Boston writer, illustrator & marketer join forces to promote indie authors at Frankfurt Book Fair, 2014

Boston children’s book author Irene Smalls has joined forces with artist/illustrator Cathy Ann Johnson and publicist Ayanna Najuma to establish 2GoGlobal Marketing--an agency to promote independent authors and small publishers at the Frankfurt International Book Fair, in October of 2014.

Frankfurt, the world’s oldest and largest book fair, is attended by some 300,000 publishers, buyers and authors seeking to purchase and sell international rights to books. Approximately 120 countries are represented, at some 1750 booths.

Typically, independent authors and publishers are not represented in Frankfurt.

But 2GoGlobalMarketing will exhibit books in a Frankfurt Book Fair front row booth, “hand sell” and actively search for international sales opportunities for select books, “ according to Smalls.

Smalls, an award-winning author who writes primarily for “diverse” or minority children, was told by her publishers there was “no interest” in her books internationally. But she found that was not true. “Publishers from Lebanon and China expressed interest in my titles. I would not have known that without pursuing international rights sales on my own.”

According to Johnson: “Authors and illustrators must be entrepreneurs. Being represented in Frankfurt is the next step in developing our brands and literary businesses.”

Najuma, who will direct 2GoGlobalMarketing’s promotion at the show, said: “Many representatives merely place books on a shelf in a booth. 2GOGlobalMarketing will showcase individual books and seek out buyers at events and venues throughout the show.”

2GoGLOBALMarketing is currently accepting a small number of select titles to showcase, for a $500 fee. Authors and small publishers may apply through August 31, 2014 via the 2GoGLOBAL website www.frankfurt2014.com.

Authors represented by 2GoGLOBAL are also welcome to hold book signings at the 2GoGlobalMarketing booth.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is the author of Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity (2014) and Ithaca Diaries (forthcoming, 2015).

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group--an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Energy Sage and Clean Energy Chambers of Commerce partner on solar energy for businesses

Pleased to post this July 30, 2014 release from our Cambridge Innovation Center Colleagues at EnergySage, Inc., who have launched a partnership with Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, a national network of local chambers of commerce, to help local Chambers and their member businesses install solar energy systems.

According to the July 30, 2014 release:

Under the partnership, businesses that are members of a local chamber can use an innovative and user-friendly online solar marketplace at no cost. Users receive quick and easy options for putting solar on their commercial or residential buildings.

The Metro South Chamber of Commerce in Massachusetts is the first local chamber to take advantage of the new partnership. “Lowering costs, saving time, and creating local jobs is a winning combination that strengthens business and increases profits,” said Christopher Cooney, president and CEO of the Metro South Chamber. “The EnergySage process makes it easy for our chamber members to receive multiple quotes, learn about tax credits, and gauge potential long-term gains.”

“The EnergySage process makes it easy for our chamber members to receive multiple quotes, learn about tax credits, and gauge potential long-term gains.”

Through the partnership, chamber members will have access to robust solar options, an instant estimate of the costs, savings, and financial options and the ability to include local companies in the price comparisons. Chamber businesses that create a free account on the EnergySage Solar Marketplace will receive quotes from multiple pre-screened and high-quality solar installers, easing the process of shopping for the right solar system. EnergySage will make a donation – ranging from $250 for residential systems to up to $5,000 for large commercial systems – to the local chamber of commerce whose members go solar through the EnergySage Marketplace.

“EnergySage is excited about this national partnership with Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy,” said John Gingrich, Head of Corporate Development for EnergySage. “We understand that solar can be complex for business owners and this partnership offers a great opportunity to help these decision-makers choose solar with ease.”

Diane Doucette, Executive Director of Chambers for Innovation & Clean Energy, called the partnership a “win-win” for local chambers and their member companies. “Chambers are always on the lookout for valuable no-cost services for member companies,” Doucette said. “Our EnergySage partnership offers the added benefit of providing chambers with additional revenue for helping their member companies go solar.”

ABOUT CHAMBERS FOR INNOVATION AND CLEAN ENERGY

Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is a national network of local chambers of commerce that recognize the economic development opportunity of clean energy. CICE works with local chambers to offer programs that help them and their member companies successfully navigate and prosper in the clean energy space. Through their clean energy information hub, CICE provides easy access to clean energy information, incentives, best practices, and an opportunity for local chambers to connect with clean energy experts throughout the country. www.chambersforinnovation.com

ABOUT ENERGYSAGE, INC.

The EnergySage Solar Marketplace, a comprehensive national consumer destination site for solar photovoltaics (PV) systems. The EnergySage Marketplace transforms the complex Solar PV shopping process into a simple online comparison-shopping experience, by enabling consumers to compare quotes from multiple pre-screened installers in an apples-to-apples format across all financing options. The unique, innovative platform provides unprecedented levels of simplicity, choice and transparency, all at no cost to consumers.

The EnergySage platform helps to reduce prices and make solar PV systems more accessible to a larger portion of the population. Its goal is to drive exponential increases in market adoption of solar. EnergySage’s benefits extend to providers such as manufacturers, installers, financiers and other professionals involved in the solar PV sales process as well, through increased consumer awareness, knowledge and demand for their services. By creating efficiencies in both the buying and selling processes, EnergySage slashes the time and effort required by consumers and installers, significantly reducing customer acquisition costs, boosting consumer confidence, and ultimately accelerating mass-market solar adoption.

EnergySage has received two prestigious SunShot Awards from the Department of Energy to develop and commercialize the Solar Marketplace. www.energysage.com

—Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Cambridge Art Prize Winner Offers Free Art–If You Can Find It!

Warren Croce preparing to hide artwork.

Belmont artist Warren Croce, , winner of the Cambridge Art Association‘s 2014 National Prize for Best Mixed Media Piece, is promoting his work by hiding a piece each month in a Boston area business–and offering residents clues to find the work–which finders may then keep.

Croce’s first “hunt” began in February; the third will start next week. Typical clues, available on Croce’ Facebook page or via his newsletter , include maps of the general vicinity and a photo from inside the business where the art is hidden, according to a recent media release. The only “payment“ is to post on Croce’s Facebook page.

In February, Croce gave away “Three Wise Monkeys: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, “ a series of acrylic monkey faces sprayed on board with newspaper clippings strategically pasted over their eyes, ears, and mouths, found at L‘Aroma Café in West Newton, MA. His second giveaway was a triptych of face, found at the Bourbon Coffee in Cambridge.

“I like giving art away,” Croce says. ” I love the joy people get from finding a piece of my artwork. Hey, you only get back from this life what you put into it.”

Trey Klein, who found the piece at L’Aroma Cafe, said “This was a fun game and these pieces are awesome.”

Llan Levy, who found the piece at Bourbon Coffee in Porter Square, called the hunt “Food for the soul.”

Some “hunters” have posted photo series or chronological poem-like accounts of their searches on Croce’s Facebook page.

Croce’s winning Cambridge Art Associate piece, called “There is nothin’ like a dame,” is comprised of twelve 1950‘s album covers glued onto board with a Madmen-esque figure painted over them in acrylic, pastel, and gel. The exhibition runs until June 26.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is an author, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm in Kendall Square.

Photography Review: Edward Weston at the MFA

Over the weekend I paid a visit to the MFA in Boston — my first in over a year. In the hours I spent wandering through the museum’s impressive collections and newest exhibitions, nothing held my attention quite so raptly as one tiny room of black-and-white photographs by Edward Weston. Simple and luminous, many of his pictures capture the effects of American civilization on landscapes as varied as the green hills of Ohio and the white sands of New Mexico.

The collection — on loan from the Lane Collection — is titled “Leaves of Grass” after Walt Whitman’s masterwork, perhaps the greatest of American poems. In 1941, Weston was hired by the Limited Editions Club of New York to illustrate its two-volume limited edition of Leaves of Grass (of which a copy is available for display in the gallery). The photographer subsequently took off on a road trip that brought him and his wife from New England to the Southeast and back across the country to their native California.

Circling the collection, I could not look away from the image of a narrow road snaking its way through the moonlit fields of Connecticut farmlands — just as my attention was held by the picture of a Louisiana plantation house far into decline. Weston’s photographs in some way capture the thrill of being a traveler, of stumbling upon something that is at once new and ancient. It is the thrill of both discovery and recognition.

While Whitman’s poetry is often extravagant in its descriptions and range (and at times even a little rough around the edges), Weston’s photographs are controlled, subdued, and exacting. However, the subject of the collection is really no different from that of Whitman’s opus. Both these pictures and the poem are a meditation on America, in all its variety and contradictions. At the start of the exhibition, you can glimpse a quote from Weston that just about says it all: “I do believe . . . I can and will do the best work of my life. Of course I will never please everyone with my America — wouldn’t try to.”

Weston’s “Leaves of Grass” will be on view at the MFA on December 31, 2012.

Will Holt also blogs at Letters from a Bay Stater, where this entry was first posted.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group–an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.