MPC Press International

Nobody wants to waste a Sunday on a plane, so the San Francisco-New York redeye is often the best option to meet the demands of a Monday morning meeting on the East Coast.  So there I was in seat 37F, fortunately a window seat, but on a completely full flight.  I considered myself lucky, with a slim 40-year old man next to me in the middle.  After settling somewhat comfortably into my seat, but before the plane had left the gate, a lady approached our row from further up in the coach section, introducing herself as the wife of the man next to me.  She asked if I or the aisle guy (on the other side of her husband) were interested in moving to her seat, 15 rows up, in the middle of row 22, so she could sit next to her husband.  Now why would I give up a precious window seat on a redeye flight, for a middle seat, especially if sleep is my goal?  And was it really right for this woman to put us in the slightly awkward position of saying no to her request to sit next to her husband?  I was actually offended.  Wouldn’t they both be sleeping on this flight anyway?  While I said “no” to her request fairly quickly, following up with, “I’m sorry, I have enough trouble sleeping as it is,” the aisle guy actually gave her his seat.  I did feel a twinge of guilt, but it lasted about 60 seconds and I shut my eyes.  Moments later, the plane left the gate, and all was well, or was it?  Almost as if to say, “you will pay for almost destroying the chemistry of this lovely couple who now sits next to you,” a baby in row 36 started screaming for the next two hours.  Ouch.  Maybe next time I’ll give up my seat.

Tags: flight, guilt, redeye, San Francisco, sleep

What stands #9 on the Amazon recent bestseller list and #1 in the “Parenting & Families” category?  Is it a book about raising your daughter?  Or how to discipline your son?  Or god’s way of teaching table manners?  Not even close.  It is “Go the F… to Sleep”.  Really, check it out if you haven’t.  Amazing, a children’s picture book that you can’t read to children.  And the Amazon look indicates that people are really buying it I guess.  When we put together our own recent bestseller, Rhyme, we did think about the challenges of publishing a children’s picture book with plentyof the humor directed toward adults, but the story certainly easy to understand and funny for children.  Would our title sell with a potentially split audience?  Fortunately, the answer was yes, and we are not disappointed.  But, we had no idea that a children’s picture book genre could exist (and thrive) that was purely for adults.  With the partially offsetting concern that our parents would not be proud, we are simply jealous and wish the idea were ours.

Tags: adult, audience, children, funny, genre, proud, sleep

What about this Judgement Day chatter?  I guess we will find out shortly, although we are past midnight in most of the world.  Call your mother and tell her you love her.  Hug your children.  Eat a lot of chocolate and don’t stop at one glass of wine.  I guess this is it, so goodbye….

No, I don’t believe it, so we at MPC will continue on our ambitious path of trying to create wonderful experiences for child and adult readers.

Tags: adult, child, chocolate, hug, judgement, mother, MPC, readers, wine

Books don’t sell when we sit on the couch.  In recent months, sales of Rhyme have been accelerating, and this is not just due to dumb luck.  We have made a calculated effort for our author to read at various schools.  While this requires time and effort on his part, it pays off for MPC; we all know that even 5-year old children have the communication skills to tell their parents to buy a certain book!  Of course, the opportunities have been created by readers like you, so thank you for the requests for a reading.  And we will honor as many of these as possible, although I am not sure how long we can keep Rhyme’s author on the road!

Tags: Add new tag, children, communication, couch, reading, rhyme

Go Amazon Go Amazon!!!  As with many small publishers, we at MPC are appreciative for the efforts of Amazon and its ability to push our titles.  Recently, we have seen a surge in sales for various MPC books, but particularly No More Mac and Cheese, A Bachelor’s Guide to Cooking with Ease.  Amazon has a unique way of marketing books, and it works.  For example, if one purchases “A Man a Plan a Can” for $10.87 on Amazon, he/she is asked about purchasing No More Mac and Cheese for $4.95.  One bachelor’s cookbook is not enough to cure the blues for American singles.  Our online sales have accelerated and we have Amazon to thank!

Tags: amazon, American, blues, marketing, singles