GITP Old Site

Merging of Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:56:00 +0000

There won't be any new posts here. I'm merging my two blogs. New posts for writing, the publishing industry, photography, book reviews, and general observations can be found at Mental Geysers.

Thanks for reading. Please join the conversations at Mental Geysers, and be sure to click through on the various social media sites:

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Cheers!

Kae Cheatham (Kae C's Images)

Penguin Pulled into ASI Controversy

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:27:00 +0000

What a smart ploy by the lawyer community to wait until Author Solutions, Inc (ASI) became part of Penguin before filing this suit. Or maybe it's just circumstance and not calculated timing. ASI was bought by Pearson PLC (the company that owns Penguin) in July 2012. A previous GITP post had noted that ASI was under investigation. And now--Class Action Law Suit.

Part of the suit states that
"Author Solutions also fails to take diligent care of its authors' works, making numerous and egregious publisher errors - errors made by the publisher, not the author. These errors include errors on book covers, in addition to various typographical and formatting errors. In fact, Author Solutions profits from its own mistakes. Aggressive sales techniques ensure that these errors are corrected only for a fee of several hundred dollars. Even though, as a matter of policy, Author Solutions promises to correct publisher errors for free, it rarely does...."
It will be interesting to see this play out.

New E-books

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:13:00 +0000

These are two covers of new e-books that have recently gone live. GITP created the covers for each, and also formatted the e-book layouts for Nook and Kindle.

I'm happy to welcome indie author Joe Pfeiler to the GITP family. Also the acclaimed author, Patricia Nell Warren and her company, Wild Cat Press International. Read a recent interview with Warren here. Visit their websites to learn more about them and their interesting titles.

The COVER page of this blog shows many of the other books GITP has had a hand in producing.

Book Review Site

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

The Washington Independent Review of Books has some interesting features and reviews. It's now starting a third year of online input.I wonder how Indie friendly they are?

American Author: Did You Know?

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:30:00 +0000

James Fenimore Cooper is one of America's first novelists. In his first series, The Littlepage Manuscripts, Corny Littlepage was the hero of the Satanstoe. Other books in the series, (written in two years) are The Chainbearer and The Redskins. All these novels deal with the anti-rent controversy (Helderberg War) of the 1840s. Cooper's strong political feelings in favor of the landed gentry progressively colored each book until the last is considered more of a diatribe than a novel.
Since he favored the "landed gentry" they obviously favored him, by publishing his books that espoused their needs with no care to the essence of a good novel.
(Even in 1840, it paid for a writer to have connections).
Cooper's best known and hallmark Leatherstocking Series wasn't named for a character. The five books tell the career of "natural man" Natty Bumppo from his youth (Deerslayer) to his death (The Prairie). The Leatherstocking series also includes The Pioneers(1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), and The Pathfinder (1840).

Publishers: Did You Know?

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:30:00 +0000

It's a well-known fact that most of the major publishing houses have consolidated and merged and rearranged themselves many times over. This has affected magazines as well as book publishers; many of the controlling holding companies are not in the U.S.

Simon & Schuster, is an exception. Founded in New York City in 1924, S&S is currently owned by CBS. Still headquartered in NYC, it is a bastion of fiction and nonfiction, producing more than 1000 titles a year from 35 different imprints, including Pocket Books, Scribner, Atria, Fireside, Touchstone, and Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Baen Books is a more recent stalwart of American publishing. It was founded in 1983 when a huge reorganization of Simon & Schuster was underway. S&S approached Jim Baen with an offer for him to head up the S&S science fiction line (Pocket Books division). Baen, however, had different plans. He obtained financial backing from some friends and proposed to start a new company named Baen Books. The deal was done and, at the beginning, Simon & Schuster handled the distribution.

Unfortunately, many of the book publishers we have taken for granted as being American-owned and run no longer hold that distinction.

Houghton Mifflin Company, founded in Boston in 1832, is now HMH (Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt), with the company having purchased Harcourt (formerly Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) in 2007. Several mergers and buyouts have ensued and HMH is now owned by Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG), an international holding company registered in the Cayman Island. HMH is a leader in the educational publications marketplace. NOTE: Although primaries in EMPG are from Ireland, one of the major investors is Guggenheim Partners, a U.S. investment corporation.
Alfred A Knopf, Inc founded in 1915, was purchased by Random House in 1960. Random House also bought Doubleday, and now there's a KnopfDoubleday company under the RH umbrella. It's a publishing consortium of its own, with a half dozen or so imprints. Random House, Inc. has been owned since 1998 by the German mega-media company, Bertelsmann.
The Free Press was founded in 1947, became an imprint of Simon & Schuster, was sold in 1960 and merged into the Macmillan Publishing Company. Macmillian, founded in London, opened its first U.S. offices in 1969. It is now part of the large German holding company, Georg von Holtzbrinck. MacMillan's American publishers include Farrar Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt & Company, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Picador, Roaring Brook Press, St. Martin’s Press, Tor Books, and others.

The publisher umbrellas have a wide span, with most of the imprints belonging to three or four houses. Along with S&S, Random House, Harper-Collins, and Penguin Group (USA) produce the majority of books we see on commercial bookshelves across the country. Former independent companies have become imprints: Farrar Straus, Henry Holt, Little Brown; and some have vanished (Fawcett, Carol Graf, Arbor).

But there are plenty of small and Indie publishers. Check out the Wikipedia page to see the more than 500 companies that are competing with the big guys.

Interesting

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:01:00 +0000

http://review-worm.com/
$100.00 per review!
Hmm

World Book Night 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:08:00 +0000

Plans are already in the works for the 2013 World Book Night. 2012 was the first time the U.S. participated, and the 2013 events are similar to last year and the activities in the UK and Ireland. Thirty books will be given away...The titles, announced in July, have been chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians.
Here's the list: (How many of these have you read?)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros --also in Spanish
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho --also in Spanish
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
Middle School:
The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson
Population: 485 by Michael Perry
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Montana Sky by Nora Roberts
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Favorite American Poems, large print edition (Dover)

Events for November

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 23:25:00 +0000

November 2012
Native American Heritage Month

NAHM resources

Because of Hurricane Sandy, be sure to check the websites for any changes in venue or events scheduled for the East Coast.

1 - 4 November, World Fantasy Convention, Toronto, Ontario Canada

3 November, Children's Festival of the Book
9am - 5pm Bozeman Public Library, Bozeman, Montana

8 - 11 November, Sanibel Island Writers Conference
Sanibel Island, Florida

9 - 10 November, Georgia Literary Festival
Jekyll Island Convention Center, Jekyll Island, Georgia

8 - 10 November, Hillerman Writers Conference
Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico

9 - 11 November, Philcon 2012
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Philcon is hosted by The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.

PLAN NOW: Ohio State University Press (OSUP) announces submission information for its 2013 short fiction prize. Open to all writers in English. The manuscripts must be postmarked during the month of January, 2013. Details at OSUP.

Pubit! Author Services

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:04:00 +0000

At an all-time low.
Barnes & Noble Pubit!, which has never been good at communicating with their authors, has sunk to a new low. Books uploaded to the site in September are still "processing" with no information about a remedy for problem forthcoming from BN.

But then, BN doesn't have a support department for the Pubit! system. GITP has written them several times about an apparent glitch in the processing, only to be told Pubit! doesn't have a tech staff and, basically, "get over it.".

Today the squawk line in the Community forum--the only meager contact with Pubit!--is really buzzing, with a few "how do I remove my books?" questions. The crux of it all lies in the never-ending "processing" procedure, that has no explanation and doesn't seem to be ending soon.

And Pubit! really expects to compete with KDP and KOBO? Even Apple responds better than this.

The Big Get Bigger

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Maybe.
A merger of Penguin and Random House is in the works. If successful, the new corporation could control nearly 25% of the book sales in the UK and U.S.

Good?
Bad?

Hmm.

Events in October

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:21:00 +0000

October is a really busy month. Too bad teleportation isn't a reality. So many interesting things to do, and spread out across the county.

October 2012
National Cyber-Security Awareness Month

29 September-6 October, Banned Books Week
4 - 6 October, 13th Annual Humanities Montana Festival of the Book, Missoula, Montana
4 - 7 October, 52nd Annual Western History Association Convention, Denver, Colorado
4 - 7 October, Boucheron 2012, Cleveland, Ohio
includes Sisters in Crime events
11 - 12 October, Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fall Trade Show, South San Francisco, California
12 October, Sisters in Crime 2012 Retreat to the Woods Workshop, Confluence, Pennsylvania
12 -14 October, 24th Annual Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, Tennessee
12 - 14 October, Capclave, Gaithersburg, Maryland; This literary convention has a program that usually focuses on the short fiction.
13 - 15 October, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fall Trade Show, Tacoma, Washington
19 - 20, October, High Plains Bookfest at various locations in downtown Billings, Montana
19 - 21 October, 44th Annual MileHiCon, Denver, Colorado
20 October, Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Author Feast and Trade Show, a cruise aboard the Queen Mary, Long Beach, California
19 - 21 October, 18th Annual Women Writing the West Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico
19 - 21 October, 22nd Annual South Carolina Annual Writers Conference, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
19 - 21 October, 11th Annual Florida Writers Association Conference, Orlando, Florida
27 - 28 October, Texas Book Festival , State Capitol, Austin, Texas
1 - 4 November, World Fantasy Convention, Toronto, Ontario Canada

Events in September

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:43:00 +0000

13-15 September, 2012 Florida Heritage Book Festival and Writers Conference, St. Augustine, Florida
23-25 September, Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. Denver-Marriott Tech Center, Denver, Colorado
20-23 September, Southern Women Writers' Conference, Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia
21-22 September, Central Coast Writers' Conference, Mission Plaza, San Louis Obispo, California
23-23 September, The 2012 National Book Festival. National Mall between 3rd and 7th streets; 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Washigton D.C.
21-22 September, Kentucky Women Writers' Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
21-23September, Southern CA Writers' Conference, Los Angeles, California. Location TBA
21-23 September; LitFuse: A Poet's Workshop, Tieton, Washington
23 September, Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn Borrough Hall & Plaza, Brooklyn, New York
26-30 September ; Fall for the Book, Throughout Northern Virginia and DC, and Maryland. Check the link for the full schedule.
28-30 September South Dakota Festival of Books with activities in various locations throughout Sioux Falls, South Dakota
28-30 September, Baltimore Book Festival, Baltimore, Maryland
29 September-6 October, Banned Books Week

August Events for Readers and Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:38:00 +0000

Some interesting and informative events around the country. Take part

11 - 12 August, Montana Wild West Fest with reenactments, cowboy poetry, dance hall, vendors and other events. Check site for schedule of events.

3 - 4 August ; Mississippi Writers' Guild Conference, Meridan Community College, Meridan, MS

3 - 5 August, Willamette Writers' Conference, Portland Oregon Sheraton Hotel, West Linn, OR

5 - 10 August; Cape Cod Writers' Center Conference, Resort and Conference Center of Hyannis, Cape Cod, MA

11 - 12 August, Santa Barbara Summer Writer's Poetry Workshop, Presidio State Historic Park's Pico Adobe, Santa Barbara, CA

17 - 20 August ; Sun Valley Writers' Conference, Sun Valley Resort, Ketchum, ID

24 - 26 August, Killer Nashville Mystery & Thriller Conference, Hutton Hotel, Nashville, TN

Catalog from GITP

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:05:00 +0000

Here's a free booklet that highlights some of the books Get It Together Productions (GITP) has worked on. Along with featured titles, the booklet contains a list of all the authors who have employed GITP through Summer 2012. A list of links for readers and writers is also included.
Another booklet/catalog will be issued in the Autumn, with more featured titles as well as writing tips.

A similar booklet is available free for Kindle Primers.

Enjoy!

Book Industry Info 6 July

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Amazon expansion continues, particularly in their Publishing Arm, as they have made a strong bid to acquire all the titles from Dorchester Publishing.

For the journalists--a dire prediction was reported in The Atlantic: Fifteen years from now, 90% of the news stories will be written by--algorithms. With many of the newspapers I've recently read, I think that would be an improvement, especially if the technology can edit!

Improvements have already started in Barnes & Noble's electronic division since Microsoft invested bunches in the program. It's not just on the stock market, either. Already sales reports have increased, and there's a bit more author/BN interaction, including an affiliate program. BN also plans to expand nook stores including adding foreign markets.

All this seems positive, to me; how about you?

Pew Study: Library Patrons and E-Borrowing

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Interesting article republished in in Shelf-Awareness: Pew Study: Library Patrons & E-Borrowing I'm a Library junkie and will borrow a book before buying. If I really like it, THEN I'll buy it. I haven't yet borrowed an e-book. Have you?

Publishing Publishers

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Did you know there were two AVALONs? There’s the Avalon Publishing Group, established in 1994, which includes the imprints Avalon Travel Publishing, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Marlowe & Company, Nation Books, Seal Press, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Thunder’s Mouth Press.

And there’s Avalon Books, primarily producing romance, westerns and mysteries...Well, there was Avalon Books. This month, Amazon Publishing has acquired more than 3,000 backlist Avalon titles that will be republished under Amazon’s West Coast Imprints.

Did you know Amazon has imprints?

June Events for Readers and Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:19:00 +0000

These are a few interesting writers conferences and conventions happening in June.
The list of U.S. Science Fiction Cons for June is quite extensive; check this link to see many of them.

5-7 June 2012
BookExpo America 2012
Jacob Javitz Center
New York City, NY

7-8 June
Eighth Annual Clarksville Writers Conference
Clarksville, Tennessee

8-10 June
5th Annual National Black Book Festival
Doubletree Hotel
Houston, Texas

12-16 June
Western Writers of America Convention
Albuquerque, New Mexico

14-17 June
Children's Writers and Illustrators Conference
Corte Madera, CA

17–18 June
88th Australian Booksellers Association Conference and Trade Exhibition
Sidney, Australia

18–20 June
Association of American University Presses Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL

22-25 June
American Library Association Show 2012
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA

28-30 June
2012 Jackson Hole Writers Conference
at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts
Jackson Hole, WY

Be Productive

Another Ripoff?

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:24:00 +0000

Read the WRITERS BEWARE recent post about a new self-publishing venture.
The article's conclusion, although addressing PW specifically, says the basics for authors who are considering any self-pub schemes: "...As it is, authors who choose PW Select Plus are signing up--and paying--for a service based only on a very broad description, which lacks many of the specifics authors should carefully evaluate before signing up for any self-publishing option."
In other words--Get All The Facts!!

April Events For Readers and Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:18:00 +0000

APRIL is National Poetry Month

A few other events for this month.

April 8–14, 2012: National Library Week
April 15–21, 2012: The 11th Annual Cowboy Poetry Week
April 16–18, 2012: London Book Fair
April 20–21, 2012: The 51st Western Heritage Awards
April 20–22, 2012: The 20th annual Pike's Peak Writers Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
April 21–22, 2012: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Get involved

Red Adept Review Site Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:54:00 +0000

In Mid March, the popular online site Red Adept Reviews, ceased publication. A true loss to the Indie Author. If any of your titles had been reviewed at RAR, and you didn’t grab the actual text you can still do that for a few more weeks. Just type your name, or the title in the search box. Be certain to list all the information with the review (date, reviewer, etc.) so you can use it later. Any ideas who will fill this void?

Ebook Pricing Lawsuit?

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:59:00 +0000

How are ebooks priced? Not those titles produced from the many Indie Authors, but those from traditional publishing houses--especially the Big Five? It's been a mix of super-high prices (with ebooks costing more than their paperback counterpart) and occasional deep discounts. How is it all determined?

In 2010, a breakdown of costs comparison was done at Gizmodo. It seemed there were a lot of pro-publisher stats. First they took the hard copy edition as the model to work with, then stated the bookseller gets a 50% discount (At Amazon...40% is the standard for other outlets, with 3% to the distributor); and the publisher pays 15% royalty to author (they didn't mention this happens only after the author has sold 10K copies or more)...

Considering the majority of what they call "real" books sold are trade paperbacks, NOT hard copy editions, the information given didn't tell the whole story. Then the ebook distributor they modeled was Apple--which, in 2010, was the most demanding and the hardest for which to format an ebook. They also didn't consider that once the ebook is formatted the costs to produce it for different readers drops off.

Another 2010 article inThe New York Times stated:

"In fact, the industry is based on the understanding that as much as 70 percent of the books published will make little or no money at all for the publisher once costs are paid."

(This begs the question of why the publishers don't go to POD to reduce costs.)

Now, two years later, after all types of back-and-forth, blah-blah-blah in blogs and forums, there seems to be some official follow up. Read about it in this CNET report and the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department is now involved, and behind-the-scenes Apple information is revealed.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Read an eBook

noreply@blogger.com (Kae) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Here are two very different selections you could make for Read an eBook Week (March 4 -10). From GITP Author connections we present:

Linda Sandifer's western romance Desire's Treasure.

Disguised as a nun, Paris McKenna hides her father's treasure map in her saddlebags and sets out to find the legendary lost mission of Santa Isabel and its fabled riches. But lawless Arizona Territory is no place for a beautiful woman alone. She needs a guide as mean and tough as any outlaw, and she gets her wish in dangerously handsome bounty hunter Nate Brannigan.
Brannigan is willing to do just about any job if the price is right. He's prepared for what the desert has to throw at him, but he isn't prepared for a treasure protected by a curse, a gang of thieves hot on his heels, and a whole lot of unholy thoughts about "Sister Frances." But Nate Brannigan is no saint. And when he finds out Paris is no nun, their treasure hunt takes them on a wild ride across untamed borders of desire they've never crossed before.

Available for Nook and Kindle.

Jeff Gibson's novella, Last Rites of Passage.

Two "gracefully aging gentlemen" embark on a trek into the wilderness to visit again the special places of their youth. Increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather, bodies that aren't what they used to be and serious injury, the gentlemen push on, until they find themselves battered and nearly immobilized in a mountain basin two miles high.
For one of the men, the trip stirs memories of a time half a century gone, when he and another boy vied for the affection of a girl named Till; a time of joy, adventure, youthful exuberance and life-changing events the man still struggles to understand.
A coming of old age story and more, briskly paced, adventurous and humorous.