Not a pipe publishing Ink-corporated, LLC
Independence, Oregon
Too much good stuff!
We're going to have to take a short break from accepting submissions because we've received so many excellent ones to consider. Unless we asked you to send us your query, please give us a little time to catch up, and come back to see when we're opening up the mailbox again. Follow us @notapipepub or on Facebook (here) to stay up-to-date regarding our availability!
Not a Pipe Publishing is excited to announce that we've signed author Sang Kromah's forthcoming YA novel The Book of the Concealed, which will be available fall of this year.
Author Sang Kromah
Sang Kromah was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in the sleepy suburb of Sykesville, Maryland, the setting of her debut novel. As a child, Kromah would sit in the living room with her brother and listen to her parents recount the fairy tales of their native land of Liberia, absorbing in the words and pictures. Born a storyteller, Kromah would run away with the tales, creating her own versions of the stories for her younger brother.
While her peers were playing Super Nintendo, she was busy being "Harriet the Spy". She was first introduced to the book in the second grade, and from then on, it was her Holy Grail. She would spy on her family and neighbors, writing the things she had observed in her leather-bound journal; making comments, and notes on the subtle things they did that no one else would notice. She had the ability to pinpoint quirks that made them stand out; those little character traits that set them apart from others. And from her notes, many of her stories were born.
Some people experience fulfillment singularly through their own personal growth, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But for Sang, fulfillment is achieved when the playing field is leveled by providing opportunities for growth for the underdogs or those who are, often times, forgotten. She works as a communications specialist and Executive Director of Resources and Outreach of Liberia (ROL), a registered US-based nonprofit organization that bridges the gap between Liberia's under-resourced education and health sectors by creating sustainable opportunities. For the last four years, she’s divided her time between New York, Baltimore, and Monrovia, Liberia, spearheading projects like Project READ (Restoration Education And Development), an initiative with a goal of creating safe places in Liberia for girls. These will be places that employ girls with growth and leadership opportunities. Project READ’s first project is to open a girls' drop-in center and a public library.
Project READ has acquired well over 40,000 books for their library so far, was featured in The Huffington Post, their progress was featured on Baltimore's ABC2 News in December 2015, is a recent grantee of a seed grant from The Pollination Project, and a recent grantee of 4imprint’s Onebyone Products Grant. Project READ is fighting to end the epidemic of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against girls in Liberia by turning victims into survivors and implementing programs that will help prevent the victimization of at-risk girls. Through a full library of books, one on one counseling, arts programs, weekly group discussions and activities, daily tutoring, career training, community outreach projects, and a place to stay during times of emergencies, Project READ will give girls wings to soar. Last year, Kromah also launched a global social change initiative, Project GirlSpire, with a mission of passing on empowerment from girl to girl, nation to nation. Project GirlSpire is putting together an anthology of short stories written by women and girls to inspire girls globally.
Check out the cool back cover and get your copy here: http://bit.ly/chs2nd
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2016
St. Augustine, FL – Not a Pipe Publishing, a company in Independence, Oregon, has announced that local artist Anna Martin of St. Augustine has won their contest to create a new cover for the second edition of the novel Corporate High School. It’s now available on Amazon in print and eBook and will be available at Barnes and Noble in print and for Nook soon.
Anna Martin is a digital artist, writer and photographer based out of St Augustine, Florida. She is an avid explorer and much of her artwork is inspired by her travels and life experiences, and she strives to capture emotions and inspire others with her work. Her work has been previously exhibited in various galleries and museums, such as the Rosenberg Gallery, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Anna also frequently works under the pseudonym Vacantia, and more of her art can be found at http://www.vacantia.org.
Corporate High School is an Amazon bestselling young-adult novel depicting a dystopian future in which a single corporation has taken over the world by replacing all the schools with its own. The author, Benjamin Gorman, is a high school teacher who wanted to get young people involved in the fight to save their schools from corporate reform efforts. “The original cover showed this very ominous image of a boxy corporate building. I think people could have mistaken the book for a horror novel. Anna Martin’s cover is great because it shows the protagonist, Harriet, or at least her eyes, and Anna laid out the images and title in this very striking way. I think it will grab more readers’ attention and give them a clearer sense of the book’s world.”
In the future, Martin hopes to continue to travel and expand her creativity. She is also looking to continue to do any freelance work and projects with other artists, and volunteer in her city as a photographer or in other artistic endeavors. Martin is also looking to continue to expose her work around the world by participating in exhibits and contributing work to small art magazines.
For more information, contact Not a Pipe Publishing at:
Not a Pipe Publishing
Besides trying to be good global citizens by doing things like accepting Kamila Shamsie's challenge to make 2018 The Year of Publishing Women, Not a Pipe Publishing attempts to be a good citizen of our local community, too. (Actually, we don't believe companies are people no matter what the Supreme Court thinks, but Not a Pipe is owned and operated by people who are trying to do right by the world.) In that vein, we've signed on a business sponsor of the A Better Oregon campaign. You can learn all about the campaign here, but the short version is that the coalition is attempting to get an initiative on the ballot to make a slight adjustment to the corporate tax rate so that businesses that make more than $25 million in the state of Oregon will have to pay a small corporate tax on any profits after that initial $25 million dollars. The proceeds will go to help fund needed services like education for Oregon's children and services for the elderly who are living in poverty. It's true that Not a Pipe Publishing won't be hit by this tax. We're not making $25 million anywhere, let alone in the state of Oregon. But if we did, we'd like to think that we would continue to support making our home state the best possible place to live. We encourage everyone to sign the petition to get IP 28 on the ballot for this fall's election and then vote to make this tiny change in the tax law (taking us from the state with the lowest corporate tax rate in the nation all the way up to the fourth or fifth lowest) to improve the lives of millions of Oregonians.
Oh, and if you think we'd be singing a different tune if we made $25 million in sales in Oregon per year, we encourage you to purchase 20 million copies of our books to really put us to the test!
This morning, co-publishers Paige and Benjamin Gorman were featured on Portland's Fox 12's More Good Day Oregon, in a report by Jenica Villamor, talking about accepting the Shamsie Challenge to only publish the works of female authors in 2018. Check it out!
...especially the ones who want to submit to Not a Pipe Publishing.
First, let’s stipulate that it is a marvelous time to be a writer. All kind of walls are crumbling. We can create online communities with writers around the world, follow and interact with our literary heroes on twitter, circumvent the traditional publishing structure (or weave in and out as it suits us), and take advantage of lowering barriers of entry in other media to get our writing more easily turned into audiobooks, indie films, graphic novels, and more. Writing is flourishing within genres, too. It’s tempting to think all the rules can suddenly be broken.
But they can’t. So please, as you head off to that writer’s conference or polish that query letter, save yourself from a tiny bit of embarrassment and save me from having an embolism... (Continued here.)
Here's the press release:
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2016
Independence, Oregon – Not a Pipe Publishing, a small independent publishing company headquartered, fittingly, in Independence, Oregon, has accepted Kamila Shamsie’s challenge to only publish the works of female authors in 2018.
In June of 2015, novelist Kamila Shamsie challenged the publishing companies of the world to only publish female authors for a single year, 2018. “Last year a number of readers, critics and at least one literary journal… signed up to a ‘Year of Reading Women’,” Shamsie wrote. “Why not take it a step further? Why not have a Year of Publishing Women: 2018, the centenary of women over the age of 30 getting the vote in the UK, seems appropriate.”
So far, few publishers have accepted the challenge, notably And Other Stories in the UK. Paige and Benjamin Gorman, the co-owners and publishers of Not a Pipe Publishing, wanted to bring the Year of Publishing Women to the United States. “I think the idea of a year of publishing women is exciting!” Paige Gorman said.
“Yes, it is a publicity stunt for us. It’s also something we believe in,” Benjamin added. “As a feminist, I’m very concerned about the vitriolic misogyny is see growing in our culture. As a man, I can speak out against it, but it’s more important for women’s voices to be heard.”
Paige Gorman agrees. “It’s also just good business. We believe there are plenty of great female authors out there who deserve to be read. If our company is going to grow, we will need the voices of women as well as men.”
Not a Pipe has only published two novels, both by Benjamin Gorman (The Sum of Our Gods and Corporate High School), but it is starting to take submissions online and will hear pitches at this summer’s Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon because the Gormans plan to put out a larger number of novels as the business grows. “We hope a lot of people will send us their manuscripts,” Paige Gorman said. “Women, men, people of color, people of various faiths and nationalities -- anyone who wants their voice heard. Relationship is so important, and we want to start building some great relationships. But in 2018, we’re not publishing anything by men. Including my husband!”
Authors can submit to Not a Pipe Publishing through the company’s website: notapipepublishing.com
For more information, contact Not a Pipe Publishing at:
Not a Pipe Publishing
notapipepublishing@gmail.com
To schedule an interview, contact the publishers directly at:
Paige and Benjamin Gorman
notapipepublishing@gmail.com
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