Starting this month, Propriometrics Press titles will be distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing! We are very excited to work together with Chelsea Green, who shares our commitment to engaging and educational books that promote healthy, sustainable, and nature-focused living.
“We are thrilled to be working with Propriometrics Press and representing their titles,” says Michael Weaver, Trade and Export Sales Manager for Chelsea Green Publishing. “Movement does matter—both for human health and for connecting with the natural world—and Katy Bowman’s books, and Propriometrics’ entire catalog, are a timely and valuable addition to our list. They’ve already taught me personally to see movement in a new way, and I’m excited to share that perspective with as many readers as possible!”
What does this mean for you? All of our titles are still available through all of the usual channels: your local bookstore, Amazon, and wherever you buy our books! You can also find all the Propriometrics Press titles on the Chelsea Green website! Visit it to learn more, and check out their fantastic catalog.
As Propriometrics Press continues to grow and we gear up to launch a few new titles (keep up with our website and our Twitter and Instagram profiles for updates!), we are hoping to add a new publisher to our team—someone who can oversee projects, timelines, and big-picture stuff. See below for more information and our requirements!
Propriometrics Press is seeking a publisher for our dynamic and exciting non-fiction micropress. We want someone motivated, with keen marketing and business sense, excellent communication skills, and a lot of vision. This position will take approximately 20-30 hours a week, with flexible hours that accommodate busy periods and lulls. We are located in the Pacific Northwest; local candidates a plus. You would be overseeing a small team making a big impact; our backlist is full of bestsellers and award-winners.
Your tasks would include:
Managing budgets for backlist promotions, reprints, and new books
Liaising with our foreign rights agent, distributor, and printer on all tasks
Keeping big-picture schedules on track, including lead time for marketing and promotions
Managing our editorial, production, and promotions staff
Creating and leading marketing initiatives for front and backlist
Helping to plan and organize author events and book tours
Bringing new book ideas to the table
You have:
At least 5 years’ experience in book publishing, including at least 1 year in a senior management position, as a publisher preferred
A thorough and proven skill with book marketing and promotions
Contacts at major publications for review
A passion for making thought-provoking books that aim to shift our culture into a more sustainable, human-movement-based future
An understanding of the Propriometrics backlist and mandate, and a keen eye for next steps
Please submit a cover letter, detailed CV, and a thorough marketing plan you created and implemented for an existing book to Penelope at pj@propriometricspress.com.
This special guest edition of the Propriometrics Press blog is written by our publisher and best-selling author, Katy Bowman.
I identify as a mover, but I also write a lot about movement. I’m a mover who writes. I think the way I identify is key, as it influences how I get my writing done. Because I define myself as a mover, I’m rarely unmoving—even when I’m being productive in ways we think of as sedentary.
I’ve written eight books (EIGHT BOOKS!) in the last few years, so clearly I’m in a passionate relationship with my computer. Also, I love books. I love reading them, taking pictures of them, and discussing them. Books have been key to my life. They not only teach me facts, they teach me new ways of seeing the world. So, reading and writing. How do those go with movement when both seem so sedentary?
Move Your DNA (and also Don’t Just Sit There) are books that show how to infuse movement into the non-exercise parts of your day. The movements are smaller than large feats of exercise, but they’re movements nonetheless. Often, getting more movement (and moving more of you) comes down to positioning yourself differently.
When you hold up your own body instead of leaning it against the back of a chair, you use your core muscles more subtly than you do when holding a plank, sure, but you can do it while you work or read. Cycling through sitting cross-legged, sitting with your legs in a V, or kneeling while you chop your veggies for dinner is an easy way to stretch. Wearing minimalist shoes (or no shoes) gives all the muscles in your feet a chance to strengthen, even with no added “exercise” time. Standing up to email, working outside whenever possible so your body is responding to fluctuations in light, temperature, sound, wind velocity, and more—all these things add movements to your life you may never have considered before.
Propriometrics Press is a #practicewhatyoupublish company. Meaning, the books we publish infiltrate the lives of our staff and authors. Many of you have asked “what position do you read or work in?” so I thought I’d show you how all of us work with books on the move.
Our editor-in-chief, Penelope, nature lover, often works outside.
If she’s not outside, it’s likely blizzarding (anyone in Nova Scotia will tell you that should be a word). If stuck inside, she’ll create an obstacle course and walk it a couple times an hour because movement and creativity are related and really, it just makes us feel better overall.
Our book covers are all dynamic thanks to Zsofi and her dynamic workstation.
Note: Canine co-opting is a thing. You’ve been warned. #theydontcallitdowndogfornothing
Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well authors Galina Denzel and Roland Denzel are not only great at coaching many on how to fit more movement into their life, they’re also good at doing it themselves. Galina’s reading sessions look very similar to a workout:
And Roland can often be spotted walking and audiobooking (when I make up words, I tend to go for it).
Doniga Markegard, author of our forthcoming title Dawn Again: Tracking The Wisdom of the Wild balances writing time with nature time by writing in nature. This is the cool thing about being outside while working: you’re being moved by your environment, even while sitting there.
Now and then our Dynamic Aging authors, Lora, Shelah, Joan, and Joyce come down out of the trees to work. Whether it’s a standing work desk, exercise-reading hybrids, or simply going outside, what you see modeled here are ways to move more of you.
Sometimes, oftentimes, it takes less to move more. Less leg (on the table) means more leg (positions not available in a chair, and use getting up and down from her lowered desk) for Stephanie, our Director of Operations.
And finally, some of my favorite read-exercise hybrids involve my piriformis and legs up the wall.
Some of my less favorite (or perhaps it’s just less productive) movements include working with my children, literally, on my back.
You can also watch this video of me working over a 60-minute period (it’s sped up to two minutes because watching me work is sort of like watching paint dry) to see how much movement goes into my “office” time—a time many perceive as mandatory stillness.
So there you have it. Books can move you. Not only your mind, but your body too.
It’s October, and here on the eastern edge of the continent, that means changing leaves, frosty mornings, and earlier nights. The urge to cocoon is strong—but the season also offers amazing opportunities to be outside, a literal farmers’ market’s-worth of fresh, amazing produce, a deep desire to batch-cook soups and sauces, and, if we’re being honest, a to-do list as long as my arm.
We’re readying new books for publication this fall, getting our spring list in order, and dreaming of future projects to share with you, too. It can make for long days in the Propriometrics Press office—and it’s work that we love, so it’s easy to lose track of everything else while our noses are to the grindstone.
Which is why I’ve been making a few minutes every day to really think about the wisdom contained in one of the books we’re bringing out this fall. We published Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well on October 1, and authors Galina and Roland Denzel will hold a launch party for the book on October 15 in Orange County. We’re pretty excited about that. We worked hard on this book all year, and we’re pumped that it’s available now in stores and online. That part is all great. But one of the true perqs of this job is getting to dive deep into inspiring material every day. With Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well, it’s the four key chapters identified by the Denzels as the ones readers should start with: The Sunday Food Ritual, Tame Your Sugar Monster, Walk More Today, The Dynamic Office.
It’s fitting this book is published in October, a perfect time to fully explore what these lessons have to offer. That Sunday Food Ritual chapter is about finding the time—making the time—to commit to setting yourself up for healthy food success all week by spending an afternoon or evening doing some batch cooking. In the example the Denzels give, you make a simple slow cooker pork pot roast with vegetables, which gives you enough for Sunday night’s supper, and two more suppers later in the week. Just the words slow cooker pork pot roast make me want to hit the kitchen—and thinking about having three suppers done and dusted in one go fills me with glee. Chilly October nights seem like a perfect time to get into this habit.
And I’m ever mindful that the holidays are approaching, with all their sugary delights, so October also seems like a good time to find a way to tame my sugar monster. There’s an abundance of fresh fruit to be had—plums, peaches, apples, pears, there are even still strawberries in my farmers’ market most Saturdays, though I’m sure there can’t be many strawberry Saturdays left. I’ve been savoring that fresh fruit as it comes in, and doing my best to can and preserve as much as I am able for the long winter nights to come. And with the cooler temperatures here, both day and night, Galina’s advice to sip a sweet-tasting herbal tea like licorice or rooibos feels like exactly the right thing to do while I contemplate my relationship with sugar, and why I want to be in charge, rather than letting sugar run the show.
And then there is the glorious exhortation to Walk More Today. It is the constant entry on my to-do list. No matter how much I walk, I can always walk more. This morning I kept my regular weekly appointment with a couple other writers at the central branch of the public library, downtown. Then I walked part-way home with one of the writers, stopping in at our local bookstore on the way, and chatting about our work as we went. We split off in different directions and I loped along, drinking in the impossibly clear, impossibly blue October sky, the heartbreaking reds and yellows and oranges of autumn leaves, the feeling of the sunshine on my skin, the expressions on the faces of the people I passed as I walked, and the company of my own thoughts. I concentrated on my gait as best I could, and then I just let my attention wander. I thought about the project I’m writing, and about the work awaiting me in the Propriometrics Press office. I returned to my desk feeling refreshed and nourished by my time outside, spent walking.
Speaking of my desk! I loved Roland’s chapter on The Dynamic Office. When I had a full-time media job, I sat for years and years, until finally one day I rebelled against the sit-down culture and made my own stand-up desk. Then I stood for years and years. Then I quit that job, and came to work for Propriometrics and started doing my work sitting on the floor, or lying on the floor, or while walking to the store, or standing in the kitchen, or—well, you get the idea. I’d do my work wherever I could, in as many different positions as I could. But not everyone has that kind of flexibility (if you will). Maybe you have to sit at a desk, and if that’s the case, Roland offers ideas and advice to make your desk time more dynamic, and, importantly, to make your non-desk time more dynamic to counteract all that undynamic desk time! His advice to keep a log of your daily time spent sitting was also world-rocking. I thought I was pretty dynamic—but there are always more ways to move.
And on that note, it’s time for me to get up, stretch a little, maybe get a cup of licorice tea, and walk to the store to get some supplies for supper for tonight and beyond. Sometimes the Sunday Ritual is really the Wednesday ritual. But as the book says, it doesn’t matter when you do it, so long as you get it done!
Behind the scenes here at Propriometrics Press we’ve been busy editing, proofing, designing, amending, editing some more, proofing some more, designing some more, proofing one more time and then finally sending off to press our forthcoming book Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well, by Roland and Galina Denzel. And amid all that proofing and editing and designing has been so much excitement about this book. The subtitle is 52 Ways to Feel Better in a Week, and it’s been so amazing to have this sneak peek opportunity. Despite the long hours we’ve been pulling getting this book ready to go, we’ve also found time to incorporate some of the Denzels’ lessons in our own daily lives—and we’re so totally super stoked that it’s time to give you a chance to do that, too! In other words…
We are pleased to announce the pre-sale of Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well! Click over to our pre-sale page for all the details. And note, we’re so excited about this book, we’ll pick up the shipping and handling on your order! And we’re offering four of the Denzels’ favorite lessons free when you order, and access to a free online course with Roland and Galina, starting next month. Don’t delay—feel better today!
Propriometrics Press is looking for a director of social media! We are a “practice what you publish” company so rather than hiring a large firm that represents many books full time, we’re looking for someone wanting to do a little part-time work throughout the course of their day, to organically represent the ideas and lifestyles featured in our books.
Conducting author interviews, writing occasional blog posts, monitoring the social media of our authors and building a relationship with their brands and ideas will make up the bulk of this 5-hour a week job. It’s important that you’re a writer with the ability to bring personality and verve to your posts. We want you to be the face of our social media! We are seeking someone who aspires to include graphics and visual features to such posts—bonus if you have an interest and ability in creating them!
Any expertise in publishing is valuable but not essential. What is essential is that you’re stoked on our titles, a hard worker, able to contribute fresh media ideas and not just execute to-do’s, and have a fluidity in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Being positive and funny goes a long way as well!
To apply, create three sample posts for our Twitter, Facebook, and IG (feel free to mock up images using any of our graphics or covers; we’re not looking for perfection, but your presentation and communication style. To that end, please do include links to your own personal social media—we’d love to see your style in action. If you want to include any other pertinent information in your email regarding your work history, please do! Job is a salaried position, $600/mo. Get in touch with us about this at info@propriometricspress.com
Your writing is flawless, your ideas are brilliant, your manuscript is clearly magnificent. What more could a publisher possibly want?
Well, a lot, actually. (Sorry.) There are many ways to impress a publisher, whether you are a seasoned author, a newly signed neophyte, or a writer still trying to land your first book deal. But one of the most straightforward ways you can make a good impression on us is to show that you can use social media, well and wisely.
I love working acquisitions, but I notice common issues with the submissions I receive. So below are a few tips on how to approach a publisher (such as us) with your brilliant idea. These ideas are pretty basic, and if you have not already considered each of these items on your own, then you are almost certainly not ready to pitch just yet. 1. Know your target audience. Imagine who you want to read your book, and think of some ways you will be able to speak to this demographic—both in your writing and through marketing channels. Be well versed in books people in that demographic have likely already read that are similar to your project, and know inside and out how your book is different (see also: item 3). Show the publisher that you understand who must read your book.READ MORE
In the example the Denzels give, you make a simple slow cooker pork pot roast with vegetables, which gives you enough for Sunday night’s supper, and two more suppers later in the week. Just the words slow cooker pork pot roast make me want to hit the kitchen—and thinking about having three suppers done and dusted in one go fills me with glee. Chilly October nights seem like a perfect time to get into this habit.
I’ve been savoring that fresh fruit as it comes in, and doing my best to can and preserve as much as I am able for the long winter nights to come. And with the cooler temperatures here, both day and night, Galina’s advice to sip a sweet-tasting herbal tea like licorice or rooibos feels like exactly the right thing to do while I contemplate my relationship with sugar, and why I want to be in charge, rather than letting sugar run the show.
I concentrated on my gait as best I could, and then I just let my attention wander. I thought about the project I’m writing, and about the work awaiting me in the Propriometrics Press office. I returned to my desk feeling refreshed and nourished by my time outside, spent walking.
His advice to keep a log of your daily time spent sitting was also world-rocking. I thought I was pretty dynamic—but there are always more ways to move.
Behind the scenes here at Propriometrics Press we’ve been busy editing, proofing, designing, amending, editing some more, proofing some more, designing some more, proofing one more time and then finally sending off to press our forthcoming book Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well, by 
