Monday, July 20, 2009

COLA: Lee & Low Books, Multicultural Publisher

An independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity. It is the company's mission to meet the need for stories that all children can identify with and enjoy.


Website name: Lee & Low Books
Web manager: Jason Low
Site Origination date: January 2009

Focus: Originally, our monthly E-News was focused on new additions to our Web site. This changed in January 2009 when our E-News conveyed thoughts about the publishing industry and how the economic downturn impacted us. In March our thoughts expanded to issues of race. Talking about race was a natural step for us since our books lend themselves easily to race and diversity since this has been our focus since the company began publishing in 1993.

Regular features: Race and other social issues will be a constant subject. Our books are topical and often deal with contemporary issues facing young people today. We will also offer our opinions on how different issues influence our publishing decisions and the many obstacles our books face in a competitive marketplace.

Pub schedule:How frequently do you update your site? Usually at the beginning of each month. When we switch over to a more traditional blogging software this is likely to increase.

Post of note:Check out the March issue. This was the first one where we veered into voicing our opinions about issues of race. Check out our newsletter.


50 words or less how would you describe your site: The blog is part of the larger site. Although leeandlow.com is a publisher site, we provide strong content to support the authors and illustrators we have published. A commitment between a author, illustrator, and publisher is long term and we take our responsibility to our books very seriously.

What do you hope readers will gain, find or enjoy because they’ve visited your website? We hope to get people thinking about what race means and to consider the big picture that we are one big human family. It may take awhile for people to realize that we are all connected but we are patient people and willing to invest the time and energy toward promoting a healthy dialogue toward the subject.

*COLA- Color Online Love Alert.
Celebrating writers, bloggers, organizations and publishers who promote and support women and people of color.

2 comments:

Doret said...

I like how easy the Lee&Low site is to browse. There is almost always an interview with the author and illustrator. They link to many of the books reviews, like Kirkus, PW, etc so thats one less google search.

Lenore Appelhans said...

Great interview. I really appreciate it when publishers support their authors and illustrators.