If you regularly attend BAIPA meetings, like I do, you probably agree that the meetings themselves are the best benefits. If you’re not a regular attendee, well, we’re meeting this Saturday and you’re invited.
Here are some other benefits:
(1) Member Profile
Every member has a profile, and we encourage you to flesh yours out, so other members and/or visitors to our website can get to know you. Here’s one member’s profile — https://baipa.org/profile/728/
You need to log in to edit your profile. Don’t know your password? Contact [email protected].
(2) Videos and handouts from previous presentations
Did you miss David Kudler’s presentation on Book Design in December? Or Pauline Wiles on Graphic Design Secrets last April?
Go to the Member Portal for videos of past presentations and more.
(3) Bookshop.org
We’re just now launching the BAIPA Bookshop on bookshop.org, a public benefit corporation with a mission to support local, independent bookstores.
We’d like to include all our members’ books in our bookshop. If you’ve published your book(s) through Ingram, you should already be on bookshop.org, and we’d like to include you in our shop. If you’re not already listed on the BAIPA bookshop.org page, scroll down to the form below and give us the title and ISBN of your book(s).
We plan to promote the bookshop to reach more potential readers, but have not started that campaign yet.
Please note: It’s still better for independent bookstores if people buy directly from them, and encourage your readers to do so as well (or to buy from your website), but bookshop.org is a good alternative for those who prefer not to patronize Amazon.
(4) Facebook Pages
We have two Facebook pages — BAIPA Answers Forum, a private group page where members can post questions and/or answer them, and Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, a public page where we post upcoming meetings. (And where we can probably post more than we do.)
(5) BAIPA blog
Publish a book recently? Win an award? Appear on a podcast? Launch an exciting new project? Have some valuable insight or experiences to share?
We would love to publish you in our blog. A couple times a month, we send out an email blast to our 1,000-plus subscribers, promoting the newest posts. (If you’re reading this, most likely you received this email and clicked on this post.)
If you submit your contribution as a finished piece, we will almost certainly post it. You can even promote your services, like designing book covers or editing manuscripts. (Would be best if you also share some tips.)
(6) Volunteer
BAIPA is an all-volunteer organization, which means we depend on our members to volunteer to recruit presenters, maintain the website, run the meetings, manage the finances, and so on. Speaking as a volunteer and board member for about seven years, I can say that I get a great deal out of my participation, from stimulation to friendship to feeling part of an amazing author community.
There are plenty of opportunities, from writing and/or editing and/or maintaining the website to helping with social media to interviewing other members to serving on the board. Here’s a list of opportunities. We also welcome new ideas on how we can make our organization stronger and more useful to our members.
(7) Pitch your book launch at a meeting
If you’re recently launched your book, we’d love to give you the chance for a two-minute show-and-tell at our meeting. Limit to once a year, but then how many of us can write a book every year? If you want to pitch your book that was published within the previous few weeks at an upcoming BAIPA meeting, please send an email to [email protected].
(8) Five-Minute Feedback
Having a tough time deciding on your cover design, your book blurb, your title? This past May, we debuted Five-Minute Feedback to take advantage of the wisdom of the crowd. We have time for a brief discussion, then we put it to a vote.
Tom Ucko and Patricia Sullivan shared title and subtitle options at meetings last year, and Wendy Bartlett and I shared cover redesign options for one of our books. Everyone so far has found it helpful.
We have a slot open this Saturday, as well as in upcoming months. Contact [email protected] if you’re interested.
(9) Monthly meetings at no additional cost, plus discount on workshops
Guests pay $20 to attend a monthly meeting. Members pay zero. Members pay only $25 for workshops instead of $40 for non-members.
Here’s the form to submit your book(s) to BAIPA Bookshop. Check first to see if it’s already there.
