Through a grass roots effort, we know that we can deliver the story of the
independent press throughout the country. The theme of Small Press Week 1997
is “Hot Off the Press! Titles from Independent Publishers Offer a Pizzeria
for the Mind.”

The Small Press Center in New York and PMA have joined forces to bring titles
from independent presses into the eyes of the general public. It began
approximately a year ago when we enlisted the help of many people in the
industry who said they would support getting visibility for independent and
small presses throughout the US. Then we asked our members to participate by
contacting their local libraries, bookstores, and newspapers to gather
momentum for this event. We developed a poster with the pizzeria theme and
bookmarks. And with the help of our members, we will blanket communities with
posters, bookmarks, and signings from our market.

It’s still not too late to make sure that your community becomes involved in
celebrating the works of the independent presses. Follow the lead of the
Sacramento Publishers Association (Sacramento, CA) if you need a good role
model. Their members contacted both independent bookstores and chains
(Borders, Barnes & Noble, and A Good Read) where they set up book signings
for approximately 35 regional authors and/or publishers. In addition, they
gained the support of a few libraries who will be displaying the works of the
local group for the full month of March. I’m sure that someone in that group
has also contacted the lifestyle editor of the Sacramento Bee regarding
running a story on this event.

If you need support material, please fax or e-mail the PMA office (fax,
310/374-3342; e-mail, pmaonline@aol.com) and we’ll send press material to
you. Who knows, if the Small Press Week is successful, maybe we can expand it
into being Small Press Month in 1998.

Several vendors helped support this operation and we’d like to thank them at
this time and hope that you will return the goodwill in your dealings with
them in the future. They include BookCrafters, Login Publishers Consortium
Group, IPG/Chicago Review Press, BookZone, Cat’s Pajamas, and Quality Books.
Without their support, this Small/Independent Press Event would not have been
able to happen.

This article is from thePMA Newsletterfor March, 1997, and is reprinted with permission of Publishers Marketing Association.