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AUGUST 2018 Meeting

August Meeting 2018

Da Shop owner & Co-owner of Bess Press (started in 1979 by my father-in-law and mother-in-law). My role here is directing and publishing development, which covers everything from acquisitions of manuscripts, revisions of our existing titles and acquisitions of distribution titles. Currently is chairman of the Hawaii Book and Music Festival and the president of the Hawaii Book Publishers Association.

a) Been in business for 39 years. We’ve grown from two Hawaiian Studies textbook to My father in law at the time was working for an educational publisher in New York. He realized that there were textbooks only for college students. So, that’s when Bess Press Started in 1979. The acquired two textbooks of pre-contact Hawaii and the monarchy of Hawaii. And worked with a lady named Betty Dunn ford, who wrote the books down to a fourth grade readability. That was the founding of Bess Press. Over 300 titles later of our own publication, and over 120 titles worth of other writers we’re still in business

b) Representative of 90% of publishing industry worldwide. We focus on an area, niche, and a variety of content relating to the people in that area.

c) Opened up Da shop March 2018.

d) Events & presentations; Hawaii Public Radio & Sri Lanka, Univ. of HI & Chaminade.

e) Bess Press started with 2 publications on Hawaiian history—Hawaii the Aloha State and out of that book came Hawaiians of Old and Hawaii the Pacific State. Now in 4th edition in English and Hawaiian. Publishing everything on educational catalog from really early education – pre-school level to post secondary level.

f) University level courses – Hawaiian Studies to Pacific Island Studies and Pacific Biology and Marine Environment Biology. Our other catalog is from Pidgin to Hawaiian Language to children’s stories to memoirs to biographies and special interest themes and subjects that relates to Hawaii and the Pacific.

g) The Penguin Random Houses and St. Martin Press….these folks are companies that are representative of the smallest percentage of publishers that exist, but they get recognition of about 90% of what the publishing industry is.

h) Bess Press has their own warehouse, direct ordering and distribution. We also work with Micronesia, Polynesia and Fuji and we also work across the mainland.

i) There’s a misconception that there’s no interest in hard cover books. Borders went out of business because they made terrible business decisions and had to go to bankruptcy.

j) 80% of development is in house. Whether we take out something that’s previously written and change it so that it will adapt to today’s present day audience.

k) 20% of what we publish is submitted to us. It might be from a previous publication that was existed from a previous publisher or might be something completely original. Someone like us who focuses on original content that deals with Hawaii and to the Pacific at a larger extent. We don’t produce fiction.

l) Our specialty is ethnically rooted stories and content that make up Hawaii or about Hawaii or about the fringes of Hawaii. A lot of that material is non-fiction, real or historical information or contemporary history.

m) Digital copyright law — you never physically own anything you purchase digitally. You basically purchasing an indefinite right to use as often as you want for this price and it can be revoked at any point in time if the party whom oversees it thinks you are using the item improperly.

n) The rules of the game as a publisher we still are putting up a 100% of the cost of the book. It’s change now that the tools and resources that exist for self-publish works are more affordable than it was before. Still at the end of the day, if you are going to print 3,000 to 5,000 copies of books and you going to warehouse it, market it, and ship it, you are looking at a $20,000 to $25,000 investment in your single work.

o) Majority of book sales are through non-traditional book outlets. Sales are through boutique setting. Sales at Costco are not a non-traditional bookseller, but they do sell lots of books.

p) Most book purchases are impulse buys. — especially done at airport newsstands.

q) Most publishers say they may have 300 books in their catalogue, but only 25 books actually pays for all those books to exist.

r) One of our strongest selling title on the mainland is called “Musabi Man: Hawaii’s Gingerbread Man.” It sells the best in the south eastern part of the U.S. Not too sure why it sells a whole lot there.

s) My background is actually in film production. My background-before publishing—was producing educational film, which is used in schools. There’s a film program here called Oceana on the film and it’s in partnership with the Center for Pacific Island Studies at UH Manoa. Themes are presented in film form, and we present them here at the community at large and take it out of the academic context and we bring out members from those individual communities. When we say Oceana on the film, we mean Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia. We have food that come from the region and we have dialog from the community. Late September, we are having a film called Iron Soldier. It’s based on a following and documenting the lives of a couple of people from coast ride, who went overseas to Afghanistan.

t) No one sends more people into the U.S. Military then Micronesia. One person from every three household end up volunteering to go into the military. The film will document that kind process and a lot of the discrimination that Micronesia people go through while in the military.

2. HAWAII FICTION WRITERS: scheduled to meet this Sat Aug 18, 10am to noon. At Epiphany Episcopal Church (parish hall), 10th & Harding in Kaimuki. Speaker: Tracy Trevorrow (Professor of Psychology at Chaminade University) speaking on character development and behavior.

3. AWARD WINNER: Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award for 2018 -- Mia Manansala. $1500. Manansala exhibits sophisticated genre awareness and playfulness with genre conventions and we believe the manuscript—which features a very funny, millennial, Filipina-American protagonist—makes a new, worthy, and worthwhile contribution to crime fiction.”

4. NEW LONDON PUBLISHING FIRM: De Montfort Literature, a new publishing company that is part of London hedge fund De Montfort Capital, is offering a £24,000 starting salary to writers who pass its selection process, which includes an algorithm that is “designed to identify career novelists”, psychometric tests and interviews. With up to 10 places initially available, De Montfort will also offer mentors and editors to provide advice and support, as well as designing, promoting and publishing the work. Authors would receive 50% of profits. For more information - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/01/new-publisher-plans-to-offer-budding-authors-24000-salary

5. ALASKAN WRITERS RETREAT: Alaska author Dana Stabenow starting women's writing retreat near Homer For more information - http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Storyknife-womens-writing-retreat-built-homer-alaska-488049431.html .

6. CREATESPACE SCAM: Scammers taking titles and selling books with gibberish inside at high prices. Some getting tax information on accounts to avoid taxes on their take. For more information - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/27/fake-books-sold-amazon-money-laundering & https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/technology/amazon-used-paperback-book-pricing.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/business&action=click&contentCollection=business%C2%AEion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

7. Misty Sanico posted on SinC facebook July 26 at 9:17 AM Just thought I'd share that Hawaii's longest-running literary journal is looking for submissions of poetry and prose! Send us your best poetry and prose for our next anthology! We've got some awesome guest editors