FBA/ABF
NEWS/SWEN
By Cynthia Kirk
Cynthia Kirk is a columnist for eTechNotes. Download
the PDF file for this article.
Well, it’s been a long time since the last report. But
more time, more news.
Not a single day—to say nothing of six months!—passes
in idleness or lack of accomplishment at FBA/ABF Content.
The really big news is that just before press time, FBA/ABF
won its very first Bookbuilders West award—for the cover
and text design of Ernest Ackermann and Karen Hartman’s
Searching and Researching
on the Internet and the World Wide Web, Second Edition.
Tom Sumner, FBA’s Director of Production and Editorial,
was in San Francisco to receive the award, along with Production
Editor Stephanie Welch and Graphic Designer Ian Shadburne.
No trophy this time, guys, but you do get a beautifully-produced
commemorative book honoring the award for all time.
Continuing with Ackermann and Hartman news, Ernie and Karen
are now contributing a bi-weekly column to the Web site for The
Free-Lance Star in Fredericksburg, VA. Along with contra dancing
with his lovely wife Lynn, this is Ernie’s sabbatical project.
And good sport that she is, Karen chips in to give her co-author
a hand. Check it out—http://fredericksburg.com/opinion/Local_Columnists/HowDoIFind/HowDoIFind.html.
Their last two columns have focused on virtual libraries and
search engines.
Carolyn Gillay and Patricia Sullivan’s
Windows 2000 Professional has recently been published
by FBA. This makes for more than a baker’s dozen of titles
that Carolyn has published with FBA since the company's start
15 years ago.
Founder and President Jim Leisy has been a good ambassador
for the company in recent months. He traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan,
at the invitation of Malloy Lithographing, for a summer think
tank called “Future Search.” The gathering convened
publishers, manufacturers, distributors, and journalists from
all over to consider the developing formats and digital distribution
of books. Fellow participants included Paul Hilts of Publishers
Weekly; Steven Piersanti, President of Berrett-Koehler;
and representatives from John Wiley & Sons, O'Reilly &
Associates, and Ingram.
A few months later, Jim traveled to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
This year FBA/ABF had its own booth; it was positioned right
next to good friend and colleague Bill Pollock and his
company No Starch Press. This second trip to Frankfurt, site
of the biggest international rights market in the world, was
invaluable in terms of solidifying and extending relationships—such
as that forged last year with Macmillan UK—that lead to
greater dissemination of FBA/ABF product in world markets.
Jim is also in the final stages of preparing an edited volume
of up-to-the-minute articles on the digitization of our culture.
DigiTopia includes contributions from several members of the
extended FBA family, including Lisa Cannon, Steven
Tuttle, Brad Hansen, Paul Hilts, and Ernest Ackermann
and Karen Hartman. The book has already generated brisk interest
in serial rights sales. Look for it in spring 2001.
And so it goes, as FBA/ABF seeks readers-and writers-of its
books in every appropriate market, North, East, West, South/South,
West, East, North. |
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