Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Pace Publishing Company and the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company
Posted by: lain // Category: Baby Pictures, Birds of a feather, Historic Preservation, Marketing Tricks, Shameless Promotion, Storytelling, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:49 am
This morning I gave a talk at my high school about the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company.
I was a little nervous. I’ve never spoken in front of that big an audience before. Plus, they were way outside my usual target demographic (namely: Stately Dames, ages 72 - 86).
To make the Wren’s Nest a little more relevant to the students of Pace Academy, I brought out the big guns. My published works from the Pace Publishing Company, circa 1989, were included in the presentation.
I’ve included one of the better works below. Enjoy.
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(The End)
If this does not inspire students to contribute to the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company, I do not know what will.
Comments: 1We Survived the Decatur Book Festival
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Events, Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 9:39 am
…and all you get is a lousy blog post.
No really. This is gonna be kinda lousy.
(Behold our lousiness! Also, hi Vernacular Editors. How many more times will I be able to embarrass you?)
You see, dear reader, Lain and I just finished being pooped from the festival, which means it’s time to play catch up. We’ve got some big things poppin’ this month, and we’ve got to spread the word.
In the meantime, check out our pictures from the festival, complete with Lain’s best attempt at witty captions (I kid, I kid– they weren’t even attempts) on our facebook page. For the record, you don’t need a facebook account to see them, but please let us know if you have any problems viewing those beauties.
Comments: 2The Decatur Book Festival: Our Shortcomings and Our Triumphs
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Shameless Promotion, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 1:27 pm
As you all hopefully know, the Decatur Book Festival is this weekend. First and foremost, yippee!
Just as in the past two years, the Wren’s Nest will have a booth at the Festival, so you should totally drop by. I believe we’ll be by Church St. on Ponce de Leon. Our booth will be the white one.
Last year Lain drank beer while making Outdoorsman Matt do all the talking.
Things should be similar this year.
Also similar to last year: we will be selling the product of The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.’s hard work. This year it’s called Vernacular.
(Note: This outstanding cover was done by a whippersnapper named Zach who totally needs work. Interested? Email him here: zach@craftymice.com)
To review, Vernacular:
- is comprised totally of artwork and written pieces by Atlanta-area teenagers
- was edited fully by six teenagers who worked on the journal throughout the summer
- is the only publication created by and for the Decatur Book Festival
- sells for $5, and 100% of proceeds go to ensuring we can do the program in 2009
- is totally awesome, and buying it counts as your good deed for the day
So far so good, right? We’ve got a booth on a street everyone can find, our literary magazine came together beautifully, and you’re coming by to say hello and buy things. What could be better?
Well, it would be nice if we had books to sell at the book festival.
Due to our immense and overwhelming popularity (and some guy named Joel Chandler Harris), we’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping some of our most popular books in stock. It seems like we’re ordering them every few days, yet we’re constantly running out.
The worst culprit is this guy:
(This may literally be the last copy we have.)
We’ve currently got about a million copies back-ordered, but we’re not sure if they’ll make it in time for the festival. Cross your fingers for us!
Comments: 2Wren’s Nest Publishing Company Rolls Up Sleeves
Posted by: lain // Category: Decatur Book Festival, Good Questions, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 9:48 am
Our crack team of high school publishers has until Saturday before their book, Vernacular, is sent off to the printer. It’s crunch time.
You may recall that these guys visited the AJC and Paste Magazine this summer to get a taste for the publishing industry.
Lately, the publishers at the Duck and Herring Company have been over here to help with the nitty-gritty / give the tough love needed to get Vernacular to the printer on time.
To date everything has been edited, looks good, and is just about ready to go.
We’ve even got a cover.
Cool, no? We have our design man, Zach, to thank, as well as his desperation– we love padding portfolios! This is the second-to-last draft, and I think the final version will not have the small pink words underneath the title.
One disappointment is that this year’s book will be smaller than last year’s. We simply didn’t receive all that many submissions.
Possible reasons–
- The staff of the Wren’s Nest did not do a good job of hyping this project to schools.
- The editors of Vernacular do not have as many friends as the editors last year.
- The quality of last year’s publication, Soy Nut Butter, wasn’t high enough to inspire many kids.
- The Wren’s Nest Publishing Company meets in the summer.
I’m betting on #2… with a dash of #4.
Comments: 2Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. Visits the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Atlanta, Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Storytelling, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:14 am
Welp, the title pretty much says it all.
Let’s do it this way:
- Who: five of our six student editors from the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co., hangers-on.
- What: a tour of the AJC, followed by a brief tutorial in inDesign.
(Nancy, our lovely tour guide.)
- Where: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dummy.
- When: why, just yesterday.
- Why: um, because field trips are awesome, obviously.
- How: We’ve got connections you wouldn’t believe. Actually, you probably would. Tom did it.
So all in all, a great day for our little program.
Though we have set a new goal for the Editors as result of our adventures: when asked things like “Where are you all from?”, ideal answers include things like “The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.” or “A publishing program that’s a partnership between the Decatur Book Festival and The Wren’s Nest House Museum”.
Yesterday’s choice, looking at feet, was only okay.
Reminder: know any writers or artists between the ages of 12 and 18?
Get them to submit their work to submissions@wrensnestonline.com before July 20th! Man alive, they could be published by summer’s end!
Comments: 3The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. Visits Paste
Posted by: Amelia // Category: High School Hijinx, Shirking Responsibility, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:46 am
Did we mention that the 2008 Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. has officially begun? Probably not, because it did so the day before Wren’s Nest Fest, which erased 40% of my brain.
But! We’re now in the swing of things, with 6 great student editors and three meetings under our collective belt, the most recent of which was a trip to Paste Magazine.
(Three of our Editors.)
Josh Jackson, the Editor-in-Chief, was kind enough to show us around and answer everyone’s questions and generally be way more gracious than he needed to be.
We accidentally interrupted steadfast work in the Metaleap Design studio.
Somehow they were able to regain their composure in order to attend to our highly impatient group. Harumph!
Jose Reyes, Design Director, spent a good chunk of time generally being awesome and giving a side-by-side comparison of the magazine’s relatively new layout versus the old.
It was super neat to go from being like, “I swear, Paste looks different this month!” to learning the specific objectives achieved by the change and why they were chosen.
In short, it was a great trip to a great magazine with a great and kind staff. As usual, we felt lucky to be people who know people.
So thanks to everyone at Paste for guaranteeing the Editors have at least one good thing to say about the program.
(More posts about the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. (both 2008 and 2007) here, here, here, and here. And here.)
Comments: 1Duck and Herring Company Podcast, Sponsored by the Wren’s Nest
Posted by: lain // Category: Birds of a feather, Birds other than wrens, Sing Songery, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 3:12 pm
I got an email yesterday from the good folks at the Duck and Herring Company regarding their warm weather podcast.
You may recall that the Duck and Herring Company:
- helped out with the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company last summer
- recorded our theme song
Regarding the latter, I failed to ask them why exactly they recorded our theme song.
I mean, why wouldn’t they record our theme song? Or anyone, for that matter! In fact, I’m kinda surprised we don’t have more people sending us theme songs.
Anyway, turns out that the Wren’s Nest is the official sponsor of the Duck and Herring Company Podcast. Unrelated, turns out that the Duck and Herring Company Podcast is awesome.
What a coincidence!
Check out the entire podcast here: Duck and Herring Company Podcast.
Comments: 0Update on the Art Block Summer Camp
Posted by: lain // Category: Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, Shirking Responsibility, Transparency, West End, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 12:14 pm
A few weeks back we discussed the Art Block–the summer camp for middle schoolers we’re hosting right now–and how nobody had signed up.
Well, I’m pleased to say that we had seventeen kids sign up at the eleventh hour. Way to be, us.
Unfortunately, the kids are no longer writing their play at the Wren’s Nest as previously planned. Uh oh.
Instead, they’ll be creating the play entirely at Hammonds House and the West End Performing Arts Center (home of Fly-By Theatre) right down the street.
There are two reasons for this, and they’re certainly related:
1. Our professional writers disappeared faster than the drummers of Spinal Tap.
2. The other artistic professionals who took over the writing component deemed our workspace too “depressing,” our dining room too “cramped,” and our outside too “hot.”
Had we been able to provide a writer, the theater people would have been spared the horror of our venue.
And while it’s our own fault for not anchoring down a writer, I think it would have been irresponsible for us to involve a contract when the Art Block may or may not have had campers. I wouldn’t have wanted to explain to our accountant how we just paid someone, say, $2,000 because s/he woulda taught a camp for us, except we couldn’t come up with any campers. Oops!
Frankly, we’re not too upset about our lack of involvement.
After all, the camp is indeed happening, plus it’s a lot less work for us and a lot less wear and tear on the house. No doubt the kids will put on a great show without our help–
In the meantime, I’m happy to get on with the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company. It’s more exciting for me…which is what counts. Who did you think we were doing this for, the children?
Comments: 0Ding! Publishing Round Two
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:56 am
You may recall the awesomeness that was last year’s Wren’s Nest Publishing Co., our summer publishing workshop/camp for high school students. If you’re someone we like, you also probably own a copy of the fruits of our labors, Soy Nut Butter: Nutritious, Delicious, Fictitious. Good work on that.
However, we realize that some (many) of you probably missed out, judging from the copious copies of Soy Nut Butter we’ve retained. (Note: it’s easy to remedy that!)
Maybe you just didn’t get your hands on a copy or missed our literary salon at the Decatur Book Festival. But maybe, just maybe, you are a driven high school student who wants nothing more than to devote your summer to creating, editing, and contributing to a literary magazine.
Buddy, have we got an offer for you. We’re going for Round Two!
(Three of last year’s editors, hawking their wares at the book festival.)
While this year’s ball has just begun rolling, it’s rolling big time. Packets with info and a copy of SNB have been sent to EVERY high school English department head in the Atlanta area. Some of them were even lucky enough to receive a note from Lain and me, asking them to pester their SNB-alum students for details.
But they’re not the only ones who should be pestering! There’s plenty of opportunity for everyone, whether you’re a parent who wants to dump your teenager on us during the summer, a student who thinks your teacher should have definitely mentioned this opportunity by now, or a professional in the area who wants to teach these punks a thing or two about how it’s really done.
(With an eye on the clock, apparently.)
For students, all the info you need is right here. There you can find applications to be an all-powerful editor or a contributor. Adults, if you have something to offer (and boy, I hope you do), just let us know through email, comments, etc. We’re pretty easy to reach.
Game on!
Comments: 2