May I have your permission to publish your "Jim Cox Reports" in my blog, "Printing and Publishing Newsbasket",
Blogging about graphic arts. Commercial Printing and Publishing. Including design, prepress, production, media. http://cppnews.blogspot.com/
Thank you,
Dave Mainwaring
115 State Street, Framingham, MA 01702
You have my complete permission to reprint or excerpt from any of my articles or reports in your blog. Just provide the usual citation credit when doing so -- and please include the Midwest Book Review website address of http://www.midwestbookreview.com when doing so.
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
Blogs are rather new stuff to me. I treat them the same as folks who have a website they want to enrich with articles I've written or commentaries I've made about writing and/or publishing. The Midwest Book Review is educational in nature and giving such permissions as that to Dave for his blog is a part of how I work to fulfill the Midwest Book Review mandate of promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing.
And speaking of fulfilling our mandate, here's an example of another kind service we strive to provide the small press community of authors and publishers:
Subject: Hot Link
From: hamburg@centurytel.net
We intend to become a major Internet and Web resource for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and book lovers of all ages and interests. If you have a Web site that you think would interest book lovers, librarians, publishers, and booksellers, we would be very interested in hot-linking your site to the steadily expanding Midwest Book Review resource hotlinks. E-mail your URL to the Midwest Book Review so that your site can be examined.
Philip Hamburg
Yoga for the Young at Heart
www.yogaheart.com
It was very nice of Philip to 'spread the word' to his friends and associates. If you have a website that is thematically appropriate to writing and/or publishing, I'd be happy to consider adding a link to it in the thematically appropriate section of the Midwest Book Review website. That also includes vendors who service writers and publishers. Send me your website address and I'll look it over (along with my staff) and if its deemed to have value for readers, writers, publishers, librarians, booksellers, etc. then it will be added and you will be notified accordingly by email.
Now here's a little something out of the ordinary. Avon Murphy is a technical book reviewer/editor and I thought you'd appreciate his description of just what technical book reviewer/editors do -- in case you are ever in the need of their kinds of services:
Subject: Technical Book Reviewing/Editing
From: avonmu@comcast.net
It's good hearing from you, Jim. If you have the patience, here are what I do and then why I do it.
1. Overall, I edit the book review section of Technical Communication, the quarterly research journal published by the Society for Technical Communication. STC's "20,000+ members include technical writers, editors, graphic designers, multimedia artists, Web and intranet page information designers, translators and others whose work involves making technical information understandable and available to those who need it." (from STC's Web site) The review section is the most ambitious in our field, annually publishing 100-120 reviews of 400-1,500 words.
My specific duties:
* Track details of relevant new books, publishers, reviewers, and volunteers, using a Microsoft Access database. I control the schedule for everything having to do with reviews. Most of the activity mentioned below leads to further database entries.
* Communicate with publishers' PR folks, new and old reviewers, authors, my general editor, and others so that we remain on pretty much the same page.
* Scout for new authors and titles, with the help of several volunteers.
* Get review copies. This is the most fretful part of the work. Because I'm a one-person operation based in a spare bedroom, I can't have publishers sending me everything they have for me to sift through. So I wait until I see what sounds like a relevant title and have a reviewer assigned to it before asking for two review copies, one to the reviewer and one to me (I have to verify all statements of fact, quotations, and page references). Much of the success here depends on how well organized the publisher's staff might be.
* Troubleshoot when review copies don't arrive, publicists leave their jobs without passing along our files, and reviewers fall behind on their schedules.
* Mentor the many reviewers who need help in writing a substantive review that addresses our readers' needs, reads clearly, and is fair to the author. Believe me, not every technical writer can do this the first time out!
* Edit each review. If the piece is well done, the editing can be light. Oftentimes a review requires substantial reworking. I'm not about to let these professional communicators embarrass themselves with a poorly written review!
* Go back and forth with each writer until the review is ready to send off.
* Closely copyedit reviews destined for the next batch. Budget cuts have eliminated the copyediting professionals we used to have, so I fly carefully!
* Batch the edited reviews for a given issue and send them to the general editor at least by the agreed quarterly deadline, usually earlier.
* Proofread the batch (using Adobe Acrobat) when the publisher releases the PDF for proofing.
* Upon publication of the issue, send a volunteer the mailing addresses of publishers who should receive the paper version of the issue, and send reviewers in that issue a PDF of the review section.
* Make presentations about writing book reviews and recruit reviewers at conferences.
* Meet with the general editor in person once a year.
This is a paying contract. Before I took over in 1993, the book review editing was a volunteer task. So I proposed and won a wage--not a large one, mind you, but enough to make me take the work seriously.
Now, why have I done this for 13 years, with more to go? A few reasons:
* Like you, I think, I like books and the creative expression of authors who have something to teach us.
* From age 2 I've been an information junkie. And what better way to keep this habit nourished than to challenge yourself never to lose the will to watch out for whatever is new in your field and to see those wonderful new books arrive on your doorstep. The moment of anticipation while opening the carton, the silence while skimming the table of contents, the reading of sample pages, and the firing off to your reviewer of an e-mail briefly describing your first take on the book are all small things that might be peculiar to our profession.* It's wonderful to be able to continue talking with people at all professional levels about books they want to sell, their plans for books they want to write, and others' books that excite them as readers.
* I take very seriously what I perceive as my duty to mentor. Decades ago, I began professional life as a college English teacher, following the life-altering years of earning an English PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During my 19-year career in the classrooms of three colleges, I directed professional writing programs and closely nurtured future writers. And during my years as a corporate editor (last as senior editor at Microsoft), I was "the old pro" who helped young writers and editors learn how to shape professional documents. This temperament underlies much of what I now do for my reviewers now, whether they be graduate students fretting over their first publications or seasoned publication managers who over the years have lost the innate ability to write with natural ease.
Well, enough of this in response to your simple question, Jim. If you can accept attachments, I'd be happy to send you a PDF of our most recent review section, a how-to PDF that goes to new reviewers, and a document that explains to publishers the kinds of books we review and how we work with publishers.
Yours,
Avon Murphy
Book Review Editor
Technical Communication
1234 Firpark Drive SE, Lacey WA 98503
I'm now going to conclude with "The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" roster of some very nice people. These wonderful folk decided to say thank you and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating postage stamps this past month:
Therese Francis
Rick Seely - "The Clock Shop"
Scott Frush - "Ultimate Italian Trivia"
Chris Roerden - "Don't Murder Your Mystery"
Kyra E. Hicks - "Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria"
Diana Johnson - "Cradle of a Nation: A Story of Colonial Virginia"
Lynn F. Jacobs - "Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College"
Bold Strokes Press
Sally Lee - Lee Publishing
Anna Shallman - Raven Productions Inc.
MyLinda Butterworth - Day to Day Enterprises
Marian Baker - New Story Press
Lee Jackson - Snaptail Press
Ronne R. Gleason - Goose River Press
Janet Buell - Innovations Press
Maria Fotopoulos - Turbodog Communications
Diane Tinney - Keene Publishing
Fanhad Shirzad - IBEX Publishing
Milton E. Adams - Beaver's Pond Press
Donna Pikula - Books 2 Help You, LLC
Patricia Ollom - Shenanigan Books
Robert W. Kurkela - Kidzpoetz Publishing
Sharen Forsyth - Bangzoom Publishers
Bobbie Hinman - Best Fairy Books
Robert L. Merz - Values of America Company
Jim Zuber - Zuber Publishing
Earl Phelps - Phelps Publishing
Jim Michael Hansen - Dark Sky Publishing
Niki Behrikis Shandon - Mission Manuscripts Inc.
Lucinda Clark - P.R.A. Publishing
Kellie Watkins - Jahphut
Sofia Steryo-Bartmus - Harmony Book Publishing
Gene Louis - Citizen Control Publishing
Elizabeth Waldman Frazier - Waldmania!
If you have postage to donate, just send it directly to my attention.
If you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send a published copy (no galleys or uncorrected proofs), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.
If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up.
So until next time!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
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