The Latest News From MIPA
Click on the summaries below to read the full articles. Have an idea for a story? Email Pat
Midwest Book Awards Gala
Authors, designers, illustrators and publishers came together for an evening of networking and celebration of independent publishing. The highlight of the evening was the announcement of this year’s winners in 30 writing, illustration and design categories. Read a...
Unowsky Receives Pat Bell Award
When David Unowsky opened Hungry Mind (later called Ruminator) bookstore in Saint Paul in 1970, Minnesota was flyover land; East Coast publishers gave little thought to the Midwest and rarely sent their touring authors to bookstores in the middle of the country. David...
Midwest Book Awards finalists announced
The scores have tabulated and the finalists for this year’s Midwest Book Awards have been selected.The gala where the winners will be named will be held on May 12, 2017, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Olson Campus Center at the Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota....
Member news
Congratulations to Color House Graphics, Inc., of Grand Rapids and Chicago on celebrating their 30-year anniversary. CHG offers digital and offset printing, book binding and finishing, and distribution and fulfillment. To learn more about them, go to...
The Writer offers comprehensive view on self-publishing
The cover story in the May issue of The Writer, “Going Rogue: Is self-publishing right for you?” offers a good explanation of some of the differences between traditional and self-publishing including the pros and cons of each. It explains some of the costs involved in...
Apparently men and women are different — who knew?
Statistician Ben Blatt, in his newest book, Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing, took a mathematical view of thousands of classic and contemporary books and discovered, among many other things:...
MIPA members: There’s still time for nominations
We need volunteers to help guide MIPA’s future. Send your nominations to Sherry Roberts, Sybil Smith or to me, Pat Morris. You do not need to live near the Twin Cities (we can Skype) and you do not need vast experience, just your ideas and a willingness to help....
Midwest Book Awards
The judges are busy reading the 192 titles entered into the Midwest Book Awards. Finalists will be announced in mid-April. The invitation-only gala will be held Friday, May 12, in St. Paul.
IBPA has a new website
MIPA is an affiliate of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), a national publishing association. Check out their new website and if you’re not a member yet, consider joining.
PW’s Claire Kirch
Note: Date change for our April meeting! Clair has been senior correspondent for Publishers Weekly, covering the Midwest for several years. Her articles span a wide range of publishing topics. Claire will talk about her experiences, the changes she’s seen in...
Wrap-up of fall meetings
September — Our meeting about book award contests provided a lot of information about choosing which ones to enter. More will be written about book awards on our new website but when determining which ones to enter research the organization to understand which ones...
Christmas Book Flood
Perhaps we should be more like Iceland (uh, not the weather). Iceland has a lovely national tradition called “Jolabokaflod,” or the “Christmas Book Flood,” which started during World War II. Books are the majority of the presents given to one another for Christmas....
Hybrid Publishing
Publishing: Does It Define You? Does It Matter? Jennifer Baum is publisher and editorial director at Scribe Publishing Company. She is writing a series of articles for MIPA on insights from the 2015 IBPA Publishing University. Across the publishing industry, new...
Read moreHow often do we feel that we are pedaling in place or just treading water?
Learning Curve to Earning Curve
By Rod Mebane, Starshine Galaxy Rod was MIPA’s scholarship participant at the 2013 IBPA Publication University (PubU), held in San Francisco in March 2014. This is the second of three reports that Rod is sharing with fellow MIPA members from his experience at the...
Covers that Connect
By Rod Mebane, Starshine Galaxy Rod was MIPA’s scholarship participant at the 2014 IBPA Publication University (PubU), held in San Francisco last March. This is one of a series of reports that Rod is sharing with fellow MIPA members from his experience at the...
Walking Through Literature
By Rachel M. Anderson, RMA Publicity Editor’s Note: MIPA members are always looking for innovative ways to market their books. Rachel’s press release below shows one benefit-driven idea: building a literary tour around your book. It requires work and lots of...
Read moreISBNs are how readers and buyers find your books.
The Scoop on ISBNs
By Sherry Roberts, The Roberts Group The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is your book’s identification number or fingerprint. It is a 13-digit number that all book databases use to track your books. ISBNs are how readers and buyers find your books. They are...
Think Outside the Social Media Box
By Rachel M. Anderson, RMA Publicity Admit it, you’ve gotten frustrated by all the things you’ve done to sell books that haven’t worked very well: all the advertising on Goodreads, doing book giveaways, producing a trailer, launching a social media campaign, blogging,...
Meet IBPA Executive Director Angela Bole
By Marly Cornell, LightaLight Publications Editor’s note: This blog post was inspired by Marly’s fruitful experience at the IBPA Pub-U conference, “Discoverability: How to Reach Your Reader and Sell More Books,” in April 2013. Prior to becoming IBPA’s new executive...
The Latest on eBooks
By Marly Cornell, LightaLight Publications Editor’s note: This blog post was inspired by Marly’s fruitful experience at the IBPA Pub-U conference, “Discoverability: How to Reach Your Reader and Sell More Books,” in April 2013. Not surprisingly, the ebook was a topic...
Read moreOne of the key advantages of being associated with the Independent Book Publishers Association — and its affiliate, MIPA — is the opportunity to interact with, network, and associate in a generous atmosphere of collegiality with others involved in similar endeavors.
Reaching Unique Audiences
By Marly Cornell, LightaLight Publications This is a second installment of IBPA-University Delivers from Marly’s fruitful experience of attending the IBPA Pub-U conference, “Discoverability: How to Reach Your Reader and Sell More Books,” in April 2013. [First, a P.S....