May 31

MEF Bruce Rutledge’s Chin Music Press launches innovative “BooksRX”

Books, Cultural Outreach, Notable JET Alums, Writers Comments Off on MEF Bruce Rutledge’s Chin Music Press launches innovative “BooksRX”

MEF Bruce Rutledge, founder of Seattle-based independent book publisher Chin Music Press and editor of Ibuki magazine, has launched an innovative new approach to independent book publishing:

Mail-Order Medicine For Your Mind!

Announcing BooksRX In 2010, small independent publisher Bellevue Literary Press won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with Paul Harding’s Tinkers – the first time a small press had won the award since 1981! In 2011, the media bombards us with tales of Amazon’s digital books gobbling up demand for the printed page, and yet small presses continue to pop up all over the US and Canada.

With the book business in a state of flux, we here at Chin Music Press believe that independent publishers are poised to carry the banner of the publishing world far into the 21st century. We are fortunate to find ourselves in a literal consortium of visionary presses who refuse to believe the media’s Doomsday prophecies foretelling the slow demise of the printed book. In fact, we’re convinced that our fellow indie publishers offer the perfect elixirs for eager readers and despairing booksellers alike.

Beginning June 1, Chin Music Press will offer BooksRX, a quarterly curated collection of the best that North American independent publishers have to offer. We’re excited to prescribe publishers, writers and artists whom we think should be a part of any literary medicine cabinet. BooksRX ensures that you’re getting your recommended dose of vitamin READ.

“BooksRX is undoubtedly the gateway drug for unsuspecting readers into the world of independent book publishing!”

Dr. R. Max Sneezeworthy, Literary Division, US Department of Health and Human Services

Available as a single dosage (one issue) or as a full regimen (annual subscription), each installment of BooksRX is a limited edition of 100 and arranged around a loose theme. Our first issue is inspired by our passion for finding new ways to tell stories from and about Japan.

• Monkey Business: New Voices From Japan A bold new collection including short stories, poems, an interview with author Haruki Murakami and more curated by Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, and presented by A Public Space
• An exclusive hand-numbered, signed and limited edition giclee print from L.J.C. Shimoda, fine artist and illustrator of OH! a mystery of mono no aware
• Kuhaku and Other Accounts From Japan Our first book (and manifesto to holistic book design) featuring essays and art by Roland Kelts, Craig Mod, kozyndan, Sumie Kawakami and an irreverent but highly informative glossary of Japanese terms.

BooksRX is available exclusively through the Chin Music Press online store:

• Single dose (one issue): $40 including shipping to US and Canada ($10 extra for shipping to international destinations)
• Full prescription (four quarterly issues, save $20): $140 including shipping to US and Canada, ($35 extra for shipping to international destinations)