October 2010 will see the release of another BRIO title, Dutch Coffee Shop, a novel by Jay Scully and Ned Germany.  Suspense, adventure, and hidden identities can be found all the way through Dutch Coffee Shop, and it won’t let up, not until the last page.

Nine years ago, William Demsey’s brother Jimmy faked his own death and ran away from being framed for a horrible crime. Now, eighteen years old, William decides to head to Amsterdam, where Jimmy is thought to be, where it all started. Along the way he encounters all sorts of people; drug dealers, prostitutes, and mob bosses, just to name a few. He ends up chasing a man that goes by the name of “Hunt” and the revelation to this man’s true identity forces William to make a choice that will determine not only his fate, but his family’s as well.

Dutch Coffee Shop is a dark story of redemption that cuts through all the extraneous noise and gets to the core of the choices we humans make.

Dutch Coffee Shop is available for pre-order on Amazon.com now. Look forward to more information on this great book and it’s release in October.

Please, indulge me.

As Candy Pratts Price, executive fashion director at Vogue, said in the 2009 documentary The September Issue, “September is the January in fashion. This is when I change, this is when I get back on those high heels.”

Such is the case for the fall season in publishing. This is our time to “get back on those high heels”, reinvigorate ourselves and bring out the best we have. Here at BRIO we’re doing just that. Over the next weeks, count on more blog updates showcasing the great authors and titles we have for fall 2010.

This week we have Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure by Dr. Jamie Koufman, Dr. Jordan Stern, and Mark Bauer.

Acid reflux is one of the most misunderstood and preventable diseases today. Studies estimate that 100 million Americans have acid reflux and many of them are unaware of it, or they have been incorrectly diagnosed. Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure is the first book to offer a non-traditional diet to help cure reflux, as well as the best and worst foods for a reflux sufferer to have. It’s the beginning of a shift in how the medical field, and our society in general looks at reflux and cooking. Dr. Koufman’s innovative recipes include a variety of dishes that prove you don’t have to sacrifice good, delicious food when living with reflux.

Dr. Koufman has lectured widely on the subject, both nationally and internationally and is one of the world’s leading authorities on acid reflux. For three decades, she has been pioneering research and cures for reflux. Dr. Koufman is the founder and Director of the Voice institute of New York, one of the premier comprehensive voice treatment centers in the US.

For more information, and a glimpse into exactly what you can expect from this book, take a look at the cookbook blog (http://www.refluxcookbookblog.com/) Dr. Koufman has been writing, in addition to the medical blogs she contributes to.

Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure will be available on Amazon.com and other retailers come September (keep checking back for more information!).

Get back on those high heels and get rid of that reflux.

Lorna Hanson

This week an appalled and offended mother ignited a fire storm in Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida over Chris Abani’s book, Graceland, which was on a tenth grade summer reading list. Her argument was that a scene in the book, depicting a sexual act between two characters, was inappropriate for tenth graders to read. Graceland was subsequently taken off the reading list and the local news station wasted no time in polling random people on the street about it.

While there are many who would agree with this Florida mother, it is disturbing that one person could have such control over what other people read. Read the LA Times story here.

In support of books that have been banned, take a look at the American Library Association’s list of the Top 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books. People and/or groups have attempted to restrict or remove the listed books from curriculum and libraries. The lists can be viewed by year, author, decade, or statistics. You would be surprised by which books were challenged. If you’re intrigued, head to the other tabs to see what the ALA has gathered on censorship

Personally, when I get wind of a challenged or banned book, I want to go out and read it for myself.

Lorna Hanson

The acclaimed author Ryu Murakami has recently announced that he will publish his newest novel, “A Singing Whale”, exclusively through the Apple iBookstore. The Wall Street Journal reports that Murakami will most likely release a hardcover version of the novel after its release in e-book format.

Ryu Murakami is one of my favorite authors, so I may buy an e-book this time around. However, this brings up an important point: I am drawn to this because I love the author’s work. Since Murakami is such a big name in the world of writing and novels, will he bring his fans along with him in switching to the e-book format? What will happen to the traditional publisher?

This is a large step in the e-publishing world as now it has gone as far as well-established authors using the e-book format to publish their work. Whether you are in the traditional sector, or going the self-publishing route, everyone can agree that this is an exciting transitioning time for the publishing industry.

Read the article at The Wall Street Journal here.

Thoughts? Any other big name authors you know or wish would publish this way?

By Lorna Hanson

A short and sweet article over at The Huffington Post, by Jennie Nash, on what it means to write a “big book”.

As in the example she gave, “big” doesn’t always mean “eipc”. When you “think big” you should be thinking about character development, before the development of a big story. When the characters are solid, the story will follow.

Epic stories about fighting off death and destruction aren’t always the powerhouses in the literary world. Small stories about small people with “big” problems will grip the reader. “Big” problems such as, an affair, loss of interest in a job or relationship, what to cook for a big dinner party tonight (and they haven’t even begun the preparations!). “Less is more” as the adage says. However, it is the power you pack into the “less” which will give you “more”.

Readers can definitely tell when an author has poorly copy and pasted a conventional idea of what a “big book” is. They can spot the knock-offs and the overuse of predictable plots.

Surprise them with an epic story about a plain, everyday occurrence.

Check out the article here.

This week Linda Steidel’s For Every Season There Is A Salad was reviewed in the Orange County Register. The review is nothing but a glowing one and emphasizes what anyone who reads the book will find out: the versatility of Linda’s salads and what you can do with the tools she gives you.

Check it out here, and don’t forget to take a look at the video. Linda gives some great tips for anyone who enjoys cooking.

By: Lorna Hanson

Would you buy a Mac computer just to upload your book to the iBookstore? Apparently that’s what Apple wants you to do if you plan to use their newly opened self-publishing service for the iBookstore. As their requirements say, you must:

• Have a valid iTunes Store account with a credit card on file.
• Be running Quicktime v7.0.3 or later.
• Book in ePub format, and the book must pass the ePubCheck 1.0.5.
• Files can only be uploaded to the iBookstore on a Mac computer running OSX 10.5 or higher.

It’s becoming apparent that to resist ebooks and epublishing is pretty futile, but for those who don’t already own a Mac computer, what purpose does this serve? It should be said that it is possible to get around the Mac lockdown, but you’ll have to go through one of Apple’s approved aggregators (Lulu, Biblio Core, and Ingram to name a few) in order to upload to the iBookstore. Still, Why lock it up? To have more people buy Apple products?

It should be interesting when Barnes & Noble unleashes their e-publishing platform. So that makes…Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble…who else will create the next big e-publisher?

By: Lorna Hanson

On Tuesday this week, Garrison Keillor, that writer of all things quaint yet powerful, wrote, in his Baltimore Sun column, something along the lines of self-publishing being the death of writing as we know it. Or rather, it will be the death of the “martyred” writer; as he says, a “tortured [genius]” who uses manual typewriters and sends their manuscripts to a New York publisher in “a big manila envelope with actual postage stamps on it.” It’s a very romantic image, yes.

The industry is changing. However, as it always has been, there is writing with good content and writing without. What makes a good book is what’s between the pages, not how it was printed and published.

But Keillor says: “When everyone’s a writer, no one is.”

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Create Space, Amazon and the Kindle. BookSurge and Lulu.com; and of course the iPad and iBookstore. E-publishers, e-books, and e-readers are out there and they all offer more and more options for self-publishing.

Now there is Pubit.

This summer, Barnes and noble (B&N) will unleash their version of e-publishing, Pubit. Writers write the book, create the cover art, ecetera, and upload it to Pubit which will convert everything to an ePUB format. Then the book will be available for purchase and download from anywhere. It’s designed as a companion to B&N’s Nook e-reader, but consumers will be able to purchase e-books through the B&N apps on the iPhone, iPad, and BlackBerry, to name a few.

Pubit will be another avenue for the exploding arena of self-publishing. B&N has yet to release information on the royalty model (i.e. who owns what and where the profits go) and without that we have yet to see how much of a game-changer Pubit will be, though the anticipation is high. B&N is going up against Apple and Amazon, just to name a few big names, with Pubit. Anticipation is very high.

…It’s like the Clash of the Titans.

Check back here for updates on B&N and Pubit.

By: Lorna Hanson

There is a lot of harsh criticism in the industry aimed at self-publishing companies, and most of it is based on the perceived idea of what vanity publishing is.

“Vanity publishing” is no new concept. It’s been around for years. These days the words “self-publishing” have come to be something synonymous with “vanity publishing”. The lines are being blurred and the word “vanity” can’t contain it all anymore. Should it still be called “vanity”?
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