By Peggy Shumaker Congratulations!  Your book’s been accepted for publication! First, you dance! Then you make plans to give your new book its best chance in the world. You’ve got nearly a year while the book’s in production, just barely enough time to do the following: • Contact any reporters or reviewers you know—print, broadcast, or online. Send them advance publicity and reviews. Add them to the press’s standard review list.• From your acknowledgments page, make a list of the magazines that have published your work. Do they also publish reviews? If so, compile a list of those editors and … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Advice for the Newly Published Author

Valentines by Ted Kooser “Over 22 years, Kooser has discovered a startling variety of ways to invert and enliven the vocabulary of romance, finding tender implications in even the mustiest Valentine’s symbols. . . . When it comes to his beloved(s), Kooser has generous eyes, offering always to keep her young. . . . Kooser’s poems do build a frisson, making the most of small moments of intimacy.” —Emily Nussbaum, New York Times Book Review To read earlier praise for Valentines, please visit http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2008/01/praise-for-vale.html. Continue reading Nearly Easter, but Still Valentine’s Day: Continued Praise for Kooser’s Valentines

Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father’s German Village by Mimi Schwartz “A fascinating picture, atypical of so much written on the subject. Blessed with good antennae and a skeptical mind, Ms. Schwartz is not an innocent abroad. Never gullible or credulous, but open to the evidence of her own eyes and ears, she is an ideal guide to her father’s lost world, which for so long she resisted. . . . It is a measure of her nuanced approach and refusal to settle for pat, simplistic answers that her book finds and genuinely values a rare point of … Continue reading More Praise for Good Neighbors, Bad Times

Bicycling beyond the Divide:Two Journeys into the Westby Daryl Farmer “Daryl Farmer lyrically meshes his traveling experiences of 1985 with 2005 in his book. . . . With writing that compares favorably to Paul Theroux, William Least Heat Moon, and John Steinbeck, Farmer assures us that the American spirit hasn’t been completely deflated.”—Lee Gooden, ForeWord “The book isn’t just bicycle talk. Much to Farmer’s credit—and the fact that he keeps journals—he gives us some historical background of the towns and places he visits. He also shares his personal life and his feelings, such as loneliness, anger and moments of happiness. … Continue reading Praise for Bicycling beyond the Divide

Opa Nobody by Sonya Huber “In her first book, teacher and activist Huber reaches across time and space to find guidance and camaraderie in the reconstructed life of Heina Buschmann, the German grandfather she never met. . . . Family relationships and political situations are wrought finely enough to illustrate what’s at stake for Heina.”—Publishers Weekly For earlier praise for Opa Nobody, visit http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2008/01/praise-for-opa.html. Continue reading Continued Praise for Opa Nobody

On St. Patrick’s Day, 17 Reasons to Purchase Dinty Moore’s New Book, Between Panic & Desire By Kate Flaherty 1. Because at a zippy 140 pages, Dinty provides his readers with all of the angst and none of the bloating. 2. Because Dinty finally explains in full the origins of his name in all its Dinty-ness. 3. Because even his index is funny (Goo goo ga joob, 64). 4. Because his author’s note is even funnier. 5. Because the book is like therapy, only cheaper. (“When you stop beating your head against the wall, your head miraculously feels better.”) 6. … Continue reading Ode to an Irishman

The Great Romance: A Rediscovered Utopian Adventure by The Inhabitant, edited by Dominic Alessio “This may have been the first time that anyone described space suits, air locks or the difficulties of landing on an asteroid or entering a planetary atmosphere. . . . . This reprint will be of considerable interest to specialist scholars of science fiction.”—Publishers Weekly Continue reading Praise for The Great Romance

Between Panic and Desire by Dinty W. Moore “Between Panic and Desire is more autopsy than memoir—a strange new hybrid. It’s a fantasy of letting go of the things that have haunted Moore his entire life. These things do, in fact, float off the pages.”—Los Angeles Times To read earlier praise for Between Panic and Desire, please visit http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2007/12/praise-for-betw.html. Continue reading And the Praise Goes On: Continued Acclaim for Between Panic and Desire

Daniel R. Levitt, author of Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees’ First Dynasty, answers our questions about the origins of this engaging biography, the man behind the story, and the major happenings in the history of baseball directly influenced by this "bulldog" of baseball. Why did you pick Ed Barrow for your biography? I’ve always been fascinated by team building. Why do some franchises win consistently while others spend years without making the playoffs? My first book, Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way, which I coauthored with Mark Armour, focused on a number of … Continue reading A Bulldog, Babe, and Baseball History: An Interview with Daniel R. Levitt

I love Broadway musicals. My fiancé is a political junkie. One of my best friends is a sucker for British history. With today’s TWIH, I’m out to please us all! You’re sure to find a topic of interest to you in this smorgasbord of subjects, so let’s take a look back at… This Week in History March 9, 1934: Russian cosmonaut Yury Gagarin was born. Gagarin was the world’s first man in space.Get a detailed, behind-the-scenes account of the U.S. response to Russian advances in spaceflight during the 1960s in Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes by Billy Watkins. March … Continue reading This Week in History: March 9-14, 2008