MEMBERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

VIDEOSAND POPUPSAND SLIDESHOWS, OH, MY!

Interweave Press sold “a few thousand” units of its $14.97 e-mag, Quilting Arts in Stitches, within two weeks of introducing this downloadable digital product in late June. Described as a new means of offering inspiration, instructions, and tools, this e-mag “sews together” articles, videos, patterns, images, and project instructions in a single multimedia package driven by the Adobe AIR platform. More information and a preview are available at interweavestore.com/Sewing/Magazines/In-Stitches.html.

Adobe describes AIR as a Flash platform runtime that lets developers use HTML, JavaScript, Flash software, and ActionScript to build Web applications that run as standalone client applications, without a browser being needed.

Unlike digital editions of Interweave periodicals such as Quilting Arts Magazine, which are exact copies of print editions, Quilting Arts in Stitches was developed with videos, pop-ups, slideshows, and zoom options that provide closeups of quilts, patterns that can be downloaded and printed, and hyperlinks to relevant sites.

Individual pages can be printed, but the “publication” is not available in print format. Interweave plans several similar projects, including for the sock-knitting publication Sockupied.

Other IBPA members have created similar products by working with Vook Inc. That company calls its “content management and production platform” product the Vook Engine, and says it combines “video, text, images and social streams.” 

AN INNOVATIVE INDEX

Another member publishing in a nontraditional format is Quickfind Books, which has patented an index system that allows all sections of a book to be seen from any page. “The desired information can be accessed immediately,” says Austin Rand, editor, about the company’s cutaway pages that are positioned starting with the smallest at the front, with tabs that let users see the entire database at a glance, just as with Web site menus.

MAJOR MEDIA COVERAGEFOR NARROW NICHE PUBLISHER

An op-ed piece written by Terry A. Tegnazian, president of Aquila Polonica, appeared in a summer issue of the Wall Street Journal. In the piece—“Polish Heroes: The History of the Country’s World War II Resistance Against Nazi Germany Fell Victim to Realpolitik”—Tegnazian pointed out, “At its height, the underground Polish army (Armia Krajowa, or AK) counted 300,000 brave men, women and even children.” This history was unknown to most, she noted, and she learned of it only when she began research on a book about the Polish experience during World War II.

In May, Publishers Weekly referred to the company as “the world’s only publishing house that specializes in books about the Polish experience during WW2” in an article titled “Aquila Polonica Finds Its Niche: Finding a Market for Books About Poland During WW2.” The PW story continued, “And if early buzz is any indication, the books Tegnazian publishes could prove quite popular. They’ve been picked up by Book-of-the-Month clubs, received praise from authors like Alan Furst, been named finalists for independent publishing awards, and prompted the release of DVDs of historic newsreels that had long been forgotten.”

RADIOFOR MARCO POLO

Harry Rutstein, author of The Marco Polo Odyssey: In the Footsteps of a Merchant Who Changed the World (from the Marco Polo Foundation) was interviewed on NPR’s Travel with Rick Steves. The Spanish edition of the book launches this month. Rutstein died of lung cancer July 24 at age 80.

GETTING TOGETHER THANKSTO TECHNOLOGY

Bill O’Brien and Christopher Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center report using Webex to carry on conversations among people in multiple locations while presenting a slideshow on the CCC product Rightslink.

Webex, which describes its product as combining “real-time desktop sharing with phone conferencing so everyone sees the same thing while you talk,” offers a 14-day free trial. See webex.com to determine whether this could supplement your author appearances. (And if you try it, let us at IBPA know how it works for you!)

FISH STORY

The Alaska Sea Grant Program publishes Fi$h Bizpieces to help commercial fishers direct-market their fish and keep good records, and to provide answers to questions about seafood brokering and trading. Kathy Kurtenbach, sales and marketing coordinator, reports that the agency has been both selling the publications and giving them away for the last couple of years. Written by University of Alaska Marine Advisory agents, they generally have no more than 10 pages. Some are e-booklets; others are available in print.

The Alaska Sea Grant bookstore Web site (seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/bus.html) is designed so that each publication’s page has sidebars with links to related publications. Links from Fi$h Biz publication pages to other Fi$h Biz booklets, along with word-of-mouth promotion by Marine Advisory agents at workshops, have prompted many orders, Kurtenbach reports. 

Separately, although none of Alaska Sea Grant’s agents or authors has been interviewed by national news media about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, some have been resources for Alaska news media reporting on the disaster.

SPEAKING OUTIN AUCKLAND

Susan Colantuono, author of No Ceiling, No Walls: What Women Haven’t Been Told About Leadership from Career-Start to the Corporate Boardroom (Interlude Productions, 2010), is in Auckland this month to keynote the 2010 Global Women in Leadership Programme sponsored by New Zealand Global Women.

HONORSFORAN AUTHOR

Marcie Davis, author of Working Like Dogs (Alpine Publications) was honored with a New Mexico Business Weekly 2010 Women of Influence Award in recognition of her professional achievements, contributions to the community, and leadership skills. Davis, a paraplegic, and her assistance dog, Whistle, will be in London September 20–26 at the World Health Organization’s Safety 2010, a conference bringing stakeholders in the prevention of unintentional injuries and violence from around the world to debate, discuss, and exchange information and experiences.

SALESVIAA CONVENTION

Bridgeross Communications author Susan Inman, whose After Her Brain Broke: Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity was published this year, signed copies of her book at the national convention of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Washington, DC, in July.

MUSEUMSAS MARKETS

Thinking niche marketing? World War II veteran Ralph Welsh is doing exactly that with his WOW! An Anthology of B-24, 8th Air Force and WWII Stories. A review of these remembrances by others who lived through the war, collected and published by Welsh, recently appeared in the quarterly Eighth Air Force News, and the book is now available in 55 aviation and military museums in the United States, Canada, and the U.K., as well as direct from the author and from other retailers.

Besides both branches of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, examples of museums selling WOW! are the Museum of Flight in Seattle; the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, OR; the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library in Norwich, Norfolk, England; Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage; Moffett Field Museum in Mountain View, CA; and the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. (If you’d like a list of aviation museums to contact about your own books, check Air & Space Museum Links, classicairliners.tripod.com/museums.html, for those in the United States and Canada.)

The Eighth Air Force News is published by the Eighth Air Force Historical Society, which was founded in 1975 to preserve the memories of the 350,000 who served in this unit between its beginnings in January 1942 and V-E Day in 1945.

Members in the Spotlight is compiled by Linda Carlson (twitter.com/carlsonideas), who is in Seattle. She welcomes news of unusual special sales, significant media coups, and other achievements at linda@ibpa-online.org.

The focus of this column is as much about how you accomplish something as what you accomplish, so details and specific how-to’s are important.

Please submit your information in the text of your email and remember to include your name, title, and the name of your press. This column does not use news about nonmembers. It does not ordinarily use photos or other images.

Since information for Members in the Spotlight is needed at least six weeks in advance of the Independent’s issue date, news you submit by September 15 can be considered for the November and later issues. News that is time-sensitive and misses the Spotlight deadline—awards, events, upcoming television and radio appearances, and co-opportunities—should be directed to Lisa Krebs in the IBPA office at lisa@ibpa-online.org for inclusion in the IBPA e-newsletter, Independent Publishing Now.