lifestyle

Open post of the week

Bec & Mia

Listen closely. Can you hear it? It’s the sound of holidays fading off into the distance as we head into February and get serious about 2012. Now that kids are back at school and kindy, some of us are back at work and normal life has officially resumed, I have a few things to tell you.

Firstly, Mamamia is launching an ebook publishing division. Yes we are.

This is something we’ve been planning since last year and we’re finally ready to share.

We have several books already close to finished, a few more in the pipeline and a level of excitement that is somewhere around 11 on the dial.

Mamamia Publishing is going to be headed up by Rebecca Sparrow – who will shift from her role as deputy editor of Mamamia and become Managing Editor of MM Publishing. Oh, and she’s having a baby next week. Did I mention 2012 was going to be a big year?

That.

Why are we starting an ebook publishing arm of MM? Bec is the author of several best-selling books. I’ve written 3. We’re both passionate about writing and communicating but as authors – as consumers – we’re a bit disillusioned with the traditional publishing model.

We want to be able to reach a lot of people easily and directly. We want to be able to drill down deeper into some of the fantastic topics we discuss here on the site. And with an audience of 500,000 people (mostly women) every single month, Mamamia is in the perfect position to do that. Which is how the ebook publishing idea was born.

We’re finishing off our first two books which will be released in the next couple of months. We’ll be telling you much more as we get closer so stay tuned. Mamamia Publishing is not going to be just books by me and Bec. Some books will, others will be co-authored with other people and some Bec and I will just commission and edit. It’s already begun and we’re really excited.

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Other news? I’ve decided that I don’t want to be a TV Host. Sky News were amazing to give me the opportunity to host a show last year. How lucky was that? A blank page, a genius exec producer in the form of Paul Zorzi and the freedom to do stories, interview people and cover issues I was passionate about. I learned more than I could have imagined and parts of it I really enjoyed.

But what I actually learned is that TV doesn’t feed me – not in the way writing does. I’m a writer. It’s what I love and what I want to do more of. TV is a demanding beast and it’s just not for me. Love doing my spots on Today Show – where I’m in and out in less than an hour. Not destined to be a host. So no more Mamamia on Sky News this year.

This year is about the site, my column and books.

Bring it.

If you wanted to catch some more pics from the Marriage Equality dinner, check out the Star Observer gallery.

How is your week going? What’s been going on?

PS: If you’re wondering what “OMM” means in the comments below, it’s short for “On My Mind”.