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	It has now been reviewed by three of the top four review journals in the country: Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.
	It has been purchased by the 75,000-member Conservative Book Club as a January offering for its members.
	Almost 2/3 of the first printing was sold prior to today's official national release date, requiring us to go back to press already.
	It has been the number one bestselling book in the homeschooling category nationwide at Barnes & Noble.
	It is being stocked by bookstores large and small all across the country.

We're anticipating very successful sales with this title. Mapletree's president, David Hall, said, "What we have with this homeschooling book is a combination of three elements: an idea that fills a real need in the homeschooling book market, a very well-written and well-edited book, and some marketing flair that has helped the book get the attention of the publishing world."

Jennifer Youngblood and Sandra Poole's debut novel, Livin' in High Cotton, has been receiving a lot of media exposure in the South. Here's a list of the shows that have featured the authors and their book:

	WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama featured the authors in an interview segment and then mentioned their book in several shows afterward.
	WAHR-FM in Huntsville, Alabama did a live radio interview of the authors during their popular morning show.
	WDOD-AM in Chattanooga interviewed the authors.

The media people have been very impressed with the book. Alabama TV personality Rilly Winkle said, “You’ve got to read this book. I loved it. You won’t be able to put it down. It evoked so many emotions and it was easy reading. I felt like I was actually there. It’s one of those books you want to pick up and read a second time.”

In addition, there have been numerous book signings throughout the region. All of the buzz has been very helpful in generating sales for the book, which has become the number one bestseller at some of the local bookstores.

The further along we go, the more we can see the wisdom of some of our early moves:

	We decided not to employ anyone who was strongly influenced by the LDS publishing community. To date, we haven't employed anyone from the LDS publishing business in our company. We hired two acquisitions editors who were LDS but who had both been published with national publishing companies. Our production and editorial director, Sue Collier, who is not LDS, was the former Managing Editor at Fulcrum Books, a medium-sized publisher here in Denver.
	In learning the publishing business, I have purposely avoided seeking advice from existing LDS publishing houses, but rather have gone to national sources. I have read voraciously from books by Dan Poynter, Avery Cardoza, John Kremer, Thomas Woll, Marilyn and Tom Ross, Jonathan Kirsch, Jodee Blanco, Judith Appelbaum, and others—all recognized authorities on the national publishing scene. I have attended publishing courses in New York, Los Angeles, and here in Denver.
	We decided to locate in Denver, outside of traditional LDS enclaves.

These moves are proving to be a great boon to our mission. When we rub shoulders now with people in the LDS publishing world, we can see how different our thinking is from theirs. Our vision is broader; our publishing standards are stricter; our complete concept of timing is different. The things that we are doing in order to establish credibility on the national scene have actually drawn criticism from people who have been steeped in LDS publishing traditions, but our national contacts confirm that we are doing the right things. Our distance from Salt Lake City has kept us free from some of that traditional thinking.
 

And our efforts seem now to be bearing the fruit that we anticipated. Our second title, A Question of Consequence, is the first LDS novel to receive a starred review in Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association. Now, with our fourth title, Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath—You Can Do This!, we have really made a splash, drawing reviews from most of the major national review outlets. To help you realize how significant it is to get not just a review, but a very favorable review in Publishers Weekly, consider this: Cedar Fort, who has published now probably somewhere around 1000 titles, it its entire 18-year history has only had three titles reviewed in Publishers Weekly. Covenant Communications, which is even larger, has only had one title reviewed in Publishers Weekly.

—David Hall, President
Mapletree Publishing Company

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