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What We Want to Read – Summer 2022 Edition

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compiled by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

It always amazes me how quickly the days speed by and that I’m posting once again about some of the books my colleagues and I are planning to read during the summer. Perhaps you’ll find a familiar author or title in the list below or be inspired to pick up something different from what you usually read based on these selections. To learn more about the titles, or to order from a bookstore near you, simply click on the cover images shown.

We hope your summer days are filled with plenty of enjoyable activities, including reading!

Seven Games: A Human History

Author: Oliver Roeder

Publisher: W. W. Norton (a Westchester client)

Why I Want To Read This Book: I inherited an appreciation of games from my father. And although time constraints or other interests have always limited me to nothing more than a casual gamer, my wife knows that my guilty pleasure at any given time over the years is often over-devotion to one game or another, so she gifted this book to me. Games are nothing if not metaphors and I’m looking forward to what Roeder’s “human history” will have to say about the human condition. It’s disappointing that the TOC doesn’t show an eighth chapter that would relate the rich history to the more recent renaissance of Euro-influenced tabletop games, but I expect to enjoy this read nonetheless.

Selected by: Scott Keeney, Director, Production and Customer Service

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues, Collected Essays

Author: Edited by Sean Forman and Cecilia M. Tan

Publisher: Society for American Baseball Research

Why I want to read this book: This book combines two interests: baseball (Go Sox!) and history, specifically the reexamining of history through a lens that recognizes all contributions. A friend and former colleague, Adam Darowski, is now the Director of Product at Sports Reference, LLC (Baseball-reference.com being one of my favorite sites for stats), one of the groups behind the publication of this book. Adam has an essay included in the collection, so I’m eager to read his work as well as those of the other contributors.

 

KevinSelected by: Kevin J. Gray, President and Chief Content Officer, Westchester Education Services

Wuthering Heights

Author: Emily Brontë

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Why I want to read this book: I’m in a book club and we select books to read every month. It’s a great motivator and we get to read some interesting titles. We choose a classic for this month and I’m very excited to read it since I’ve heard so much about the Brontë sisters and this book in particular.

The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Why I want to read this book: I was reading another book, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, and in it, The Kite Runner is mentioned. The Reading List is about a unique friendship between a widower and a librarian, and without giving away the ending, The Kite Runner was selected as part of series of books they read. I’m interested in learning more about the friendship between the boys in the book and I hear to have tissues handy!

Submissions selected by: Laura Cunningham, Content Director, STEM, Westchester Education Services

The Island

Author: Adrian McKinty

Publisher: Little, Brown

Why I want to read this book: I love thrillers! This is a new author I have recently become interested in, and I am excited about the upcoming release.

Girl A

Author: Abigail Dean

Publisher: Harper Collins

Why I want to read this book: This came out last year, but I haven’t gotten my hands on it just yet. Yes, it’s dark, but I find real-life tragedies fascinating. Also, the events took place in my state, not far from where I live, which adds to my intrigue.

To round out my summer reading will be all the Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly, and James Patterson hand-me-downs from my parents’ collection.

Submissions selected by: Noelle Cristea, Senior Editor, Literacy & SEL, Westchester Education Services

The Hairy Dieters Simple Healthy Food

Authors: Si King and Dave Myers

Publisher: Seven Dials

Why I want to read this book: The time I spent cooking at home during lockdown and the ensuing work from home time was an enjoyable highlight with my family during otherwise stressful and challenging times as we all adapted to what 2020 was going to bring next. Amongst the cookbooks I burned through were two by the then Hairy Bikers, UK TV chefs who during the pre-pandemic era hosted travelogue/cooking programs that we could watch here in the States on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Well, if the Hairy Bikers could become the Hairy Dieters and shed some pandemic weight for their health, I figure so can I. When I saw their upcoming “The Hairy Dieters Simple Healthy Food” I immediately preordered a copy, and am hoping it can help undo some of what my enjoyment of their books on baking pies and more did over the course of the past two years.

Selected by: Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer, Westchester Publishing Services

The Price You Pay For College

Author: Ron Lieber

Publisher: Harper

Why I want to read this book: With a freshman in high school and a middle schooler in the house it is never to early to learn more about the next chapter in their lives, college. Between choosing where they should go, how much it should cost and everything in the middle, this is one of the biggest decisions they will make to this point in their lives. It helps to be informed, and this books looks like just the way to do it.

Selected by: Kevin Schroeder, Director, Client Solutions, Westchester Education Services

This Time Tomorrow

Author: Emma Straub

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Why I want to read this book: The novel is a nuanced take on the movie plot for “13 Going on 30”, where viewers watch hilarious events unfold as a 30 year old woman goes through adult life as her 13 year old self. The main character in “This Time Tomorrow” is a woman on the eve of her 40th birthday, and like many of us this age she has a parent who isn’t in the best of health. After a bit too much celebrating the night before, she wakes up to find she’s 16 years old again and her father is now younger and healthier than she remembers. Life informs art, with the author drawing (perhaps morbid?) inspiration from the medical issues her father, horror novelist Peter Straub, has faced in the last couple of years to craft this story. The question of whether you would change anything in the past if you had the ability to is an interesting one, and I’m curious to discover the author’s answer.

Nicole TomassiSubmitted by: Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager, Westchester Publishing Services

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom

Author: Felicia Rose Chavez

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Why I want to read this book: I want to read this book because I truly believe it’s imperative for all students to have a voice. The traditional writer’s workshop model platforms white voices and white comfort. I look forward to learning about Chavez’ experience in and out of the classroom. I hope I can help bring inclusive, amplifying spaces for students of color into more educational materials.

The Atlas Six

Author: Olivie Blake

Publisher: Tor Books

Why I want to read this book: I love a solid fantasy and have heard great things about this series. Mostly it’s the tagline on the cover which caught my attention: Knowledge is Carnage. I can’t wait to find out where the author takes that idea! https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250854513

Selections submitted by: Jennifer Cole, Content Director, Literacy, Humanities, and Languages, Westchester Education Services

 

by Deb Taylor, Director, Business Development & Marketing

Conversations

A newcomer’s view from the BISG Annual Meeting

OOOH, I was going to see people without a Zoom frame! Did I remember how to do this? It’s been a minute.

It was Friday, April 22. 7:10AM and I was headed to The Harvard Club for the BISG Annual Meeting of Members, focused on how to Build Books Better.  The world has changed quite a bit over the last 2 years, including the publishing industry, right? I was eager to hear what the BISG members had to say about all that and more.

“Is it ever going to end?”

I listened as attendees commiserated about how the publishing industry seemed to be in an endless state of transformation and change. As the BISG members know, and will likely be the first to tell you, the publishing industry is never static. It is always changing. Sometimes due to things outside of its control, or slower in areas than some would like, but as a whole, this industry is one that evolves to meet the changing demands of time.

One thing that does not change, though, is the focus of BISG members to develop better ways to do things, to help the industry move forward to face those new demands, whatever they may be.

Technology

I want to focus on the word “develop” for a minute. Develop is associated with change, improvement, and growth, such as developing green buildings, or in technology, developing new platforms, sustainable methodologies or automated processes. Innovation and developing often go together, but are typically not the first words that someone outside of publishing will use to describe the publishing industry. Well, the BISG committee chairs definitely had something to say about that misperception. Rachel Comerford (Macmillan Learning), BISG Workflow Committee Chair, shared that it’s time to start thinking about publishing as a technology industry. 

I couldn’t agree more.

While digital workflows may seem like they’ve solved many of the biggest technology needs, there are still areas where many siloed, manual practices are still in play. I have to admit, I was surprised to hear about the challenges that Kris Kliemann (Kliemann & Company), the BISG Rights Committee Chair, discussed around researching and managing rights and permissions. There seems to be room for a bit of innovation there, and she definitely wants to see that the processes (so many people! so many steps!) for securing (and paying for) rights and permissions become more of a self-serve, web-based, intuitive experience.

There was a general consensus that publishers should be adopting a born accessible approach to their titles, too. This approach not only expands readership, but also lowers costs and reduces waste. It is, as most nodding heads appeared to agree, the right thing to do.

DEI

Which brings me to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). This is something that I am very passionate about and engaged in both personally and professionally. I am grateful and proud of the corporate commitment Westchester has made to DEI, and the work we do helping publishers produce content that is culturally responsive. As a white, middle-age professional woman who resides in the NYC suburbs (and also serves as a Board of Education trustee),  I am starting to realize and address my biases, recognize my position of privilege and influence, and am learning how I can help elevate those who are marginalized.  Key words here are “starting”, “recognizing” and “learning” as this is not easy, or comfortable. I was, literally, on the edge of my seat for the entire conversation led by Peter Berkery (Executive Director, Asoociation of University Presses), Shelley Husband (SVP, Government Affairs and Special Projects, Association of American Publishers) and Allison Hill (CEO, American Booksellers Association), as I was eager to hear how this historically and predominantly white industry was going to learn about DEI and facilitate change within the space. 

The good news is that there is a lot of great work starting to take place, including bylaw changes requiring a diversified Board of Directors, publishers seeking out more BIPOC authors, DEI leadership positions being added, along with fellowship programs that enable BIPOC students to learn about the publishing profession and ideally land permanent positions in scholarly publishing houses. 

What added to the authenticity of this conversation, was the recognition of the multiple failures and stumbles that have taken place. Peter Berkery talked about the low retention with the first round of fellows, and how the work with this program cannot end with placement. Supports and mentoring need to be established in order for these new fellows, who are landing in a company where they do not see colleagues or managers who look like them, to feel safe, confident and empowered to contribute and advance their careers. This includes training and resources for existing employees to learn about and manage their own biases and microaggressions too. Allison Hill made the point that mistakes will continue to happen, and that it is imperative to not only learn from them, but to keep on the journey. It is imperative for all of us, to be transparent, accept failure, build bridges, and most importantly, insist and persist, for a better publishing industry.

A Lifetime or Two 

I expected that a publishing meeting would include a good story or two, and I wasn’t disappointed. By the looks of the attendees – they weren’t disappointed either. Tom Clarkson started off the award ceremony taking us with him as he shared his lifelong journey in the publishing space and how his career intersected with Joe Gonnella, who received the Sally Dedecker Award for Lifetime Service. Joe continued to hold our attention with his own experiences and lifetime of amazing accomplishments. Two additional awards were also presented, the Industry Champion Award to Pat Payton of ProQuest and the Industry Innovator Award to Wattpad. It was certainly a wonderful way to end a meaningful and valuable meeting of the BISG members.

Onward!

One last word about BISG. All the committee chairs shared their continuing commitment to provide invaluable resources through webinars, best practice guides, brown bag (virtual) lunch roundtables, and more over this next year, to help break down siloes of knowledge and expand the capabilities for all publishers to build books better. The invites to participate in their virtual sessions were warm, authentic and encouraging, giving full permission to just “lurk”. I’m going to take them up on that.

Learn more about BISG’s programs, committees and other ways to become involved.

 

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

I had the great fortune to participate virtually on a panel at PubWest 2022 with Rachel Noorda (Director of Book Publishing, Portland State University) and Suzanne Norman (Publishing Program, Simon Fraser University) entitled “Getting your Book into Readers’ Hands”. One of the Intensives at this year’s PubWest conference, we met with a small group of publishers to discuss the industry trends affecting book availability, supply chain, purchasing practices, equity in content, inclusive marketing, and the challenges publishers and readers have getting access to content.  Rachel Noorda deserves applause for the effort she invested in hosting and facilitating this panel in-person at the conference while Suzanne and I joined in via Zoom.

The overview Rachel and Suzanne provided on the above topics helped the attendees understand the impacts of global factors on launching new titles, keeping books in print, considerations for Print on Demand, and also how to consider accessibility in your books.  As we discussed with the attendees, over 20% of the world’s population has a print disability, and some numbers suggest at least 5-10% of the population has dyslexia.  Best practices with fonts, colors, and alt text were covered during our session, and we showed how to crack open an ebook you’ve released and check it using Ace by DAISY and Thorium.

Westchester will be covering supply chain concerns in our next webinar that we’re co-hosting with Publishers Weekly, Publishing Now ’22: Driving Business Forward, on Tuesday, March 22. I hope you can join us for that! My colleagues and I at Westchester would also welcome the chance to speak with you about your thoughts around accessibility and your content.  If you want to spend some time reviewing an ebook or two from your list to talk about best practices, the team at Westchester would be happy to have a brief Zoom.  Contact us to schedule some time to talk about your editorial, production, and digital needs.

compiled by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

During the past year, Westchester has been fortunate to support a growing number of publishers with a wide variety of project requirements, from manuscript editing to digital file conversion updates and everything in between.

Read on to learn about several of the ways we have stayed connected throughout 2021, keeping our publishing industry colleagues informed and able to respond effectively to ensure content continues to reach your readers wherever they are and in the formats that they desire.

Westchester UK acquires River Editorial
In March, we announced the acquisition of River Editorial by Westchester Publishing Services UK. This provided an additional array of customizable and cost-effective project management capabilities for our publisher clients based in the United Kingdom and Europe.

 

The Westchester Words podcast launches
Westchester Words podcast logoAlso happening in March was the debut of the Westchester Words podcast. To date, we have produced more than two dozen episodes covering topics of interest to the fields of education, ed tech, and publishing. All of our episodes are available to stream on your favorite platform or you can find them at our websites, where we have posted additional content that some of our guests have been kind enough to share.
Is there a topic you think we should cover in the year ahead? Get in touch and let us know!

 

Westchester’s Webinars Continue

Image of webinar panelistsWestchester hosted several webinars throughout the year to explore topics that were important to our colleagues in the publishing industry and offer helpful strategies for navigating around the challenges many businesses have been faced with during these interesting times. Presentations included our annual Publishing Now event in April 2021 in partnership with Publishers Weekly, The State of K-12 Education in May, the Publishing Industry Supply Chain Challenges webinar in October, and our webinar in partnership with Supadü about How to Make 2022 Your Best Year for Book Sales, at the end of November. Visit our YouTube channel to catch any of the webinars you may have missed, and be sure to subscribe while you’re there so you can be notified about the new webinars we will be conducting in 2022!

Stationers Shortlist 2021
It is an honor to be nominated
In May, we were delighted to receive news that Westchester Education Services had been shortlisted by The Stationers’ Company in the service development category for our Culturally Responsive Education Rubric Review process. While we didn’t ultimately win in the category, to receive this recognition from our industry peers in the UK’s livery company that has represented the needs and interests of publishing and media professionals for more than six centuries was extremely meaningful.

 

Benetech GCA Vendor logo
Westchester Receives Benetech Accreditation

During the summer, Westchester Publishing Services completed the accreditation process to become a Benetech Certified Accessible Vendor. This certification provides assurance for publishers that we have demonstrated the level of proficiency required to produce ePub content with a full range of accessibility features to support the needs of all readers, including those with physical impairments and learning differences.

An Initial Return to In-Person Events
Over the course of the summer and fall, with vaccinations and safety measures in place, we had the opportunity to attend conferences in-person for the first time in more than eighteen months. Westchester Education Services was in California for the ASU-GSV Summit, and the Westchester UK team sponsored and attended the IPG International Publishers Association Awards, and the IPG Autumn Conference. We also conducted business meetings in person where all participants felt comfortable doing so. It was a welcome change to be in the same location with our current or prospective clients to share how we could work together.

 

A Star Watch Honoree in our Midst
We were delighted to learn this October that Westchester Education Services’ Samantha Tucker had received a nomination for Publishers Weekly‘s 2021 Star Watch Awards. Sam was recognized for the Culturally Responsive Education review service she leads with a diverse editorial review team who come from a wide array of backgrounds and lived experiences. Educational publishers can utilize the CRE review to ensure their current learning materials are inclusive and free of any bias, as well as incorporate recommendations into the development process for new education content they are creating.

 

Welcoming new members to the Westchester team

Throughout the year we have welcomed several new people to the Westchester teams, including Amanda Robb and Sandra Colmenares at Westchester Education Services, Rebecca Durose-Croft and Marquita Celestine for Westchester Education UK, and Deb Taylor and Hugh Shiebler at Westchester Publishing Services. We’re thrilled to have all of these talented professionals as part of the team to support our growing client base on their projects.

Our Intentions for 2022

In the coming year, we are making plans to remain connected with publishers in a variety of ways. We continue to monitor guidelines and regional data to ensure the in-person meetings we participate in will be handled appropriately, and we hope to have the opportunity to see you at an industry event when conditions safely allow for it. A few events that we are currently making plans to attend include BETT, PubWest, and the Association of University Presses annual meeting. We will also continue to conduct webinars in 2022 about topics that are top of mind for you. Follow our LinkedIn pages to stay up to date, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow our Westchester Words podcast to see and hear our content.

Westchester proudly supports nearly 400 publishers in all sectors of the publishing industry with their editorial, production, digital conversion, design, and content development requirements. Read and download our case studies about the efficient and cost-effective solutions we have provided your peer publishers, and talk with us about how we can develop customized workflow options that can help you expand capacity, condense timelines, and minimize budget creep for your publications.

 

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

Long time readers of the Westchester Publishing Services blog will know that prior to the pandemic, traveling into the market to meet with our clients and prospective partners was a key means of getting to know clients and their work, better understanding competitive gaps we needed to address, and also exploring new services that the market needed to help solve it workflow challenges. This blog was often filled with post-conference updates from the likes of the London Book Fair, BEA, Frankfurt, ASU+GSV, and more.

Over the course of the past year and a half, Westchester’s sales and marketing efforts have pivoted to better engage with our clients and partners via Zoom meetings with individual clients, webinars that were focused on meaningful content instead of commercials about our capabilities, and segmented email marketing messages to share updates on our efforts to continue expanding services to address the market’s rapidly evolving needs. Those needs pivoted during the lockdown and then further changed due to the ongoing pandemic’s impact on our industry’s staff, products, and supply chain.

Westchester still has all of its over 400 global staff working remotely, and at this point we have no plans to reopen our US-based offices in a “hybrid working model” capacity anytime before the beginning of 2022. We’ve successfully served our clients and grown our business quite a bit using a distributed working model, and can continue to do so as long as the situation requires.

But, on a recent warm, sunny New York City afternoon, I found myself sitting in Bryant Park, sipping a cup of coffee prior to my first in-person dinner meeting in over 18 months. A number of US-based members of London’s Stationers’ Company gathered for dinner to catch up and talk about the impacts of the supply chain and other factors on our industry. PW will be co-hosting a webinar on this subject with us in just a few days. [Updated 10/18 – You can now view the webinar on our YouTube Channel.]

Since that dinner, I’ve had the great fortune to head out into the field with Bill Foley, our longstanding Key Accounts Manager, and Deb Taylor, who recently joined us in the newly formed role of Director of Business Development and Marketing.  Bill, Deb, and I have started scheduling more field-based lunches and dinners to meet with publishers to learn more about what has changed in their organizations since the pandemic began, and how Westchester can best address their workflow needs. Topics like expanding our publishing technology solutions, providing standalone copyediting and permissions services, and more have been discussed already.

And we’re keen to pick up those lines of dialogue with you, whether it’s in person or via a Zoom or phone call. What things are impacting your publishing program? How can vendors like Westchester best help you navigate your editorial and production processes, taking as much burden off your team’s shoulders while they’re navigating all the manufacturing and supply chain factors that are taking up a lot of attention right now?  In other words, how can Westchester help you?  Contact us to schedule a meeting or call to explore things further.