What’s In It For You?

by Dr. Dan Miller, CIPA Vice-President

It should be obvious to everyone, but just in case you haven’t noticed – CIPA is doing a lot more these days to promote its author and publisher members.

 Let’s start with the CIPA Library e-Book Partnership with Douglas County Libraries. The goal of this program is to facilitate the library’s identification and acquisition of e-book versions of quality independently published books by CIPA members. Are you curious how this partnership will work? Come to the meeting on May 21^st to meet Jamie LaRue, the head of the library district and hear what he has to say about this exciting new opportunity for CIPA members to get exposure – and sell some books!

The second major benefit is CIPA’s Online Catalog that is available for any current member to list their books. Although this effort just got underway a few weeks ago, we already have over 40 titles posted. And the listing literally gets longer every day. The goal here is to get every book published by our current members posted in the catalog.

It’s a great place to showcase yourself and your books and have a way for prospective buyers to find your books. Books that have won a CIPA EVVY award are identified with an award symbol for which the book placed. At the top of the current list, you will see member Polly Letofsky’s award-winning book along with the gold symbol for her first-place award. Click on the title and you will be directed to the title’s landing spot under the genre where it is classified.

Details for all the books listed on the landing page may be found on a separate page for each genre. Check out the Children’s page or the Juvenile Fiction page, for example. Polly’s book is listed on the Memoirs page, along with member Carolyn Jennnings’ award-winning book Hunger Speaks.

And if you click on Carolyn Jennings’ name, it will take you to her author page. There is also an index of authors listed on the website as another way to give exposure to our members.

It’s easy to get listed. Simply go to the Online Submission Form and input information about yourself and your book.

Dr. Dan Miller of Integrated Writer Services is CIPA’s vice president and incoming president for 2011-2012.