, MA, the 2nd annual Boston Print Buyers Conference will take place. It brings together print buyers from New England, across the U.S., and even a few international buyers. What is most interesting is that over one hundred buyers signed up for the Print Buyers Boot Camp on November 6th, a basic course in printing and print buying. This is now the must-attend conference for anyone who buys print. Go to www.bostonprintbuyers.com and check it out.

E-commerce is said to be re-inventing the printing business. But it is not as easy as it sounds. E-commerce companies want to automate the process of originating, specifying, estimating, bidding, scheduling, tracking, and managing print. Some of the sources of print welcome this. Some will continue to rely on the primary interface between buyer and seller: the sales representative. But, with the Internet, the customer is evolving into the sales person and the service person.

Complex and very complex jobs account for 60 percent of the revenue of the printing industry. An oversimplified workflow: one third prep and program, one third print, and one third finish. In other words, most printed products are complex because they use multiple steps in the printing process, and the more complex the product the more it needs a godfather (or godmother). What is scary is that many complex print jobs are often initiated without any consultation with the printer.

Thus, I contend that there is a crisis in print buying and the need to educate the latest generation of buyers is critical. Good buyers make good customers—and they also help to make printers better as well.

MegaSpirea's MailLiner

2007-09-19T06:08:00.000-04:00

"People were calling colleagues from the booth saying, 'You gotta see this!' Truth be told, I didn't make it back for a closer look, but after I opened the samples I'd been handed, the marvel of video on the web showed me this is definitely something you have to see. MegaSpirea's MailLiner 100 was one of the Must See 'ems, and Scott Gerschwer, VP of Marketing (the guy who stopped me on the floor) told me last Friday, people were calling colleagues from the booth saying, 'You gotta see this!' The MailLiner 100 addresses the need of service bureaus and data centers to combine envelopes and their contents with 100% accuracy. Instead of printing a document and putting it into an envelope, the system creates the envelope in-line and wraps it around the document. Using a continuous-feed printer (think InfoPrint, Kodak, Nipson, Océ, or Xerox) a document is printed and is immediately followed by an envelope, bearing address, postal indicia and relevant messaging. The MailLiner 100 does the slitting and trimming needed to separate the envelope and its contents, does the requisite scoring, folding, gluing, and marries the pieces back together, ready to mail. Cameras and bar codes further ensure accurate matching of mail piece and envelope. The machine runs at about 300 pages per minute and can put up to 5 pages in each envelope."

Graphic Arts in 2017...event featuring Dr. Joe Webb

2007-09-06T13:24:00.000-04:00

Hi - If you are going to Graph Expo or live in the Chicago area, I hope you will register to attend a special event featuring Dr. Joe Webb next week.

Last year, nearly 200 executives attended and the reviews were excellent. This year, Dr. Joe's presentation is entitled "Graphic Arts 2017: A Speculative Look at the Graphic Arts a Decade from Today". He will offer printing and publishing executives direction and insights relative to the future of print in a multichannel world.

Dr. Webb will also provide a 2008 economic outlook, both in terms of the printing industry and the general economy. A continental breakfast will be provided.

The event is Tuesday, (September 11) from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. in Room S106B, McCormick Place in Chicago in conjunction with Graph Expo. The event is free, thanks to the support of MAN Roland.

Seating is limited so please sign up today. Other WhatTheyThink.com editors and commentators will be in attendance as well. We hope to see you there.

More info - or register
http://members.whattheythink.com/home/ge07event.cfm

Kind Regards,
Randy Davidson, President
WhatTheyThink.com

World Digital Pub | Editor -Marketeer Conf. Oct 10-19

2007-09-04T07:15:00.000-04:00

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is planning to bring print and digital newspapers together with back-to-back conferences this October 17-19.

This October Digital will meetup with Print at back to back at conference put on by World Association of Newspapers. Attendees will discover array of strategies for digital content, advertising, digital rights management at The World Digital Publishing Conference along side The 10th Editor and Marketeer Conference which will be focusing on print, free newspapers, marketing, and circulation. There will be a keynote speech on the latest world press trends.

Details at http://www.wan-press.org/

"A VOCATION OF UNHAPPINESS [Courtesy Georges Simenon (1903-1985)]

2007-09-03T07:13:00.000-04:00

BookAngst 101:

Advancing the Notion of (...ahem...) Realistic Advances: "A VOCATION OF UNHAPPINESS [Courtesy Georges Simenon (1903-1985)] 'Writing is considered a profession, and I don't think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy.'"

Trade schools on the border

2007-07-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Trade schools on the border. My solution to needed skilled workers

John M. Henry
July 27th, 2007

The printer industry in the USA needs trained press operators and bindery workers. Many other trades are having the same issues. The government so far has been only been in a political fight, not solving this issue. Forget training more designers, you can find one working at every coffee shop, they are like actors.

I have one solution that will take the whole issue one step forward. It is time to start building trade schools on the southern border. Fill them up, document them and send them to us…These trade schools would be like a dorm or as my college was a like, a low security jail Workers would stay and train in for 3-9 months as they are processed through and learn skills. If they do not have the IQ, fail out, criminal records, drug issues or cannot find and hold a job ship them back. After 3 years with a good work history and clean records, put them on the path to citizenship. I believe people who have the drive to walk and risk their life to get here, would have the drive to be good press or bindery worker.

I also have no problem saying if you have no needed skills, do not work hard or have a criminal record, you have no place in the USA. Of course political persecution and other aspects will allow you in the USA by other means. My solution is only for filling needed workers with needed skills. The way many illegal workers are taken advantage of by business today is unethical and criminal. We need to provide ways for the workers our industry needs, to come and work here. Away that will also be legal and not allow the workers to be abused. The current methods of doing this are far to limited, costly and time consuming. So we need to build trade schools on the border.

"New Periodicals Rates Go into Effect July 15 – What’s a Printer or Publisher to Do?

2007-07-16T07:15:00.000-04:00

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page:

By Gail Nickel-Kailing, Senior WTT Editor

July 16, 2007 -- The new postage rates are clearly “top of mind” for printers, publishers, and mailers. The WhatTheyThink Postal Rates and Reform Webinar broadcast on May 15 drew more than 506 registrants seeking more information to help them offset or avoid new postage rates"

{excerpts from article} http://members.whattheythink.com/specialreports/070716gail.cfm

{Members get to read the full article, plus a free trial membership is provided so anyone can read the articles.}

Rate and Preparation Changes
The PRC recommendation for Periodicals included many changes that reflect cost-based rating. The biggest change in the rate design is moving from the traditional pound and piece rates to bundle and container rates.

Pound Advertising and Editorial Rates - The pound rates were reduced for both advertising and editorial rates. Editorial pound rates offer reductions for varying destination entry levels in order to promote drop-shipment of lower advertising content publications.
Piece Rates - Piece rates include new machineable and non-machineable rates for flats. Also, the basic rate category was replaced with MxADC and ADC rate categories, similar to Standard Mail.
Piece Discounts - With the exception of the non-advertising piece discount, the piece discounts for destination entry, all pallets and co-palletized products were eliminated.
Container Rate - Container rates were established to replace flat rate for all pallets and sacks. The rate is based on a combination of the container type (pallet or sack), container sort level and containers point of entry.
Bundle Rates - Bundle rates are going into effect based on the presort level of each mailing bundle.

Opportunities to Avoid Postal Increases
There are several ways publishers can mitigate – or even avoid completely – the upcoming rate increases. By participating in a number of “work share” programs, publishers can prepare mail to qualify for additional discounts and cost savings. Let’s take a look at a few terms that describe various cost-avoidance programs.

Co-binding or online co-mailing - a printer binds a publication or catalog in the same bindery line at the same time as another company’s and combines their two mailings into one. This process requires that the publications be essentially the same size and have the block for addressing in the same place.

Co-mailing or offline co-mailing - the process of merging finished publications and/or catalogs that have already been bound into one mail stream. The co-mailing process combines address files for all participants into a single mail file that is presorted before the addresses are inkjetted on the covers. Then individual finished pieces are sorted into presorted bundles for which they would not have qualified in the past. Presorted bundles receive greater USPS discounts than unsorted bundles.

Commingling – a term that also refers to the process of merging multiple strings of mail into a single mail stream. Commingling is often used to refer to letter-sized mailings while co-mailing is used for periodical or catalog mailings.

Co-palletization - consolidates the physical bundles of mail, which have already been addressed and presorted, onto pallets. Mail that has been bundled onto pallets prior to its entry into the USPS system is discounted. Mailers qualify for greater postage discounts based on both the number of pieces that previously would NOT have been on pallets and in the number of pieces that move from sacks to pallets.

Drop-shipping - saves money on postal rates by moving the mail closer to its final destination before it is deposited with the USPS. Mailers can save additional postage costs avoiding the USPS zoned structure and taking advantage of destination entry discounts; the savings more than offsets the shipping costs.

Who Can Help?
Major printers such as RR Donnelley, Quad/Graphics, Quebecor World, Banta, Fry Communications, and others offer co-mailing services to their own printing customers and will take finished periodicals from smaller printers to add to their distribution pools.

For the first time, there is now a third-party distribution company serving small to medium printers that produce short run and small circulation magazines and catalogs. This year, Print and Mailing Solutions, LLC, a division of ALG WorldWide Logistics launched an independent co-mailing service.

{content snipped}
Ms. Nickel-Kailing is also an author, journalist, and nationally recognized speaker regarding printing and mailing, including web-to-print, variable data printing, and direct mail. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire WI. She can be reached at gail@business-strategies-etc.com.

Welcome to DimBulb!

2007-07-12T06:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome to DimBulb!

Blog address:

http://dimbulbs.blogspot.com/

Endless Loop Archival Hardware

2007-07-12T05:28:00.000-04:00

Endless Loop Archival Hardware: "With OctaTrak Tape Technology, one tape can last FOREVER!!

Bet you thought you'd heard the last of 8-track tapes when you pulled that 750 feet of Steppenwolf out of your Chevy van in 1970! But now it's back, and it's not just a blast from the past, it's the Wave of the Future!

Just slip in one of our patented OctaTrak tapes, and you're good for all the revision cycles you can stand! And with our optional DualAction AudioGraphics Tape Unit, when you're sick of softening wrinkles around Liz Taylor's eyes or making that sky 'just a little bluer' when it's already 100% cyan, just slip in your old Iron Butterfly tape, and it's In-a-Gadda-da-Vida as loud as you can stand it!"

ThinkPlate Specs

2007-07-12T05:26:00.000-04:00

ThinkPlate Specs: "ThinkPlate employs a daring new technology perfected by Russian psionic researchers. A harmonic charge generated by an artist's visual cortex is used to create a matrix capable of exposing any digital-ready plate. Our competitor uses an inferior 'stream-of-consciousness' approach with a narrow serial bandwidth that fails under the load of complex conceptual graphics. And with upcoming improvements like our MindWander Buffer, it's only going to get better!"

words / myth / ampers & virgule: News flash: widows are older than orphans

2007-07-11T07:51:00.000-04:00

words / myth / ampers & virgule:

News flash: widows are older than orphans: "But the more interesting question that arose is this: When did the term orphan first enter typsetting argot? A few of us have been looking, and so far, we’ve found widow defined in references from before 1980, but we’ve found no references to orphan that old. In theory, those of us involved in this discussion are old enough to remember when we first heard the term, but we’re also old enough to imagine we heard it many years earlier than we actually heard it.

Further, looking at examples of fine printing from before 1970, pages may be devoid of widows but there seems to have been no effort to eliminate orphans, suggesting that nobody gave the notion much thought before the advent of computerized page makeup.

So here’s your challenge: If you can find a printed definition of or reference to orphans in a typographic context from before 1990, respond in the comments with the citation. There are at least three people who are wasting time on this question, and we’d all like to be doing something more productive. Earliest citation wins a lifetime half-price subscription to this blog. (That’s lifetime of the blog, just to be clear.)"

posted by Dick Margulis at 6:34 PM 2007/07/ to his blog: http://ampersandvirgule.blogspot.com/

Designing an eBook Reader at PrintCEO Blog

2007-06-20T10:57:00.000-04:00

Designing an eBook Reader at PrintCEO Blog: "Designing an eBook Reader
Posted by Adam Dewitz on June 18, 2007

A YouTube user has posted a design proposal for an Apple-inspired ebook reader based on the Apple iPod and iTunes. The proposed reader uses dual-screens to mimic a printed book.

Would a design like this, and its incorporation into the successful Apple iPod product line make an eBook reaser more desirable?"

TÜV Product Service Industry News - 'Good progress' made with printed RFID tags

2007-06-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

TÜV Product Service Industry News - 'Good progress' made with printed RFID tags:
The radio frequency identification (RFID) industry is making 'good progress' in the field of printed tag development, it has been claimed.

Speaking to delegates at a European conference, Klaus Dimmler - founder of OrganicID and event chairman - said the sector is moving forward with technology able to produce electronic tags using organic inks, reports RFID Journal.

'They're looking better and better,' he maintained, while other industry experts said that although printed tags are improving, there is some way to go before they will be commercially available.

It is hoped a low-cost option will be identified for applying the printed RFID systems directly onto packaging."

From Gutenberg to Google: Media in Transition Conference (SocialComputingMagazine.com)

2007-06-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

From Gutenberg to Google: Media in Transition Conference (SocialComputingMagazine.com): "The German organizers take inspiration from Johannes Gutenberg, who as the creator of movable type they view as a 'communication machine' pioneer.

'Gutenberg was the man of his century, igniting an information revolution leading to the Renaissance,' comments Matthias Koehler. 'The printing press business is precisely where Germany’s industrial economy launched. Printing presses required precision machinery, creating Germany’s engineering industry. Research in printing inks conceived the German chemical industry. You could make the case, therefore, that Germany derived its industrial power from an information need.'

According to this line of thinking, the Internet is the new kind of movable type, facilitating a similar information revolution: falling communication costs are changing the game.

'We want to address media pros from all industries concerned with the consequences of the clash between new and old,' Koehler adds."

Concord Litho Prints Interactive Scent Cards for "Laugh 'n Sniff" Episode of "My Name is Earl"

2007-05-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

From induistry news on www.printplanet.com 5/1/2007

PrintPlanet.com :

"Concord Litho Prints Interactive Scent Cards for 'Laugh 'n Sniff' Episode of 'My Name is Earl'

CONCORD, N.H. - Your ticket to 'Must Smell TV' can be found in this week's issue of TV Guide, which contains an exclusive interactive scent card designed to treat fans of NBC's hit comedy 'My Name is Earl' to a unique sensory experience -- the quirky aromas of karma-obsessed Camden County.

Featuring six fragrances tied directly to the first-ever interactive 'Laugh 'n Sniff' episode's script, the scented cards were printed by Concord Litho, an independent printing company in New Hampshire, for a cross-promotional May sweeps campaign involving TV Guide, NBC, 20th Century Fox Television, and exclusive sponsor Oreo.

During the May 3 'Laugh 'n Sniff' episode, NBC will prompt viewers via on-air graphics to rub one of six corresponding numbered boxes on TV Guide's scent card, which will release aromas connected to the 'My Name Is Earl' storyline, including the smell of 'a brand-new car,' and the chocolatey-creamy signature scent of Oreo cookies. Sponsored exclusively by Oreo, this scent card is available only in TV Guide's April 30 issue, which arrives on newsstands April 26.

'Anything That's Printed Can Be Scented'"

Senior essays go from printer to printing press

2007-04-30T09:18:00.000-04:00

http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=5570

BY SARAH FOOTE

After spending hours in the bowels of Beinecke and the stacks of Sterling, most seniors gain a great deal of satisfaction merely by handing their senior essays. Every year, though, some seniors refuse to let their projects go so easily. Determined to see their essays live on, some seniors forge determinedly into the world of publishing, seeking to immortalize their essays in real-world publications and to make them visible to the world outside of Yale.

COURTESY KARISSA ZIMMER
Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, DC ‘06, originally had no plans to publish his senior essay.
Publishing, however, isn’t ordinary for Yale College seniors. Unlike academics, undergraduates do not face the “publish or perish” maxim; few seniors actually embark on their senior essays aiming to publish the finished project. Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, DC ’06, a somewhat infamous former Political Science major, did not intend to publish his essay when first he began to write. Months after turning in his paper, though—and through a combination of hard work and personal investment—the new grad became the author of Denial and Deception: A Study of the Bush Administration’s Rhetorical Case for Invading Iraq.

The fact that so few students publish lends a certain mystique to the process. The very idea of publishing work as an undergraduate seems to imply an impressive intellectual capacity. However, as students who have gone through the process know, published is more about determination and persistence than an extraordinary level of intellectual genius. Getting work published requires serious legwork.

For students like Yood and Kennedy-Shaffer, who are willing to seek out publications for their work, one of the main obstacles to publishing seems to be the nature of the senior essay itself. The awkward length of the senior essay—generally from 25 to 50 pages—makes it difficult to translate into a publication. In their original form, the essays are too long to be published in scholarly journals, but too short to be printed as independent manuscripts. Yale’s own University Press said that they would be unlikely to publish senior essays due to issues with length—like most publishing companies, the Press is generally only interested in full-length manuscripts. No matter which route students take to publication, though, they will need to be willing to commit many more hours of work to their essays to condense or extend them.

The Battle for Color Supremacy WhatTheyThink.com

2007-04-20T07:50:00.000-04:00

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page: "The Battle for Color Supremacy

Commentary by Andrew Tribute

April 10, 2007 -- Three trends show up if one looks at the market figures of digital color printers and presses over the past year. The first is an explosion in sales in what may be termed the “Light” products. These can be classified as color printers that have a performance of between 41 and 60 Letter size pages per minute and which cost less than $100,000. The second is a drop in sales of “Mid-Market” products. These are products with a performance from 41 to 80 pages per minute and which cost under $300,000. The third, “Press” classification of products are ones with a performance in excess of 60 pages per minute and which cost more than $300,000. This area saw an increase in sales. The first “Light” classification is mainly made up of copier printers with an inbuilt scanner. Infotrends reports sales in the USA in 2006 of 26,000 such products, and 60% of these were sold into the office rather than production markets. The leading products in terms of sales in this area of the market come from Ricoh and are sold either by them or their OEM partners. Their 2006 sales have increased on 2005 figures by around 277%."

--
Andrew Tribute, is recognized internationally as one of the world's leading authorities on these subjects.

Attributes' client base comprises a large number of publishers and printers as well as a significant number of industry vendors. In most cases consulting is carried out at high level to assist such organizations in the selection and adoption of technology, or to define ongoing business strategies covering the likely future directions of the markets.

Andrew Tribute is a visiting Professor at University of the Arts London.

Reach Andy via email: tribute@attributes.co.uk.

iPotty Today's FAKE News First, from WTT WHatTheyDon'tThink

2007-04-20T07:36:00.000-04:00

Apple has also decided to cash in on a major market -- look for the new iPotty - available at Toys R Us. Said Steve Jobs, "Kids should think different too."

http://members.whattheythink.com/home/dailyapril.cfm

Special Note: All these stories are presented in the true spirit of April Fool's Day. None of these stories are true, nor are they intended to reflect the strategy and intent of any real person or company. Our purpose with the April Fool's Edition is to elicit a smile, and we hope you will enjoy our spoof! We are an Equal Opportunity Offender: Our contributors name many industry companies in their stories, none of which should be taken seriously.

Demand Aggregators, Commerce Networks, a printers feedback

2007-04-20T06:23:00.000-04:00

From: Dave Mainwaring http://www.printplanet.com/
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 5:45 AM
To: Data Driven Printing-Publishing, VDP
Subject: [vdp] Demand Aggregators, Commerce Networks

Listening to the 2007 OnDemand show videos on whattheythink.com I am hearing terminology that is new to me. I can understand EFI's new "Print to Win" tag line. However, others vendors interviews are referring to "Demand Aggregators", "Commerce Networks" as ways for printers to increase sales. What are Demand Aggregators, Commerce Networks and how do they fit into your businesses?

What Do You Think about that?
Asks
Uncle Dave Mainwaring
--
A printer's Reply:
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:35:38 -0700
Subject: RE: Demand Aggregators, Commerce Networks

Fundamentally DA's and CN's are e-commerce attempts to make money (in this case) by 'getting in between print buyers and printers.' As such, they "succeed" by ultimately reducing whatever services they e-list to commodities. Think "Priceline" vs. "Hotwire" for hotel rooms. When you think of using these, what are you searching for? Right, lowest price.

And how loyal are you that hotel you once stayed in if they don't have the lowest price next time? Exactly.

Printers interested in serving customers in one-to-one, lasting relationships are generally unimpressed by those actually promoting "commoditization." Aside from fans of dubious IPO's, still fantasizing "mindshare" guarantees profitability, "jargon of the month" doesn't impress. In the case of equipment sellers, it's a means to stimulate sales and leases of their systems/software...by implying they will generate significant business for the equipment one is being encouraged to acquire. Simply having the newest techno-print system doesn't guarantee a lessor's expertise, and savvy print buyers know this...or learn it quickly (the hard way). Those thinking these e-platforms will 'make their sales for them' are in for an unpleasant surprise: what business they may generate is typically going to come from buyers loyal only to the lowest price.

Goes back to a comment I made earlier: these folks (the system manufacturers now also touting DA's & CN's) would do better in the long run (for themselves and the printers they serve) to educate the buying public on the benefits of their technology. If you buy Brand Z...on the proposition they will generate orders for you (Wow - "no cost of sales!"), get a grip. The more equipment they place, the more printers they must list...to the point where being on any given list becomes essentially meaningless. Printers doing well are not foolish enough to rely upon aggregators...but work hard to promote their own companies and capabilities. If something floats over the transom from an aggregator, fine, but it's no kind of "plan" for success in the printing business.

--

From a Posting To: "Data Driven Printing-Publishing,

"Data Driven Publishing, VDP-PLus" is a special interest discussion forum.
This SIG is available 24x7 world wide for on-line discussions concerning
data driven publishing, (also known as : VDP, a catch-all term for any
data-driven document production technique or methodology).

The forum is FREE and a venue for:

Un-biased, real world opinions on VDP software tools from end-users.

Another, less formal (back-channel) venue for technical support from
software and hardware vendors.

Commentary from printing industry pioneers, educators and non-printing
companies adding VDP into their internal document workflows.

Discussion where all parties want to learn, discuss and debate both the
enabling technologies and the
value-creating applications that are based on the technologies.

Discussions cover very broad categories:
"What VDP "is," "how it works," "help!"' - PSP-industry dialogs.
"What VDP does" client-oriented dialogs.

Some members don't care "how;" they just want the "what it does it for me"
information. Others want to know tricks and tips, and the latest updates
and technologies in technical detail. Both are valued members.

Data driven printing is a group of process enabling technologies, nothing
more and nothing less. Generally speaking, VDP enables the "mass
customization" of documents - the ability to use mass production tools and
techniques to produce large or small quantities of documents, each of
which can be unique. DDP enables a diverse range of applications that use
customized documents in some way. The application might be a direct mail
program in which each mail piece contains information that is tailored to
address the specific interests or needs of the individual recipient. Or
it might be an application that produces a customized product brochure
based on information obtained from a prospective customer during a call
center contact. Or it may be a cross media application.

Membership is free to qualified applicants.

What better place to do industry networking.
Details on www.printplanet.com

ITPro: News: Cheaper printing changing publishing, says HP

2007-04-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

ITPro: News: Cheaper printing changing publishing, says HP: "Cheaper printing changing publishing, says HP
Posted by Nicole Kobie at 4:52PM, Tuesday 17th April 2007

Digital colour printing processes lowering costs of short-run, on-demand and personalised publishing, HP told the London Book Fair today."

Advances in printer technology means short run colour jobs are no longer prohibitively expensive, HP told attendees of the London Book Fair today.

As digital colour printing gets cheaper, more and more uses are found, such as printing on demand or personalising brochures, said Guy Thompson, HP's product manager of workflow services.

"Generally, in the past, the more you printed, the lower each cost," he said. "Now you print what you need."

While this won't change how the next Harry Potter or Dan Brown novel is produced, it does mean publishers can take more chances on unknown authors or keep older books in print for longer. Before, a long print run meant risking cash up front on printing and expensive warehousing costs, but with digital printing cutting costs books can be printed as they're needed. And, with higher transportation costs, it's often cheaper to print smaller runs locally.

Thompson said if you buy a specialist book from online retailer Amazon odds are, it'll be printed just for you. "Instead of it being on the shelves, they're printing on demand," Thompson said. "They're moving from just a retailer to a printer. It's easier to print than store."

RFID industry ratifies important data-sharing standard - Applications - www.itnews.com.au

2007-04-18T09:52:00.000-04:00

RFID industry ratifies important data-sharing standard - Applications - www.itnews.com.au: "Promoters say the new standard set of interfaces for EPC data could potentially have a greater impact than a 2004 standard that led to cheaper and better performing RFID chips..

the ratification yesterday of EPCIS could give a big boost to the RFID industry, by finally giving businesses a standard way to capture and share information collected by radio-frequency identification chips.

EPCIS, or Electronic Product Code Information Services, provides a standard set of interfaces for EPC data. Chris Adcock, president of the standards organization EPCglobal, called Monday's ratification as potentially having more impact than the 2004 release of the UHF Gen2 Passive RFID standard.

Those are big words, since the Gen2 standard led to the development of considerably cheaper and better performing Gen2 RFID chips. Executives from such companies as IBM, Proctor & Gamble, and Wal-Mart are applauding the EPCIS ratification."

FREE WhatTheyThink.com Webinars

2007-04-17T06:38:00.000-04:00

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page: "WhatTheyThink Webinars offer a unique way for printing and publishing professionals to maintain their edge by attending online presentations presented by some of the industry's brightest experts. There you will find the original presentation, audio recording of the live presentation, and a PDF version of the presentation for viewing and/or printing.

To find out more about webinar sponsorship opportunities, please contact Randy Davidson at randy@whattheythink.com."

Hitting Color Series, Dan Remaly

2007-04-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

Hitting Color Series: "Hitting Color Series
The Pressroom: Hitting Color, part 5

Apr 5, 2007 1:57 PM, By Dan Remaley
Hitting color - Part 1 in a 5-part series

Mar 5, 2007 2:34 PM, By Dan Remaley

Process control best practices, a five-part series...
Color scanning: Hitting color, part 2

Mar 19, 2007 12:12 PM, By Dan Remaley

Color scanning...
Color proofing: Hitting Color, part 3

Mar 22, 2007 9:31 AM, By Dan Remaley
Film output & platemaking: Hitting Color, part 4

Mar 29, 2007 9:21 AM, By Dan Remaley

Dan Remaley has 30 years’ experience in color lithography. He is senior technical consultant of process control for PIA/GATF. Contact him at (412) 259-1814 or dremaley@piagatf.org."

active RFID technology

2007-04-09T19:49:00.000-04:00

Pro AV Magazine: "The RFID tags used in retail are known as passive, simply electronic circuits with no power source, such as a battery. The scanner creates an electromagnetic field that powers the data exchange, effectively pulling information, such as a product code, from the tag. That simplicity makes the tags cheap, as low as 10 cents each, depending on volume.

By comparison, MINI Motorby uses active RFID technology, similar to highway toll-collection systems, such as EZPass. Active RFID tags have a battery, which powers a mini transmitter that sends data to a reader. Active RFID can support connections over hundreds of feet, compared to the few inches or feet a passive RFID system can handle. The battery in the Motorby key fob, for instance, can last three to six years, depending on factors such as how often it uses power to communicate with a billboard."

Printronix Expands Popular Podcast Series on RFID Printing Technology

2007-04-09T15:53:00.000-04:00

Printronix Expands Popular Podcast Series on RFID Printing Technology: "Printronix Expands Popular Podcast Series on RFID Printing Technology

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Printronix Inc. (NASDAQ:PTNX), the leading integrated supply-chain printing solutions manufacturer, today added original programming to its popular podcast series on radio frequency identification (RFID) printing technologies.

WHO The series is hosted by Printronix's Andrew Moore, senior
product marketing manager, and includes interviews with
RFID experts from hardware manufacturers, software
publishers, middleware providers and end-user customers of
RFID printing technologies. The newest podcasts include
interviews with George Reynolds of Avery Dennison RFID,
Dwain Farley of Enterprise Information Systems, Martyn
Mallick of Sybase Inc., James Supple of Verisign and Brad
Galles of Wells' Dairy."

RFID Journal - Seminar to Address RFID Legal and Public Policy Issues - RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology News & Features

2007-04-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

RFID Journal - Seminar to Address RFID Legal and Public Policy Issues - RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology News & Features: "Leading legal and policy experts will address privacy, data security, government mandates, patent liabilities and other critical issues.

April 9, 2007—International law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge and U.S. trade group Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) will cosponsor an RFID Legal and Public Policy preconference seminar at RFID Journal LIVE! 2007, being held April 30 to May 2 in Orlando, Fla., at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. During the seminar, leading legal and policy experts will address privacy, data security, government mandates, patent liabilities and other critical issues."

Postal Services' August 1 address validation requirement changes

2007-03-26T06:09:00.000-04:00

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page: "The Postal Service relies on certified address-matching software to help ensure the accuracy of addresses on mail pieces that qualify for postage discounts, through the assignment of a proper nine-digit ZIP code. Beginning on August 1, 2007, the process by which a nine-digit ZIP code is added to an address will carry an additional requirement that the address include verified primary number (or delivery point) information, such as street, PO Box numbers, and Rural Route Box numbers. Addresses that do not have confirmable delivery point information will no longer be eligible for postal discounts.

'Put simply, mailers who are not prepared to meet the new delivery point requirements as of August 1, 2007, are likely to see a two-to-five percent decrease in the number of mail pieces eligible for postal discounts,' said Christopher Baker, president of Group 1 Software. 'We strongly encourage all mailers to take advantage of the consultation opportunity at NPF to educate themselves on the implications of these changes and to learn about the technologies that are available to lessen the impact of these changes on their bottom-line.'

More information on the Postal Services' August 1 address validation requirement changes, including tips for maximizing postal discounts in this new environment, are available online at www.g1.com by typing 'Address Quality Hub' into the search box."

How to Write Engagement Letters

2007-03-18T19:14:00.000-04:00

How to Write Engagement Letters: "Managing Client Expectations

There are many ways that you and your clients can communicate the details of your consulting engagement, ranging from formal Request for Proposal (RFP) from the client with your written response, to an informal phone call or short meeting where your client decides to engage you.

The Importance of Written Communication

Regardless of how you and your client communicate, the key to a successful engagement is to set the client’s expectations, and then, at a minimum, meet those expectations, and hopefully, exceed them. The most important factor in managing the client’s expectations is to put your agreement in writing. Putting it in writing also has the side-effect of eliminating post-delivery disputes over what was expected, making your billing method highly visible to your client, and finally, reinforcing your professionalism.

The Engagement Letter – a Basic Communication

The engagement letter is the simplest form of written communication designed to clarify client expectations."

ENGAGEMENT LETTER

2007-03-18T19:10:00.000-04:00

ENGAGEMENT LETTER: "The purpose of the engagement letters is, in part, to get certain things in writing to protect both parties legally. However, an equally important reason is to be genuinely certain that the prospective client (and then client) and I truly have matching expectations. I like my clients. I do not want them angry with me. The engagement letter is one way to avoid misunderstandings. Toward that end, I try to make the engagement letters readable (not lawyer-speak). I try to keep them as short as I can and still cover what needs to be covered. Typically, one of my engagement letters fills both sides of a single 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper."

Lightning Source Unveils Plans for Third Production Facility

2007-02-22T09:27:00.000-05:00

Lightning Source Unveils Plans for Third Production Facility
By Cary Sherburne, Senior WTT Editor February 22, 2007 -- ... more recently, Lightning Source announced that it would be opening a second manufacturing facility in the United States. WhatTheyThink checked in with Lightning Source CEO Kirby Best to get the scoop behind all of this activity and an update on Lightning Source's strategic vision for this exciting market segment.

WTT: Kirby, as always it is a pleasure to speak with you. The last time we spoke, you indicated Lightning Source was producing about a million books a month. What type of volume are you producing these days?

KB: Our volumes haven't changed that much. When we spoke at the end of last year, we were ramping up for the Christmas season. But volumes haven't dropped off, either. What we are really seeing now is phenomenal growth in the number of titles coming into our digital database from the larger publishers?titles that we know have a certain velocity already. That is the real growth story. Ultimately, titles will drive how much volume we do in the next little while, especially the titles with better historical velocity.

WTT: How many titles would you say you have in your digital library at this point?

KB: It is a moving target, but there are about a half million titles in our library at the present time.

WTT: And how many publishers do you have on board these days?

KB: About 4,500.

WTT: When new titles come in, where are they in the life cycle?

KB: That is the fun part. It is a great mixture of frontlist and backlist titles, and a better mixture all the time from traditional and non-traditional publishers. We are currently at 63% traditional and 37% author services in terms of the books that are actually printed. The bottom line is we have now gotten over the hump and publishers now understand the value of on-demand printing and where it can fit in their business model. We don't need to spend a lot of time explaining it anymore.

{snipped}

KB: Customers were demanding better halftones in the black & white work, and we carefully watched the development of all of the printers on the market. In the end, it came down to IBM and Océ, and Océ, quite frankly, was developing a better product. It was a tough decision. We had been with IBM for nine years, and the decision to move to Océ was not taken lightly. The fact of the matter is that our analysis showed that the Océ presses print a better halftone. We will leap to an even better halftone with the next upgrade in March. We still have some of the IBMs and will be replacing them as needed. So the acquisition of the Océ presses is a combination of adding capacity and retiring IBMs.

WTT: What about color?

KB: The Océ presses are constructed to eventually print in four color, but Océ is not there yet and their work continues. . While we are not currently using the Océ machines for color, we see the 9000 producing a high grade ?business? color in the future, which was another feather in Océ's cap that helped us make the decision. In terms of color, we expect to put 10 web-fed color presses and five sheetfed color presses in the new plant.

WTT: Are you seeing new applications for color, then?

KB: Absolutely. We have entered into the color book and photo book markets, and we feel they are going to explode twice as fast as the black & white book market did. Color books are very difficult for a publisher to produce in short runs cost effectively, and our short-run capability opens tremendous new opportunity for them. In terms of photo books, this is a new product area that allows consumers a new way of showcasing and sharing their photos. Instead of having your photographs printed at Wal-Mart or Walgreens, or producing them at home on a photo printer, you can incorporate them into a beautiful hardcover book, commemorating soccer teams, birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions, all sorts of important life events. And you can have a beautiful, sewn hardcover book for about $30.

WTT: How does Lightning Source fit in?

KB: We divide the industry into three buckets. The first is the traditional big boxes?Walgreens, Sears, Wal-Mart?where you might take photos for processing. In the second bucket, are companies who have written software that allows photographs to be imposed into a product. A lot of these are online. And in the third bucket, are companies that actually make the products, such as a mug, mouse pad or photo book. Shutterfly, as an example, operates in all three areas. We only want to operate in the final bucket, and we are working with software providers to incorporate a ?powered by Lightning Source? logo into their software, making us the default producer of these books. One provider in Europe is producing more than 6,000 photo books a day, and these companies need the scalability of Lightning Source.

WhatTheyThink.com Acquires Electronic Publishing

2007-02-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

WhatTheyThink.com Acquires Electronic Publishing,

Electronic Publishing Subscribers Now Part of Expanding WhatTheyThink.com Community

- WhatTheyThink.com's circulation expands to over 45,000 with acquisition of Electronic Publishing

Lexington, KY and Tulsa OK ? February 19, 2007 ? WhatTheyThink.com, the leading online publication serving the printing and publishing industry, today announced the acquisition of Electronic Publishing. The purchase expands WhatTheyThink.com?s subscriber base from 15,000 to over 45,000 subscribers. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Electronic Publishing, a 30-year old publication owned by PennWell Corp, provides design, printing and publishing professionals with authoritative information on technology, products and trends. In 2006, PennWell eliminated the printed edition of Electronic Publishing to focus on the digital distribution of content via the website, webcasts, and email newsletters. Electronic Publishing is well known for reporting on and analyzing new directions in prepress and printing products and business technology.

WhatTheyThink.com will integrate Electronic Publishing?s assets immediately. ?Over the past three decades Electronic Publishing has served its readers with cutting edge content and analysis,? said Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink.com. ?I am confident we will be able to build on this tradition and serve Electronic Publishing?s subscribers with timely news, commentary, research and much more.?

Keith Hevenor, who has served as Editor of Electronic Publishing for many years, will remain at PennWell as Editorial and Conference Director for CMM International, the leading event for professionals in the converting and package printing industries. "I have enjoyed serving as Editor of Electronic Publishing for the past eight years. WhatTheyThink.com is a great match for Electronic Publishing?s readers as they provide comprehensive coverage of the printing industry on a daily basis."

Electronic Publishing was founded in 1977 by industry veteran Frank Romano. Romano is an important contributor to WhatTheyThink.com providing commentary and analysis in a weekly column entitled ?Fridays with Frank?. Romano also hosts webinars for WhatTheyThink.com. "What began on my kitchen table as a publication to unite the worlds of typesetting and word processing and then evolved to encompass CTP and digital printing and everything else is now reborn in cyberspace. The fact that Electronic Publishing is still around after all these years is amazing. The fact that I am still around is more so."

WhatTheyThink.com offers free content including daily news, reports, webinars and stock data. Electronic Publishing?s readers will receive WhatTheyThink.com?s free email newsletter and access to all free content.

About WhatTheyThink.com

WhatTheyThink.com is the print and publishing industry's leading online community. The company offers the latest industry news about practitioners, vendors, technologies, and the graphic communications business. Additionally, WhatTheyThink.com provides a robust content syndication program serving related websites.

research and development is critical for survival, Cedar Graphics interview by whattheythink.com

2007-02-19T08:36:00.000-05:00

"Naturally we want to promote print; however, we won?t promote it if we don?t think it?s the right solution for the customer.

WTT: How important are research and development to the future of Cedar Graphics?

HI: We think that research and development is critical for survival because it allows us to specialize and react quickly to or even anticipate our customers? needs. We feel strongly about developing our processes and products. Sometimes customers are the impetus to get you to provide them with products that will help them grow their business ? say, something they?ve seen at a competitor. Today, database management and information technology are critical. If a customer says, I want to give you this project but I need reports this certain way, online and in real time, you need to know that you can provide that for them. If you look at them and say, we have to do some research and it?s going to take us three months because we don?t have the infrastructure to get the job done, they?re going to move on to somebody else. The trick is to do the research, anticipate the market and stay one step ahead of the customer.

WTT: Can you offer any advice to your industry peers?

HI: The owners and upper management of successful printing companies I know remain accessible to their customers and in touch with their needs. Management can?t just turn over customer relations wholly to sales. They have to stay intimately involved. I can?t emphasize that enough. Internally, stay in touch with your employees. They are the ones who will make new technology work for you. Treat your vendors like customers. Cherish the partnerships they offer you. KBA has been a terrific partner in these installations; they were keenly interested in our success."

WhatTheyThink.com - Print's Home Page:

ASPT Seeks Submissions for Student Competition

2007-02-09T08:27:00.000-05:00

PrintPlanet.com | Learn - Teach - Debate : on the forefront of prepress, print production, post press, personalization printing, print buyer, consulting: "ASPT Seeks Submissions for Student Competition
Fairfax, Virginia ? The Academy of Screen Printing Technology is accepting submissions for the Student Screen Printing Awards Competition, which selects the best prints produced during the 2006-2007 school year.

'This contest is an excellent opportunity for students who want a career in the specialty imaging industry. They'll have the chance of showing their work to industry leaders,' said Dawn Hohl, SPTF Technical Training Manager.

The competition is open to secondary and post-secondary schools ? including high schools, vocational schools, technical schools, colleges and universities ? holding membership(s) for SGIA, FESPA or the Asia-Pacific Screen Printing & Graphic Imaging Association.

Students may enter samples within any category as individual work or within a team. Categories include:

- Textile ? single-color, multicolor, spot color, index and simulated process, and four-color process.

- Paper ? single-color, multicolor and four-color process

- Plastic, glass, metal or wood ? single-color, multicolor and four-color process.

- Original serigraphs on any substrate
All submitted work will be judged and displayed at SGIA '07 (Orlando, Florida; October 24-27, 2007). For more information on the contest, visit SGIA.org/aspt"

Newspapers Outsourcing Production: Is This an Escalating Trend?

2007-02-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

WhatTheyThink.com - "Newspapers Outsourcing Production: Is This an Escalating Trend?:

By Cary Sherburne, Senior WTT Editor

February 8, 2007 -- Recently, more stories have been appearing about newspapers outsourcing various types of production, from ad production to printing and distribution, including a recent column by Andy Tribute about newspaper trends that touched on the outsourcing issue. WhatTheyThink spoke with Michael Brady, Director of Production Operations, Technology Department, for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) to gain an understanding of whether this is an escalating trend in the face of increasing pressure on the newspaper industry or merely choices made by a few newspaper companies.

Background

A major deal that caught our attention was the announcement in November of last year by Canada?s Transcontinental, Inc., and the venerable San Francisco Chronicle of an exclusive 15-year contract for Transcontinental to print the daily newspaper and its related products, as well as to provide complete post-press services. Transcontinental, North America's seventh-largest printer and Canada's leading newspaper printer, is slated to begin production of the Chronicle in spring 2009 in a new plant it will equip with state-of-the-art technology in the San Francisco Bay Area. Transcontinental is already printing Canadian newspapers The Globe and Mail and La Presse, as well as, in its plant in Toronto, The New York Times for the Ontario and Upstate New York markets. The San Francisco Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which publishes some 200 magazines around the world, including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine, and owns 29 television stations which reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers. Transcontinental has a network of Canadian 12 plants that extends from St. John?s, in Newfoundland, to Vancouver BC and prints about 200 newspapers, including some 20 dailies."

Kodak's Strategy For First Printer -- Cheaper Cartridges - WSJ.com

2007-02-06T13:45:00.000-05:00

Kodak's Strategy For First Printer -- Cheaper Cartridges - WSJ.com:

By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
February 6, 2007; Page B1

"Kodak, which is led by several veterans of H-P's printer group, plans to modify that model by making more money from hardware and accepting lower profits from the ink. It says it will use a combination of new technology and alternative pricing to slash ink prices by about 50% per page. On Tuesday, it unveiled new inkjet-based multifunction devices that print, scan and copy documents, Web pages and photos. The printers, primarily intended for home rather than business use, will be priced at $150 to $300, depending on whether they have color displays and slots for camera memory cards. Analysts said the prices are each about $50 more than comparable multifunction devices now on the market.

Each of the Kodak printers will use a $10 black-ink cartridge and a $15 color-ink cartridge -- about half the prevailing ink prices. Kodak says consumers who buy high-volume paper packages will be able to print 4-inch-by-6-inch snapshots for as little as 10 cents apiece -- compared with 29 cents on typical home printers and well under common retail-store prices of 19 cents each."

A Better Way to Preview Complex Print, Commentary by Andrew Tribute

2007-02-06T08:54:00.000-05:00

WhatTheyThink.com - A Better Way to Preview Complex Print:

Andy Tribute wrote:
"As a part of this event on day one there was a mini exhibition of all Esko?s systems to update the sales and support people on what all the products and systems could do. At this exhibition I came across an interesting company I had heard about but not seen before who were negotiating an exclusive distribution agreement for Esko to sell their product into the worldwide pre-production packaging market.
The potential for the use of PrintDevizor in packaging is very obvious and having seen how well it integrates in the Esko Scope applications I can envisage it will become used by a large number of Esko?s customers and their clients.

The company is Stonecube from the UK, and their product was PrintyDevizor, a dynamic print visualizer. This product will be tightly integrated into the Esko Scope solution to allow creative staff and packaging print purchasers to visualize how a print job would look on the package. This is not just visualizing how the normal printed inks will appear but will allow in real-time the package to be viewed while different effects like embossing, special inks, varnishes, etc using different substrates are seen under different lighting conditions.

PrintDevizer is not new and the version I saw was version 2.2. It is already used in job creation and production by many companies, perhaps the best known of which is Hallmark Cards. What I saw was very unique piece of software that does things no other program I know of can do. The program is a unique software tool for both Mac and PC that allows on-screen viewing of moving 3D views of print designs under real-world lighting conditions. It allows the user to see the effects of different substrates, inks and finishes, even metallic and fluorescent inks, foils and embossing. The program is available at two levels, the first being PrintDevizer standard edition that is targeted at everyone in design and print. The second is PrintDevizer Pro that has extra features essential for packaging, labels, greeting cards and print finishing. The software supports special finish libraries for Adobe Creative Suite and Quark XPress. It also supports the Pantone Matching System including metallic and high intensity inks. Other special ink approaches such as MetalFX are also supported and other special inks can be added into the system. In the Pro mode it also supports viewing of die cutting and transparent materials."

The full article in on www.whattheythink.com

Attributes Associates is an internationally oriented consulting company specializing in marketing and technology issues for the printing, publishing and media markets. The Managing Partner of Attributes Associates is Andrew Tribute, who is recognized internationally as one of the world's leading authorities on these industries and subjects.