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Nov 22 – Nov 28, 2010 Edition Young Publishing Group CelebrateS National Book Awards

NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/November 22, 2010—The Association of American Publishers’ Young to Publishing Group hosted the inaugural House Party: A Celebration of the National Book Awards on Wednesday, November 17 with more than 450 guests in attendance. The event took place at Random House.

The NBA House Party was planned by a committee of fifteen Young to Publishing Group members and volunteers representing various publishing houses and literary agencies. It was designed and produced by Jes Gordon of properFUN, who brought her downtown sensibility to a light-hearted celebration of the National Book Awards, one of the nation’s preeminent literary prizes.

The Young to Publishing Group partnered with the National Book Foundation to secure an exclusive live feed of the awards ceremony to the NBA House Party, allowing greater access to the Awards.

“We at the National Book Foundation were thrilled to be part of the NBA House Party and we applaud the organizers’ initiative,” said Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. “Bringing a live feed to hundreds of people creates a wonderful excitement, which we hope to not only duplicate but expand next year, using this year’s streaming as an example. And what energy in developing tweets and thought-provoking contests to make the experience even more fun than it already is!”

The Young to Publishing Group celebrated the launch of the MyNBA Awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in fields outside the National Book Awards categories. Voting took place online, and the winners were:

Best Blog to Book: SH** MY DAD SAYS by Justin Halpern (It Books) Most Innovative All-Around Campaign: THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books) Favorite Hero(ine) Under 35: Katniss Everdeen, MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press) Best Film Adaptation of a Book: THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES by Ben Mezrich (into) THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Doubleday) Best Overall Pageturner: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

At the party, an auction to benefit Literacy Partners raised $2000 for the New York City-based organization. “Literacy Partners was very excited to be the partnering charity with the Young to Publishing Group at the NBA House Party,” said Susan McLean, Executive Director of Literacy Partners. “The charity auction was a huge success and the proceeds from the auction will directly support adult literacy students in our free community based programs. At Literacy Partners we believe that the ability to read is an essential element of an enriched and fulfilling life and our partnership on this event was the perfect match for that mission.”

The NBA House Party partnered with Square—the payment system backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey—to allow guests use of a credit card to purchase auction tickets. The Square is a one-inch gizmo that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad or Android phone and has a thin slot to swipe a credit card. The device and the Square app are free. More than half of the auction tickets sold at the event were sold using Square, greatly increasing overall donations to Literacy Partners.

For more information about the group and the event, visit www.youngtopublishing.com/houseparty.

The Young to Publishing Group (YPG) is an initiative of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) that strives to give junior industry employees a chance to build a community outside of their own publishing house and to educate themselves about the publishing industry as a whole. For more information, please visit www.youngtopublishing.com.