Wanted: Production & New Media Marketing Associate

David R. Godine, Publisher, seeks a driven, independent, creative bibliophile for the position of Production Assistant & New Media Marketing Associate. This is a full-time, entry-level, salaried position, with benefits, located in downtown Boston.

Job Description

Production Responsibilities — Applicant would work directly under the supervision of the Vice President of Production in coordinating the day-to-day tasks of book production, including but not limited to: requesting estimates from printers; proofreading covers and jackets; assembling files for transfer to press; circulating proof and collating changes or recording approval; staying in contact with vendors; and entering metadata into our book distributor databases. Applicant would also play a key role in Godine’s entry into the e-book market.
New Media Marketing Responsibilities — In conjunction with the Marketing and Publicity Director, applicant would be required to: write and copyedit posts for the Godine blog, including those from authors; post regularly to Facebook and Twitter; update the GoodReads account; and coordinate the direct-to-customer email newsletter. Applicant would also edit and update the Godine website.

Requirements

Applicants are required to have a bachelors degree or higher. Must have some experience in the publishing industry and be highly proficient, as well as professional, with new media such as Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Knowledge of or experience in e-book production is highly desirable. Experience with Quark and Photoshop is preferred.

Please send your resume and cover letter by email to info@godine.com with the subject line “Production & Marketing Position;”

Or, send them by post to:

Vice President of Production
David R. Godine, Publisher
re: Production & Marketing Position
9 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108

NO PHONE CALLS (please)

Godine Week @ Through the Looking Glass

Over at the Through the Looking Glass blog, they're throwing us a blog party for our Fortieth Anniversary. Yesterday's post was a short overview of the press: “The program has never been large in terms of titles issued, but most have been kept in print and many have found their way into the homes and hearts of what is now an entire generation. Children’s titles are the one genre where creativity in design, writing, illustration, and production are apt to intersect. They are now, and will always remain, an area of vital interest to everyone working here.” Head over there to find out what's in store today!

So You Need a Typeface?

Too funny not to share: click to enlarge and flow your way to Minion. . .

Cheyenne Madonna @ The StarTribune

At the Minneapolis / St. Paul StarTribune, Anthony Bukoski writes: “The collection ends with the hope that began it, though now this hope is reined in, restrained in the way the warrior Old Bull in 1826 would have restrained a palomino or a pinto pony from galloping too quickly into the unknown. What an amazing, moving debut for Eddie Chuculate — rich, thoughtful, eloquent and honest.”

And to all you booksellers in the twin cities: we'll be at the Midwest Bookseller Associate conference on October 1, at the St. Paul River Center. Stop by booth #329 to check out Eddie Chuculate's Cheyenne Madonna as well as our other great new and backlist books — and make sure you take advantage of the Fortieth Anniversary Show Special!

Our Patient President

Big news that President Obama has written a children's book for his daughters — but, even bigger news: the President appears in our new book The Lonely Phone Booth . . . or, does he? It's unconfirmed. Examine the evidence yourself:

We're just saying. Look at the guys with ear pieces. And that lady is awfully excited to be in line for a pay phone. (The guy in front of them is probably reading Freedom.)

A Tree Sandwich (and hold the pickle)

Superior Person's Tuesday (or, ahem, Wednesday)

Sesquipedalian adj. Inordinately long (of words). Literally, a foot and a half long — hence, a word of that length. As a noun: an inveterate user of such words; a practitioner of the lore contained in this book; a word-grubber. (q.v.)

And their cheers are still catchy.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Sesquipedalian appears in the first.

Superior Person's Tuesday

Rufous adj. Coloured a dullish red or rusty reddish-brown. Reserve the term strictly for use in circumstances where someone named Rufus has just come in from working in the garden. Be patient. At least once in your life, this will happen.

The Rufous Rufus Sewell. That just feels right.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Rufous appears in the third.

Slight Consolation

Seriously, how do you even
turn this thing on?

from Robert Pinsky at The New York Times:

“The story begins with money. Johannes Gutenberg did not find a way to profit from his technical achievements. The Gutenberg Bible, a gigantic project, required large amounts of capital that needed replenishing over time, long before there was any hope of profit. The finished product inspired awe, but the print run was 180 copies. Gutenberg “died bankrupt and disappointed.”

Nor was he alone. Apparently, it took decades before some people figured out how to make money from this remarkable invention. For decades after Gutenberg, it was not even clear that print would become a success. How do you market books? How many should you run off at one time? Piracy was a problem, as were texts changed, mutilated or combined in unauthorized editions. Many printers were ruined, trying to exploit the new medium.”

Adorable Tote Bags

and more, from our Lonely Phone Booth CafePress Shop!

A Giveaway Party

Just stop by www.lonelyphonebooth.com and leave a comment
for a chance to win a free copy of The Lonely Phone Booth!

It's that easy. We swear.

Bookfuturism

at The Atlantic, Tim Carmody writes about “bookfuturism:”

A bookfuturist manifesto could never really be like an avant-garde or political manifesto, partly because the whole idea of bookfuturism is to critically unravel these contradictions, rather than stake out definite positions that we'd cling to no matter what. For instance, when Amazon's Kindle first came out, I was completely of the mind that these text-only files cheaply mocked the experience of reading a book without actually including all its rich physicality, or trying to create a new, specifically digital experience. Now, as the whole industry's moved towards multimedia tablets and touch interfaces, I find myself thinking, "you know, maybe just focusing on text, and making that experience as useful and enjoyable as possible, is a really good idea. Text and textual interfaces are incredibly resilient and powerful. Bring back the command line!”

Bookfuturism turns out to be not just about books as such, but a kind of aesthetic and culture of reading, literacy, history, in connection with (only rarely in opposition to) other kinds of media culture. And reading here would also obviously include newspapers and magazines, and even things like maps and advertisements and data visualizations, plus whatever's displayed on the different screens most of us look at all day at home or work. What does it mean to live in this hyperliterate world? How do we make sense of it? There I think we need to actually articulate something like Jason Kottke's motto: "Liberal Arts 2.0."

A/C Broken

wishing we had these to wear today (office inappropriate?):

The Wondrous Godine E-Mail List

You may have noticed this box on the right side of our blog:





It's the new sign-up form for our monthly e-mail list. I recommend it highly. You'll get special discounts on backlist books (and new titles sometimes); updates from authors and as well from peers — publishers, writers, magazines, and even the occasional band; information about author readings, lectures by David, and other fun events; as well as essays by, and reviews of, hundreds of great Godine and Black Sparrow authors. We don't share your information with anyone, and we promise not to send those constant annoying updates on every miniscule detail of our day.

The Lonely Phone Booth: Romantic Comedy Mode

Top 3 things all authors should be doing (according to the Huff Post)

Top 3 things all authors should be doing

1. Engage in traditional, real-world events such as speaking engagements and workshops coordinated with online events such as tele-seminars and webinars

2. Produce an online video or live web feed promoting all of your events

3. Participate consistently (daily!) with your online community through Facebook and Twitter. The recommended frequency is 1 to 2 times a day on Facebook (not including the all-important responses to comments). For Twitter, a combination of content, replies, and recommendation tweets 5 to 30 times per day, much of which can be automated.

--

The above is from an article at the Huffington Post written by Arielle Ford. We don't have many authors on Twitter, but Godine has recently begun hosting and producing videos. We do blog regularly, Facebook, and Tweet — so I suppose we are doing alright. But perhaps there is something of which you would like to see more, good reader?

Eddie Chuculate on the Radio

Listen to Eddie Chuculate on Tulsa Public Radio, interviewed by Rich Fisher:

The Private Library on Godine

“As we have observed in repeated posts over the past 15 months, much of what gets published nowadays should be an embarrassment to the companies doing the publishing — way too many books nowadays are poorly edited (or not edited at all!), poorly printed (virtually no margins, hard-to-read type, no whitespace to relieve the eyes) and poorly bound (don't even think of opening the book wide enough to actually read it!).

The exceptions to this trend are few and far between. Fine press publishers still fight the good fight. As does the occasional specialist publisher like The Folio Society. But among commercial publishers, this task seems to have fallen to the few remaining independent publishers. One such publisher, which this year is celebrating its 40th anniversary (a difficult enough achievement in itself), is David R. Godine.”

Read the rest of this write-up at The Private Library

Follow Max!

Max Dalton, illustrator of The Lonely Phone Booth, is on Twitter! @maxdalton

Mostly we wanted to share this great illustration, from Max's blog.

Godine Fall Catalog