Donald A Tubesing

please also visit
AlbertoStoneworks.com
PfeiferHamilton.com

PUBLISHING

The challenge of helping people develop their ideas into book form, then packaging and producing a quality product and bringing it to market—that whole process has been one of the most rewarding opportunities of my professional life. Nancy and I had the opportunity to create a flexible workplace, gather a staff of highly skilled, value-oriented people, and focus our efforts on creating and marketing one-of-a-kind books, one at a time. We worked almost exclusively with first time authors, and we selected those with messages that could make a positive difference in people’s lives. Why try to make a living by promoting messages that don’t matter?

The success of these ventures and the authors and artists who trusted us with their work continues to bring me great personal satisfaction. Along the way, I learned to relish the intricacies and quirks of the independent book publishing industry and those who make their living in it—a great group of people. I eventually had the privilege of serving as President of their national association, the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Whole Person Associates: Whole Person Associates, founded in 1977 by Don and Nancy, is an educational training company focused on providing stress-management and wellness-promotion teaching materials for professionals in medicine, ministry, social work, HR, education and counseling.

Over the past 30+ years, Whole Person Associates has remained a leader in the interdisciplinary approach to combining the best insights of ministry, medicine and behavioral health. Whole Person Associates continues its success today under the leadership of a long-term employee, who assumed full ownership at the end of 2003. See www.wholeperson.com.

Pfeifer-Hamilton: In 1985, the Tubesings founded their third publishing company. Originally intended as a small regional publisher, Pfeifer-Hamilton was lucky enough to “discover” many first-time authors. The company won several major awards, including two American Bookseller’s Book of the Year awards for Old Turtle (1993) and The Quiltmaker’s Gift (2000), two International Reading Association’s Best Book for Young Readers award (Old Turtle, 1993 and Reach for the Moon, 1995), as well as a host of Ben Franklin Awards. Several titles reached national best seller lists. In all, its 53 titles won 124 national and regional awards, and 46 of the titles have remained in print for 20 plus years.

Pfeifer-Hamilton became somewhat of a legend in the publishing world for its unorthodox and creative marketing approaches, three times winning the Independent Book Publisher Association’s annual award for Best Single National Book Marketing Campaign, and twice being honored as Midwest Independent Publishers of the Year. See www.pfeiferhamilton.com.

In 1993, the Tubesings were awarded the Blandin Foundation Entrepreneurs of the Year award and were nominated by Congressman James Oberstar for the national Entrepreneur of the Year award.

When Don and Nancy retired in 2001, they sold the regional Pfeifer-Hamilton line to the University of Minnesota Press, and the children’s picture book titles to Scholastic, for whom they actively continued to scout and consult.

Old Turtle

The Quilt maker's Gift

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