The Children's Book Council Newsletter
September 2009
|
|
CBW Countdown
|
8 months until Children's Book
Week 2010.
It's never too early to start celebrating!
|
|
|
In autumn moonlight, when the white air wan
 Is fragrant in the wake of summer hence,
'Tis sweet to sit entranced, and muse thereon
In melancholy and godlike indolence:
When the proud spirit, lull'd by mortal prime
To fond pretence of immortality,
Vieweth all moments from the birth of time,
All things whate'er have been or yet shall be.
And like the garden, where the year is spent,
The ruin of old life is full of yearning,
Mingling poetic rapture of lament
With flowers and sunshine of spring's sure returning;
Only in visions of the white air wan
By godlike fancy seized and dwelt upon.
Robert Seymour Bridges
The days may be technically getting shorter, but that doesn't mean the CBC will be any less active!
Please read on for information about the Annual Meeting (next Tuesday), an information session and networking opportunity specifically for publicity and marketing staff (in October), and the highly-anticipated Sixth Annual Extreme Trivia Challenge (in November).
All this and much more in your September CBC Update!
|
Annual Meeting Next Tuesday
|
|
 The 2009 Annual Meeting of the membership of the Children's Book Council will be held next Tuesday, September 15.
8:30 Breakfast & Registration
9:30 Business Meeting & Forum
TheTimesCenter
242 West 41st Street, between 7th and 8th Aves
New York City
Following the business meeting, the CBC Forum committee presents "The Current
State of E: Publishing in the Digital Age," a moderated panel discussion. Join
us to hear from:
- Len Feldman (Follett Digital Resources)
- Josh Koppel (ScrollMotion)
- Erica Lazzaro (OverDrive, Inc.)
- Andrew Weinstein (Ingram Digital)
- Moderator: Craig Morgan Teicher (PW
Contributing Editor)
All employees of member companies are welcome to come to the meeting and the Forum.
Please email Kelly to register and for further details.
|
CBC 101 for Publicity, Marketing Staffers
|
|
Please join us for an information session and networking opportunity with publicity and marketing staff of CBC members:
CBC 101: Taking Advantage of Your Company's Membership
You
may be new to the industry and hope to learn how you can help your
company benefit from CBC membership. Or maybe you have served on a CBC
committee and think you know all there is to know about your trade
association.
No matter your experience level, come join us to
hear about opportunities you may be missing and to discuss new ideas!
We encourage publicity and marketing staff at all levels to be a part of the discussion.
When: Thursday, October 8
6 -- 7:30 p.m.
Where: CBC Office
12 W. 37th Street, Floor 2
Between 5th and 6th Aves
RSVP
to Rebecca by Friday, October 2, to reserve your place. If there are
any topics you know you would like to cover, please include that in
your registration email.
|
Deadline Extension: Promote Titles at Read.gov
|
|
If you missed the previous deadline for this project, don't worry -- because the project is still in development, we are allowing more submissions!
The Library of Congress is
in the process of completely retooling its Literacy.gov website. The new site,
which will be launched at Read.gov, will feature audience pages
specifically for kids, teens, educators, and parents. The Ad Council will help
with promotion.
As part of the site relaunch, the Library of Congress
envisions offering first chapters of children's books published by CBC members
online as an enticement for kids to read the entire book. While Read.gov will not link to any sites
where the titles could be purchased, this is still a great opportunity to
promote a new title!
Books targeted to children and young adults of all
age groups will be considered. Please submit only one title per member imprint (include title,
author, publisher, and grade level) to Rebecca.
|
Online Marketing Opportunities
|
|
Attention marketing and publicity staff: don't forget two of the CBC website's most popular features when you're planning your online efforts. Submit your titles now to introduce or re-introduce your summer books!
Hot Off the Press features newly-published or forthcoming titles, while Showcase is for new or backlist titles that fit the quarterly theme. Both lists are featured prominently on the front page of the new CBC website.
Submissions are always open for these two lists; you can upload your images and book information at any time after logging in to the CBC website!
Contact Meg with any questions about these lists.
|
CBC and the Ambassador on Facebook
|
|
Stay connected with the CBC by joining our Facebook group! We'll update you with information about events and programs, as well as promotional opportunities for publishers. Join our growing ranks and connect with others who have already signed up.
While you're there, don't forget to support the Ambassador! Not surprisingly, his legions are growing daily. Find pictures, video, travel schedules, and much more as our industry's Ambassador continues in his second year in the post.
|
Submission Deadlines
|
|
Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Submissions due: September 30, 2009
Presented to the most distinguished non-fiction books
appropriate for young readers that depict ethnicity in the United States, the award encourages the writing, publishing, and dissemination
of outstanding social science books for young readers which treat topics related
to ethnic minorities and relations sensitively and accurately.
NCSS requests your
nomination of any informational/non-fiction books published in 2009 that meet
the award criteria (available on the NCSS website). Please note: publishers must provide a copy of each title to the full Award Subcommittee. Please contact Prema Parmar at excellence@ncss.org for more details.
|
|
|
|
|
BOLDFACE is a little sad to put away the white shoes, but the cooler weather is pretty good compensation.
The Sixth Annual Extreme Trivia Challenge Original New York Flavor
The trumpets are sounding, the standards are flying, the Golden Bunnies await. Mark your calendar now for the event of the season. All CBC member staff are welcome -- nay, encouraged -- to pick up the gauntlet.
Host: Francesco Sedita
Date: Thursday, November 19
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Scholastic's Education Resource Room
557 Broadway, between Prince and Spring Streets, 2nd Floor
Registration: $10 per attendee
Please email Rebecca by Friday, October 23 to register. If you are of stout heart and true.
The BOLDFACE Questionnaire (With Apologies to Proust)
Herewith the BOLDFACE questionnaire, in which
we ask the tough(ish) questions. Unlike some
people, BOLDFACE can handle the truth.
Public Relations Coordinator, Sylvan Dell
Publishing
What was your first job in children's
publishing?
Funny, but I applied for a
management position at an art studio in Waterville, Ohio, called Carruth Studio. The owner called
and said, "You're not qualified to be a store manager." Okay. "HOWEVER, I see
you have marketing experience. Wanna publicize my new children's book?" Sure.
When you're a 23-year-old bartender, you'll say "Sure" to anything. So I started
publicizing a new picture book release from world-renowned sculptor George
Carruth. I worked from my tiny apartment in chilly, gray Ohio, and I thought it
was so dang awesome that I could arrange interviews and organize book reviews
while wearing my pajamas.
What was the first children's book you worked on?
The Boy Who
Loved Birds, by George
Carruth
How long have you worked at Sylvan Dell?
One year, three
months.
What is your favorite industry-related website or blog?
Um. Am I allowed to say the Sylvan
Dell website? I mean, you can handle the truth, right? So. Uh. The Sylvan Dell website.
There are resources for bookstores, parents, teachers, kids, and even media
dorks (like me).
Can you describe your typical
day?
Wake up. Consider the annoying
beeping sound coming from my alarm at 6:30 AM. Coffee. Shower. Consider why I'm
awake so early and concentrate on remembering my own name. Arrive at work after
a two-block walk through South
Carolina humidity. Hit the "Send/Receive" button on my
Outlook and cringe as if this motion will reawaken a sewer-dwelling Pennywise
from Stephen King's It. Answer
approximately forty emails, ranging from client questions on the topic of
self-promotion, to media inquiries on the topic of author interviews and Sylvan
Dell eBooks. Write a press release...or five hundred. Update website News Archive
after reading through the approximately fifty Google Alerts I receive each day.
Stalk Oprah. Follow up with the emails I sent at 9 AM. Look up. Notice it's 5 PM
and wonder how the heck it happened. Walk the two blocks back to my car. Update my blog.
Listen to some blues tunes and chillax on my couch before curling up with my
most recent ARC acquisition and then, night-night time.
What do you think is the most important aspect of
your job?
Follow up. No question about it.
Anyone can send an email. Anyone can make a phone call. But how many phone
calls/emails do YOU forget about by the next day? Shoot, if I'm really busy, it
takes two emails just to get an initial response, let alone an action plan. So
the most important part of public relations is follow up. Hands down. In fact,
maybe my job title should be "Sara Dobie, Professional Follow-up-er."
What is the most fun aspect of your job? What is the
worst part of your job?
Most fun: Working with amazing
people. I spend my days working with cool coworkers who make me laugh even when
the website crashes. I email and chat with children's book authors and
illustrators, who are ridiculously talented and compassionate people,
industry-wide. Finally, I work with bloggers, and I LOVE BLOGGERS. They are the
most enthusiastic, supportive mass of people. They love what they do, and it
shows. In fact, everyone I just listed loves what he or she does, and nothing
can be bad when you're capable of smiling through the
worst.
Speaking of...the worst: The
occasional silence. No matter how many press releases you send, emails you
write, or phone calls you make, there are times when the media response is
nothing more than silence. And this sucks. You've worked your butt off. You've
developed your PR campaign. You've done your homework. And yet, silence.
Sometimes, there's nothing you can do. It's just bad timing. Maybe some
no-holds-barred JK Rowling biography hit shelves, and no one cares about your
SUPER COOL eBook literacy campaign. Silence just happens. It's the worst part of
a publicist's job.
What's the best piece of advice you ever
received?
"Never give
up."
What are you reading now? Or what was the last book
you really enjoyed?
David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. People
say you can't judge a book by its cover. Feel free to judge this one. It has a
picture of a skull smoking a cigarette. Yep. That's about how the book goes-in
your face, clean yet crude, and you might end up smelling like cigarettes from
mere proximity. It got me writing short stories again. And when a book inspires
you enough to jump back on the writing wagon, it's a good book.
Recent years have seen a rise in picture-book
biographies. Were your life ever to be chronicled in such a way -- and don't be
modest, now -- who would you choose to illustrate
it?
If we consider death as no
deterrent, Abe Birnbaum, New
Yorker illustrator and artist for the picture book Supposing, by Alastair Reid. It's not that
his art makes me step back and go "WOW," like something in the back gardens at
Giverny. His art does remind me of being a kid, reading Supposing over and over, and then,
supposing all by myself. I credit the Birnbaum/Reid narrator with much of my
creative free-thought, and what is a writer without creative free-thought?
(Plus, I think his narrator has a Stewie Griffin thing happening, and well, in
my biography, maybe I'll ask Birnbaum to give me a funny shaped head.)
|
|
As always, don't hesitate to contact CBC staff. Robin Adelson, Executive Director
Kelly Giordano, Events & Programs Manager
Rebecca Miller, Communications Manager
Meg Beade, Assistant
|
CBC Update logo by Ryan Thomann.
Boldface logo by Chad Beckerman.
|
|
|
|
|
|
