Last night, Linda had the pleasure of joining friend and author, Silvia Fishbaum, at the Czech Center New York for a lecture given by Professor James Ward from the Department of History at DePauw University. Professor Ward spoke about Fr. Jozef Tiso, the president of 1939-1945 Slovak Republic and his involvement in the destruction of the Slovak Jewry. During the Holocaust, 60,000 Slovakians were murdered in the concentration camps, but descendants of this small European county won’t let this horrid time in history be ignored.

Linda has been working with Silvia to publish her novel, Jewess, which is a platinum best seller in Slovakia and is in its last editing stages for print in the U.S. Jewess follows Silvia’s family’s history and goes into detailed accounts of her mother’s time in the concentration camp and how her family’s faith and perseverance has allowed them to prevail in such a difficult world around them. Linda is excited to share Silvia’s beautifully written accounts of her childhood with America, and Jewess is a heart-touching novel that won’t soon be forgotten. 

The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook (St. Martins Press, 2013) continues its marketing success as the wonderful book by nutritionist Gayle Pruitt, with photographs by Joe Grisham, has been featured on PetPav.com and The Social Dog Examiner! Yesterday, Cindie Carter from The Social Dog Examiner interviewed Gayle, and they released a signed copy The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook to one of their lucky subscribers. Fantastic reviews continue to come in, and PetPav says the book is, “Beautifully illustrated and the recipes are easy to follow.” Cindie says the book is, “My favorite new coffee table book (and my dog’s) also makes a wonderful gift for the animal lovers in your life.” Congratulations, Gayle! We are excited for the continued success of your book!

The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook is available at Amazon.com.

Amazon, the dominant place to buy books online, is buying Goodreads, the most visited book-sharing website. Though some worry that it is not right for Amazon to have the kind of power to target readers based off their reviews on Goodreads, others are supportive, thinking that it will be a great collaboration of finding and purchasing books. Co-founder of Goodreads, Otis Chandler, assures users that the management team will remain in place to guard the reviewing process of its 16 million members. 

Not surprisingly with the changes which are occurring in the publishing industry today, the self-publishing trend continues, and more and more authors are turning into publishers themselves. Self-publishing is gaining credibility and gives the author the opportunity to receive 70% of sales over the 10-15% they receive working with a large publishing house. Self-publishing also keeps the control in the hands of the authors, who have often been frustrated about how traditional houses handle marketing and publicity. Some literary agencies have opened up avenues for self-publishing, however, self-published books are still not available on bookstore bookshelves.

Because of this growing need, Linda started Book Marketing International to help authors who want a faster turn around for their book to be published and to then offer them marketing to get their book known to their targeted audiences. 

We heard the Academy of Arts & Sciences just elected 198 new members, some of which in the literary division include the noble Martin Amis, Wendell Berry, and Paul Theroux. Out of the 4000 fellows, 250 are Nobel Prize laureates and 60 are Pulitzer Prize winners. We want to extend our congratulations to all! 

We are happy to hear that poet and author, Maya Angelou, has returned to her North Carolina home after a brief hospitalization. Her latest memoir Mom & Me & Mom (Random House, 2013) released in April, and the 85-year-old author is currently working on a poetry collection.