"All About ISBNs" Rescheduled for 6 June Meeting

Postponed from last month's meeting, Ralph Coviello of Bowker will give everyone the inside track on the importance of ISBNs.


As an author or small publisher, it is sometimes difficult to understand the vocabulary of the book industry. This presentation will cover some basics that you need to know to get started such as What is an ISBN? Further, it will discuss how to obtain one and how to use it to make your title more discoverable. 

Ralph Coviello, a twenty year veteran of the publishing industry, will be presenting this important issue to us at the May meeting.  Coviello's current role at Bowker focuses on educating publishers about ebook metadata in order to improve the discoverability of their titles. Ralph also has experience in many other facets of publishing, including print production and distribution, and is always looking to learn more.  He has written blog and newsletter articles, and has been a radio reporter. Coviello has a BA in History from Syracuse University and an MBA from Centenary College in New Jersey. Still, the great American novel eludes him.

New Book From Charles Caruso

The Mystery of Things: Random Selections From a Novel by GNYIPA author Charles Caruso has been published and is available from Amazon.com. Contact Charles at ccarusoc@aol.com. (ISNB-13 978-0615601663)

GNYIPA Author Wins Independent Publisher Award

King of Angels, A Novel About the Genesis of Identity and Belief (Belhue Press) by Perry Brass, has just been named a 2012 Bronze Ippy Award Winner in Young Adult Fiction from Independent Publisher. King of Angels was the only LGBT-themed book among the winning titles, as well as the only book that can be read both as an adult level fiction book and a coming-of-age novel suitable for older teens.

Amos Lassen in Amose Lassen Reviews said about King of Angels: “I laughed and I cried but most of all I thought and I remembered how it was growing up in one of the most turbulent periods of American history when communities tried to come together. Accepting ourselves is part of it all and Perry Brass helps us with that in his brilliant new book. Now back to read it all over again.” Reviews by Amos Lassen, March 26, 2012 (reviewsbyamoslassen.com).

King of Angels is set in Savannah, Georgia (setting of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) in 1963, the turbulent year of John Kennedy's assassination. It is the coming-of-age story of Benjamin Rothberg, son of a mixed marriage between a New York Jewish father and a beautiful "WASP" mother from an old Savannah family. Benjamin is sent to a Catholic military school in Savannah where he meets his closest friends, experiences the most horrifying bullying, and is befriended by a progressive monk who finds in Benjamin his own truth and salvation.

For more information: belhuepress@earthlink.net. For more information about the 2012 IPPY Awards: http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1534

From Perry Brass: King of Angels, Up and Running

King of Angels is up and running—

 

            God, is it running! Getting people to know about a book in the brave new Online world is difficult—I'm dancing fast as I can, and still can’t seem to get my rumba right. A new page is up for King of Angels on my website, it’s up on Amazon, with the new, just constructed Kindle edition, it’s getting some wonderful responses and reviews, and I’ll be doing an interview about it on Thursday, June 21 at 9 PM, EST, on Nate Klarfeld’s BlogTalk Radio show Stonewall Live in Books. Nate who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, loves books and I’m looking forward to talking with him about King of Angels. He’s also Jewish from Kansas, so he’s a hybrid like I am (a Southern Jew), and has told me how much he can relate to King of Angels.

 

“Oy—so much of this book rang true for me . . . I have always wanted to write about it but Perry Brass has beaten me to it and has done so in eloquent and beautiful prose . . . I laughed and I cried but most of all I thought and I remembered how it was growing up in one of the most turbulent periods of American history when communities tried to come together.” Amos Lassen Reviews (March 26, 2012)

 

Here’s a link to Nate’s show.

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stonewalllive/2012/06/22/perry-brass-author-of-king-of-angels-thurs-june-21-9pm-est

 

And also a link to the Amazon page.

 

And to the TLA Video Page.

 

            King of Angels is a coming-of-age story set in Savannah, Georgia in 1963, the year of John Kennedy’s assassination. It's about 12-year-old Benjamin Rothberg, his intense, caring Jewish father, his wise and wonderful WASP-beauty mother, and of course his younger sister Liz. It’s about Benjy being sent to Holy Nativity Military School, a Catholic school run by strict monks where he loses his heart and finds his real soul. It's about courage under fire in a difficult time. I hope you’ll explore it and tell me your feelings about  it.

Latest from Francine Trevens

Trevens has a blurb on the back cover of Norman Beim’s “Touring With Stalin.”

An anecdote about Treven's dad will appear in a forthcoming book, “Remembering our Parents” by Stuart Gustafson.

Sherry L. Meinberg sent Trevens a copy of her book, “Imperfect Weddings” which begins with an anecdote from her own wedding.

 

All this and more on her most recent blog at

http://stagesandpages-francine.blogspot.com/