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Pat Ballard, the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, guested on the Health At Every Size Radio show with Dr. Peggy Elam this morning. She spoke about her fall 2008 experiences with gallbladder surgery, and how people of size can help ensure they receive good medical care.
Listen to and/or download the mp3 recording of the show here. (Right click on the link and "save as" to download.)
Book publishers and authors are abuzz with the news that representatives of online retailer Amazon.com
PublishAmerica 's March 27, 2008 press release confirms that Amazon.com gave the company an "ultimatum, demanding the right to print" its almost 30,000 titles or else Amazon.com "will retaliate by disabling the 'Buy' button on all of its PublishAmerica listings."
In other words: Let us print your books --and collect more money from you -- or we won't sell your books any more.
The "Buy" buttons to many if not all PublishAmerica books listed on Amazon.com disappeared late this week.
PublishAmerica says it "will not comply with Amazon's ultimatum, and will not allow that company to dictate who will print PublishAmerica's books, and at what conditions."
Angela Hoy of Booklocker broke the Amazon.com story publicly yesterday in her Writers Weekly e-newsletter. Click here to read that article and find links to further reportage, including articles in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Publisher's Weekly.
Some in the industry are referring to it as an "offer you can't refuse." Terms like "strongarm tactics" and "bullying" are also being used -- and, admittedly, come to my mind.
The threat carries punch especially for small publishers and subsidy publishers (the latter including companies like iUniverse/Authorhouse , Lulu, and Booklocker) because Amazon.com is the biggest online book retailer, and it's difficult for small publishers and subsidy publishers to get their books into brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Print-on-demand (and short-run digital printing) is a relatively new development in the publishing industry, but it has boomed in the past few years. Small publishers often use print-on-demand and short-run digital printing by companies such as LSI to cut down on the costs of printing and storing inventory. Instead of printing thousands of books at a time (for thousands of dollars) and paying to store them until sold -- and destroying or remaindering them if not sold -- print-on-demand technology allows printing of only one copy of a book at time, if desired, which means a book need not be printed until it is sold/ordered.
More than 50 percent of all academic presses utilize print-on-demand printing, according to the Wall Street Journal. Even the big commercial publishing houses use print-on-demand technology to print "backlist" titles.
While several printing companies offer print-on-demand services, LSI is the largest. It's attractive to publishers largely because of its affiliation with Ingram, the large book wholesaler.
It's difficult for small publishers (and subsidy publishers, no matter what their size) to get their books carried by Ingram or other wholesalers or distributors. But most bookstores want to buy books wholesale through Ingram or another wholesaler or distributor, not directly from publishers. They want to place one order for a shipment of books, not hundreds of orders from hundreds of different publishers.
Utilizing LSI for printing allows small publishers (as well as subsidy publishers and academic presses) to get their books listed for sale through Ingram, which makes the books available for sale through online retailers as well as (usually through special-order) brick-and-mortar stores. Even the "big boy" traditional commercial publishers often use LSI for "backlist," slower selling books to keep them in print without having to maintain piles of such books in inventory.
Pearlsong Press, the publishing company I founded in 2003, uses LSI as our printer. We haven't been approached by Amazon.com (yet?) about switching to BookSurge because we're small potatoes, with 13 titles in print and 2 more being published in April and May. (But we're very tasty small potatoes, I might add.:-) Subsidy publishers like iUniverse/Authorhouse and Lulu have thousands of titles in print. Booklocker alone has 1,500.
What does this mean, exactly, for publishers? And authors? And readers?
There are costs in time and money to set up books for printing at BookSurge as well as at LSI. BookSurge uses a different file format than LSI, so existing book files would have to be reformatted to their specifications. Book interiors and book covers are separate files, so each title would have 2 files needing reformatting. PublishAmerica, for instance, would have to reformat almost 60,000 files to set up all its titles for printing by BookSurge.
Such reformatting would take time, attention and money away from preparing new books for publication. That will affect authors as well as readers -- fewer books accepted for publication, fewer new books being published. Not to mention less income for publishers (and smaller royalties for authors) as sales decline during the interim in which publishing energy is directed toward meeting BookSurge's specs and Amazon.com's demands.
New titles will incur a setup fee. BookSurge also demands a higher discount from publishers than LSI does, so publishers will make less money from each book printed and sold through BookSurge/Amazon.com...unless they raise the price of said books.
I don't know yet how this will affect Pearlsong Press or other small publishers who use LSI for book printing but aren't subsidy publishers. (Subsidy publishers -- aka "vanity presses" -- are publishers that charge authors to publish their books. Traditional publishers, whether they use print-on-demand technology or not, don't charge authors for publication. It should be noted that PublishAmerica considers itself a traditional publisher, but most in the industry consider it a type of subsidy press.)
I do know, though, that I don't like the way Amazon.com is reportedly doing business. (Even if its representative is quoted in the WSJ as claiming they're just trying to "better serve" their "customers and authors.")
This small potato isn't interested in being masticated by a corporate behemoth more interested in making money than ensuring the viability of independent presses.
And I personally am planning to cease making any purchases from Amazon.com until -- or unless -- the company quits its bullying.
In the meantime, Pearlsong Press books ARE still available for sale at Amazon.com....but also at BarnesandNoble.com (which also offers free shipping options, by the way), and the independent bookseller Powells.com, as well as other retailers. And you can also, of course, purchase our books directly from us -- many of them autographed -- via our website (www.pearlsong.com).
WTVL Radio's Bob Cudmore blogged about Off Kilter author Linda C. Wisniewski today at the Schenectady Daily Gazette website.
Cudmore reported the impending (April 2008) publication of Wisniewski's memoir about growing up in Amsterdam, NY, as well as a planned feature on her this weekend in the print edition of the Gazette.
He also included a link to a recording of his radio interview of Wisniewski.
Read his post here.
Marc Schuster of Small Press Reviews has posted a glowing review of Linda C. Wisniewski's memoir Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace With Scoliosis, Her Mother, & Her Polish Heritage.
"Writing in a style reminiscent of Frank McCourt, Wisniewski conjures the ghosts of a troubled and emotionally fraught childhood throughout the majority of her memoir so that she can exorcise them in the final chapters....Expertly balancing pathos and triumph, Wisniewski never wallows in self-pity. Rather, she gathers strength from her setbacks and finds a renewed sense of purpose with each curve life sends her way. In this sense, Off Kilter is a fine testament to the resilience of the human spirit and to the healing power of the written word."
Read the complete review here.
Off Kilter is being published by Pearlsong Press in April 2008.
Patricia Nordyke Pando recommends Linda C. Wisniewski's memoir Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, & Her Polish Heritage to all in her review posted at Story Circle Network.
Read it here.
Mary Saracino's essay "Non Parlo Italiano" has earned third place in the first annual Italian/American Citizen Journalist Digital Witness contest sponsored by i-Italy,org.
Read her essay here.
Saracino's most recent novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press, 2006), is partially set in Italy.
Bob Cudmore of WTVL AM 1570 interviewed Linda C. Wisniewski about her new memoir featuring childhood experiences in the Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York.
Click here to listen to and/or download the mp3 recording of the interview.
Linda's book Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, & Her Polish Heritage is available from Pearlsong Press.
Ellen Frankel, author of Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature & Inner Growth, joined Massachusetts Rep. Byron Rushing recently to brief that state's legislature on the need for Rushing's bill adding height and weight to the Massachusetts anti-discrimination laws.
As reported by the Berkshire Eagle, Frankel told those present about the problems short people experience.
"Heightism is the discrimination of people of short stature," Frankel said. "In this case, males have a harder time. Men who are 6 feet 2 inches or taller receive 12 percent more for a starting salary than shorter men with the same education and qualifications."
Beyond Measure was published by Pearlsong Press in September 2006.
Front Street Reviews calls Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, & Her Polish Heritage "a wonderful story of how we can change our own destinies."
Betty Gelean reviews the book and interviews author Linda C. Wisniewski on the Front Street Reviews website. Read the entire review here, and Wisniewski's interview here.
Off Kilter will be published by Pearlsong Press in April 2008. Take advantage of the special offer of free shipping within the U.S. for advance sales and order your copy now at the Pearlsong Press website. Or order from Amazon.com
Garmendía, Félix: Fire Island and Their Sister
In his third book of poetry, Félix Garmendía celebrates the popular LGBTQ+ vacation destinations of Fire Island and commemorates Titania, a trans woman of Manhattan.
Garmendía, Félix: Poems of Reckoning and Hope
Fly into the heart of the storm in the second collection of poems by Félix Garmendía.
Moïse, Leslie: Under the Pomegranate Tree
In ancient Ammon, a sheltered young woman fleeing her father's plans for her marriage is thrust into a violent world in which her only tools -- or weapons -- are her knowledge of plants and healing.
Zellman, Frannie, Ed.: Fat Poets Speak 3: FatDance Flying (3)
The Fat Poets' Society writes about their joys, sorrows, anger, and pleasure living in a world that constantly tries to reject and inhibit fat people. Featuring "The Days of Fat Lilith," Frannie Zellman's series of poems celebrating fat goddesshood.
Félix Garmendía: Flying On Invisible Wings
Félix Garmendía's poems narrate his life as a gay activist in the face of illness and intolerance, from his early years in conservative Catholic Puerto Rico of the 1960s, '70s and '80s to his arrival in Manhattan, New York City in 1988, his experiences as an HIV+ survivor, and current disability due to Inclusion Body Myositis.
Barbara D'Souza: If We Were Snowflakes
In a U.S. in which chocolate is a controlled substance and fatness is taxed, a teenage girl tries to find out who turned her father in for trafficking chocolate while she deals with the challenges of FatSchool.
Maria Fama: Other Nations: An Animal Journal
Poems taking us into the hearts and souls of animals, who are, as naturalist Henry Beston saw them, "other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."
Pat Ballard: Once Upon Another Time
Candace had always thought she'd been born in the wrong century.
Pat Ballard: Something to Think About: Reflections on Life, Family, Body Image & Other Weighty Matters by the Queen of Rubenesque Romances
Pat's homespun wisdom shines in this inspirational collection of short essays, quotations and poetry.
Bette J. Freedson: Soul Mothers' Wisdom: Seven Insights for the Single Mother
A clinical social worker shares insights identified through years of workshops, counseling sessions, and her own self-examination as a single mother.
Pat Ballard: Adam & Evelyn
Evelyn hoped to start a new life in Nashville far away from her abusive ex-husband and without the help of any man on Earth. Then she met Pastor Adam Singletary.
Mary Saracino: Heretics: A Love Story
In the 1480S, twin sister healers in a remote village in the mountainous Barbagia region of Sardinia encounter a heretic-obsessed Spanish priest.
Frannie Zellman, Ed.: Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly
The poets embrace their lives as fat women in a thin-loving culture, writing with gusto, passion and yearning about navigating different, sometimes dangerous worlds.
Pat Ballard: ASAP Nanny
This nine-chapter novella from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances also contains the first chapters of all of Pat Ballard's previous books.
Leslie Moise: Judith
In the ancient Middle East a pious, wealthy young widow risks her life to save her town from a besieging army in this novel based on the apocryphal Book of Judith.
Frannie Zellman: Fatland: The Early Days
Vol II of The FatLand Trilogy reveals a hidden history -- & the bravery, determination & treachery of FatLand's founders.
Lonie McMichael: Acceptable Prejudice?: Fat, Rhetoric and Social Justice
Explores the explosion of fat prejudice & the experiences of fat people in American society. "Fat Acceptance 101."
Lynne Murray: A Ton of Trouble
In Book 4 of the Josephine Fuller mystery series Jo grapples with murder in the California wine country, a gun-toting would-be charity client & plus-size porn.
Judy Bagshaw: Kiss Me, Nate!
In a small Canadian town romance blossoms between a BBW schoolteacher and coach during a community theater retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.
Bonnie Shapbell: Hiking the Pack Line: Moving From Grief To A Joyful Life
A widow's practical advice and workbook for re-creating a nourishing life after devastating loss.
Lynne Murray: At Large
The 3rd book in the Josephine Fuller mystery series finds Jo a suspect in the death of the woman who broke up her marriage.
Tracey L. Thompson: Fatropolis
Most of her life Jenny has felt she's not good enough, not attractive enough, because she's fat. Then one day she stumbles through a portal between a world that values thinness and one that values roundness. Sometimes falling can wake you up.
Louise Mathewson: A Life Interrupted: Living with Brain Injury
A collection of poems chronicling the author's recovery from a brain damaging car accident, with a list of journaling therapy writing prompts and other resources she found helpful in transcending trauma.
Lonie McMichael, Ph.D.: Talking Fat: Health vs. Persuasion in the War on Our Bodies
The "war on obesity" has increased profits for those perpetuating its rhetoric while increasing prejudice & decreasing health in the very people targeted for "help."
Michele Tamaren & Michael Wittner: ExtraOrdinary: An End of Life Story Without End
"In this deeply moving & inspiring account, Tamaren & Wittner share the life story of a man close to their hearts....Readers can expect tears to flow as Herman's life inspires them to be better." Publishers Weekly
Leslie Moïse: Love is the Thread: A Knitting Friendship
Sustained by the metaphor of knitting, Love is the Thread traces the way one spiritual friendship can change all our relationships. The memoir centers on the friendship between a woman snared in a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and another woman reweaving her life after an abusive relationship.
Lynne Murray: The Falstaff Vampire Files
Sir John Falstaff is undead & misbehaving in San Francisco. Kris Marlowe doesn't believe in vampires, but when she's attacked by a horde of murderous monsters she must seek help from the most famous rogue in history.
Lynne Murray: Larger Than Death
Meet Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize. Full-figured & full of attitude with abundant sleuthing skills, Jo takes time off from her new job and walks into a murder case. Her best friend and early role model, a plus-sized clothing designer, lies slain in her own apartment. Was she the victim of a serial killer who targets voluptuous women, or is the murder personal? In the first of a series being brought back to print -- & ebook -- Jo copes with her friend's murder, an unexpected romance and bizarre neighbors as she races to find the killer before becoming the next victim.
Lauri J Owen: Blowing Embers
Book 2 of The Embers Series (sequel to Fallen Embers) continues the saga of Kiera, transported to an alternate Alaska in which those who have the power to control the elements -- now including Kiera -- have ruled over those who cannot, including the shapeshifting indigenous peoples. The Fairbanks slaves struggle to maintain their newly won freedom, which is threatened by a force that will also shatter Kiera's heart.
Pat Ballard: Dangerous Love
New romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances! Ava Manning saw some research she wasn't supposed to, and now someone wants her dead. As if that isn't complicating her life enough, she has to deal with charming LAPD detective Ricky Don McKinzie....
Karen Blomain: The Season of Lost Children
In a small college town in Pennsylvania the lives of a bigamist's wife, a Polish orphan, an ex-priest and his wife -- a former nun -- and a mute teenage runaway intersect.
Charlie Lovett: The Fat Lady Sings
Young Adult fiction. Sassy, irreverent Aggie Stockdale should have gotten the lead in her high school play. But she isn't just a talented actress, writer, and athlete. She's also the fattest girl in the senior class.
Ellen Frankel: Syd Arthur
Love, Laughter & Enlightenment! A middle-aged Jewish woman is soon in over her chakras as her spiritual search takes her from yoga studio to meditation hall to ashram gift store to the pages of Zensational catalogue. Her Mah Jongg group insists it's merely a midlife crisis. But nothing's going to stop Syd's journey toward Nirvana -- not even the hottest sale at Nordstrom's.
Lauri J Owen: Fallen Embers
Kiera and her nephew are transported to an alternate, feudal Alaska during a strange dog's attack. The icy land is ruled by decadent mages who have enslaved the shapechanging, indigenous peoples. Kiera soon finds herself fighting -- and, to her astonishment, summoning fire. Before she can find her way home she must learn about the local systems of magic and her own powers. Kiera's path leads her deeper into Alaska, to romance, joy and heartbreak. Choosing to follow her heart may cost her everything.
Lynne Murray: Bride of the Living Dead
Big, beautiful & rebellious, indie film critic Daria MacClellan is most comfortable in a monster movie poster T-shirt & blue jeans. Yet when family drama hijacks her engagement, she's trapped into a formal wedding with her perfectionist, anorexic sister, Sky, planning the whole thing. Daria adores her fiance, but her wedding seems to be spiraling into a horror film. Will the spectre of a picture perfect wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead?
Rebecca Brock: The Giving Season
To have the life she's always dreamed of, Jessy must fight her insecurity and learn how to let Michael -- and his family -- love her just as she is.
Rebecca Fox & William Sherman: Measure By Measure
A robust, comic romance fleshing out the truth about soap opera: It's not just for the rich and slender. Taken from the online cyber-serial, it's a Tales of the City for the fat and fabulous.
Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan, Corinna Makris, Lesleigh J. Owen & Frannie Zellman: Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society
Smart, sassy, sensual and soulful -- five fat women share the poetry and process of fat embodiment. The Fat Poets' Society was born during a poetry workshop at the 2006 annual NAAFA convention. The poets are donating their royalties to NAAFA.
Frannie Zellman: FatLand
In the near future the Pro-Health Laws of the United States of America have become so oppressive that people seeking freedom over their bodies have established a new country. In FatLand, life is good and scales are forbidden. Free from the hatred and discrimination of the Other Side, FatLanders have built happy, productive lives. But not everyone is flourishing.
Pat Ballard: 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are)
The Queen of Rubenesque Romances shares the steps she created -- and used -- to heal the damage of years of dieting. Join her in celebrating size diversity, self esteem, positive body image, and health at every size.
Charlie Lovett: The Program
A new weight loss clinic in New York City has an offer for you -- given them $5,000 and they'll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be -- if only she had $5,000. When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, however, she's on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women. Library Journal calls The Program "a lively first novel. Highly recommended."
Linda C Wisniewski: Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage
Even before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, Linda Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to a cruel father in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits. Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter "a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically 'different.'"
Pat, Ballard: The Best Man
Sparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding -- and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor. The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble. Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?
Judy Bagshaw: At Long Last, Love
Big beautiful --and in some cases slightly more mature -- heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw.
Jack Adler: Splendid Seniors
An inspiring ensemble of 52 people whose accomplishments after age 65 remind us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit.
Mary Saracino: The Singing of Swans
"The Singing of Swans is a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices!" --Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile
Ellen Frankel: Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature and Inner Growth
"If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes." --Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?
Pat Ballard: Abigail's Revenge
Injustice, romance and suspense smolder in a small Southern town. Romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, Pat Ballard.
Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.: Taking Up Space
"Thomas's incisive blend of sociological inquiry and personal narrative amounts to a provocative treatise on fat oppression in our culture. Taking Up Space is a kind of roadmap through the minefield of the 'war on obesity,' and it offers protection to the reader ready to fight for cultural change surrounding the meaning of fatness." --Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., author of Revotling Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity.
Anne Richardson Williams: Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under
Shattered by family tragedy in the early 1960s, an upper-middle-class Southern teenager finds solace in art and literature. Decades later she is called to the continent whose literature once comforted her, and to a magical connection with an Aboriginal woman transcending race and half a world.
Pat Ballard: A Worthy Heir
When Pam Spencer sees the newspaper ad seeking "a worthy heir" to Fiona Bainbridge's millions, she jumps at the chance to get her brother the medical care he needs after a job-related accident. But Reese Bainbridge, Fiona's handsome grandson--and jilted heir--rushes home in anger when he hears his grandmother has moved Pam and her brother into the family mansion. Sparks fly--and Pam is up to the challenge.
Pat Ballard: His Brother's Child
One party, one silver-tongued, double-talking stranger intent on winning a bet, and Faith Carr ends up betrayed, alone, and pregnant. When Edward Brenner shows up on her doorstep intending to right his brother's wrongs, she's scared and vulnerable. But she agrees to marry this stranger to give the baby a father, although keeping him at a distance. She doesn't realize that Edward fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Will her battered self-esteem allow her to see the truth--and her own beauty?
Pat Ballard: Wanted: One Groom
Wealthy Hanna Rockwell will lose her home and her inheritance unless she marries by her 30th birthday. She's stunned when Matt Corbett, the faded rock start she worshipped in her teens, accepts her brother's offer to bail him out of financial trouble if he'll marry her. Her teenaged fantasies come to life--bringing a few surprises with them.
Pat Ballard: Nobody's Perfect
Nella Covington can't believe she's agreed to marry arrogant Samuel du Cannon, even if it IS only a marriage of convenience. He needs a mother for his young son, and she needs to keep her childhood home. If Sam's work keeps him on the road enough, she won't have to deal with him much. Sam's never been attracted to plus-size women, so they won't be tempted to have a real relationship. At least, that's what they keep telling themselves--
Pat Ballard: Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories
Ten romantic tales pack suspense and sizzle into this collection of short stories featuring amply curved women.
