>User Profile > BBooks > All-About-Me

Starting in 2010, I engaged a partner in the used book biz, an avid reader, and "Mme Gata" reviewer on the TimeWell monthly litmag (www.timewell.us), to which you are welcome to subscribe, if you love the classics. Together, we are Cat and Birdie Books (I'm Birdie), or, if you prefer, NearFineBooks.com.  After a hiatus, we're back with more and curiouser titles, including French, German, Russian, Czech. 

Publisher and educator in Santa Barbara. I've been in and around books and publishing for most of my career, including work with Appleton Century, Random House, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Fairchild Publications, Praeger, and 20+ years associated with Black Sparrow Press. Independent publisher since 1975, publishing Bandanna Books for colleges since 1981.

Update 2014: Besides classics for college, I've created the Shakespeare Playbook format for directors, wannabes, and college classes, to allow sketching for every scene, costume, set design, etc., and sections specific for the auditioning, Set Design, Costumery, and most important, the Producer functions (designing the playbill, preparing a realistic budget, creating a publicity campaign, arranging for rehearsal and performance space), plus a sample timeline, Stage Manager, etc. This format is designed for one person (probably the assistant director) to keep track of all the details, the scheduling, right up to opening night). And you thought memorizing lines was hard.
     Another initiative is Beta Books (www.betabooks.us) for would-be authors to produce up to 20 copies of ARC (advanced reading copies) for review, before making the all-important publishing decision: the majors, small press, or self-publish. Free lists of freelance proofreaders, copy editors, critiquers, ghostwriters, illustrators, cover designers, book designers, etc.—all of whom are available for hire. You figure out where you need professonal help, and you make the arrangements. If you just want to share poetry or family history with your family and friends, contact me for details.
    As for my own publishing, Bandanna Books (www.bandannabooks.com) publishes for college courses in literature, usually with modernized American English. Some teacher editions are available. Other publishing, under the Mudborn Press imprint, includes bilingual books, writing and language books, and poetry. In addition, TimeWell (www.timewell.us) is a monthly literary magazine (free) that combines classic excerpts with contemporary stories around a monthly theme (Crime, Infidelity, Youth, Deceit, etc.), plus book reviews, puzzlers, quotes. 
     I have two novels of my own, working on a third, when not busy doing other bookwork. 
     eBid provides an outlet for nearly 3,000 used books, usually older hard to find editions—some signed; most of them hardback books. Plus about 80 titles of my own, including wordbooks for French, Italian, Yiddish, medical, "deadwords." 

SHIPPING: We go with the cheapest rate, unless you have an urgency (class starts in a week, or whatever). If you decide to return a book, it must be in the same condition as when you received it. For the Bandanna Books new or reprint titles, I prefer that you buy them directly from my website, which provides buttons for easy access, and shipping directly from the printer rather than double-shipping. 

I'm especially interested if you are a would-be author. Publishing is undergoing a radical shift, you may have noticed. BetaBooks.us might be just what you need: lists of freelancers for every aspect of publishing, from editing, proofreading, reviewing to illustration, cover design, text design. You hire (or negotiate with) whomever you feel comfortable with.

The truth about publishers is that they hope you have done an adequate job in every aspect, so they don't have to hire someone to do it for you. That includes grammar, talking to a specific audience, having a point that's fresh, or a plot that really works, any legal considerations (quoting a song for instance) are covered, no similar book is already on the market, your material is newsworthy, informative, fascinating, inventive, charming, not derivative; you have the potential for writing sequels or similar books for years to come. In other words, that you're worth betting big money on. 

A publisher can't, and won't rewrite your book. They're in the business of buying and selling. Your business is to entertain or inform. If you both do well, then the process works.