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Registration is now open!
The 2012 B-K Authors Cooperative Book Marketing Workshop
Place: The Commonwealth Club (site of the BK Anniversary events on July 19th and 20th)
Programming: We have already booked Sam Horn, communication strategist and author of POP and many other bestsellers. Samhorn.com Stay tuned for more information as we continue to build a dynamic workshop.
Click here for more information and to register.
On Saturday 7/21/12 and Sunday 7/22/12, the Berrett-Koehler Authors Cooperative will hold its seventh annual book marketing workshop.
The workshop -- which immediately follows Berrett-Koehler Publishers’ 20th anniversary celebration -- will take place in San Francisco at the famed Commonwealth Club.
As soon as information about the workshop’s presentations and speakers becomes available, we’ll post it here.
The 2011 Book Marketing Workshop was sold out - so register now!
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Conversation about Open Book Editions:
BK's Self-Publishing Partnership with iUniverse.
On September 30, 2011, a webinar was held with Johanna Vonderling - Vice President, International Sales and Business Development
As background, there are many more aspiring authors who share the BK mission than the company can sustainably publish as part of its traditional publications program. To serve these authors, Berrett-Koehler has partnered with the iUniverse brand at Author Solutions - a leader in the assisted self-publishing field - to offer authors a full-service self-publishing opportunity, with several publishing packages, each featuring an editorial evaluation, customized design, and digital formatting and distribution.
Self-Publishing with Open Book Editions offers authors who share the BK mission many benefits and competitive advantages. In addition to the professional services provided by iUniverse, Open Books Editions authors enjoy an invitation to join the BK Authors Cooperative, manuscript review for potential rights sales, promotion on the OBE section of the BK website, and regular review by BK staff for potential inclusion in BK's traditional publishing program, and BK Book Club membership.
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BK Author Retreat
Thu., September 8 through Sun., September 11, 2011
This year's Berrett-Koehler Author Retreat was truly a milestone, as we suspected it would be. From September 8-11, in the largest retreat attendance ever, 68 Berrett-Koehler Co-Op members and guests gathered at Stillheart Retreat Center in Woodside, California. It was a particularly rich retreat, partly because we explored our theme -- Repairing the World, from Within and Without -- in a variety of ways, and partly because far more Currents authors were in attendance than in the past.
We enjoyed the peaceful and carefully architected beauty of the retreat center, walks along the creek, a ritual in the redwoods, improvisational writing on the sun deck, piano, guitar, and vocal entertainment from many of our talented members, and yoga, massage, and reflections on the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11.
The conversations were rich, provocative and generative, whether we were exploring "change from the outside", or "change from the inside."
In the change from the outside thread, various authors, many from the Currents line, shared inspiring work: stopping coal mines, supporting whistleblowers, and sending messages to Congress about our true priorities -- among many many other worthy causes. We explored why the world doesn't work for all and asked ourselves how to accelerate change while the current system is still functioning well enough to sustain itself -- and how social media can be used to support societal change.
In the change from the inside thread, we heard stories about influencing change in dramatic or subtle ways, whether it was supporting a CEO in crafting a bold new corporate identity, helping Rhodesia transition to a sovereign nation, or aiding 14 indigenous Grandmothers as they tried to pray in Vatican Square. We explored the tensions involved in supporting systems that need to change, and how we can gain freedom and energy from understanding the lessons in our past.
As we explored how we contribute to the Berrett-Koehler mission of creating a world that works for all, we found that a good number of us see ourselves as working for whole-system transformation, which includes many roles, as well as tensions and challenging personal choices. This commitment to working together led us to provocative conversations on how we might offer products and services that go beyond our books, and incited more members to join the Co-Op Board than we actually needed.
Our fearless leader, Steve Piersanti, presented the “10 Wonderful Truths About BK’s Marketing,” and staff shared their perspectives and latest initiatives.
Finally, we discovered through our talent show, our daily opening songs, a lively local band, and many side conversations and new connections, that beauty, music, humor, relationships and play can renew our energy and commitment to keep going!
Thank you to all. Stay tuned to hear about next year's retreat, co-chaired by Noah Blumenthal and Deborah Frieze.
All the best,
Ellen Augustine and Elizabeth Doty, 2011 Co-Chairs