The Healing Power of Anger, Dr. John Rifkin’s 3-step approach to “unbending” anger, has been nominated for a William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association. The William James Book Award is given to a recent book that serves to integrate material across psychological subfields or provides coherence to the diverse matter of psychology (from the American Psychological Association’s Web site).

Conventional wisdom views anger as red-hot yelling and screaming, a force to be feared and repressed. But psychotherapist John Rifkin views anger in a revolutionary way: as the natural energy created to heal one’s emotional injuries.

In The Healing Power of Anger, Rifkin explains how to identify dysfunctional uses of anger so that readers can “unbend” it and become empowered and self-nurturing. To do so, he explains his Stop, Drop, and Roll system, which he’s used with clients for more than 20 years. In addition, Rifkin explores the childhood roots of anger, the spectrum of angry behavior, how anger can be a gift to a relationship, and ice-cold passive-aggressive anger. He also discusses anger’s links to addictions, anxiety, mood disorders, and difficulties with emotional intimacy. Readers will come away with new insights into their emotions and behavior and new skills for using their anger in a healthy, functional manner.

Take Dr. Rifkin’s anger quiz and discover how anger can positively change your life.

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POD companies can enable the publishing of a lot more than just traditional manuscripts. Writer for the television show Babylon 5 J. Michael Straczynski has figured that out.

He says he has sold over 18,000 copies of volumes of his scripts, packaged with seven scripts and additional notes in each approximately 450-page volume.

Selling at $40 each through CafePress, Straczynski projects he will do $1.5 million in sales from 14 different volumes.

Read the USA Today article here [via Publisher’s Lunch].

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While Cosimo didn’t have a booth at BookExpo in DC this year, we were there, walking the beat, meeting people, and spotting trends. If you weren’t able to attend the festivities this year, or you just want a pleasant trip back down memory lane, you’ll be pleased to know that BookExpo America is offering free podcasts from 24 of the favorite events and sessions at bookexpocast.com. They’re not all being released at once — there are five up on the site right now.

There are also some special “What’s the Buzz” interviews available, including an interview with AAP President Pat Schroeder, buzz on opportunities in China, new titles, and more. You can also subscribe to the podcast by e-mail, iTunes, or other podcasting software. Don’t have an iPod? You don’t need one — you can listen along on your computer.

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Cosimo, Inc. announced that it has agreed to acquire the Paraview Press and Paraview Special Editions imprints from Paraview.com, Inc. This is the result of a reorganization at Paraview.com, whereby the latter will focus on its co-imprint with Simon & Schuster, Paraview Pocket Books.

This is an important step in fulfilling Cosimo’s objective to create a balanced portfolio of books online that appeal to cultural creative audiences. “Cultural Creatives” refers to a global audience of approximately 250 million people who are interested in health and science, media and culture, personal development, politics and society.

As part of the reorganization at Paraview.com, Alexander M. Dake is stepping down as its CEO and will continue as CEO of Cosimo. Mr. Dake said of this transaction:

“This transaction is the right thing to do for Paraview.com, Cosimo and the authors involved. It gives the best opportunity for each company to grow and develop: Paraview will dedicate its resources to its joint imprint with Pocket Books, while Cosimo will focus on the Paraview Press and Paraview Special Editions imprints as well as continue to expand its existing library of Classics and new titles. I believe that this focused approach will benefit our authors who look to get published fast and have their voices heard effectively.”

Cosimo will continue to use the Paraview name on the acquired books. The Paraview titles involved in this transaction will continue to be listed on paraview.com and now on cosimobooks.com.

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The DaVinci Code opened to a $220 million weekend, sending more people to the bookstores to buy a copy of the book. Dan Brown’s bestseller has peeled the veil of mystery away from one of the more secret societies today, but there are more that still exist — the Druids, the Illuminati, the Freemasons… Cosimo offers a two-volume set, Secret Societies of All Ages & Countries, that explores their worlds and more. First published in 1875 and completely revised and updated in 1897, this remains the definitive, authoritative guide to secret societies… and to the spiritual evolution of humanity they represent.

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The 5/15 issue Publisher’s Lunch featured an interesting piece on the death of the independent bookstore, with a link to the article on Slate.com. The mention of print-on-demand and self-publishing technologies is heartening!

Slate features a characteristically pointed piece by George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen that uses Laura Miller’s book Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption as a lens for asking “what are independent bookstores really good for?” Cowen maintains: “Our attachment to independent bookshops is, in part, affectation — a self-conscious desire to belong a particular community (or to seem to). Patronizing indies helps us think we are more literary or more offbeat than is often the case.”

His larger case is two-fold: Chain stores often provide more choice in terms of books available, and better prices, and the real “independent spirit” in bookselling is found on the Internet, where the chains have lost.

Amazon reader reviews, blogs such as Bookslut, and eBay, the world’s largest book auction market, all are flourishing and are doing so outside the reach of the major corporate booksellers.

Print-on-demand and self-publishing technologies are booming. Along with Google and other search engines, they will allow niche titles to persist in our memories for a long time to come. This is the flip side of the same computerization that elevated Wal-Mart and Borders: Information technology brings more voices into book evaluation and supply.

Read Slate.com’s full article here.

Our own editrix MaryAnn Johanson comments on the POD/Internet library phenomenon in her article, “Building the Internet Bookshelf.”

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