Welcome Madeleine Hannah to Not a Pipe Publishing

Not a Pipe Publishing is excited to announce the arrival of the newest member of the team, Madeleine Hannah. Madeleine is a student at Western Oregon University, and she's starting her career in the publishing industry as our Assistant Submissions Editor and Assistant Marketing Director. 

Madeleine learned to read when she was a toddler and hasn't really stopped since. As a child, she used to annoy her mom by begging for new books and then finishing them on the way home from the bookstore. Now, she frequently spends inordinate amounts of time and money at local used book shops. She enjoys nearly all genres, especially fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery stories like the ones she read as a child. 

When not nose-deep in a book, Madeleine likes hiking, taking road trips, and generally exploring her new home in the Pacific Northwest. Originally from Georgia, Madeleine has declared Oregon her favorite state and intends to stick around.

Please welcome her to the team; when we re-open submissions later this year, she may be the one reading your manuscript!

Jason Brick: Remember the Tooth Fairy?

We were all born without teeth. We didn’t need them, and wouldn’t have asked for them if we knew how. Nobody had told us about fresh corn on the cob yet, so we were happy with breast milk.

Eventually, we got teeth through no fault of our own. A few years later, we lost those teeth. We lost most of them because in life you lose those teeth, a few from accidents or a playground fight.

Whenever we lost a tooth, the Tooth Fairy gave us a gift.

It’s the same with the fuck fairy.

We’re all born without fucks. Just look at a baby — that little bundle of joy gives exactly zero fucks. He’ll cry in front of everybody at the mall, and sit for hours in his own shit. Zero fucks.

As you grew up, though, you got a whole bunch of fucks. Your parents started making you give a fuck about rules. Your classmates made you give a fuck about your looks. Later, dating and work supplied a cornucopia of fucks to give about shit that doesn’t really matter.

But here’s the great part.

You can lose those fucks. Some of them you lose because as we grow up our priorities change. Others we lose as we become more confident with ourselves, or from the accidents and struggles that define us as we grow..

When you lose those fucks, thus reducing your total number of fucks given, the fuck fairy comes and gives you gifts.

She gives you the gifts of focus, motivation and clarity. She grants you the gifts of confidence, moxie and chutzpah. When you waste your energy giving fucks about things that aren’t worth a fuck, it saps your strength and fills you with doubt. When you lack spare fucks to give to anything but the most important things in your life, you can give those few remaining fucks the attention they deserve.

Enterprising people can also become enterprising about losing their fucks. You can cultivate an internal culture of giving a fuck about only the things that really deserve your time, energy and attention. For some folks, that happens when other priorities eclipse the little things. Others create this through martial arts training, or dance, or music. For others it's just an organic result of a life well considered and lived. 

Whatever your process for losing fucks has to be, make that process part of your life. Identify what matters most to you and yours, then give all of your fucks to them. Extraneous fucks you can shove under a pillow and smother to death.

You don’t need them anymore.

Jason Brick's novel Wrestling Demons will be available via Not a Pipe Publishing in the spring of 2017. If you'd like more of Jason's writing, get into his Shorts (the short essays he emails out once a week) by signing up HERE. 

Our own Benjamin Gorman was on Literally Literary

After presenting about National Novel writing Month, our own co-publisher and author Benjamin Gorman was on McMinnville, Oregon's television show Literally Literary. Congratulations, Benjamin!

Remember Boromir? Life Advice from Jason Brick

Remember Boromir?

If you don't, he's this guy:

In The Lord of the Rings, Boromir was one of the warriors responsible for taking the ring to Mordor. Along the way, he fights ferociously with a bunch of arrows in him to protect people he loves. The scene in the movie version is the definition of making a desperate effort.

In Forrest E. Morgan's Living the Martial Way, he makes a point about combat and real life. I want to share that point today. It goes like this.

1. If you were fighting for your life, you would make a desperate effort. Everything you had, you'd put into it. Every last thing.

2. That thing you really want to do, the thing that would make a positive change for you: You don't make a desperate effort for that.

3. But you should.

4. Because you're still fighting for your life. Not your ability to breathe, but the life you want to live.

5. So go make a desperate effort to make that thing happen.

It's a way to look at things I hadn't considered, but it made sense immediately to me. Want that book deal? Your relationship to work out? That promotion? Your kids to do well in school? The respect of your mentors and peers?

Go after it like Boromir.

With three arrows in your chest, get the hell up and keep moving forward. Make a desperate effort.

It's your life you're fighting for after all.

-Jason Brick is the author of Wrestling Demons: The Bushido Chronicles, coming out in the spring of 2017 from Not a Pipe Publishing. Find out more about him HERE.

Art Contest for The Digital Storm

Announcing The Digital Storm Art Contest

Media: pencil, charcoal, ink, paint (water color or oil), mixed media, digital art, submitted as high res digital images

Prize: $50

Entry Fee: $0 and .00 cents

Contest closes at midnight, Friday, December 16th.

You can certainly do better than Benjamin Gorman's amateur attempt to depict the computer virus Caliban. 

Benjamin Gorman (author of Corporate High School and The Sum of Our Gods) has been releasing his next novel, The Digital Storm, as a free podcast. Not a Pipe Publishing plans to publish the text of the serial audio drama as a novel this coming spring, and we'd like to augment the text with lots of artwork. The podcast retells the story of Shakespeare's The Tempest, but it's set in a science fiction universe where many of the characters are artificial intelligence programs, and the island of Shakespeare's Prospero is now a digital environment where the AI Prosper has been exiled. Entrants can listen to all the episodes here: bit.ly/podcaststorm

Not a Pipe Publishing is now holding a contest to encourage artists to submit their visions of the characters and settings described in The Digital Storm. Many entrants my find their work receiving recognition by being published in the print novel and in the eBook edition. All artists will be credited in both editions and on the website, so this is a great way to add a line to an artist's résumé. To sweeten the pot, the winning piece will earn $50 and recognition as the 1st place winner.

Because the show is a free podcast, artists can download it and listen to it without investing any money, and if they are interested, they can submit their visions of the characters and setting described in the show. Entries should be captured as high resolution digital images and emailed to notapipepublishing@gmail.com with the subject line "Digital Storm Art Contest Entry" and the artist's name. All artists who provide works that are selected to be included will be contacted so they can be credited properly, and the first place winner will be announced on Monday, December 19th.

We are looking for artwork that can appear throughout the book, so depictions of any of the characters or settings would be appreciated. You work could even appear on the novel's cover!

We're very excited to see what you'll come up with!

Term and Conditions

*All images submitted to the contest must be original works. By entering, the submitting artist attests that no other artist can claim the copyright, in part or whole, over the work submitted. By submitting the work, the artist gives permission to Not a Pipe Publishing to use the submitted digital version in the published editions of The Digital Storm and for any marketing purposes Not a Pipe Publishing deems fitting, though the artist will always be credited when the work is used.

**The prize money can be distributed via PayPal or a mailed check at the discretion of the winning artist. Not a Pipe Publishing reserves the right to cancel the contest and/or forfeit the prize if there are insufficient entries as determined by Not a Pipe Publishing. Judging of the winning entry will be carried out by Not a Pipe Publishing and the decision is not subject to appeal or review.  

Our Mission Statement

At Not a Pipe Publishing, we strive to leverage visionary thought leaders, gurus, and creatives in order to onboard them through our meta strategy to make them the influencers who can disrupt industry norms through outside-the-box thinking and be the game changers who produce the paradigm shifts that provide us with directionally accurate organic growth from the pre-revenue stage through cooption within the industry all the way to the synergy phase with our strategic partners.

Just kidding.

We want to get our authors’ great books in front of readers’ eyeballs.

Taking a Little Break from Submissions

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 Signs Author Sang Kromah

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.

The 2nd Edition of Corporate High School Is Now Available!

Not a Pipe Publishing is excited to announce the release of the second edition of the best selling YA novel Corporate High School. Here is the press release that went out to various newspapers in Florida, home of the cover artist Anna Martin:

Check out the cool back cover and get your copy here: http://bit.ly/chs2nd

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 25, 2016

Artist Wins National Contest to Design New Cover for Novel Corporate High School

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

notapipepublishing@gmail.com

Not a Pipe Publishing endorses A Better Oregon Campaign

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!

We were on TV!

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!

KPTV - FOX 12

Here's some good advice for writers...

...especially the ones who want to submit to Not a Pipe Publishing. 

Stop It! There Is No Such Thing as 2nd Person Narration

by Benjamin Gorman

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.)

Announcement: We're Accepting the Shamsie Challenge

Here's the press release:

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 24, 2016

Publishing Company Accepts Shamsie Challenge to Only Publish Women’s Writing in 2018

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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We'll be making an exciting announcement soon!

Please check back here to find out what's going on with Not a Pipe Publishing, and follow us on Twitter at @NotAPipePub for the latest information!