April 2003 News

Buy a book or a game View shopping cart

News
Site Map
February 2003 News
April 2003 News
June 2003 News
November 2003 News
May 2004 News
December 2004 News

First Shipments of Mortality are sent out.

On March 5, we sent off our first shipment of our LDS games, Mortality, to Sounds of Zion distributors. Here are Dave Hall and Dawn Griesi posed with FedEx Freight driver Rod Truax at our headquarters, with the first pallet of eight cases of games on its way. Since then we have also shipped twelve cases to Deseret Book. Deseret Book buyer, Gail Evenson, says that the game will be given main table space in all of their stores and will be featured in their May catalog.

The BYU Bookstore has also stocked Mortality, and an ad will be coming out in the BYU Daily Universe the first week in April.

We're anxious for LDS bookstores and the buying public to see the kind of quality product they can expect from Mapletree Publishing Company. For those unfamiliar with Mortality, it's a game of life built around LDS concepts. It has a new twist on competition--rather than needing to drive other players into bankruptcy in order to win, in Mortality you actually get ahead by helping other players and by overcoming trials.

Mortality is also available for purchase online at our Mapletree Store.

(p.s. All the snow you see here melted within a week, and Iowa is now turning green.)

Mapletree Signs Authors, Adds Editors

We have been thrilled with the response we have received thus far for our publishing venture. Thank you to those who have supported our mission. We have signed contracts with Kenya Transtrum, Gordon Ryan, RuthAnn Hogue, and Terrie Bittner for two fiction and three nonfiction titles that we are convinced will all command attention and be valuable contributions. Kenya and Gordon have each written novels that we will be publishing. Then Gordon also has signed for a nonfiction work that will be our first title (formal announcement of the title and cover will be in our next newsletter); RuthAnn has written Facing Death: The Inspiring Diary of a Terminal Cancer Patient; and Terrie is writing Homeschooling for the Timid, the Disorganized, and Other Real People.

We have other pending titles, also, that we are excited about. We have a mixture of authors from around the country and a variety of subjects--both fiction and nonfiction. Some of the works have religious themes, some don't.

Kenya Transtrum

To keep up with the pace of submissions, which continues to increase, we have hired two new editors. Kenya Transtrum of Meridian, Idaho, who has a series of successful novels with Avon Books and is thus familiar with the New York publishing scene, is handling fiction acquisitions. Deniece Schofield of Marion, Iowa, who has lectured and written a number of books on homemaking that have done very well in the national market, is handling our nonfiction area.

Deniece Schofield

Hall to attend Publishing Forum at New York University

Mapletree founder and president, David Hall, will be off to New York to participate in the First Management Forum for Independent Publishers at New York University in early April. The Forum will be an opportunity to learn more about the business aspects of publishing and to network with other publishers as well as distributors, retailers and other publishing professionals.

"There's something about being in the book publishing capital of the world, mingling with all these people from Barnes & Noble, Ingram, Amazon, Baker & Taylor, and other publishers and professionals that is really exciting to me," said David. One of the lecturers is Thomas Woll, the author of the book that is next on David's reading list, Selling Subsidiary Rights: An Insider's Guide. "I think it'll make a nice impression if I've read his book and can ask some intelligent questions," commented David.

Networking with people on the national publishing scene has been a high priority for our company, as we feel it will be a key to cultivating national markets for our authors.

His youngest son, Spencer, currently a high school freshman, has been helping some with the publishing business, and is excited that he will get to accompany his Dad, wear an official name tag at the forum, and get to see a little of the Big Apple.

Spencer Hall operating the shrink-wrap machine, to fill our Deseret Book order.

His English teacher wants him to make a couple of reports based on his learning experiences at the forum, for which he will get extra credit.

Secure web site sales, accepting all major credit cards.

Links to publishing information. Links to other helpful information. List of more resources on various subjects, and further resources. Click here if you would like to be a link exchange partner with Mapletree's web site.
Information about publishing jobs.

Copyright © 2008 Mapletree Publishing Company, Inc., Denver, Colorado. All Rights Reserved.
Web design by Infinity Dental Web - Cosmetic Dentistry Web Sites
Last modified: 8/16/08