Cover Reveal: Tales from the Bully Box

I’m so excited to share this cover with you! I simply love what author and designer Sarah Tregay created for the latest Elephant’s Bookshelf Press anthology, Tales from the Bully Box, which launches our “Colors for Causes” series. Sarah also has a story in the anthology.

Bully Box, which was edited by the wonderful CatWoods, is a collection of anti-bullying stories for middle grade readers. As Cat writes, "I wanted to share the work of amazing authors who work hard to make this world a stronger, safer place for everyone regardless of where they come from or what they look like. In the process, I chose ordinary stories with ordinary characters, because bullying is an ordinary event that happens to ordinary people."

The result is an extraordinary collection.

The genesis of this project was a teenager who wanted to stop the bullying she experienced in her school in Minnesota. She created what is now called Building Relationships Against Violence Everywhere (BRAVE). Cat, who in many ways was the catalyst behind my establishing EBP, suggested we create an anti-bullying anthology for middle grade readers. I’d never heard of such a thing before, but one of the advantages of being a small publisher is we can – and I’d argue must – do things differently.

As many of you know, EBP is a for-profit publishing company, but we have the soul of a nonprofit organization. We endeavor to help developing writers achieve their goals of achieving publication and developing an audience. At the same time, we have found ourselves working with authors who want more than simply seeing their book published: they aim to make a difference. For example, the proceeds from our novel Battery Brothers by Steven Carman (who also has a story in this collection) will go to the Sunshine Foundation, which was the first wish-granting organization in the United States.

Bully Box is in production now and will be available through all the usual vehicles within a few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to share this cover and let people know what we’re doing. We aim to get this collection in schools and work with educators to help them fight back against bullying in their schools. I will discount prices for teachers who can share the books with their students. And a healthy portion of what EBP brings in from Bully Box will help organizations working in this field.

Our next anthology will be published in 2015. It also will have a cause at its heart, and I’m looking forward to sharing more about that soon.