ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS is the first collective memoir of an entire generation of women--and what a generation it is. Women born between 1940-1945 (my generation!) danced to Elvis, went to college, burned our bras, married and had babies (or sometimes just had babies), climbed career ladders, and fought gender discrimination. ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS helps us understand the social contexts within which our stories have taken place. It is impressively conceived and vividly told. Susan Wittig Albert, best-selling author of the China Bayles mystery series, founder of the Story Circle Network ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS is a unique combination of personal stories, research, history, art and the author's own reflections, engagingly written and beautifully presented. This is social history without the turgid prose, a compilation of interviews without the annoying interruption of flow, even a motivational book without the saccharine, in the appealing voice of a perceptive author. Women who want to reflect constructively on their own lives will find much that is helpful here, as will students seeking to understand an era that powerfully affects their own. Indeed, ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS offers to all a prototype of how to present a rich feast of important information in an appealing, accessible way. Geneva Overholser, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting, University of MO; and past Editor, Des Moines Register a masterful job of weaving many voices into a text that is easy to read and filled with Aha!moments. ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS is a stunning contribution to the history of the `movement in America. I take it as a given that ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS will be a textbook in every Women's Studies course across the country, but it deserves a wide readership among the general public as well. ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS helps me understand who those women were, the forces that shaped them, and how very rough and rocky the terrain was before they passed by. Beth Proudfoot, Director of the East of Eden Writers Conference ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS will resonate not only with those born in the early 1940s but with those of us who arrived a decade later, when sex-segregated help-wanted ads still prevailed and when women interested in math and science careers were steered toward school teaching and nursing. Our daughters, sons, and grandchildren will learn of the experiences, triumphs, and failures of this generation through interviews, anecdotes, and historic photos in ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett have given us a provocative personal history of our time. Christine L. Borgman, Professor & Presidential Chair in Information Studies, Univ. of California, Los Angeles Diving into the memoir, ROSIE'S DAUGHTERS, was like reading a fun history book where I recognized five generations of my own family. I love the unique format of this book. If I were studying history, I could cram for the test just by riding the ;fast track; timeline that runs across the bottom of each page. It is evident that Butler and Bonnett are not only scholars and psychologists, but compassionate human-being who have added a significant chapter to our U.S. history books. Betty Auchard, speaker and award-winning memoir author, Dancing in My Nightgown
"Why bother to publish?" asks author, editor and marketing executive Kendra Bonnett. "The average US author spends months, even years, writing a book only to sell fewer than 100 copies." Of the 1.2 million books Nielsen Bookscan follows, 950,000 titles have sold fewer than 99 copies.
Kendra often asks her audiences: "Which of these statements is true? (1) My publisher will ensure that I have a well-marketed book. (2) All I need to do is get my book listed on Amazon and my sales will take off. (3) I don't need to worry; I'm just using my book as a glorified business card to build creds and win new clients. The answer? None of the above." Most authors believe at least one of these statements, and that's their fatal mistake. Using her marketing experience, writing talent and Internet know-how, Kendra guides authors in search of book sales or new business.
The bottom line is this: The day an author decides to write a book, the process begins. She must define her audience, create innovative sales tactics, and build readership (a list). "Quite simply," says Kendra, "the day you start writing your book you also must start selling yourself...and what better first step than to start blogging?"
Most recently, Kendra is co-author of Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story. This collective memoir of women born during WWII is a 2008 IPPY Book Award winner and compelling for the many ways it engages readers-through the inclusion of memoir vignettes from more than 100 women, quotes from famous Rosie's Daughters, iconic images of the 20th century, interpretive narrative and a timeline. After all, why shouldn't a reader's experience be as entertaining, as effortless, as worthwhile as possible? Reading a book should be as enjoyable as picking up a magazine. And it's an important aspect to marketing and selling one's book.
Kendra brings her extensive experience to bear on each client's individual needs-experience gained in more than 25 years using marketing to sell books, magazines, hardware, software, and business-to-business services. She specializes in giving her clients methods that enable their prospects and customers to make educated buying decisions. Her secret? Translating technical, often-complex features into simple, compelling benefits. For her business clients, she imbues raw specs with emotion and value. For her author clients, she helps them use their personal narrative to build loyal readers.
Kendra has started three magazines, including the award-winning Profit Magazine for IBM. She left IBM to assist former Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon with research and spent 18 months interviewing more than 100 leaders from the worlds of business, finance, government and sports, including President Gerald Ford; Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz; CEO of W. R. Grace & Co. and President Reagan appointee to head The Grace Commission on waste and inefficiency in government, J.Peter Grace; journalist Jack Anderson; and Wall Street's William "Billy" Salomon of Salomon Brothers.
In 1996 she joined the marketing firm Mark Stevens & Company and served as its president two years later. She began working with the Internet around the same time. And in April 1998 she hosted a two-hour satellite broadcast about Internet opportunities for small and growing businesses, sponsored by IBM and the US Chamber of Commerce.
Kendra is an award-winning author who has written more than 150 magazine articles and written, edited or ghostwritten seven books, including An IBM Guide to Doing Business on the Internet (McGraw-Hill, 2000). She graduated cum laude from Arizona State University with degrees in history and anthropology, has a Master's degree in history from The College of William and Mary and further graduate studies in history at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
