While the organizers have still not decided whether the Portland Book Festival will be fully virtual or a return to a more “normal” format, submissions are now open for books to be included in the November 2021 event.
Literary Arts will accept submissions of books between now and June 4, 2021 for the 2021 Festival. Complete submissions must be received by June 4, 2021.To be considered, books must be published in the fifteen months preceding the Festival (November 2021); priority consideration will be given to books published in 2021.
Exact dates and format for the 2021 Portland Book Festival will be announced later. For more details on how to make a submission, see https://literary-arts.org/
Brian Jud alerted us that he’s back to giving free advice on book selling “The APSS 2020 Book Selling University was such a huge success we thought we would do it again — with different topics and some new speakers,” he wrote tonight.
January 28 – 29 The Association of Publishers for Special Sales Free, Virtual Book Selling University “Selling Books in a COVID World“
The two-day virtual conference is presented at no charge. Nationally known speakers will help independent publishers and authors discover how to sell more books, obtain more and better publicity, get media appearances, build your personal brand and much more. New speakers and topics include:
§ How to Get Media Attention When No One Knows Who the Hell You Are
§ A Panel Discussion About Getting More Publicity in Niche Markets
§ Don’t Count Them Out! Selling to Libraries Amidst the Continuing COVID Pandemic
§ How to Contact and Get a Reply from Any Prospective Buyer
§ Selling More Books During a Pandemic (retail, military, government, homeschooling, etc.)
§ Q & A workshop – How to Get Published Specifically for Special Sales
§ Seven Ways To Monetize Your Book
§ Copyrights, Trademarks and Avoiding Scams and Lawsuits
§ How to Create Your Personal Brand
For more information or to register for any or all courses go to: https://bit.ly/2NtFVVi
Seattle author Rosemary Jones not only edits this website, she’s also a regular writer of media tie-in or shared world fiction. Taking licensed properties and working with the holders of those licenses, she crafts fiction that deepens the mythos underlying such popular games as Dungeons & Dragons or, in her latest novel, Arkham Horror.
“Arkham Horror is a beloved line of board and card games published by Fantasy Flight Games,” said Jones. “Players become investigators in the strange New England town of Arkham, where cosmic horrors lurk behind seemingly innocent activities. Players of the games are used to intriguing artwork detailing the game’s setting in the 1920s America. As an author, it’s a fun challenge to not only write a story that belongs in that fantasy world but also fits into the real history of the time.”
For her first novel for Arkham Horror, Jones researched 1920s Hollywood and sent a troupe of filmmakers to Arkham to produce a silent movie. During the course of their production, the cast and crew not only meet characters from the game, they are also challenged to survive the dangers that lurk in the shadows.
Reviewers have already taken Mask of Silver‘s diverse cast of characters to heart, with one stating: “what you end up with is a depiction of 1920s America that never feels anything less than 100% real. This is absolutely crucial to this kind of insidious horror: rather than being able to dismiss this tale as something fantastical set in a place clearly of the imagination, instead you have something that feels like real history, a carefully restored picture of 1920s America – as such, when the creepy stuff starts to happen, you can almost start to wonder whether your mirror is reflecting things at an angle that should not be possible? whether the crows outside your window are giving you funny looks, as you get further and further into this slow-burn work of unsettling horror.”
To find out more about how to go from game to story, join Jones and Anjuli Smith of Aconyte Books as they discuss writing media tie-in fiction for Arkham Horror on January 22.
ACONYTE is the novels division of Asmodee Entertainment, created in 2019 to deliver on the Asmodee slogan: “Great games, amazing stories!” Their authors and editors strive to create new and exciting content to be leveraged on further entertainment platforms. A truly global brand, they work with companies around the world from their offices in Nottingham, UK. Arkham Horror: Author Chat With Rosemary Jones
The Northwest African American Museum celebrates Martin Luther King Day this year by giving away books to children, among other activities.
This heritage museum has been closed to the public since March due to Washington State regulations surrounding COVID-19. The Museum pivoted to a number of online programs and launched a literacy program to help Seattle children continue to receive books and support during school closures.
Each month since then, NAAM has given away books to local Pre-K to 12th grade children at family-friendly and school-based youth events throughout the region. The carefully curated books “center, reflect, and affirm Black children, and are written and illustrated by Black authors and artists, with amazing learning within,” as per the Museum’s website.
Martin Luther King Day (January 18) Live Giveaway/Drive-through 11:00 a.m. – 4 p.m. “Books & Balls” giveaway with Seattle Sounders FC & Rave Foundation + City of Seattle “Rec’N the Streets” activity kits at Amy Yee Tennis Center Parking Lot. Drive-through event at 2000 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., Seattle 98144. Masks required.
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced the recipients of the 2021 Pacific Northwest Book Awards this week. Selected by a volunteer committee of independent booksellers from 400 nominated titles published in 2020, the books come from both large and small publishers and celebrate a diversity of authors working in the Pacific Northwest.
This year PNBA and its member stores will host a free virtual public celebration with the winners of this year’s Awards. The Pacific Northwest Book Awards Celebration, is set for February 10. Registration instructions appears on the 2021 winners announcement page at NWBookLovers.org.
This year’s winners are:
Cemetery Boys Aiden Thomas (Portland, OR) Swoon Reads / Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan
Lupe Wong Won’t Dance Donna Barba Higuera (Issaquah, WA) Levine Querido
The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir E.J. Koh (Seattle, WA) Tin House Books
Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Vancouver, BC) Del Rey / Penguin Random House
rough house Tina Ontiveros (The Dalles, OR) Oregon State University Press
This Is My America Kim Johnson (Eugene, OR) Random House Books for Young Readers
This year, the Seattle City of Literature nonprofit is adding five at-large volunteer seats to their board of directors that are specifically held for representatives from books-, reading-, and writing-related groups, businesses, and community organizations in five geographic areas across the Seattle area: north, south, east, west, and central. Seattle City of Literature is the 501(c)3 nonprofit that manages Seattle’s UNESCO designation as a center for literacy and literature.
The five positions will participate fully in all board decision-making, including voting, and appointments will last one year (February 2021 to January 2022). The board currently meets virtually once a month in the evening for 90 minutes to two hours; committees meet on an as-needed basis on a similar schedule.
These positions will help the nonprofit ensure that the UNESCO designation is fully representative of, and connected to, the work happening in the community. “It is crucial that the decision-making around the UNESCO designation management directly reflect the communities who earned our city that designation in the first place. We also hope that these positions will help serve as opportunities for folks to further develop their community leadership skills, through training and onboarding support that we provide,” said Juan Carlos Reyes, President, Seattle City of Literature Board of Directors, in a recent letter to Book Publishers Northwest News
These board positions will be uncompensated volunteer work.
Seattle was designated a UNESCO City of Literature in 2017 and has been working as part of the international network since then. The nonprofit has published Seismic, a collection that asks writers to consider what the designation means for the city and how literature might be an agent of change.
Books begin with words. And words matter. If this is the year that you start a manuscript on the way to publishing, here’s some Washington State organizations with workshops and other activities for all levels of writers, courtesy of Washington Center for the Book and Seattle Public Library.
Most are offering online programs that can be enjoyed from home with the warm drink of your choice.
Cascade Writers: community of writers and readers of various skill levels and genres; workshops and programs.
To reward their bookstore and library members for “weathering an unbelievably difficult 2020,” Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced that they would extend all 2020 members through 2021. The announcement read in part:
Any individual or institution who carried a paid PNBA membership in 2020 will be granted a complimentary membership for 2021.
Additionally, all new 2021 memberships will be offered at a special $100 introductory rate.
The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), www.ibpa-online.org, announced earlier this month that Barnes & Noble, Inc. CEO James Daunt will deliver the opening keynote at IBPA Publishing University 2021, scheduled as a virtual event on the Attendify platform April 7-10, 2021. Daunt was previously scheduled to headline IBPA’s 2020 conference, which was cancelled in March 2020 due to gathering restrictions related to COVID-19.
Barnes & Noble has struggled in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. The Seattle Barnes & Noble downtown store closed in January, leaving the downtown core without a general bookstore for the first time in decades. During an interview in a September 20, 2019 Publishers Weekly article, Daunt emphasized a “local first” philosophy will help restore the chain to retail health. That comment resonated with many independent publishers and writers, according to IBPA.
Daunt stated that any forthcoming makeover of B&N will be done by empowering store managers and other booksellers to create stores that meet the needs of their local communities.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled that Mr. Daunt has again agreed to join the incredibly passionate membership at IBPA Publishing University this April,” said IBPA CEO Angela Bole. “As an industry, we need Barnes & Noble to remain a healthy part of the supply chain. If it can also be a force for better connecting indie publishers to their local market, all the better.”
Daunt, named B&N CEO in August 2019, also serves as Managing Director of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the United Kingdom. He currently oversees 612 Barnes & Noble stores in the United States, and 293 Waterstones locations across the U.K., Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium.
Book Publishers Northwest News 
You must be logged in to post a comment.