This week at the Examiner, Danielle Dreger-Babbitt is compiling a list of the "top 20 things librarians wish patrons knew." The items on the list include "Enough with the 'sexy librarian' jokes" and "Come to our programs!"
The Examiner
Joe the Plumber, the Ohio resident whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher, is back in the news. The plumber who questioned Obama's tax plan during the presidential election has authored a book with novelist Thomas Tabback. Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream (978-0-9769740-0-0) will be published December 1 by a Texas-based independent, PearlGate Publishing.
Guardian
On the Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy blog, Carolyn Kellogg discusses Concord Free Press, a nonprofit publishing house founded by author Stona Fitch. His book, Give and Take, a road novel about a jazz pianist who steals diamonds and BMWs and gives the money away, was abandoned by a publisher when his editor left the company.
Concord Free Press gives its books away, and in turn, asks readers to give away money. According to the Web site, which tracks donations, readers have given to causes including Amnesty International, the SPCA, Lupus UK, the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, Seeds of Peace, and a homeless person named Billy. Fitch plans to publish two titles per year.
Los Angeles Times
Submissions for the second Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards will be accepted February 2-8, 2009.
Authors with a complete, unpublished manuscript between 50,000 and 150,000 words are asked to submit their first 5,000 words with a pitch letter. The winner of the grand prize will receive a publishing contract with Penguin with an advance of $25,000 and promotion on Amazon's Web site.
Amazon's CreateSpace is a sponsor of the contest and will provide an online author community where entrants can share information and advice.
According to the rules, in the first round of judging, Amazon editors will read only the pitch letter of each entry, and 2,000 entries will advance to the next round. To polish your book pitch, ForeWord recommends publicist Sara Dobie's blog entry and Evil Editor.
The Miami Herald looks at the twenty-fifth Miami Book Fair, which begins on Sunday.
In 1984, Eduardo Padrón, head of the downtown campus of what was then Miami-Dade Community College, urged the fair's founder Mitchell Kaplan, who was thinking of holding a used book sale, to think bigger. Padrón had recently attended Barcelona's book fair.
"Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobelists, poets and historians, Kennedys and Watergate burglars, mystery writers and celebrity authors, movie stars and rock stars, satirists, cooks, cranks and critics—even Barack Obama—have appeared at the book fair, some of them more than once. Some can't seem to get enough of it," Andres Viglucci writes in the article.
Miami Daily Herald
The Minneapolis Star Tribune looks at New Rivers Press, which turns forty this week. The publishing house was founded in New York State by Bill Truesdale who soon moved it to the Twin Cities. When Truesdale died in 2001, it was moved to Minnesota State University, Moorshead.
"Books are published each fall, designed by graphics students, edited by MFA candidates, and promoted by marketing students," Laurie Hertzel writes in the article.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Updated: 11/20/2008
Valentino: Themes and Variations
What celebrity has ever gone wrong with a Valentino gown on the runway? The designer himself admits that he has never been revolutionary, but instead he strives for "an elegance that transforms borders," a goal that has served him well for nearly fifty years.
Born in 1932 in Italy, he was named for Rudolph Valentino, the leading American heartthrob of the day. It was while watching Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, and Judy Garland films that he realized his destiny was to create beautiful gowns. At the age of eighteen, Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani moved to Paris to study fashion at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. After graduation he worked for Jean Desses, whose clients included Aristotle Onassis. Later,....
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CRAFTING THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT - A number of publishers have released craft books just in time for the gift-giving season with plenty of ideas for the people on everyone's lists.
FOREWORD Book Club - Peter Conners, editor at BOA Editions, introduces Martha Ronk's debut short story collection, Glass Grapes and Other Stories.
Author Pages - ForeWord's Author Pages feature nearly 100 interviews with authors whose work has been reviewed in ForeWord magazine.
FAST FOREWORD - News, awards and announcements from our wire.
FOREWORD FOOTNOTES - Titles of note from our review stacks.
updated: 11/19/08
 To celebrate its tenth year, ForeWord Magazine named the first Independent Publisher of the Year in conjunction with its annual Book of the Year Awards. Kunati Books, a publisher of fiction and nonfiction which released its first titles just over two years ago, is the first recipient of this title. Read more about the award
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 | ForeWord's 24/7 Bookshelf offers exclusive lists of titles in targeted categories recommended by ForeWord contributors - great for growing a library, or scoping out the stash of a trusted reviewer. Each list is presented in a PDF document that you can either read online in your browser or download and print. Click to check it out!
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