Judges of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards
The judges of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards are all actively involved in the indie book publishing industry, and range from literary agents to editors. The judges also include publishing executives, book reviewers, writing teachers, successful published authors, and experts in the various areas of judging including book design.
While a number of judges prefer to remain anonymous, we are pleased to introduce the following judges for the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards:
derek beaulieu’s six books of poetry all engage with textual production and the way that composition informs comprehension. His first book, with wax, was published by Coach House Books in 2003, and was followed-up by frogments from the frag pool: haiku after Basho (Mercury Press, 2005) co-written with Gary Barwin and fractal economies (Talonbooks) in 2006. His most recent book is Local Colour (ntamo, 2008). beaulieu has been editor of filling Station (1998-2001, 2004-2008), dANDelion (2001-2004) and endNote (2000-2002) magazines. His small press housepress (1997-2004) published over 250 publications and is now archived, in its entirety, at Simon Fraser University. He has lectured about small press, community and poetics in Canada, the US, Scandanavia and the UK, and has been published by over 100 journals world-wide. He uses no capital letters in his name and many of his books.
C. Hope Clark (Hope) is editor of FundsforWriters.com, a well-known writer's reference that reaches over 22,000 readers weekly with grants, markets and motivational editorials that generate stacks of thank-you notes from readers. Writer's Digest Magazine voted FundsforWriters one of the 101 Best Web Sites for Writers for 2001 through 2008, eight straight years, and it is being considered again for the 2009 list. The four FundsforWriters newsletters cover all levels of writers, from teens to novices to professionals, and the readership ranges from stay-at-home moms to Harvard professors and award-winning mystery authors. Hope’s dozen ebooks are rapid sellers ranging from Grants for the Serious Writer to Short & Sweet; Markets for Fillers. Hope has published in many magazines including Writer's Digest, The Writer Magazine, ByLine Magazine, Next Step Magazine, College Bound Teen, TURF Magazine, Landscape Management and several Chicken Soup books. The Shy Writer is a nonfiction paperback she penned to aid writers like her who have difficulty appearing in public. Published in 2004 and reissued in 2007, it continues to sell. By night, Hope writes her mystery novels, centered in the agricultural South, where she grew her roots. She lives on the banks of Lake Murray, in South Carolina.
Peter Cyngot has worked as an art director/designer/photographer for agencies, companies and on a freelance basis for more years than he is willing to admit. His experience covers the full gamut of communication design, specializing in print. He teaches classes in basic design principles, and has been involved in publishing from the beginning of his career.
Gareth Esersky is an agent, editor, reviewer and author. Formerly an editor at major trade publishing houses, she has been affiliated with the Carol Mann Literary Agency since 1993. Gareth is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly and online, she has co-authored three nonfiction books, and currently serves on the advisory board for the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College, her alma mater. She has worked in the publishing industry for thirty years. The mother of three, she lives in Forest Hills, New York and Southern Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
At age 22, Tag Goulet self-published Sell Yourself!, a book recommended "for all libraries" by a review in the journal of the Canadian Library Association. Over the next decade, Tag taught seminars on book publishing in a dozen cities and served as a book publishing consultant for scores of authors, self-publishers and independent book publishers. She was managing editor of Calgary - A Year in Focus, the official gift book for dignitaries attending the 1988 Winter Olympics, and author of Recipe for Success, a CD-ROM distributed in 65 countries. In 1999, she co-founded FabJob, an award-winning book publishing company whose website, FabJob.com, was named "the #1 place to get published online" by Writer's Digest. In addition to managing FabJob’s editorial department, Tag continues to write for other publishers of all sizes. She has contributed to a variety of books including: The Canadian Writer’s Guide (the official handbook of the Canadian Authors Association), a USA Today best-seller published by Simon & Schuster, and books published by divisions of Random House and Penguin Group (USA).
April L. Hamilton is an author, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, leading advocate and speaker for the indie author movement, and founder of Publetariat.com, the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints. In her popular self-published reference book, The Indie Author Guide, she offers aspiring self-published authors a roadmap to publishing success. She is also the author of novels available in both ebook and POD form. As a former software engineer and web developer of 15 years, April enjoys immersing herself in ebook, Print on Demand and other emerging publishing technologies for self-published authors.
John M. McDougall has been working in the publishing industry for nearly a decade. He has worked both in an editorial capacity as well as in an operational role including acquisitions and distribution. John is a published poet and an avid reader of historical non-fiction; a hobby he developed following his college years when he studied history with an emphasis on comparative religion.
Brenna Pearce has worked in the publishing industry for several years and is now working as the Senior Editor for an award-winning independent publishing company. Brenna has written or contributed to dozens of career guides, and is the author of Brother Rabbit: The Road to Constantinople, a novel set during the opening years of the First Crusade, to be published in 2009. Her many other interests include backyard astronomy, organic gardening, genealogy, and music. Brenna has degrees in both medieval history and education.
Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the innovative Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Red Hot Internet Publicity which has been called the "leading guide to everything Internet". AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, micro-blogs, blogs, book videos, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book's topic, positioning the author in his or her market. AME has had eight recent books top the bestseller lists including New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. Red Hot Internet Publicity was just sold to Sourcebooks with a planned re-release in Fall 2009. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com.
Sheila Seifert has over 1,000 freelance sales, has authored/co-authored twenty books, and teaches English (writing and literature) for various local colleges in Colorado. Of those books, six are children's novels. She co-wrote the FabJob Guide to Become a Children's Book Author and her first script for young children was produced on PBS in 2006. She is currently the managing editor of a large parenting magazine with a readership of two million. In her free time, she writes curricula for children's books. Links to her free study guides for over 80 second grade books can be found on her Web site at http://home.rmi.net/~seifert/id55.html.
If you are interested in being a judge for the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, please contact us at info@indiebookawards.com.