Updates and News

May, 2008

Atlantic Path Pubishing exhibits with members of the Independent Publishers of New England at the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) book show in Falmouth, MA.

April, 2008

Mary Ellen Lepionka receives word that she has been elected to the Board of Directors of PMA-IBPA, effective in July.

March, 2008

Atlantic Path Publishing sponsors the annual meeting of the Text and Academic Authors Association in Las Vegas, to be held in June. Mary Ellen will participate in a Publisher's Roundtable panel discussion at Harrah's and has been invited to present a teleseminar for TAA members and to write a column for Academic Author.

February, 2008

Mary Ellen writes three articles for the March, April, and May issues of SPAN Connections, newsletter of the Small Publishers Association of North America.

December, 2007

Independent Publishers of New England conducts monthly live phone conferences for members seeking information and advice, with Mary Ellen Lepionka as the host and invited experts to field members' questions.

November, 2007

Mary Ellen's second edition of her successful first book, Writing and Developing Your College Textbook, went to press for its street date of January 1, 2008.

September, 2007

For PMA Online University, Mary Ellen conducted an online seminar for approximately 50 small publishers on serving higher education markets. Participants viewed a slide show online while listening to the talk on the phone and texted questions for Mary Ellen and the moderator, Lisa Krebs of PMA, to answer.

Mary Ellen exhibited books by the Independent Publishers of New England and members of PMA at the 2007 New England Independent Bookseller's Association show in Providence, RI.

May, 2007

Mary Ellen moderated and presented a session at PMA-University 2007 in New York City on May 31: Session 5d, Tapping the El-Hi, Higher Ed, and Professional Education Markets. The other presenters were Julie Graddy of Maupin House and Lee German of Sylvan Dell Publishing. Mary Ellen also attended BEA (Book Expo America) at the Javits Center.

March, 2007

Mary Ellen Lepionka co-exhibited 49 books from 32 academic small publishers at a Saratoga Springs, NY, joint trade show of the the College Stores of New England and the College Stores Association of New York State.

Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) met for a workshop on successful small press publishing at Storey Publishing in North Adams, MA. Mary Ellen is a member of the IPNE Board of Directors.

November, 2006

Mary Ellen Lepionka servied as an online consultant in a UNESCO-sponsored international conference on textbook development in higher education, held in Tehran, Iran.

October, 2006

Mary Ellen participated in the New England Library Association book fair (NELA), October 22-24, in Burlngton, VT, exhibiting her books and those of other members of the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). IPNE membership had risen to 55 in less than a year.

September, 2006

Mary Ellen Lepionka participated in the New England Booksellers Association book fair (NEBA), September 16-18, in Providence, RI, exhibiting her books and those of other members of the Independent Publishers of New England and members of PMA (the Independent Book Publishers Association) and SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America).

IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England) conducted its first major workshop on September 15 in conjunction with NEBA, featuring Steve Carlson of Upper Access, Inc., Cate Monroe of Monroe Accounting Services, and Ron Lawrence, software developer. The subject was Essential Business Software for Running a Small Publishing Office.

June, 2006

Mary Ellen met with members of the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) in Hadley, MA, which featured a disucssion of book publicity and promotion strategies for small publishers. Panelists included Nat Herold of Amherst Bookstore, Deidre Randall of Blueline Publicity, and Pam Fenner of Michaelmas Press.

May, 2006

On May 18, 2006, Mary Ellen Lepionka moderated a session on "Selling to Teachers and Schools" at PMA-University in Washington, DC. Fran Hamilton of Portico Books, Cheryl Block of Block Publishing, and Toni Albert of Trickle Creek Books were the speakers. Mary Ellen attended BEA and met with members of PMA's Academic/Education Special Interest Group to plan cooperative marketing initiatives.

April, 2006

Mary Ellen conducted a two-day workshop for editors and publishers at CSI (Canadian Securities Institute) in Toronto, on the relationships between learning theory and textbook construction. Writing and Developing Your College Textbook was adopted for use by CSI authors and editors, and the Institute subsequently asked Mary Ellen to oversee the development of key CSI course products.

On April 2-4, Mary Ellen and other members of the PMA Academic/Education special interest group exhibited their el-hi and higher-ed products at the College Stores of New England (CSNE) Superregional Show in Foxwoods, CT.

March, 2006

On March 3-5, Mary Ellen Lepionka attended an Affiliates Meeting of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association ( www.pma-online.org) in California, as a founding representive of Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) (www.ipne.org). Mary Ellen advocates cooperative marketing and education for small publishers and independent presses, which is also a goal of both PMA and IPNE.

In its first general meeting IPNE met in Newburyport, MA, to hear speakers representing bookstore perspectives on working with small publishers. The event featured Andrew Laties of the Eric Carle Museum and Susan Little of Jabberwocky Bookstore.

Mary Ellen participated in exhibiting PMA and IPNE members' books at the Public Library Association show (PLA), March 21-25 at the Hynes Auditorium in Boston, MA.

January, 2006

"Education Book Reviews" featured SELF-PUBLISHING TEXTBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS in the December issue of Education Review. This book by Franklin Silverman was reviewed very favorably by Beronda Montgomery, Ph.D., of Michigan State University. Read the review at http://edrev.asu.edu/brief/jan06.html#12 or www.lib.mus.edu/corby/reviews/posted/silvermanf.htm.

On January 11 Mary Ellen Lepionka attended a meeting to reactivate the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) in Portsmouth, NH, at the premises of Peter Randall Publishers.

December, 2005

The Midwest Book Review featured WRITING AND DEVELOPING COLLEGE TEXTBOOK SUPPLEMENTS (2005) in their December library newsletter, "Wisconsin Bookwatch," p. 9. This review also appears in the December issue of "Internet Bookwatch" and in the Thompson-Gale interactive CD-ROM series "Book Review Index." Midwest Book Review also entered this very favorable review into book review databases, such as Lexus-Nexus and Goliath. You may read this review at http://midwestbookreview.com/ibw/dec_05.htm#rc.

November, 2005

The PMA Newsletter, The Independent, published an article by Mary Ellen Lepionka in its November, 2005, issue: "How to Reach the Education Market: Determining K-12 Market Fit, Market Placement, and Market Appeal."

The Small Publishers Association of North America now lists three Atlantic Path Publishing titles for sale on their web site, www.spannet.org/Pub_books.htm.

MIT's Leonardo and Leonardo Digital Reviews have published a highly favorable review of SELF-PUBLISHING TEXTBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS by Franklin H. Silverman, PH.D. Reviewer Nisar Keshvani of Singapore says, "The success of any book depends heavily on the author's ability to address its readers' needs. Franklin Silverman's book Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials hits this mark, spot on." Read Keshvani's review at
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/reviews/feb2005/self_keshvani.html.

October 2005

As Stated in the October Newsletter of PMA,The Independent Book Publishers Association (www.pma-online.org/scripts/shownews.cfm?id=1044), "The first Special Interest Group, for academic/education publishers, was formed in August. Initially, some 400 publishers were invited to join, and within a day or two nearly 50 publishers had opted in to a Web-based discussion group where members will share publishing experiences, new ideas, and problem-solving techniques. Interested in joining? Email the volunteer moderator, Mary Ellen Lepionka of Atlantic Path Publishing, at contactus@atlanticpathpublishing.com. More SIG groups will be formed soon."

August 2005

A professional peer review of Franklin H. Silverman’s Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials (Atlantic Path Publishing, 2004) appeared in the August 2005 issues of MIT’s Leonardo as well as online at Leonardo Digital Reviews.

June 2005

On June 1, 2005, publisher and author Mary Ellen Lepionka gave a presentation to about 40 attendees of a session on selling to education markets at the annual Publisher’s Marketing Association University (PMA-U) in New York City. Her books were exhibited at that meeting and also were presented at the BEA on June 3.

Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials
by Franklin H. Silverman

Chapter 1

p. 2 - Vanity publishers do not refer to themselves as such and go to some lengths to dispel authors' misgivings. They may call themselves subsidy publishers or co-publishers. Their industry has evolved to reflect new printing technologies, especially POD (print on demand) and new models of textbook publishing (e.g., online ebooks). The quality can appear to be high, but professional commercial publishers print on offset presses and avoid POD. The vanity press can offer editorial and production services, including cover design, plus warehousing and fulfillment, even marketing and distribution, but they do not have the ability to reach academic markets successfully. After spending a lot of money, newly self-published authors often do not become aware that their printer is a vanity press until they find their book being rejected for review. With rare exceptions, if you pay another publisher any amount of money to publish a book under their imprint, you are engaging in vanity publishing. The only reason to do this is if you are publishing for yourself and your students, have no interest in recovering or making money, and do not intend to cite the work in your bid for tenure.

p. 4 - The success of a self-published textbook or academic book depends on a rigorous process of sampling or class testing and peer review. After that, marketing is the greatest challenge. In addition to academic list-servs, online custom survey sites, such as Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com) and Zoomerang (http://info.zoomerang.com) offer new avenues for communicating with reviewers, potential adopters, or users of your publication or material. An important omnibus resource for market research is Faculty Online, a clearinghouse for information and reviews on textbooks (http://www.facultyonline.com).

Writing and Developing Your College Textbook (1st edition, 2003)
by Mary Ellen Lepionka

Chapter 1

p. 2 - According to the Association of American Publishers, higher education domestic net sales were 16.8 percent greater by the end of 2003, totaling $744.4 million. Sales in university press paperbacks and hardbacks grew by 15.8 percent and 17.9 percent respectively. Professional and scholarly book sales rose 25.8 perecent ($95.4 million). E-books sales in all categories rose a phenomenal 159.8 percent (with under $1 million in sales), indicating good prospects for educational e-books in 2004-2005.

p. 4 - Simbanet was acquired by R.R. Bowker in 2003 as the market forecasting unit of Primedia Inc. Most major publishers purchase access to Simbanet.

p. 15 - Appendix: A Sampling of Publishers of College Textbooks, by List Subjects
The information in this section changes constantly through list acquisitions and corporate mergers. Conduct an online search using the company names to determine the current roster of imprints and a list of the subject areas in which each company publishes.

Chapter 2

p. 33 - Appendix A: Selected Online Resources for Doing Your Own Market Research:
CORRECTIONS
Bedford, Freeman, and Worth Publishing Group: www.bfwpub.com
Elsevier Science: www.elsevier.nl
McGraw-Hill (includes Dushkin): www.mhhe.com/
Norton: www.wwnorton.com/college/
Pearson (includes Addison Wesley, Longman, Allyn and Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Prentice Hall, and others): www.pearsoned.com
Thomson (ITP, includes Westlaw, Wadsworth, South-Western, Course Technology, Delmar, Gale, Prometric, Netg, and others): www.thomsonlearning.com/

Chapter 3

p. 44 - RE: Negotiating with your publisher for the return of all rights to you or automatic renegotiation of your contract if the company is acquired by or merged with another company. A company's contracts constitute its assets in a merger. Thus, it is not feasible for your contract to be voided automatically if your publisher is bought or merged with another company. You could, however, request a prompt contract review in such an event.

p. 47 - Trends in the College Textbook Industry: In January, 2004, CALPIRG study released "Ripoff 101: How the Current Practices of the Textbook Industry Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks." This "study" blames publishers for raising the cost of textbooks through allegedly unethical practices. See the Association of American Publishers responses in a letter from Pat Schroeder and a brochure, "College Learning Materials: More than a Textbook." www.publishers.org/highered/

p. 49 - Appendix A: Selected Resources for Custom Publishing and Self-Publishing
CORRECTIONS
Kinko's: www.kinkos.com
Blackboard: www.blackboard.com
WebCt: www.webct.com
Course Compass: www.coursecompass.com
Booktech.com is defunct.

Chapter 5

For Chapter 5 in the section on Political Correctness and the Mainstream Text, see also Diane Ravitch, "The Language Police," The Atlantic Monthly, March 2003, 92-93; (also Ravitch's book, The Language Police: Knopf, 2003).

Interesting review of Diane Ravitch's book, The Language Police, by Michiko "Kakutani: Books of the Times; Young Minds Force-Fed With Indigestible Texts," The New York Times, April 29, 2003.

p. 83 - The Chicago Manual of Style is now in its 15th edition, notable for its significant revision reflecting technological and social changes. See "Fine Points of Dashes Make a Buzz" by Dinitia Smith (The New York Times, August 7