Rubicon Seven: Spreading the Gift of Art

One of Benay's clients, Rubicon Seven, is making huge strides for the art community in New Canaan. Tedrowe Bonner, principal of Rubicon Seven, has transformed the old Post Office Garage Depot (located between Elm and Cherry Streets behind the Dunkin Donuts) into a new arts center. The building, now called the Art House, will offer free studio space to artists. In return, the artists must teach art to local children for free.

"'The idea is that New Canaan was one of the greatest art centers in all of America,' Bonner said in an interview, 'and our aim is to bring back that spirit, to get the artists back in town. To do that, we know that we have to give artists space that is virtually free. We're giving accomplished artists basically free space, but in exchange for that they teach art to kids in the region.'"

The building will be designed and renovated by Norwalk Community College's Art, Architecture and Design students, which will provide them with an invaluable, hands-on experience.

"'Norwalk Community College has a very good design program,' Bonner said. 'Their work is to figure out how to create a green building, a sustainable building, that does not change the iconic nature of this building. A building that uses no fossil fuels, uses the sun, is a good working space for people, and really holds together the fabric of this building.'"

New Canaan is home to an interesting history of architectural design. If you've ever seen Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, then you know what I'm talking about. A quick look at Wikipedia and you'll see how a group of Harvard architects (The Harvard Five as they are now known) designed and erected about 80 modern homes in the '40s-'60s. In the middle of colonial New England, these homes looked out of place and garnered strong reactions. Today, many of the homes are still standing as a testament to the rich history.

There is already a prominent arts center in New Canaan, the Silvermine Arts Center. However, Bonner's goal is to create a more tight-knit community for artists. According to New Canaan News Online, "Bonner said his space will differ from Silvermine in that its virtually free space will allow a small group of artists-in-residence to form a tight creative community. He thinks they could eventually have up to 10 artists-in-residence. Silvermine has a guild of more than 300, according to its website."

It's a rather noble cause, in my opinion, for Bonner and Rubicon Seven to continue to make New Canaan a mecca of modernized architecture and art. The Art House is an ecologically sound building with the intention of freely spreading the gift of art. It will be exciting to see how this new center will impact the community.

Read more about the Art House here.

Learn more about Bonner and Rubicon Seven by visiting their website.

- Marcie Gainer

Hanover Publisher Services: A Helping Hand for Indie Publishers

There has been some new and exciting developments for Benay client, Steerforth Press. They have officially debuted their small press distribution unit, Hanover Publisher Services.

Hanover Publisher Services has been around since early 2010, although they were never formally introduced to the public. Publisher’s Weekly states, “HPS evolved from an informal relationship with its distributor, Random House Publisher Services that allowed the indie house to offer select small presses—with the approval of RHPS—distribution via RHPS, which generally will only work with publishers with more than $500,000 in sales.”

Chip Fleischer, President of HPS and Publisher of Steerforth Press, explains how RHPS president Jeff Abraham expanded Random House’s distribution services. However, RHPS was reluctant to take on small clients. This is where Hanover Publisher Services stepped in. According to Fleischer, HPS “’enables Steerforth to leverage its good working relationship with RHPS and its good understanding of RHPS's complex operating systems.’”

In other words, HPS works for the little man. They get the independent publishers to the mainstream distributor. The whole process is streamlined because, Fleischer noted, ‘it's the same as having a single publisher client with multiple imprints.’” A win-win for everybody.

HPS currently has five clients including For Beginners, Campfire Graphic Novels, New Europe Books, Steerforth and their newest addition, Brooklyn-based Archipelago Books. Fleischer “said that HPS is taking a ‘go slow’ approach to adding new clients, but he also said he will consider adding more publishers if they are ‘the right fit.’”

Read the two articles on this exciting new development here and here.

Learn more about Steerforth Press here.

- Marcie Gainer

The IRS Lends a Helping Hand via YouTube

If hearing the words “April fifteenth” is enough to make your palms sweat, fear not!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

On Monday, March 5^th the IRS released a two-minute video (seen below) entitled “How to Use the Where’s My Refund? Tool” to the YouTube public.  It provides clear, concise steps on how to go about getting your tax refund this season, as well as other information on tax returns.

 

 

The IRS YouTube channel holds many other informational videos, including what to do if your W-2 is missing, how to protect yourself from Identity Theft, and more.  They are mostly organized into playlists found on the home screen.  The main playlist is entitled “Tax Tips” which covers general FAQs that taxpayers have.  Other playlists include “Do Your Taxes for Free,” “Identity Theft,” and “Small Businesses.”

If you do end up with the IRS owing you money this tax season, the good news is that 90% of taxpayers get their returns back within a month’s time.  Some do take a bit longer to process depending on the circumstances.

To find the IRS YouTube channel go to www.youtube.com/user/irsvideos.

Most videos are offered in Spanish, ASL and various other languages.

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! No, it's... SOHO PRESS!

After last week’s blog on success story, Colin Cotterill, and his fresh new novel The Woman Who Couldn’t Die, we once again must pay tribute to the powerhouse publisher and Benay client, Soho Press.

Jim Milliot’s review last week in Publishers Weekly gave Soho Press my – and I’m fairly sure, everyone’s – undivided attention.  Milliot cites the company as having a 96% sales increase from last year’s period, alone.  That’s higher than any other independent publisher across the nation, including Other Press, a neighbor of Soho in Manhattan, BenBella Books out of Dallas, Smithsonian Books out of Washington, D.C. and Ulysses Press over in Berkeley, California.

So what has this stellar valedictorian done to reach the top of its class?  Milliot gives us the inside scoop on four key steps that the publisher has taken to achieve such astronomical success:

Digital Publishing: In last two years Soho has focused many of its efforts on developing the digital sector of the company.  In 2012 e-books accounted for just over half of the company’s total sales, with the format representing 43% of sales for literary titles and 67% of the titles under the Soho Crime imprint.

Marketing and Publicity: Soho nearly doubled their promotional budget from January of 2011 and gave a slight increase to the numbers behind the marketing and publicity team.  They also broadened their advertisement horizons, sticking to traditional media mediums while utilizing the social media boom to their utmost advantage.

Distribution Reform: Seeing the opportunities that could come from working through a large-scale distributor, Soho turned to Random House for distribution services in January 2011 and broadened their outreach significantly, reaching audiences overseas.

General Growth:  In 2013 Soho plans to launch a new imprint for young adult novels called Soho Teen.  The new addition will add 12 titles to the 64 titles that the company has already published.

Soho Press Publisher, Bronwen Hruska

And the best part, if you can even believe that it get better - they are just so darn down-to-earth!  Look no further than the About Us page to see for yourselves.  Among other things, the Soho team boasts the qualities of a former cactus model, self-proclaimed habitual defector, and greek yogurt lover.  Publisher Bronwen Hruska pokes a bit of fun at herself, saying “None of the screenplays [I] sold were ever made into movies so you can’t watch them.” 

Hruska has had a bit of additional success recently with her book Accelerated – a gripping commentary on the tendency that our society has to jump the gun on ADD and ADHD diagnoses in children.

All in all, she and her team seem to achieve the embodiment of modern grace, thriving in the fast-paced culture of today’s business world without selling their souls.  It’s one of the more refreshing things I’ve seen to date.  I’d recommend Soho for any young professional as a good business model simply because, ladies and gentlemen, Soho Press is on fire.

If you’d like to learn more about Soho Press, visit their website at http://www.sohopress.com/

- Colleen McClintock

An Intern's Farewell

So this just may be the corniest blog, I’ve ever written; the kind of blog that should come with one of those cheesy fake surgeon’s general warnings on it. This one’s getting sappy, folks, so if you’re one of those people who eats Chunky Monkey with a spoon the size of a shovel every time you get a little sad, you might want to step away from the freezer…

Put down that spoon!

Now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you about my experience as an intern at Benay Enterprises. Today marks the final day of my internship. Though, I am happy to have gained an invaluable experience over the past 5 months, the time has come for me to explore other options and take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. However, the beginning of the rest of my life may not have been if it weren’t for this unbelievable organization, as my experience here has instilled within me the qualities I will need to succeed in life.

The bittersweet end approaches ever so swiftly. With only an hour left in my time here, I cannot help but to look back to 5 months ago, when I first joined the Benay team. I had absolutely no office experience; I didn’t even know how to operate the scanner properly. Still, Dawn saw a quality within my writing that gave her the impression I could play a unique and necessary role in the office. She believed in me as a writer, and took a chance on a young guy who was fresh out of college.

Merrilee, Susan, and the rest of the friendly Benay employees took the time to teach me the ropes, no matter how busy they may have been handling royalties, back office functions, or bookkeeping needs for their valued clients. Eventually, with lots of trial and error, I became a functioning part of the well-oiled machine that is Benay. 

Witnessing first-hand the hard work and dedication it requires to run a business smoothly has paid dividends and has taught me a new level of professionalism, one which I will undoubtedly carry myself with for the remainder of my career. Moreover, the time each Benay staff member has dedicated to helping me grow as an individual will forever be appreciated.

Just last week, I walked into a job interview in midtown Manhattan, and even though there were dozens of applicants in the waiting room with me, I knew I was going to get the job. I knew that once I got the chance to tell the board members about my experience with Benay, all the qualifications I had surmounted in such a short period of time, they would not be able to turn me away. Sure enough, I received a call even before I could get home, and the job was mine.

Benay Enterprises tells their clients, “Do what you do best, and let Benay do the rest.” Well, the same statement holds true for my experience here as an intern. I was given the creative control over the company’s blog, and my blogs received quite a bit of attention, resulting in a recent offer to write a column for a local Danbury news site, The Mercurial, that had been re-publishing some of my blogs all along. Furthermore, FLW Magazine, the leading publication in the world of bass fishing (my other passion), was so impressed with the promotional pieces I wrote for Benay and For Beginners, they decided to give me a monthly one page article in their nationally circulated magazine.

Though I would like to say that I have done as much for Benay as Benay has done for me, I simply cannot because this company has given me the exposure and important contacts I needed in order to break into the world of writing. The experience alone has been worth more than my entire undergraduate career, and for that I cannot thank Benay enough. However, I am now moving on to work and write copy for an organization in Manhattan. Though I am destined to a dreadful commute, I look forward to this opportunity that never would have happened without Benay Enterprises. As a side note, if anybody out there is looking for a roommate within a short commute to the city, feel free to let me know J. More importantly, and I don’t have to say this because I won’t be here tomorrow to face any sorts of consequences should I admit otherwise, if you or your organization is ever in need of financial services or back office functions, I highly recommend you get in touch with the dedicated professionals and bookkeepers at Benay Enterprises.

For the last time,

-Mike Iovino

Another Soho Press Success

"Laughter is a subversive weapon when you live under a repressive regime. That's the take-away lesson from Colin Cotterill's gravely funny novels set in Indochina in the 1970s."

New York Times Book Review

Soho Press continues to gain recognition from readers worldwide, widening eyes with their new mystery title, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die. This long-awaited follow-up to 2011's Slash & Burn and the ninth installment in Colin Cotterill's bestselling mystery series stars the inimitable Lao national coroner, Dr. Siri, a man extraordinarily intrigued by the dead souls he examines every day.

After a woman is shot and killed in her bed during a burglary and her body burned in traditional Lao fashion, she pulls a Lazarus, reappearing three days later with only one distinguishing difference; she can now communicate with the dead. Her clairvoyance persuades the long-dead brother of a Lao general to enlist her in helping his brother uncover his remains, which have been lost at the bottom of a river for many years.

Dr. Siri is sent along to supervise the excavation, and convinced that this will be a relaxing voyage, he persuades his wife, Madame Daeng, to join them. However the couple’s vacation soon turns into a thought provoking journey when questions arise concerning what the group is really digging for at the bottom of this remote river on the Thai border.

Soho Press is a phenomenal independent publisher of literary fiction and international crime. Their recent recognition by the New York Times comes to no surprise. Since 1986, they have been releasing attention-garnering titles such as The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die, and will certainly continue to do so in the upcoming years. To check out their full catalogue including all 2013 releases, visit their site at www.sohopress.com.

-Mike Iovino

Effective Addiction Treatment from Caring Experts at Family Intervention Center

Family Intervention Center

Addiction is a life threatening disease. Fortunately, there are kind and knowledgeable professionals who can help those struggling to regain control of their lives.


Benay's new client, Family Intervention Center, has promoted wellness through education, intervention and treatment since 1991. This non-profit social agency provides a continuum of services, tackling addiction and mental health issues that affect families all over Connecticut.

Education

From their office in Waterbury, Connecticut, the experts at the Family Intervention Center aid school systems state-wide in implementing effective Peer Help and Mediation programs to prevent social injustices such as bullying and verbal harassment. School personnel are thoroughly trained to help students with their often overlooked exposure to stress and addiction.

Intervention

As a licensed Substance Abuse and Mental Health Outpatient Clinic, Family Intervention Center provides an exceptional counseling program for those plagued by drug use, alcoholism, gambling and eating disorders. Their health industry professionals will work with families and loved ones to arrange planned interventions for individuals in need. Their ability to communicate with feelings, facts, love and concern motivates those who are addicted to seek the treatment they require.

Treatment

After evaluating individuals and defining the issues clients face, clinicians develop unique plans of action tailored to each patient's needs. Providing programs for co-dependence, anger, families and youths, the Family Intervention Center aims to help those who are both directly and indirectly affected by the disease of addiction.

Next Steps?

If you know someone who struggles with addiction, I urge you to contact the Family Intervention Center. 

Reach them at 203-753-2153 or email jfutschik@famintervention.com. Visit online at www.familyinterventioncenter.org or stop by their office at 22 Chase River Road in Waterbury to seek the assistance you or your loved ones may require.

Do What You Do Best, and Let Benay Do the Rest!

At Benay, we are honored to provide business management services that enable Family Intervention Center to focus resources and staff time on what they do best -- helping clients affected by addiction.

If you know an organization that would benefit from our financial management and back-office services, please give me a call or an email. We'll do everything we can to help them fulfill their mission!