It’s Official—I Was Elected!

Three years ago I stepped off the elevator at ASJA’s annual conference  and felt as if I’d stepped onto a different planet.

This year I’ll step off the elevator and head for the Board meeting.

 

 As of April 3, it’s official and I can tell—-I was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of ASJA, the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Being on the board of this organization may be like stepping onto a new planet.

ASJA members write what you read in magazines, books, white papers and business reports.  ASJA is the premier professional organization for nonfiction and freelance writers in the US and Canada.

Why did I feel as if I was on a new planet at an earlier meeting? I’ve earned my way in this writing business and I keep up, or so I thought until I heard Richard Nash, listed as one of fifty visionaries changing the world. I felt like Fred Flintstone on a space odyssey. He talked about a new publishing world I was hardly aware of.  And he was joined by other Young Bloods, as ASJA’s Christopher Johnson dubbed them.

That tells me ASJA stays three steps ahead in keeping its members atune with the newest and the best of journalistic development and practices. I’m proud to be a member and now a board member.

Jane Friedman expressed my own thoughts about Nash in her blog:

“When I hear Richard Nash speak, I always remember it long after: the way everyone in the audience is completely alert from beginning to end, how his energy fills the room and crackles, and the way he gleefully uses a series of F-bombs to emphasize key points. After listening to Nash, I immediately feel smarter as well as more confident that publishing will be all right as long as he’s somehow in it.”

From Christopher Johnson talking about the 2014 ASJA panel:

“Richard Nash, vice president of partnerships at Byliner; Evan Ratliff, co-founder/CEO/editor of The Atavist; and Greg Veis, executive editor of The New Republic – were our Young Blood representatives. Nash’s and Ratliff’s publications are the forefront of leading the digital revolution, while Veis has been intricately involved in reshaping his venerable publication’s print and online editions to a more contemporary appearance, sensibility and voice.”

 

Friedman again:

“Nash is the former publisher of Soft Skull Press, for which he was awarded the Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing by the Association of American Publishers in 2005. Over the better part of a decade, he shepherded books onto bestseller lists across the globe, and Utne Reader put him on its 2009 list of fifty visionaries changing the world. It’s hard to attend any publishing industry event without seeing him on the agenda. Former Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson called Nash’s “Publishing 3.0” talk “the best I have ever seen.”  (Emphasis is mine).

ASJA offers extensive benefits and services to its members. Membership is by invitation to qualified professional writers.

The annual conference will be May 5-6, 2017 in NYC at the Roosevelt Hotel. Sessions are open to the public.