Words on the Wind

2007 London Book Fair

2007-05-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

And here we are~! Our books displayed at the London [International] Book Fair in this great booth situated next to one of the best food venues and central to the promenade attendees had to traverse to get to the other side of the exhibit area.

Books, books and more books~! We had great shelf space for our titles.

See the Absolutely Books blog for other views of the Fair.

This was the view from the second floor near our booth.

Mallinson Launch at Pacific Festival of the Book

2007-03-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

A.J. Mallinson launches her new book Terra Infirma - A Life Unbalanced at the Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria B.C. on Saturday, March 24th.

A moment from Terra Infirma- A Life Unbalanced shared by author A.J. Mallinson.

This heartwarming and universal account of what it is like to live with disability, is both literary and humorous.

A.J. Mallinson, author of Terra Infirma - A Life Unbalanced and Sandra Janssen of Windshift Press discussing her reading at the Festival.

Pacific Festival of The Book

2007-03-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Crowds of passionate book lovers and writers stopped to chat over the course of the Festival.

The chance to talk about books and publishing for hours at a time is just too tempting~!!

Now that wouldn't be a bit of publishing gossip would it?

We had hoped to take lots of pictures of the Festival and our booth but in the end we were so busy talking to readers and writers that it was over before we knew it.

There is nothing quite as intense and satisfying as two book lovers deep in conversation. Sandra Janssen of Windshift Press and Lynne Van Luven, editor of Nobody's Mother [Touch Wood Editions] sharing ideas.

Looking like a breath of Spring, A.J. Mallinson poses for a photo following her reading from Terra Infirma - A Life Unbalanced.

Author of Take The Wings of A Morning, Kathy Wilson drops by our booth on Saturday afternoon.

World Poetry Day - March 21st

2007-03-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

To mark this year’s World Poetry Day, UNESCO will pay tribute to Chilean poet and Nobel Literacy Prize winner, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), the centenary of whose birth is also being celebrated.

My favourite Neruda poem is Tonight I Can Write. This poem was at the heart of the film Il Postino depicting an apocryphal incident in Neruda's life. In this poem he describes the pleasures and torments of erotic love with a sensual precision that is not often found in the works other modern poets.

An excerpt from Tonight I Can Write

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

- Pablo Neruda -

A.J. Mallinson Reads at The Festival

2007-03-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Terra Infirma – A Life Unbalanced – Anna Jean Mallinson

The Windshift Press Group is thrilled to have Anna Jean Mallinson do a reading at The Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria, BC on Saturday, March 23rd at 4:00 in Studio 3. If you are attending the Festival drop by our booth to get your signed copy of Terra Infirma as well as copies of any other Windshift Press titles you may have missed.

Terra Infirma - A Life Unbalanced tells the story of a summer that became a season of change through a toxic response to gentamicin and the author’s struggle to reclaim a life in a body disabled by this modern elixir.

Jean Mallinson is the author of a book of short stories, I Will Bring You Berries, a book of poems, Between Cup and Lip, and, with four other writers, a book of poems, Quintet: Themes & Variations. She is also the author of essays and articles, most recently in Vocabula Review.

She lives in West Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

***************************************************************

“Jean Mallinson, in her wrenching, compelling account of her own disability, reminds us that we, all of us -- wherever our station, whatever our circumstances -- live an uncertain, a wobbly life. A lovely mix of personal thought and literary quotation, A Life Unbalanced is full of honest feeling and whirling reflection.“
Robert Hartwell Fiske, Editor, Vocabula Review. Vocabula Review

Booksellers' Trade Fair

2007-02-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Western Book Reps Association trade fair.

Held from Sunday, February 11th through Tuesday, February 13th, it was a great opportunity for Windshift Press to share their book list with all of the British Columbia booksellers who attended this event.

We met old friends and made many new ones over the course of the fair.

Held at the gorgeous Laurel Point Inn in Victoria, BC, it was easy to be distracted by the wonderful harbour view.

The spacious booth allowed us to provide a changing view of all of the titles published and represented by the Windshift Press Group. Some people on staff spent far too much time changing the displays~!

Another great view of our recently published and forthcoming titles as well as new books that we are representing.

Important Jewish Book Launched at WOTS

2006-09-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Join Windshift Press at Word on the Street in Vancouver on Sunday, September 24th as we launch From Man to Man - Moishe Nadir, trans. Harvey Fink ($19.95 Cdn/ ISBN: 0-9780056-0-0).

Translated from the original Yiddish, From Man to Man is a collection of the prose of Moishe Nadir, originally published in 1919. This American playwright and poet is enjoying a new renaissance, and it is no small wonder why. The work is of tremendous depth and the translation by Harvey Fink is an example of the same love and quest for the greater truths of Life which Nadir shared.

Harvey Fink will be signing copies of the book and is available to discuss other Yiddish translation projects he is currently at work on. If you miss it in Vancouver, you can buy your copy here

Book Launch at Word on the Street

2006-09-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Join Windshift Press at Word on the Street in Vancouver on Sunday, September 24th as we launch Gay 101: A Straight Look at Gay Life ( $19.95 Cdn/ ISBN: 0-9736560-9-3 ) by Sandra Janssen & Steven Coull.

Gay 101 offers the answers to some of the questions straight people are often afraid to ask. This perceptive book gives the reader the inside scoop on today's gay culture as reported by gay people.

This book is the result of extensive interviews with gay men and women from all backgrounds. Sandra Janssen and Steven Coull have made these intriguing and insight-filled surveys come to life. The authors offer us an opportunity to fully appreciate the "lifestyle", and find that there is really not that much which separates all of us.

The book is available from all good Canadian bookstores and on-line from Windshift Press On-Line .

Frankfurt Book Fair Excitement

2006-09-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

We will have a shelf of Windshift Press books at the Frankfurt Bookfair this October. For those of you who are new to the world of publishing the Frankfurt Bookfair is the premiere bookfair in the world. With 16,000 editors, agents, movie scouts and other publishing professionals from around the world looking for new projects it is a terrific opportunity.

In 2005 the total number of visitors to the Frankfurt Bookfair on all five days of the Fair was 284,838 people.

Frankfurt Book Fair

Find us at the Foreword Magazine Collective - H8 - L980 - Hall 8 (English speaking hall) Row L, Booth 980

If you are taking in the Fair, plan to stop by the stand and check out our great titles.

So along with our regular local and regional book promotions we are particularly busy this autumn. Watch our calendar of events to see if your favourite author is visiting your town.

Word on the Street

2006-09-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

There is great excitement in the Windshift Press office this month because we have taken a booth at Word on the Street in Vancouver. All Windshift Press authors will have their books available to the expected 40,000 visitors. Throughout the day a number of authors will be signing copies of their books. If you are planning to attend the Fair stop by the Windshift Press booth to meet your favourite author or talk to us about publishing your next book.

Word on the Street

The Word On The Street Book & Magazine Fair runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the last Sunday in September,in Vancouver, Calgary, Kitchener, Toronto and Halifax. What a great way to feel as though Canada is united in a national celebration of literacy and the printed word despite her vast geographical distances.

Look for details shortly about the authors who will be doing book launches and book signings on the day.

A Change of View

2006-08-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

The recent terrorist plot uncovered by UK authorities has had wide ranging effects on travelers worldwide.

One of the most interesting comments for people in the book trade came from a bookseller at Heathrow Airport. Businesses travel customers, who on not being able to take their laptops as carry-on luggage on flights to or from London, hit the airport's bookstores which translated into a significant rise in book sales.

Popular selling titles included Freakonomics and The World Is Flat.

Whether travelers could take the books on planes or whether they read them during the long waits still made books the activity of choice to fill those travel hours.

Will this change hold when the restrictions are lifted?

Father's Day

2006-06-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 18th is Father's Day. I don't know about you but as I get older I find it difficult to find the right gift. There are only so many things you can buy for the golfing dad or the fishing dad until they have everything they'll ever need for their hobby. So what about a book? Here is an opportunity to introduce your dad to a great summer read or a book on a subject he might not have pursued himself. He can broaden his horizons without ever leaving his favourite chair.

So here are a few great summer reads from Windshift Press:

Tales From the Man in the Black Hat

Falconer's Last Voyage

The Coffin Ship Legacy

The Amazing Truth about Book Launches

2006-06-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a very nice wall display in a famous chain of Canadian Bookstores. It is in fact Canada's largest independent bookseller.

Still stumped? Look a bit closer...

Hey, I know her!

Yes! Yes, I do.

Of course, it's Windshift Press' own Lenore Hellum, author of Nine Lives: The Adventures of Peripatetic Pookie and His Pals.

Check out Pookie!

Well, that's just awesome. But, where is it?

McNally Robinson in Saskatoon!

Never been there? Oh, you should really...

Visit McNally Robinson!

When two great pros get together, there is invariably a smashing good party!!

Children's Day

2006-06-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

June 9th is Children's Day. How and where it will be celebrated will take many forms.

Being a book lover I wanted to think about children and books. I remember my own discovery of books and those stories that became lifelong favourites. So I would like to offer my congratulations to the librarian at The Donnell Central Children's Room in Manhattan. She's gone online with an extremely entertaining blog about children's books that is filled with perceptive thoughts. A Fuse #8 Production includes book reviews, opinions about publishing news, and lots of links.

As for me ... my favourite children's book read remains The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, part of which can be found here, complete with illustrations.

But wait a minute ... there is Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and ... so many more ...

United Nations World Environment Day

2006-06-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

According to the United Nations website World Environment Day is commemorated each year on 5 June. It is an opportunity for the the United Nations to raise worldwide awareness of the environment and to encourage politicians and people everywhere to take action. In 2005 the focus was on greener cities.

On a local level my small city has recently instituted a garbage collection programme that includes compostable domestic waste. At Windshift Press we have increased our level of recycling and continually discuss ways to make the office a greener place to work.

The theme for World Environment Day 2006 is Deserts and Desertification. The slogan is Don't Desert Drylands! The focus this year is to emphasize the importance of protecting drylands, which cover more than 40% of the planet's surface. This ecosystem is home to one-third of the world's population, who are some of the most vulnerable members of our society and to many endangered species of plants and animals. Algeria is hosting the main international celebrations of the United Nations World Environment Day.

As a writer have you been submitting articles and essays to keep us focused on the state of the planet? The environment is a 'hot topic' and most media outlets are always looking for newsworthy articles on the state of the planet. Check in and let us know where positive change is happening in your area.

Tips for Authors

2006-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

When doing a media interview you can either worry about your performance or relax and enjoy it. The more relaxed you seem the easier it is for the interviewer to bring out the best in both of you.

Tip: Say your title at least three times in every interview. Yes, there will be times when this is impossible, and there will be times when this is tacky, but if you make it a rule and stick to it, you will sell more books. Erase the words "my book" from your vocabulary, and always use the full title to refer to your work. This is one easy way to sell books in an interview without sounding like an infomercial.

Market: Hunger Mountain's reading period is open again. Now is your chance to share your writing with the people of Vermont and beyond. Submission guidelines: http://www.tui.edu/hungermtn/submissions.asp

Friday Tip

2006-03-17T23:58:00.000-08:00

I get so many enquiries about writing and publishing that instead of trying to respond to them all I am going to post various tips and markets each week. If a market or tip works for you come back and share your successes. Good luck in the meantime.

Tip: In your submission package to publishers and editors consider adding an 'author synopsis'. This is a synopsis [50 words] that shows how you are different from thousands of other authors. You need to define the key selling points of 'you'. What is it that you bring to your book that is unique?

Market: As a crime writer if you haven't bookmarked http://www.cluelass.com/ then get connected!
This site offers you a wide range of information on forthcoming events for writers in this genre as well as markets and competitions.

Chance Meetings

2006-02-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Now there are those of you who would say that there are no chance meetings in life but that is another discussion. This morning I had a virtual chance meeting with Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins, Publishers. I was trawling the book trade news when I came across a reference to Mr. Lennertz and his discovery of neglected books ( www.neglectedbooks.com ) It turns out that one of his favourite neglected books is a favourite book of mine. My copy of J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country has traveled with me back and forth across the Atlantic many times now. I found it in a wonderful old bookshop in the Charing Cross Road area of London in the early 1980's and it was an immediate friendship. I have read it many times now whilst living in the UK and on the west coast of Canada. Each time something new resonates with me.

So I thank Mr Lennertz for bringing A Month in the Country to the notice of many new readers. Perhaps it is time to read it just one more time.

New Year Journey

2006-01-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

The new year has safely landed. Beyond that I have no sense of where it will take me. On a personal note I published my novel Circle of Beginning in the dying light of 2005. It was a promise to myself that I was able to keep. Circle of Beginning is the first in a series of five Circle novels I am writing. I am now hard at work on Circle of Attachment and have promised myself it will be published before the end of 2006. Details of both books can be found on the Windshift Press website www.windshift.bc.ca

As with any new personal endeavour I have been waiting all month for the critiques to come in. What a relief to find that my most diligent critics found much to praise about the book.

This publishing experience helps me to understand the authors that I publish in a much more sympathetic manner.

Seasonal

2005-12-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

As the season of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa rapidly approaches people are drawn into their own particular picture of what should happen. Their story almost never does. A time of great tensions and emotions, the days play out in ways we didn't anticipate or we force them into boxes in order to make them closer to what our internal picture looks like. This year I am not painting any pictures. I'm just going to hang out in the gallery of life and see whose portrait I find.

Networks

2005-12-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Several Windshift for Writers newsletter recipients have complained that I have included markets that I included at the beginning of 2005. Perhaps I should have put a comment in the newsletter to explain this practice. Building a relationship with a magazine or periodical that has taken your work before significantly increases your chances of having a new submission accepted. Even if you have never had a piece accepted by a particular publication but would like to see your work on their pages this is your chance to come before them again. Perhaps your piece will be right for a forthcoming issue now.

When I repeat a market it is often that I know the editors involved or have had my own work accepted by them in the past. Building writing networks is a difficult business and takes much patience and perseverance.

Craft Fair Season

2005-11-30T07:19:00.000-08:00

I spent last weekend at a craft fair. I don't 'do' craft fairs. I have found in the past that the costs involved often exceed the profits realized especially if you factor in the time spent. This time a persuasive argument was made. At a small table nestled between several potters and the on-site cafe my 76 year old author of a children's chapter book on cats charmed the crowd. Sales were well beyond my expectations and hers.

9 Lives by Lenore Hellum contains nine stories as dreamed by the resident white cat Pookie. Based on the cats she has owned, Lenore was able to let her imagination run and take their lives to places they never imagined in real life. The idea for the book came from a painting by Charlotte Campbell of a white cat on a magic carpet. The book is full of humour and insights not usually found in a children's book and thus we found adults buying the book with no intention of giving it to anyone but themselves.

In fact, we had several buyers who had the book dedicated to sons and daughters in their 40's as well as a number of people who had the book dedicated to their cats.

Would I do it again? If the conditions were as favourable as these, you bet!

A New Vision of Tourism

2005-11-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

Larry Portzline, the creator of bookstore tourism is on the road again. He has recently set up a National Council of Bookstore Tourism with the aim of taking the concept much further.

He has lead over a dozen tours of book lovers to a number of U.S. cities to visit bookstores in the last year. Now his vision includes creating partnerships with appropriate groups including bookstores, libraries, educators, publishers, the travel industry, cultural tourism organizations and economic development groups. He sees the future of this venture encompassing education as well as cultural heritage.

His personal dream is to take a month long bus trip to bookstores across America bringing along authors for bookstore events. ... Route 66 meet Route 2006.

Who'd Have Thought It?

2005-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

When bookstores start making the news for events other than author signings and closures then they know they have arrived.

I recently read about a bookstore in Raleigh, North Carolina that was robbed during a cookbook signing. Thankfully, the thief was discreet enough to quietly hand the cashier a note so that customers had no idea of the theft as it was occurring.

Then there was the bookstore in Anchorage, Alaska that had a Subaru station wagon crash through its window and land in the travel section. Now there are many ways to get the hottest travel book but driving to the shelf in your local bookstore is not recommended.

Perhaps there are drive-thru bookstores somewhere but I don't know of any.

Books by the Billion

2005-11-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

3BillionBooks, Inc. has announced that it will be the first company to globally develop a low cost [under $100,000 US], totally automated book machine, which can produce 15 - 20 library quality paperback books per hour, on-site, in any language, in quantities of one, without any human intervention.

Now if they partner with the companies that have book vending machines on the streets of Paris they could corner the book publishing and distribution market. If that happens, as a publisher, I will be virtually redundant. Back to writing the great Canadian novel!.

The Year of the Veteran

2005-11-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

As a storm rages outside my window I change my mind about going to my local Cenotaph and opt for watching the national ceremony on T.V.

Today I want to let veterans know that the sacrifice of their youth and that of their friends and colleagues was not in vain. Some years ago my life was indelibly marked by a trip to the WWI battlefields of Ypres, Paschendale and Vimy Ridge; of visits to WWII scenes of conflict in Normandy and Arnheim to name but a few.

As a Canadian born after WWII, I do not really know the nightmare that is war. I only know that I never want it to become my reality.

Prelude: The Troops

Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom
Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals
Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots
And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky
Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down
The stale despair of night, must now renew
Their desolation in the truce of dawn,
Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace.

Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands,
Can grin through the storms of death and find a gap
In the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence.
They march from safety, and the bird sung joy
Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all
Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky
That hastens over them where they endure
Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,
And foundered trench-lines vollying doom for doom.

O my brave brown companions, when your souls
Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead
Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,
Death will stand grieving in that field of war
Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent.
And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass
Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell;
The unreturning army that was youth;
The legions who have suffered and are dust.

SIEGFRIED SASSOON - WWI poet and soldier

The Season of Prizes

2005-11-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

This is the season of book prizes. Every week there are new announcements acknowledging the work of writers around the world. While winning a prize certainly brings monetary rewards and increased book sales I suspect that most authors are more moved by the confirmation that their writing has value to society and that they have communicated their message well.

Subjects for exploration in books also have seasons. So it was with some pleasure that I note David Bergen's win of the Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian fiction. His book The Time in Between looks at the life of a Vietnam veteran in the time after the war. The Vietnam war and particularly its aftermath is an area of our culture that we haven't spoken much about and perhaps now is the season.

Where Has Your Pen Been?

2005-11-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

This may be a question that some writers will be asking themselves in 2006. Margaret Atwood will be launching her new invention the LongPen, produced by Unotchit at the London International Book Fair in March 2006.

The idea behind the LongPen is that an author on tour will be able to sign books in one country and through a video feed and a machine be able to produce their signature and accompanying message for a book buyer halfway around the world. Author tours could then be reduced to larger centres only with video feeds to surrounding regions or countries. More book buyers will get author signed copies.

I know how draining an author tour can be and how much the time away from writing can affect the creative process but I also can't help but wonder if an author will have very much less contact with their audience. For me meeting someone who loved my book is part of what sustains me as an author. Ah, the dilemma of modern technology. As a writer, how do you feel about the invention of the LongPen?

Who Buys Books and Why

2005-11-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

Twenty-five percent of people responding to a recent survey confirmed that the last book they read was one recommended by a friend. This percentage rises to over 33% among people under 35. Seven percent were influenced entirely by cover design but that's another discussion.

This is a further confirmation that together with reading another book by a favourite author, word of mouth is one of the strongest forces propelling book sales today.

So go for it - tell a friend, tell your mother, tell a librarian or tell a minister [either kind] and see how far the ripples from your book recommendation take it. You have the power~!

Word of Mouth Marketing

2005-10-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

I read somewhere the other day that actively managed word of mouth book marketing campaigns get the best results between week 13 and week 17. It made me consider some of the marketing campaigns I've been involved in and for most books they were right.

A word of mouth marketing campaign doesn't always kick into gear immediately after a book is published. It can take two weeks to a month after a potential buyer hears about a book from a friend, through reading a review, hearing the author interviewed or meeting the author at a social gathering to result in the buyer tracking the book down. By week 18 most of the scheduled book events have taken place and the media has moved on.

Word of mouth marketing campaigns are a great way for authors to get involved with promoting their books. There is a fine balance between offering to do a book event for every church group, service group, professional association and arts group that you belong to and becoming the author who people cross the floor to get away from at social events because they're tired of being bored to tears over a book.

When done well a ground swell ripples through the organizations of a community and book sales soar.

Instant Breakfast

2005-10-31T21:10:00.000-08:00

In this world of instant everything, it seems only natural that the first book about the Chicago White Sox World Series win would arrive only days after the team's success. It's the White Sox: 2005 World Series Champions [$19.95 hardcover 1596701390, $14.95 soft cover 1596701021] published by Sports Publishing with the aid of the Chicago Sun Times.

I understand their drive and enthusiasm for getting a wonderful momento out for fans everywhere to collect but I am with the slow food movement on this one. I like to savour my books both in the writing of them and in the publishing of them.

A Ghostly Business - Book Writing

2005-10-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

A new business survey recently revealed that consultants who were authors earned at least 4 times more than consultants without a book. There is no other field where the differential between those who had published a book and those who hadn't was as great.

Not every consultant makes a good writer. Many consultants have all the information at their fingertips but lack the skill, the time or the patience to write a book. [It takes an estimated 700 hours to write a book of this type]

Most consultants who have published books find that they make more money by hiring a ghost writer, but the bottom line is that you both need to be like minded enough to give coherence to the material.

Windshift Press has recently worked with several consultants to bring their material to book form. We'd be pleased to hear from other consultants to discuss their projects.

Welcome to Words on the Wind

2005-06-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

As an author and publisher I'm looking forward to sharing some publishing and book promotion tips. I welcome your comments on your experiences.