"It’s always an interesting experience to read a novel from the point of view of someone who is borderline insane."

Yankee Invasion by Ignacio Solares recently received a lovely review from Squeaky Clean Reads. They write: "It clearly shows the feelings, frustrations and fears of the impotent citizen—while the ‘powers that be’ play their political games with the citizens as their pawns. Yankee Invasion has a lot to offer in terms of painting a vivid picture and creating an impression that lasts." You can read the rest of the review on their website.

MIBA & Beyond: Book Trade Shows and What They Do

As many of you faithful literature lovers may know, especially you booksellers, the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA) Trade Show happened last Thursday and Friday, September 22-23, at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis. And what a great show, and a great venue it was! Claire Kirch, of Publisher's Weekly, reported on the conference, describing the venue as upstaging "everything and everybody at the Midwest Independent Booksellers' annual Conference..." And at Scarletta Press, we'd have to agree: This year's show was in a top-notch location, and brought some top-notch booksellers over to the Scarletta Press table!
Scarletta Press has been strongly emphasizing their new children's line, Junior Bookwormz, since early February of this year. The cornerstone books: The Lexicon Adventure Series by Pendred Noyce. The first book in the series, Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, debuted on August 9, and has been making a splash in every aspect. The book itself has won over 8 awards, including an IBPA Ben Franklin for 1-2 Color Interior Design, and Honorable Mention from ForeWord Reviews' BOTYAs for Juvenile Fiction, and a Parents' Choice Recommended. ForeWord calls it "...an adventure story for the digital generation...," and School Library Journal says "...readers will be rewarded with a good adventure, affecting lyrical passages, and thought-provoking questions..." With all this buzz, we thought: Let's give Penny Noyce and her books the main focus at the MIBA conference this year.

Scarletta Press on KFAI's Write On Radio!

Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name’s Ashley, and I’m the newest Literary Marketing Intern at Scarletta Press. I know there are a lot of really great publishers in Minneapolis, but one of the things I love about Scarletta is their new children’s imprint: Scarletta Press Junior Bookwormz!
I’m currently reading the first book in their children’s line, Lost in Lexicon, and even at the age of 21, I’m enjoying it! This past Tuesday night, Scarletta’s Publicity Director, Desiree Bussiere, asked me if I’d like to tag along and observe some marketing she had planned for the book.
We ended up at KFAI’s Write On Radio! program with the author of Lost in Lexicon, Pendred Noyce, as well as Peter Smith, author of A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors. I arrived under the impression that it would be an evening to sit back and listen, but I soon found myself being asked if I’d like to help read off the upcoming literary events.

The Road to Kid Lit

We began launching our children's line in January when we signed our first children's author, Pendred Noyce. Pendred Noyce wrote Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, a middle grade adventure fiction, and first published it on her own in October 2010. After acquiring Pendred's series, we republished the first book this past August, and scheduled the next three books for publication in successive Augusts to come. (Check out Penny's Path to Publication story!)

The Lexicon Adventure series serves as cornerstone to Scarletta Press’ line of intellectually stimulating books for strong and thoughtful readers. “We want to publish fiction that ‘writes up’ to kids, treating them as young intellectuals who enjoy thinking,” says Leask. “Our books will be fun, adventurous, and suspenseful, but their vocabulary and storylines will be designed to challenge young readers in the right way.”

Founded in 2005, Scarletta Press has gained a reputation as a publisher of high quality literary fiction and non-fiction. Its adult books have won or been nominated for a number of literary awards.

After revising our submission requirements and really getting the word out about Lost in Lexicon, we've received many new children's book submissions. After rifling through the pile, there are a number of them still on the consideration table. With the plan to continually expand our children's line, we decided we needed a good name for our new children's imprint.

So here it is: Scarletta Press Junior Bookwormz! Be sure to follow us on twitter @SP_JRBookwormz. We've got a plan for some great Children's Literature, and we hope you'll be a part of it.

Random Acts of Publicity

This week is Random Acts of Publicity Week to help out all your favorite books and authors. While we of course would love it if you helped out some of our authors (who can resist a good book from an indie publisher?), we understand that you might have others on your mind. AND THAT'S OKAY! We mostly just want to see you helping out the authors. After all, shameless self-promotion can be a bit tiring on their end.

Here's the drill. Random Acts of Publicity was started by Darcy Pattison about three years ago. It focuses "on helping a Friend’s book get noticed, but you can also choose to help your favorite book get noticed." Anyone can help with a bit of social media. Interested in participating? Check out the FAQ to help you get started! Make sure to BLLurT and Post a lot!