“Who’s That Publisher? You!”
by Georgia I. Hesse
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Although we know that April is supposed to be “the cruellest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land…,” BATW members who attended the April 21st meeting at the new David Brower Center in Berkeley may have found it the coolest month, as well as the most helpful.
Lee Foster’s presentation, Entrepreneurial Travel Publishing, staged in the Goldman Theater of the Center, was a tour de force proving at least three truths: 1—The revolution of ebook travel publishing is here and we should all consider joining that revolution; 2—We all can make better use of our times and abilities in both old and new travel publishing; 3—Lee has found a way of fitting more than 24 hours into a single day-night cycle, a battle fought by everybody from Ovid to Einstein.
Squeezed into almost exactly one hour (Ginny Prior has an admirable talent for squeezing), the program supplied valuable information on major travel book publishers, major magazines, boutique royalty book publishers, independent book publishing, ebooks, website publishing, licensing of content and terms and conditions and their consequences, copyright infringement, apps, selling photography directly, selling photography through agents, and video possibilities.
As almost a throw-away trick-and/or-treat, we also learned from Lee how to “give honest people the opportunity to behave honestly.” Bravo!
The very best way for all members to learn from and participate in Lee’s message is to click on his website – www.fostertravel.com – and then to print out his posts Entrepreneurial Travel Publishing and The Ebook Publishing Revolution. (You can also view his presentation, courtesy of Ed Walsh, on YouTube; see “It’s Your Lucky Day” news item.)
Following the presentation, buffet lunch was served in the foyer of the Center by Gather Restaurant, a tenant and an arm of Back to Earth Organic Catering.
Michael Anzalone of the Center’s staff then took members on a fascinating tour of the Center, focusing on its ingenious in-lobby “dashboard,” where the building will tell you how much energy it produced from rain water last week, among other achievements. You can admire this extraordinary data-teacher on your own computer at www.browercenter.org/building. It’s a site worth, well, browsing.
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In addition to the Brower representatives themselves, Visit Berkeley leaders Barbara Hillman and Dan Marengo (www.visitberkeley.com) earned applause for encouraging us to experience Berkeley on our own. Those of us who wandered across Oxford Street onto the UC campus or visited nearby museums are in their debt.
I hadn’t walked through the doors into UC’s Doe Library for about 40 years, but encountered there that peripatetic paragon of American travel writers, Mark Twain, seated near the entrance, and joined him in a silent – but lively – communion. What a day! Thank you, BATW and Lee Foster!
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