We’re pleased to announce that Cooperative Press will be publishing Hunter Hammersen’s book Silk Road Socks. (Read her post on the agony of waiting to spill the beans here). Every time I see another sample knit from this book, my heart nearly explodes. I hope you will all love it just as much.

In addition, we will be publishing What Would Madame Defarge Knit, a literary knitting romp edited by Heather Ordover of the inordinately popular knitting + books podcast CraftLit, with contributions from a number of the knitting community’s luminaries. They call CraftLit’s format “book-on-tape with benefits,” and with over 80,000 downloads per month, clearly its listeners are getting the message. The WWMdFK book subsite is located here.

Diane Gilleland writes about crafting, business, the internet, and other splendidly geeky things at CraftyPod.com. She’s also been known to publish an indie book or two herself, and today she’s written a guest post for Cooperative Press on a topic dear to our hearts…

Why Your Favorite Indie Books Need You

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: publishing is changing mightily.

On the one hand, this state of affairs is creating a whole new breed of indie publisher – and this is amazing. Cooperative Press is a stellar example – books by a professional crafter, written for professional crafters. And others are doing similar work all over the craft community.

It’s a great time for indie publishers, and it’s a time of evolution for book-buyers. If you buy indie books, this moment in publishing means two things for you:

A) Increased Choice

Yippee! You are no longer at the mercy of the publishing establishment to choose what’s good for you. You’re living in a long-tail world. If there’s a craft book you think should exist, there’s a pretty good chance that a fellow crafter is making it. Or, that you could make it yourself.

Imagine the potential for creative learning and growth here! It makes people like me wave our arms about and spout superlatives.

B) Increased Responsibility

Wait — what? How does buying independently-published books translate to something as un-sexy as responsibility?

Ah, stay with me a moment. Back in the old days of publishing, most of us got our information about new books from a handful of sources: magazine and newspaper reviews. Print advertising. Best-seller lists.

This meant that it was simpler for publishers to promote books, and that all publishing needed you to do was buy stuff.

Well, magazines and newspapers are now in trouble. Print advertising has never been less effective. And these days, we book-buyers get our information from an incredibly diffuse network of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, other book-review websites, and recommendations from friends.

So, your new responsibility? If you like an indie book, help the author out. Spread the word!

If you have a blog, by all means, post a review. (Many authors will gladly donate a giveaway copy for your readers, so why not ask?) If you’re on Twitter, tweet about it. If you’re on Facebook, tell your friends about it. If the book is available on Amazon, post your review there.

In other words, if you like a new book, play a more active part in its success.

But I don’t have that many readers/followers/friends!

In the online space, that doesn’t matter! If your blog has only a handful of readers, but they all like you, then your enthusiastic recommendation is meaningful to them. And a handful of meaningful word-of-mouth endorsements frankly trumps a mainstream, mostly-ignored ad campaign these days.

As a book-buyer, you are now a vitally important part of keeping indie publishing alive and growing. So don’t just buy — recommend! Review! Share!

A gentle reminder from CP:

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design’s blog tour details are here.

If you preordered the book and want to help us get the word out, click here for a PDF that lists some easy ways you can help tell your friends about the Guide, such as using the #knitgrrlguide hashtag on Twitter. Thank you from the bottom of our heart for all your support during the pre-order stage!

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design: How to Keep Your Knits About You by Shannon Okey is now available from Cooperative Press.

Retail price: $22.95 USD
Size: 7.44 x 9.69 inches (19 x 25 cm)
Pages: 254 (print edition; digital may vary by format)

978-0-9792017-1-4 ISBN

The Knitgrrl Guide To Professional Knitwear Design is the first-ever book targeted to designers of all experience levels who want to create, communicate and sell their work professionally to magazines, publishers, consumers and other markets. Written by an industry insider, the Guide takes a comprehensive, unflinching look behind the scenes that no knit or crochet designer can afford to be without. Includes interviews with top designers, editors and professionals who tell it like it is so you can hit the ground running, a guide to responsible social media use, information on distribution, printing, online publishing, book and magazine proposals and much, much more.

All prices are USD, and Ohio residents will be charged sales tax.

Update on shipping prices: Good news! We have updated our shipping system to automatically calculate shipping prices. US shipping is $5, Canada is $8 and rest-of-world is $12. Shipping prices are only applied to the print and print + digital package, of course!

Print only: $22.95

Digital only (PDF): $16.95

Print + digital: $22.95

Amazon Kindle format (.mobi)¹ or iPhone, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader and other e-reader formats (.epub)²: $14.95

Make sure admin@knitgrrl.com is added to the ’safe’ list inside your email program to ensure you receive any emails relating to the download. For e-book readers, please let us know which file format you need in the comments during checkout.

The Guide is also available on Amazon. If you find it useful, we’d certainly appreciate a review there!

Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

1) You will need to manually load the file onto your Kindle, either via USB cable or by emailing it to your assigned Kindle email address. We plan to offer direct downloads from Amazon after 30 June 2010. Prices may change at that time at Amazon’s discretion.

2) Load the file onto your iPhone or other e-book reader according to the device’s directions. We hope to offer direct downloads for the B&N Nook soon, but prices may change depending on factors currently beyond our control.

Miriam Felton’s brilliant new book Twist & Knit is being published by Cooperative Press this spring. You can preorder it on her website here (for the regular version) and here (for the limited edition, hand-bound version).

Every knitter knows the frustration of running out of yarn. This nagging fear is compounded when the yarn is one-of-a-kind or hand-dyed and simply heartbreaking when you’ve spent hours spinning the yarn yourself. This book offers twelve patterns specifically designed to get the most out of your unique yarn. All of the patterns have small repeats, very flexible gauge, or carefully selected construction to allow you to use every yard of yarn without sacrificing wearability.

• 12 patterns
• 27 pages of supporting material, including technique tutorials.
• Highly versatile patterns for a variety of yarn weights, with instructions given for modifications in width and length.
• Fully charted patterns

The amazing patterns in this book are Cleite Shawl, Colonnade Scarf, Comfy Shawl, Dropleaf Wrap, Gable Mitts, Lune Shawl, Motte Shawl, Porifera Socks, Transverse Scarf, Tudor Stole, Vinca Shawl and Windward Cowl.

If you want to store the patterns in your Ravelry library, you can purchase the printed book plus the digital add-on for only $2 more. The digital add-on gives you the full patterns for all of the designs except Cleite (which is under contract for digital distribution), with all the tutorials you will need as a supplement PDF. The digital add-on also has the text translations of the charts, which the printed book does not have. (Choose ‘print PLUS digital’ from the dropdown at the bottom of the page).

If you want the digital files without purchasing the printed book, you can buy them individually or in Collections #1, #2 and #3 through Ravelry. All digital versions are available immediately.

Love lace but need help? Miriam is teaching two classes with Stitch Cooperative in Columbus, OH this June. “Fixing Lace Mistakes” and “Triangular Shawls” are enrolling now.

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design: How to Keep Your Knits About You by Shannon Okey will be published this spring by Cooperative Press.

Retail price: $22.95 USD
Size: 7.44 x 9.69 inches (19 x 25 cm)
Pages: 254 (print edition; digital may vary by format)

978-0-9792017-1-4 print edition ISBN

The Knitgrrl Guide To Professional Knitwear Design is the first-ever book targeted to designers of all experience levels who want to create, communicate and sell their work professionally to magazines, publishers, consumers and other markets. Written by an industry insider, the Guide takes a comprehensive, unflinching look behind the scenes that no knit or crochet designer can afford to be without. Includes interviews with top designers, editors and professionals who tell it like it is so you can hit the ground running, a guide to responsible social media use, information on distribution, printing, online publishing, book and magazine proposals and much, much more.

Pre-order now for free domestic¹ shipping on all print edition packages. All prices are USD. Ohio residents will be charged sales tax.

Updated 15 June 2010: the book is now available for order. Please see here. Thank you again for all your support during the pre-order period!

anezka media and its related ventures are looking for 2008 spring and summer interns. Please see the 2007 intern announcement for the basics and submit your resume accordingly. Our upcoming booklist is still primarily craft and needlearts-focused, so experience with or interest in crafting is a plus. You will be working with our CEO on a number of interesting projects, and we will work with your school’s program to provide academic credits.

The photo at left is our author Jonelle Raffino’s book poster at the National Needlearts Association show in Long Beach, California this past week. Purls Forever is still selling very well, and Jonelle’s yarn company, South West Trading Company, remains an inspiration to small businesses everywhere. Readers really love the personal touch her stories give to the patterns!

The TNNA show was enlightening in many ways – Alchemy Yarns has just self-published an amazing book which shows the power of vision in the publishing process, and of staying true to your design sense.

What I loved most about Gina’s book (the amazing Gina Wilde, the force of nature behind Alchemy Yarns) was the models – all shapes, sizes and ages! I once heard a statistic about the percentage of knitters who are over size 14, and it was well over 50%. So why use 20-lb 15-year-old models to advertise knitting-related products? Well done, Gina!

The Napa Valley Register has written a lovely review of Purls Forever. It’s also been featured recently in Yarn Market News and several other knitting magazines — very exciting!

Linda Cortright of Wild Fibers magazine wrote a thoughtful, wonderful review of Purls Forever in their spring 2007 issue. A brief excerpt:

Purls Forever at one level is a gentle read through Raffino’s well-knit family tree. You don’t have to be an accomplished knitter to appreciate the significance of seeing your own child wrapped in a well-worn afghan that once clung to your young shoulders, or your father proudly wearing a sweater you’ve thoughtfully knit (no matter how much it may itch him). These are the stories Raffino tells just as if you were cozied up beside her on the couch looking at at pictures of corresponding patterns, either from the original garment or modified for today’s yarns and styles.

Ask your local yarn store to stock Purls Forever today! Thank you for supporting independent publishers.

Single copies can be purchased at Amazon by clicking this link.

If you are a bookstore, yarn shop or other retailer, you may also contact us directly for wholesale.

Purls Forever is not your typical knitting pattern book. It is a gathering of warm family stories by wonderful women who knit garments as signs of their love. Author Jonelle Raffino literally opens her family hope chest filled with beautifully hand-crafted pieces and shares the stories that each family treasure brings to mind. From the earliest piece, an exquisite shawl made by her great-great-grandmother in Italy, this book journeys through six generations of knitting to little finger puppets made by her daughters, as Jonelle teaches them the craft passed on from mother to daughter for so many years. Filled with both humorous and emotional short stories, Purls Forever features family photos of treasured knits both old and new!

Each story is accompanied with a pattern for an up-to-date adaptation of those treasured old garments — worthy of becoming family heirlooms in any family, including yours. Purls Forever is a true treasure and something every knitter will prize.

Purls Forever features:

• 21 short stories based on various family heirloom garments made by various women in the author’s family for over 6 generations
• Beautiful family photos with various knit or crocheted garments that evoke the memories of the author as she shares the love her family has shown through their handmade garments
• Many photos by the author that artfully illustrate both old and new garments
• 18 patterns of new garment adaptations of the heirloom items in the stories

Patterns range from beginner to intermediate level, each with clear, step-by-step instructions. They include baby and childrens’ clothing, afghans and blankets, shawls, scarves, sweaters for both men and women, and much more!

See the author’s site here.

anezka media is proud to announce that we’ve partnered with a leading yarn company to produce and distribute their first book. It will hopefully be available for order at January’s TNNA tradeshow in San Diego — we’ll see you there!