Buy Books for the Holidays

Even people not in publishing know that the industry is not in the best of shape. It's causing a lot of panic in the blogosphere. Like the rest of the media world, layoffs are up, budgets are down. For years, people have been predicting the demise of the book. As a small press, we are still printing real books for that niche of people who want to hold on to something tangible.

There have been articles run in the NY Times and reprinted elsewhere lately about rethinking the book as a treasure. I like that; I think the industry needs to promote books as something special, a keepsake. A book is a handsome item that stays on your bookshelf, something you can thumb through and mark up repeatedly.

I was sent an interesting link to a website that's promoting holiday book-buying: www.buybooksfortheholidays.com. It says: "[The website is] a small contribution that we could make to show our appreciation to the people who bring us books, to give back to the industry that we love, and to help save books." Thanks, contributors to Buy Books for the Holidays. We are hanging in there for you. 

A night of Greek literature, food and wine!

Last month Helen Electrie Lindsay, author of Written on the Knee: A Diary from the Greek-Italian Front of WWII, gave an excellent reading at Magers and Quinn. Gardens of Salonica catered the event with an assortment of delicious Greek food and wine. Overall the event went very well - good discussion, questions, and food!

How can your business survive these hard economic times?

Mike Ferrell, author of Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: The Business Funnel Approach, spoke with the Metro Independent Business Association about how to stay focused as a business owner during an economic recession. It's easy to get distracted by all the bad news we hear everyday, but Mike explains his method that any business can use to stay on track to reaching their goals. Watch the video below of Mike at Magers and Quinn Booksellers a few weeks ago:

Hi from Alexei

Hello all.
Katie has shared with you the awful truth...I did grow up in New Jersey, the Mocked State. No, I don't have a thick accent.
As this is a blog about our publishing company and the literary world at large, I would like to point out that two authors generally considered in the running for America's most important modern novelist and poet are from New Jersey: Philip Roth and Allen Ginsberg.
So if you are an aspiring writer from New Jersey, you have a friend here at Scarletta.
Alexei

Our first post!

With the holiday season in full swing, there are plenty of things going on here at Scarletta Press. Author events, television appearances, manuscript edits, new projects, and holiday parties are enough to keep us very busy this time of year. But it's an exciting time and we hope to share with you various items of interest from our company as well as the publishing world. Along with myself, you can expect to hear from our very own witty British export and publisher, Ian, our kareoke-loving and New Jersey native editor, Alexei, as well as some other "Scarletties" we hope to get on board with this blog. Check back often as we are aiming to add a new post at least once a week. 

Until then, stay warm and happy Friday!