The mission of the Educational Book and Media Association is to foster a unique community that brings together a wide range of wholesalers and publishers in order to address the ever changing book & media buying needs of the educational marketplace.
Letter from the President
Registration is openfor the 43rd Annual Meeting! The 2018 theme "Back to Basics" will take attendees back to school on the current state of funding, resources, and the needs of content users in schools and libraries.
The upcoming Meeting, scheduled from January 8-11, will be held in the beautiful city of Indian Wells, just outside of Palm Springs, California. The registration deadline is November 17th, just a few weeks away. So don't delay!
Plans are being finalized by the 2018 co-chairs Diane Mangan, of Baker & Taylor, and Megan Bencivenni Quinn, of Charlesbridge Publishing. They have collaborated on and organized the program, scheduling key speakers and authors to support this compelling theme.
2018's program will update attendees on trends in education and education standards and give perspective on how the new administration and budgets are projected to affect schools and libraries in the next 12 to 24 months. It will also address the "new normal" of staff shortages, political agendas and shifting curriculum and funding sources shaping purchases for classroom, and how publishers and wholesalers can work together to connect end users (and content consumers) with quality new resources.
The EBMA Board is looking forward to conducting one of our best meetings so far, and hope that you'll be part of it.
Kind Regards,
Jill Faherty President, EBMA Director of Children's and Teen Services, Baker & Taylor jillfaherty@gmail.com
2018 Annual Meeting | Registration Open
EBMA is headed to Palm Springs, California for the 2018 Annual Meeting! The 43rd Annual Meeting will be held January 8-11 at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort and Spa.
The Program Co-Chairs, Diane Mangan of Baker and Taylor and Megan Bencivenni Quinn of Charlesbridge Publishing have announced the 2018 meeting theme, Back to Basics: Going back to school on the current state of funding, resources, and the needs of content users in schools and libraries. 2018's program will update attendees on trends in education and education standards and give perspective on how the new administration and budgets are projected to affect schools and libraries in the next 12 to 24 months. It will also address the "new normal" of staff shortages, political agendas and shifting curriculum and funding sources shaping purchases for classroom, and how publishers and wholesalers can work together to connect end users (and content consumers) with quality new resources.
Registration is open. The deadline to register, book hotel rooms and submit a profile form is November 17th. If you have questions regarding the meeting, please email meeting@edupaperback.org or call 540-318-7770.
At the September Board Meeting, the EBMA Board of Directors approved applications for the following organizations - we look forward to meeting these new members at the annual meeting!
Member applications are now being considered for the 2018-2019 membership year. If you have a wholesaler or publisher contact that you would like us to reach out to regarding membership in EBMA, please forward their information to Brian Gorg at info@edupaperback.org. You may also refer them to the member applications found on the EBMA website.
Industry News
Industry & Professional News:
Teacher Created Materials Marks Its 40th Anniversary with a Year-Long Celebration Devoted to Teachers
Teacher Created Materials (TCM), a leading educational publisher, is celebrating 40 years in the business of providing products and services to teachers and students. To mark this anniversary, TCM will launch an exciting year-long, national program with weekly and monthly events to celebrate and honor teachers everywhere who make the magic of learning happen in the classroom every day. "The success of our company is in great part due to the hundreds of thousands of teachers who believe in and use our products. Celebrating our 40th is all about honoring and thanking these teachers who, like us, are dedicated to 'creating a world in which children love to learn,'" said Rachelle Cracchiolo, CEO and Founder of Teacher Created Materials.
New York State Education Department leaders have approved a new set of reading and math expectations for students, moving the state a step away from the Common Core State Standards. Read more from the Education Week article here
.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade is excited to announce the hiring of
Frank Radell as a sales representative in the National Accounts division focusing on educational distributors and wholesalers. Frank previously worked at Norwood House Press for 10 years helping grow their educational sales.
Committee Updates
BISG Committee Update
The BISG Committee has been working more closely with BISG to determine how best we can work together and bring forward the interests and needs of the EBMA membership, and therefore those of the educational channel. The Committee has identified that the main goal is to push for BISG's BISAC group to include more specific offerings of subject headings for Children's and YA to be added into the 2018 edition. There are currently not nearly enough to meet the demands of our publishers and customers.
To better identify and determine what areas and subject headings are needed, we are
sharing a surveywith the EBMA membership and ask that you please take a few minutes to fill it out, as well as, share this with your editorial and marketing colleagues at your company, so we can gather as much feedback as possible. We will then collect and share with BISG the information that your companies would like added to the Children's and YA subject headings, that is needed to better serve the educational community. All survey responses to be completed and submitted by 11/03/17.
Also, going forward all BISG Webinar Invitations that are relevant and open and free for participation will be shared with the EBMA membership, along with instructions for signing up. Upcoming webinars of note:
November 7 Subject Codes: 2017 BISAC update
January 16 Users Guide to BISG
SPECIAL Discounted BISG membership offer for NEW corporate members
The BISG Committee is pleased to let our EBMA members know that we have negotiated a special discounted rate on the BISG membership annual fee, available for all new corporate businesses who have never previously had a BISG membership. BISG will offer a new member discount rate reduction: 2/3 off the first year, 1/3 off the second. Please contact Brian O'Leary at brian@bisg.org for more information.
Why is a membership in BISG of value?
"Our committees and working groups provide all of our members with an opportunity to shape the conversation about where book publishing is headed. Each group meets regularly to discuss issues that member companies bring to our attention. The 2017 agenda for each committee is featured on the BISG web site. There, you'll find a practical list of priorities, but that list can be reshaped to address your own pain points." - Brian O'Leary
BISG membership includes:
Unlimited access to twice-a-month webinars addressing supply-chain pain points; six in-person programs tackling issues that include 'The business of rights', 'Care and feeding of libraries', and 'The business of returns'; and reduced-rate admission to three day-long events exploring topics like 'Getting more content to more readers' and our annual 'State of the supply chain' meeting. We also provide members free or deeply discounted access to all BISG reports, guides and best-practices documents, and all BISG members can download resources like the current BISAC subject headings without charge.
Webinar Committee Update
On Wednesday, July 26th, we held our second educational webinar presentation: Better Match Beginning Readers to Texts with the new Lexile Enhancements.
MetaMetrics' co-founder, Dr. Malbert Smith III, and his colleagues Joe Sipper and Emily Weller, shared the research behind their initiative to develop new measurements of text complexity for content used in K-2 classrooms, how the new models provide more precise measurement, and the tools available to publishers and wholesalers to access this information.
It was interesting to hear the background on how the new Lexile coding system was developed and the presentation provided an in-depth overview of the importance of reading level codes for the school market as part of a robust metadata system. We had a great turn out for the webinar, with over 44 unique participants, and many more attended as a group with their colleagues. A special thanks to MetaMetrics and all who joined!
But don't worry if you missed it - the webinar is archived on our website and available still to download and watch. We welcome you sharing this webinar with your colleagues!
We are busy working on the next round of educational webinars to share with you, so please be on the lookout for invitations for the following webinars and more!
November 7 - BISG Subject Codes: 2017 BISAC update - An invitation to the BISG webinar offering an update on the committee's recommended changes to the subject codes affecting the latest edition will be shared. EBMA members are all welcome to attend this free webinar.
December 7th - EBMA Annual Conference 2018 Webinar for Attendees: Program Review, How to Get the Most Out of the One-on-Ones, and more.
EBMA is always looking for ways to keep our community informed about the professional activities and personal events of its members. Please email info@edupaperback.org if there have been changes within your company, such as new employees, or if you have press releases that you would like to share with the EBMA membership. EBMA wants to connect at the personal level too, so if you have any notable anniversaries, birth or marriage announcements or other fun events, please let us know those too!
Stay connected to your EBMA connections throughout the year. Join the EBMA LinkedIn group where you can share news, keep yourself informed, and keep in touch. Whether you want to share information with the group or just monitor posts, you're invited to join today.
Highlights of the September 2017 EBMA Board Meeting
The EBMA Board of Directors met at the Annual Meeting for their fall board meeting in Palm Springs, CA. Highlights and outcomes of the meeting included:
The EBMA Board approved 7 new publisher members and 3 new wholesaler members, please see above for member details.
Reviewed and amended Article III, Section 1, paragraphs 3 of the EBMA Bylaws. This amendment clarifies that Publisher Members must be in business for 5 years or longer in order to be considered for membership. To review the amended bylaws, click here.
Discussed the 2018 Annual Meeting; the 2017 Ludington Award, program and theme specifics.
Discussed best ways to utilize BISG membership and disseminate information to EBMA members.
If you have questions about the work of the board or updates, please contact info@edupaperback.org.
