It is a pleasure to welcome you to our site.  Our company was founded in 1984, no doubt before some of you were born!  We are proud to be celebrating our 25th Silver Anniversary this year.  Our clients have had many outstanding successes.  We came into being before the age of the internet, and we have seen many, many changes in publishing over the years. 

One thing, however, has remained constant, and that is our commitment to providing affordable, professional support and personal attention to our clientele.  We have seen many first-time authors come through our doors unknown and unestablished, and have taken them from their first sale to multiple titles sold.  Our steady and solid commitment to new authors throughout all the turbulence and craziness of the past twenty-five years has never wavered. 

 

Long ago, I purchased an original cartoon from Mort Gerberg.  I had seen it published in the April 13, 1990, issue of PW.  I share that cartoon with you now.  It shows an author sitting across from his accountant's desk, and the caption reads," You're saying that as a professional writer, your expenses totaled $22,000 more than your INCOME?  What kind of way is that to make a living?" 

 

Today, that cartoon resonates in the midst of all the economic turmoil  at home and throughout the world.  It remains a constant, yet a cause celebre', for that is what publishing is all about.  Agents and publishers gamble with manuscripts, perpetually hoping to hit the jackpot.

 

There is an old saying that if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.  BBLA has been cooking up deals for our authors and enjoying every minute for the past 25 years.  Each sale is another crown jewel, each successful client and their proud publishers, families and friends are more icing on the cake.

 

I would not be writing this letter to you unless I truly loved this business and its challenges, and the promise that it holds for so many people from all walks of life.  We pride ourselves on the fact that we have sold and placed so many diverse titles for adults and children, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, academic and commercial work. 

 

When people ask me why I've stayed so long in this crazy business , I simply say, "You gotta love it!"  Like the Gerberg cartoon says, it  is a wacky way to earn a living.

 

Certainly there will be new and exciting challenges in the next 25 years.  Who knows what new literary discoveries await?  Come join us.  Let us see your work.  Together we can write the next chapter of  literary history.  You gotta love it!

 

Cordially,

 

Barbara Bauer, Ph.D.

President