POD and Newbery

Thanks to lowebrow who directed me to this post on the future of print-on-demand publishing. It intrigued me because I’ve already received some self-published Newbery submissions, something a former member of the committee told me was quite rare her year. She surmised, and I think she had a point, that it is far easier today to self-publish and then get such books promoted, sold, and read more widely than before. Now I’m a big fan of the established publishers and love/admire/respect all they do, but I admit that I also think it would be kind of neat for a self-published/POD book to come out of nowhere and win the Newbery. (No promises, folks, no promises!!! Pure speculation on my part.)

Our Holocaust

Following up on yesterday’s post, Our Holocaust is a memoir for adults by Israeli Amir Gutfreund, the child of Holocaust survivors. While I grew up in small Southern and Midwestern communities where we were usually the only such family, Gutfreund had a very different experience. You can read an excerpt here and a longer one here.