Book Expo America

May 30, 2010

During the past week we spent part of one day at Book Expo America.  We didn’t go to the conference (it’s expensive and we doubted our small press would benefit enough) but we did visit the exhibit area  where hundreds of exhibitors had set up booths.

I thought I would share some of my thoughts here.  First, I really don’t know who is the target audience for this annual event. Barbra Streisand was the keynote speaker (she has written a book which will be out in the fall).  Throughout the hall various celebrities were  autographing their latest books.  (I never did find out if you had to own the book and bring it with you or if they were available for sale on the floor.) The large publishers and various large distributors had large booths.  Along the periphery were smaller/mid-size publishers, basically sitting alone. 

To be allowed into the exhibition hall, you just had to fill out a simple form and pay a fee. Never having been before, we felt it was time we checked it out.  What did we learn? Basically, it was a chance for us to talk one on one with various companies that provided services pertaining to e-books (that’s really why we went — this is a topic we know is changing all the time).

My thoughts — Barnes & Noble wants to have as big a presence online with e-books as they do with regular books.  They are encouraging small presses such as ours to sign up and be able to upload content on your own.  That’s what we did with the Kindle and it seems to be working out quite well. B&N’s system will be up and running by the end of the summer and I’m sure we’ll have a presence there. Apple, for their iPad, and Sony for their e-reader seem less interested in dealing with small presses.  It isn’t that you can’t get your content in their stores, it’s just that they make it a bit harder (using a middleman to get your content online, etc.). 

Another thought I had as we wandered the aisles and look around is that the hardware is far more advanced than what anyone right now is capable of really making use of.  When the suppliers of content catch up, it will be a whole new world again.  I can hardly wait to see what the next few years have in store — how different will ‘reading’ be and will we take advantage of all the powerful technology that’s just on the horizon.

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Plays and Playwrights 2010 Launch Was Fantastic

April 27, 2010

Last Monday NYTE hosted the Book Launch for Plays and Playwrights 2010 at Dixon Place.  It was absolutely the greatest.

Have to thank Ellie and Leslie and all the folks at Dixon Place that made this possible.  So many guests told me they had not had a chance to visit the new Dixon Place and now that they were here they were sure to come back and tell their friends.  The facilities are great — warm and inviting and the staff even more so.

The place was packed and the readings and the q&a and the after party/book signing went off without a hitch.  Heard so many positive things about the playwrights, the excerpts, the actors.  Just a grand time had by all.

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Interview with Martin Denton

April 5, 2010

Tim Cusack, a very talented actor and director (also co-artistic director of Theatre Askew) is a wonderful supporter of our publishing program.  And he writes a column for stage-directions.com.  He met with Martin Denton, editor of all our books, for a chat.  The article Tim wrote has just been published in stage-directions.

Martin talks about the origins of our publishing program and about our newest anthology, Plays and Playwrights 2010. 

Many thanks to Tim.  Do read the whole article and look for Tim who will be directing a new piece in the near future. 
And there’s a special discount on Plays and Playwrights 2010 if you order before April 30.

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Why a Kindle

March 31, 2010

Since we published Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium – the e-book some folks have asked why we went with the Kindle format.  So here’s a bit  of our reasoning.

We believe that Amazon’s Kindle is the only secure source of ebook publishing for a small press.  We are not affiliated with any publishing house.  We do it all ourselves.  So when we decided to publish an ebook, it had to be something we could do in-house.  Kindle (especially if you already sell on Amazon) is a snap to use.  We were able to format the book without too much trouble and were able to get it up in the Kindle store and begin getting some sales almost immediately.

We did extensive research into ebooks and learned a lot.  There are lots of online sources where one could sell an ebook but they vary from not too secure to too complex to use to not being known to a wide audience.  Kindle had none of those drawbacks. 

Kindle made it easy for people to use.  You don’t have to buy any special reader.  Right on the Kindle store you can download a free kindle app to your iPhone, Blackberry, PC, and Mac.  Then you can just purchase your e-book and read it on any or all of these devices.  No extra expense. 

We are still researching other methods of distributing our e-book . As of today as far as I know,  small presses are not able to participate in the specialized bookstores for Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the new Sony Reader and the iPad.  We are looking into it and will report back as soon as we know more.

In the meantime, check out our first e-book.  It has wonderful monologues for auditions, great new short plays to work with (that’s our Bonus Materials) and, of course the original plays we published in 2000.  You can download a free sample before you commit.

Let me know what you think.

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Now on NYTE Small Press website

February 24, 2010

Our new venture into e-book publishing is now part of the NYTE Small Press website. 

Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium – the e-book has its own page.  Read the short blurbs about all the plays and a bit about the playwrights.  As Bonus Material you will find included four short plays never before published and two short excerpts from longer works. 

There’s a second page that we’ve called the Plays and Playwrights album.  Quotes from each of the playwrights and some really interesting photos.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Welcome to the new Plays and Playwrights Blog

February 21, 2010

I have been blogging for better than a year.  It’s been lots of fun.  Now it’s time for a slight upgrade and a few changes. 

The first change you can easily see — the blog looks different and has a nice neat feel to it.  Hope you like it.

Next change is I have added some permanent pages to the blog.  The first one tells you about NYTE Small Press and the other page is an overview on how you can buy our books. 

Going forward I will continue to keep you updated on our books and any new projects NYTE Small Press may undertake.  I will also use the blog to continue keeping you updated on the doings of the playwrights we have published. 

In addition I am adding to the blog calls for play submissions and like information from around the country and the world.  Formerly these were listed on nytheatre.com’s buzz page but we feel they will reach interested people quicker here on the blog.

Comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading.

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Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium Is Now an E-BOOK

February 9, 2010

Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium is back and it’s an e-book!

Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium is the first book in our Plays and Playwrights series — the book that started it all. We published it in 2000 and by 2004 it was out of print — 2000 copies sold and the beginning of a whole new trend in publishing.

Since it went out of print, we have gotten so many requests for this book — we’ve even seen it advertised on ebay for over $100!

So I am very excited to announce that the book is now available in electronic form — our first foray in the world of the e-book.

The link to Amazon’s Kindle Store is here.

And now you can read the original scripts of Midnight Brainwash Revival by Kirk Wood Bromley, When Words Fail… by David Dannenfelser, Making Peter Pope by Edmund De Santis, Crunching Numbers by Lynn Marie Macy, “So, I Killed a Few People” by Gary Rudoren and David Summers, Cafe Society by Robert Simonson, and Are We There Yet? by Garth Wingfield.

Yes, they are all back Plus the original Preface and Introduction by Martin Denton, along with a brand new Preface to the E-book. And there’s more — four brand new 10-minute plays, an excerpt from Bromley’s new play, and an excerpt from the screenplay Archie Nunn Killed a Few People.

How do you get the books? If you own a Kindle, it’s no problem, click on this link and it will be downloaded to your Kindle in less than a minute. You can download a FREE kindle app to your iphone, your blackberry, etc, even to your PC and you can then download a copy of the book.

We hope many of you will take this opportunity to check out our very first e-book. Let us hear from you with your thoughts.

This is a great way to have audition monologues handy.

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