Yaldah Publishing is now Yotzeret Publishing

As of June 10, 2011, Yaldah Publishing is now Yotzeret Publishing, Inc.

Please come visit our new blog and website at http://yotzeretpublishing.com!

Twin Cities Jewish Publisher Announces Name Change

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- May 3, 2011 -- After nine years, seven books, six authors, and three awards, St. Paul-based Yaldah Publishing will become Yotzeret Publishing, Inc. Yotzeret is a Hebrew word that means "creator" in the feminine form. "I wanted to keep with the idea that the process of writing and publishing a book is a kind of labor and birth," says company founder and Yotzeret president Sheyna Galyan. "Yaldah as a verb means 'gave birth' in Hebrew, but it also means 'girl,' and we've grown beyond that. We've grown up."

The name change comes right after the release of two tween books by local authors: Sliding Into the New Year (YaYa & YoYo, Book 1) by Minneapolis author Dori Weinstein, and Friends Forever, a St. Paul historical novel by author Amy Ariel. Also among the books that will be acquired by Yotzeret Publishing are Like a Maccabee by Barbara Bietz and Mitzvah the Mutt by Sylvia Rouss, author of the popular Sammy Spider series. Both of those books are award-winners.

"We have several titles coming up soon," Galyan said, "including adult books by Israeli authors Janice Weizman and Yael Unterman, and the company name Yotzeret will play very well in Israel. This is an exciting time for us."

Yotzeret Publishing will continue Yaldah Publishing's mission to publish "books written from a Jewish perspective," according to Galyan, and to encourage books that reflect the diversity of Jews and Jewish practice. Yotzeret will publish both adult and children's fiction and non-fiction.

Yaldah Publishing is not affiliated with or connected in any way to the more recent YALDAH Magazine or YM Books, and Galyan anticipates that the new company Yotzeret Publishing will eliminate any future confusion between these two unrelated companies.

The expected date for the formal name change is June 10, 2011, the day after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

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PayPal and the Local Pickup Glitch

If you live in or near the Twin Cities (St. Paul / Minneapolis for those of you in other twin cities), and you want to purchase either Sliding Into the New Year (YaYa & YoYo, Book 1) or Friends Forever, and you want to pick it up rather than paying for shipping, you'll need to send an email to our orders department. From there, we can send you a PayPal invoice for book(s) without shipping costs. You'll also need to arrange to pick up your book in St. Paul.

It seems PayPal is having a difficult time managing multiple shipping options (such as having an item shipped versus a local pickup) and it defaults to whichever one is less expensive, not giving the customer the option to choose. And we love choice!

Hopefully this will become a moot point when our new website is up and running and we have a different shopping cart system. Until then, thanks for your patience.

New Awards, New Books, New Distribution, and an Important Note on the Yaldah Name

Mitzvah the Mutt named 2011 Sydney Taylor Notable Book

Mitzvah the Mutt, the first chapter book by popular Sammy Spider author Sylvia Rouss and illustrated by Martha Rast, has just been named a 2011 Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Older Readers. Presented by the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Sydney Taylor Book Award "honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience." Mitzvah the Mutt also recently received a Bronze Medal in the 2010 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, an award that honors exemplary children's books and promotes childhood literacy.

Complete title and ordering information, including a PDF of the first chapter, are available on the Mitzvah page at the Yaldah Publishing website.

Two new releases for tween readers

March 1, 2011 is the release date for Sliding Into the New Year, Book One of the YaYa & YoYo Series by educator Dori Weinstein. It has already received outstanding reviews from some of the most well-known leaders in American Judaism, including several rabbis from Newsweek's 2010 list of "The 50 Most Influential Rabbis in Ameria." What's it about? Thrill-loving fifth grader Ellie “YaYa” Silver has been waiting all summer to visit the brand new indoor water park in town. She is ecstatic when her best friend, Megan, invites her to go—that is until her twin brother, Joel (YoYo), points out that Megan is going on Rosh Hashanah. Sure, Rosh Hashanah is a big deal, but so is Splash World! What will Ellie do?

Complete title information and reviews can be found on the book's page at the Yaldah Publishing website.

Also expected in March 2011 is Friends Forever by debut author Amy Ariel. Two Jewish girls become friends across time when a modern-day St. Paul girl suddenly finds herself in her own yard...in 1912. Racial equality, worker’s rights and women’s right to vote create the backdrop in this coming-of-age novel that brings history alive. Rebecca Davis, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware has this to say: "In Friends Forever Amy Ariel demonstrates a keen sense of how a midwestern Jewish girl might have experienced the social, cultural, and political transformations of the early twentieth century. Ariel does a commendable job of animating her story with historical details."

Complete title information and reviews are forthcoming.


New distribution to the retail trade

As of December 2010, Yaldah Publishing books are now distributed to the retail trade by Partners Publishers Group (PPG). You can still order directly from Yaldah Publishing and get great service and quick turnaround, as well as industry-standard discounts for resellers. (If you're in the Twin Cities, MN, we'll even deliver books, saving you shipping costs.) Or you can order through your favorite wholesaler, including Baker & Taylor and Ingram.

An important note on the Yaldah name

Yaldah Publishing was launched in July 2002 with the goal of publishing adult and children's books written from a Jewish perspective for all audiences. We published our first book in 2003. As a verb, yaldah means "gave birth." Many authors will tell you that writing and publishing a book is much like giving birth to a child, and it is those labor pains for which Yaldah Publishing is named.

In Fall 2004, a teenage girl from Massachusetts began a Jewish girl's magazine called YALDAH aimed primarily at the Orthodox community. United States trademark law sees book publishing and magazine publishing as different types of businesses, and therefore no trademark violation. At the end of 2008, the YALDAH Magazine folks created Yaldah Media, Inc. to oversee their activities, which now included a girls' retreat. In 2009 they announced plans to start publishing books under the Yaldah Media name. After legal intervention, they changed their book publishing name to YM Books, but continue to add the line "an imprint of Yaldah Media, Inc."

Yaldah Publishing is not affiliated in any way with Yaldah Media, Inc. or YALDAH Magazine. Yaldah Publishing is committed to giving voice to work that reflects the diversity of Jews and Jewish practice. Our books are accessible to readers of all backgrounds and beliefs.

Thank you for your continued support of independent Jewish publishing!

YaYa & YoYo: Sliding Into the New Year by Dori Weinstein

The files for the Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of Dori Weinstein's YaYa & YoYo: Sliding Into the New Year are done! Off to the printer tomorrow. Here's a peek at the cover:

Sorry for the temporary website outage

We're in the process of building a bigger, better, faster Yaldah Publishing website for you, and in the process, one mis-named directory took the existing site down for a few hours. We apologize for the error and any inconvenience that may have caused. It's back up and fully functional now.

The new site will be built while this one is still running, until we're ready to roll it out and make the new one live. It should be a relatively seamless process.

Thanks in particular to Jeff from Massachusetts for pointing this out so we could fix it!

Mitzvah the Mutt wins Moonbeam Bronze Medal!

Mitzvah the Mutt by Sylvia Rouss has just been named the Bronze Medalist in the 2010 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards in the Juvenile Fiction - Early Reader/1st Chapter books category!



From the Moonbeam Awards site: “The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading. The Awards recognize and reward the best of these books and bring them to the attention of parents, booksellers, librarians – and to children themselves.”

Congratulations to author Sylvia Rouss and illustrator Martha Rast!