Twitter!

Scarletta Press now has a Twitter account! For those of you who aren't familiar with this new craze, Twitter is a social media tool which allows you to "follow" people as they update what's going on in their lives - all within 140 characters or less. I'll admit, I was skeptical about Twitter at first. Why do I need to know what people are doing at every second of the day? But once I realized how easy it was to connect with people (and companies!) of similar interests I quickly began to understand the power this tool can have when promoting yourself or your brand.

By utilizing Twitter, we hope to get in touch with book lovers, publishers, reviewers, authors and more to spread the word about Scarletta Press. So create an account or go to www.twitter.com/scarlettapress to keep up with what is going on in our world. Happy tweeting!

Kindle

So we have a Kindle in our office. I have now played with...the future.
Physically, I like the Kindle. The size and weight feel right. The gray colors of the text and screen are indeed crisp and clear.
The pretty screen begs to be touched, like an iPhone. Touching the screen, of course, does nothing on a Kindle. Instead there's a dodgy little "joystick." It was the source of much frustration.
Attempting to search the internet was pointless. When I tried to use Wikipedia, the dodgy little joystick kept switching the language to Dutch instead of entering my word choice ("Kindle"--original, no?).
We downloaded a free book. I liked the novelty of reading it on the nice screen. If you want to use Kindle just for reading, it's probably great. I'm a little dubious of its other capabilities, and have to imagine it will improve soon.
Of course, you could always just get the Kindle for iPhone app and be able to read as well as take photos, search the internet, get directions...

Fun times at AWP

Here are Ian and Cathy holding down the fort at AWP. Ian is our fearless leader, and Cathy the author of 3 Scarletta books: A Beirut Heart, Israeli and Palestinian Voices and Tragedy in South Lebanon. AWP was a good time: lots of interesting people, networking, books, and of course booze. (Book people love booze.) We had a good deal of interest in our May release, Yankee Invasion, by Ignacio Solares. That we have an intro by Carlos Fuentes definitely caught people's attentions. In fact, I'm editing that one right now...

AWP!

It's that time of year when we pack up all our books and spend three days hawking our wares to America's literary folk. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference is the biggest such conference in the country (not to be confused with BEA, which is more about the publishing aspect). University writing programs and literary mags abound at AWP. As a small press, we go to try and drum up some interest in our unusual books.

It's fun to be surrounded by people who are as nerdy about books as you are, and also a little overwhelming--there are just so many good outlets for the written word, every one of them vying for your attention.  Though I suppose it's not a bad problem to have; with so much doomsday talk about how people don't read anymore, here are thousands of people who do.

Given the economy (I feel like I've written this phrase in several previous posts), I've wondered about the tone of the conference. Will people be hopeful? Cautious? No matter what the mood, there will be drinking. There's always booze when literary folk abound. 

Stop by our table, #550, if you too are at AWP. 

E-books

With all print media struggling, it's no shock that electronic media is getting more attention and respect. E-books are especially discussed in publishing. And everyone keeps talking about electronic book readers like Kindle, but personally I've only ever seen a handful in my life. I wonder how much longer it will take for an e-reader like Kindle to become a commodity, so most could afford to buy one. Right now the Kindle lists for $359--prohibitive for me, and many others, in this economy--but they are sold out on Amazon. Clearly, there is a demand despite the economic woes.

Eventually I'll probably own a Kindle or Sony Reader or whatever the newest incarnation is. (Apple is bound to come out with a reading gadget larger than an iPhone someday, right?) I wonder how my readings habits will change. Will I miss the feeling of a book--the crisp pages of a new book, the soft crumpled pages of a used one? Will I miss drawing little stars by unique turns of phrase? 

For the time being, I'm going to enjoy my old-fashioned tangible book with creased corners and smudgy pens while I can.  

Two Strib mentions in a week!

As you saw, a few days ago Laurie Hertzel mentioned Written on the Knee. This past weekend, she plugged our May release, Yankee Invasion, about the American invasion of Mexico City in 1847. I'm personally very excited about this book, because it's the kind I read for my own pleasure: literary, yet accessible.  It's also taught me a great deal as my knowledge of this conflict was next to nothing. Thanks Laurie! 

One quick note I'd like to make, missing from the Strib post, is that we're co-publishing this with Aliform Publishing, another small Minneapolis press. Jay Miskowiec, Aliform's publisher, has some great Latin American lit in translation,  which you can find here.

Minneapolis continues to rank high in literacy

After a few weeks off for the holiday season, all of us at Scarletta Press are back to work with plenty to do. One exciting thing that happened while we were gone was a mention in the Sunday edition of the Star Tribune on January 4, 2009. Hopefully many of you saw it. Laurie Hertzel, Books page editor for the Strib, discussed the annual battle for the title of "Most Literate City" between Minneapolis and Seattle in her article, Which is the most literate? This year, cities share the title. The study focuses on six factors in determining each rank: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and internet resources. Scarletta Press and our book, Written on the Knee, were given a nod as noteworthy local literature. 

While the publishing industry continues to experience its lists of issues, it's nice to know that our little press exists in a city where literacy is recognizably valued. Thank you, Minneapolis!