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For the twelfth time that question has been answered, as the book community gathered in New York City recently to celebrate the best of motivational and self-help books while also supporting the efforts of The National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The highlight of the event is always the winner's speeches, which are wonderfully candid and heartfelt! The chairman of the evening's festivities, Scott Manning said, "We had an extraodinary event... Someone leaned over to me and said, 'Were did you find these winners, central casting?' There were a number of truly inspiring acceptance speeches."
One of the industry's best-known bloggers Ron Hogan from Galley Cat, was on hand to interview the authors. For what they said, I suggest you check it out (link)
David Nudo
Director of Sales & Marketing
Shelfari, Inc.
We’re excited to be expanding our global sales and marketing efforts by naming David Nudo Director Sales and Marketing. Mr. Nudo’s primary duties include spearheading Shelfari’s international sales development efforts and working closely with publishing houses to promote their titles directly to Shelfari’s more than 1 million avid readers.
“David is a remarkably talented veteran and respected voice in the publishing world,” said Josh Hug, Shelfari CEO. “His experience and deep relationships with international publishing houses will help as Shelfari bridges the gap between publishers and their readers through its online community. David’s standing in the industry will guide us as we develop the best possible advertising platform for the publishing industry.”
An executive with an impressive and well-regarded track record of success in trade and consumer publishing, Mr. Nudo was most recently Vice President and Publisher at Publishers Weekly, where he is credited with integrating print and online advertising packages that resulted in 50% growth in online revenue for the industry powerhouse. Prior, Mr. Nudo was Managing Director of book advertising at the New York Times. Additionally, Mr. Nudo served as sales director at Reed Business Information, where he launched a special sales department for Publishers Weekly, as well as for its affiliated publications Library Journal and School Library Journal.
“As traditional publishing continues to converge with technology, I am very excited to join Shelfari which is at the creative forefront of this evolution,” said Mr. Nudo. “Their vision and solutions are creating endless new possibilities in both publishing and literary social networking, and I look forward to expanding Shelfari’s global sales and marketing efforts in this new age.” .
Welcome David! We’re pleased to have you as part of the Shelfari Team.
Amanda
Related Press:
Publishers Weekly "Nudo Joins Shelfari"
MediaBistro-Galleycat "Shelfari Taps David Nudo for Sales/Marketing Role"
New York Times - "Book Lovers Ask, What's Seattle's Secret?"
Seattle’s literary seeds have been here for decades, with local authors, abundant writing courses and robust independent bookstores, according to J. A. Jance, the Seattle mystery author whose books have sold 15 million copies over the last 20 years. “Maybe it’s the rain, but Seattle has always been a reading town,” she said.
Over the last 10 years, the city has spent nearly $200 million to improve its libraries, including the new downtown showpiece designed by Rem Koolhaas and completed in 2004.
This love of books even seeps into the town’s corporate cultures, says Ms. Ricketts, who 10 years ago started organizing author visits for employees at Microsoft, Starbucks and other companies in the area. “The authors were always shocked at how big the crowds were and how many books they sold,“ Ms. Ricketts remembers. (full article)
Thank you all for casting your votes in the Amanda's Reading Challenge. The March winner is:
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak won with 47% of the vote. The other finalist were: Good Money After Bad by Donald G. Evans (34%) and Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond (11%). I'll be picking up my copy of The Book Thief today. Come and join me!
Last night I had dinner with two delightfully brilliant friends. Both are excellent communicators and gifted
writers. One was born an honorary member
of the “Grammar Police” (scary I just found this link). In elementary school, we would warn each
other about incorrectly using “I” or “me” in a sentence around her. Fear of the death stare and quick correction
kept most of us in our place. If not, we
were quickly educated. Surely our
parents never envisioned the peer pressure to be grammatically proficient at
such a tender age. Ironically, little has changed since
elementary school. Now I’d be lying if I
said the GP hasn't been useful. Remembering all of the college papers, rejection email previews (she’s a pro)
and resumes, these would be failed attempts without her guidance. It can be a love-hate relationship; I’m
desperate to express myself, but fearful of the correction.
June Casagrande, the author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to
Language for Fun and Spite,
explores this grammatical dilemma in her book. Publishers Weekly says: “Hoping to make grammar both accessible and
amusing, Casagrande offers practical and entertaining lessons on common uses
and unfortunate abuses of the English language. The author, a southern
California newspaper columnist, memorably delineates "who" and
"whom"; "can" and "may"; "affect" and
"effect"; and provides pithy primers on the perennially problematic
dark alleys of language (subjunctives, how to use punctuation marks around
quoted material, possessive gerunds)”. Her second book, Mortal Syntax: 101
Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs--Even
If
You're Right will be released on March 25th. So if you're afraid to call the GP, just read this book. I promise not to tell!
--Amanda
The Campaign for Literacy (CFL) discussion group is action-oriented. It is for those who not only want to DISCUSS the issues and problems created when a person cannot read or write at a basic skills level, but also want to DO something about it where they live.
According to UNESCO:
"Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society."
A person who cannot read or write is a person who will likely have a low quality of life. Proficiency with communication skills is correlated with job status, housing status, income, education, happiness!
The Campaign for Literacy Group is committed to coming up with activities which we can all do to promote literacy in our home communities. We are also the place to be if you want to discuss literacy programs, literacy problems, solutions, experiences, consequences of illiteracy, the whole gamut from A - to - Z !
Nominations for Project #2 must be received by March 21st. Come and join the Campaign for Literacy Group.
Amanda
