Good Tuesday morning. We’re almost through the month of March – where does the time go?
Before we say goodbye (and good riddance) to the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, we need to squeeze in a few more relevant posts.
March (or what’s left of it) is (was) National Small Press Month.
For the sake of clarity here, a small press is defined as a publisher making less than $50 million a year or putting out less than 10 books a year.
Perhaps that sounds like a lot to you. (It sure does to me and my bank account). But when you consider how much a big imprint like, say, Penguin Random House makes annually – about $3.3 billion – it’s not even in the same stratosphere.
What small presses are NOT. They are not micro-presses, which might put out just a few copes (like two dozen or less) of a few titles a year. They are also not genre-specific imprints operated by the big guys – like HarperCollins’ Harlequin, which specializes solely in bodice rippers (AKA romance novels).
So, what is an indie publisher? That’s kind of a catch-all term that basically includes any publishing house not associated with a Big Five conglomerate imprint. You might also come across other descriptions like “boutique” or “independent.”
Know that these do NOT equate to self publishing, which is just what it sounds like – you, as the author, putting your own book out into the world on your own.
Small presses can be very prestigious and carry their own unique brand of clout. They often put a premium on art and creativity and take risks that the Big Five wont, but they do still have a bottom line to worry about.
This month was created by what was then the California-based Publishers Marketing Association (now the Independent Book Publishers Association) and the New York Center for Independent Publishing, located on New York’s “Literary Row” at 20 W. 44th St. in Midtown. The NYCIP was founded un 1984 and was formerly known as the the Small Press Center. Wikipedia says:
The Center provides access to education and expertise in the field of independent publishing, networking opportunities, workshops, teleseminars, lectures, its annual small press book fair and exhibits. The Center also houses The Crouse Library for Publishing Arts, a comprehensive collection of books (many rare and out of print) and other materials on the bookselling and publishing industries.
Chalk this up to yet another thing I didn’t know existed in New York, but should have. But now I do. And so do you.
You’re welcome.
There was a rather yucky and better-to-forget-about mix of snow and rain last night. Let’s put that behind us, shall we? Today will be cloudy in the morning, with peeks of sunshine in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the low 50s.
In the headlines…
A heavily armed woman entered a Christian school in Nashville yesterday morning and fatally shot three children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said.
Nashville police have identified the six victims of the Covenant School shooting, which includes the private Christian academy’s headmistress, a custodian and the young daughter of the school’s pastor.
Of the three 9-year-old children whose lives were abruptly ended, one was Hallie Scruggs; she was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church. The other two were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney.
The shooter was also killed after police officers responded to the Covenant School, where children in preschool through sixth grade had just begun their final full week of classes before Easter break, authorities said.
The White House led reactions in a shocked America with a call for tightening gun control in the US after a 28-year-old opened fire at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, killing six, including three children.
President Joe Biden called the latest school shooting, which left at least three children dead in Nashville, “sick” and lamented that such a tragedy was “a family’s worst nightmare.
“We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart. It’s ripping at the very soul of the nation. We have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons,” Biden said at the start of a women’s business summit.
“I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapon ban. It’s about time we begin to make some progress, but there’s more to learn,” Biden said at a Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus spent yesterday evening detailing how Black women have been vital in the fight to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the constitution.
House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a charismatic and enigmatic son of both Brooklyn and Big Law, was shaped as much by hip-hop and the Black Baptist church as by the offices of corporate America where he handled high-stakes litigation.
Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to spend $50 million on domestic and Canadian production of printed circuit boards, citing the technology’s importance to national defense.
The US and Japan have reached an agreement over supplies of the critical minerals used to make car batteries, which will likely put to rest a contentious issue in the relationship with Japan and could be a model for resolving disputes with other trading partners.
The president signed an executive order saying that federal agencies can’t use spyware “that poses significant counterintelligence or security risks to the US Government or significant risks of improper use by a foreign government or foreign person.”
Former President Donald Trump denied in a new interview that his team posted a photo of him holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, saying it may have been added to the article he posted “later.”
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified yesterday before the grand jury examining Trump’s alleged role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to a news report and related photograph.
The grand jury investigating a hush-money case against the former president met again, but the timing of any potential indictment remained unclear.
The political and legal bombshell of Trump’s indictment could rally Republican voters to the former president’s side, but it could also prompt them to seek out an alternative.
“When I am traveling around my district, nobody has brought up President Trump and Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen. This is absurd that this prosecution’s going forward and it just demonstrates pure politics,” New York GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy said.
Trump’s 2024 campaign has decided that anyone who works for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, including on a potential presidential bid, will be ineligible to join the Trump campaign or another Trump White House.
In a positive sign for Gov. Kathy Hochul, a solid majority – 72% – of New York voters support giving judges more discretion to set bail, according to a new Siena poll. That includes 76% of participating Democrats.
Hochul’s proposal to eliminate the “least restrictive standard” has found broad favor among New Yorkers regardless of party, according to the poll.
Budget watchdogs are warning of the consequences of a tax hike as the state’s spending continues to grow this year and as federal aid from the pandemic is expected to run dry in the coming months, and are calling to pump the brakes on spending.
The contentious debate over bail reform momentarily stalled three-way budget talks on Saturday when staff for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie temporarily walked out on negotiations with staff for Hochul, multiple sources told City & State.
Hochul introduced a program bill late last yesterday, which typically has already been informally agreed upon with legislative leaders, that change the merit-based selection process for Court of Appeals’ judges that went into effect about 50 years ago.
Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal said was glad to see two current Court of Appeals associate judges who had been left off the previous shortlist – Rowan Wilson and Shirley Troutman – had made it onto the new one to be the next chief judge.
Hoylman called the pending nomination “probably the most important of this governor’s tenure in office. So, I’m hopeful she will choose accordingly.”
Several avowed liberals made the list of seven finalists who were revealed Friday by the state Commission on Judicial Nomination tasked with screening potential judicial picks.– and the Democratic governor must now pick from them by law.
After battles with previous governors, New York’s Native American leaders were hopeful for a reset with Hochul’s administration. Instead, the tensions have increased.
More incentives to build and more community input: Those are the key features local government officials in New York are seeking as the debate over a statewide housing plan is intensifying in the budget negotiations this week.
Two health care facilities filed suit against the state Health Department to further delay changes to New York’s pharmacy system days before it takes effect.
New York State has finalized the list of so-called “disadvantaged communities” to be targeted for extra funding and cleanup in the state’s ambitious multibillion-dollar climate plan.
A dozen “tax the rich” activists were arrested in the state Capitol yesterday evening as the political left pushes for Albany Democrats to support higher taxes on the wealthy ahead of the April 1 budget deadline.
AG Tish James asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that was filed against her and her office in December by a woman whose sexual harassment allegations against the attorney general’s former chief of staff were substantiated by an outside investigation.
New York State has agreed to pay $5.5 million to a man who spent 16 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping the author Alice Sebold when she was a college student in Syracuse.
“I appreciate what Attorney General James has done, and I hope and pray that others in my situation can achieve the same measure of justice,” Anthony J. Broadwater, 62, said in a statement. “We all suffer from destroyed lives.”
The Adams administration proposed New York City’s first composting mandate, requiring that residents who have yards separate their leaves, flowers, twigs and grass clippings for compost.
Mayor Eric Adams wants to make it mandatory for people to separate their leaf and yard waste. If the new rule goes into effect, residents and property owners who fail to compost their yard waste would face similar fines to those who don’t recycle properly.
The yard-waste mandate is the latest in a series of changes in the way New York City handles trash. Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has prioritized making the city cleaner and getting rid of as many rats as possible.
News of the new rule coincides with the return of the city’s voluntary compost collection program, which restarted in Queens on yesterday and piloted in the borough last October.
The MTA board will vote tomorrow on a set of rules of conduct for Grand Central Madison Terminal — including one that would limit the amount of time commuters can sit on benches to 90 minutes.
Adams headed to the state Capitol yesterday to privately meet with Albany Democrats in a last-ditch effort to get more funding for the Big Apple ahead of the April 1 state budget deadline.
Adams, a former state senator, said he was focused on migrants, money and criminal justice overhauls as he trekked to Albany to share concerns about the fiscal implications of Hochul’s $227 billion budget blueprint on the Big Apple.
After an arguably rocky start, Adams and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now appear to be seeking common ground, and have even made collegial comments about one another in recent days.
A top Adams’ administration attorney faced criticism from City Council members after refusing to offer support for a bill that would slow down Housing Court proceedings amid a recent uptick in New Yorkers going without legal representation in eviction cases.
The City Council is considering whether to give the watchdog agency overseeing the NYPD direct access to officers’ body-worn camera footage, which empower staff to conduct more comprehensive investigations into members of the department.
Mets-boosting Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is joining a coalition of local environmental activists in calling on the baseball team’s owner to rename Citi Field over climate change concerns.
The NYPD implemented a plan at the start of the year to try to stem the Big Apple’s soaring number of teen shootings, but nearly three months later, the bloodshed continues — including near city schools.
In New York City, more than 1.5 million people, or nearly one in five residents, could receive smaller food stamp benefits when pandemic-era assistance ends, nonprofit leaders say, reflecting a loss of at least $160 million total in SNAP benefits each month.
A controversial seminar about white privilege that had been planned by the city teachers’ union for yesterday was abruptly canceled — because its host was inundated with “hate messages and disparaging comments.”
New York’s first licensed cannabis store owned by a woman will be rolling up joints in Queens starting Thursday.
A roughly four-hour lockdown at Albany Medical Center Hospital yesterday began after a man threatened staff and locked himself in his mother’s room.
Albany’s South Pearl Street will host a new farmers market this year, running on the third Sunday of the month from July to October.
Vandals destroyed two custom-made kiosks for children at the Ten Broeck Mansion this past weekend, destroying art kits and seed kits as well as creating a swath of damage stretching almost a city block.
The state’s second-highest court has indefinitely suspended a Schenectady attorney and 2020 state Assembly candidate who faces allegations he misappropriated money from his former law firm’s operating account and misused funds from its escrow account.
The Daily Gazette is poised to purchase the Hudson Register-Star and Catskill Daily Mail with the deal closing as soon as May 1, according to an internal memo obtained by the Times Union.
The owners of an office building are suing the Hudson Register-Star, for what they say is more than six months of unpaid rent and failure to complete the terms of a lease that the publication had prior to moving to a new spot about six blocks away.
The Buffalo Bills have released more renderings of what their new stadium will look like.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s civil trial over a collision with another skier in a Utah slope entered its second week yesterday after she denied in testimony late Friday the man’s accusation that she had crashed into him while skiing in 2016.
The legal team representing Paltrow in the closely watched ski collision trial shared an animated reconstruction of the moment before the star and the doctor suing her collided on the slopes.
