Join your book publishing colleagues for our first-ever MBPR webinar! A panel of experienced local publishing professionals will discuss how their teams have adapted to publishing during a pandemic and how it might shape the future. This event will also serve as our annual meeting, during which member organizations will vote to fill vacant positions on the MPBR board of directors.

This webinar is offered free of charge to MBPR members and to students and for $5 for nonmembers. When you register via the Eventbrite link below, you will receive further instructions on how to attend. Stay well, and we hope to see you there!

The pandemic sweeping the world this spring has been a startling and unprecedented challenge for the publishing world, an industry that prides itself on its ability to handle nearly constant change and daily surprises. Join us to hear Twin Cities publishing professionals discuss the challenges and adaptations that their teams have made to content creation, marketing, production, distribution, and sales workflows during the stay-at-home orders in our state and across the country, as well as new opportunities they have discovered! Our panelists will address communication, processes, project management, and whether this temporary shift in the workplace has opened any doors for permanent change.

About the Panelists

Spencer Brinker is the director of product development at Bearport Publishing in Minneapolis. He has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry and moved to Minneapolis from New York City in 2019 when Bearport was acquired by Jump! In his roles as creative director and head of production, he has focused on adaptable and scalable processes to create the most efficient environment for excellence in print and digital products.

Don Leeper is the founder of Bookmobile, a provider of digital publishing services to university presses, literary publishers, indie publishers, associations, and small-to-medium-sized trade publishers. Long involved in book design and production management, in 1996 Leeper started Bookmobile’s digital book printing service, providing SRDP, POD, and galley printing. During the first ebook era in 2000, Leeper founded Pagewing, a venture-funded company whose mission was to help publishers bridge the gap between print and ebook workflows (RIP 2002). In 2005 he started Itasca Books, a book distribution and fulfillment service. In 2008 he restarted Bookmobile’s ebook services, converting and distributing ebooks to resellers. In 2010 he expanded Itasca’s services to include fulfillment for publisher-generated website and other dropship orders. Leeper has spoken to many publishing, museum, author, literary, and digital printing groups on the subject of the technological transformation of publishing.

Rachel Zugschwert is the vice president of marketing at Lerner Publishing Group. Previously, she has worked in marketing at 1517 Media, Beaver’s Pond Press, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, and Simon & Schuster. She has a master’s in publishing from Pace University.