aois21 media partners with Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts

Alliance of local lawyers supports DC-area artists with classes and pro bono work

MOUNT VERNON, VA – aois21 media, LLC announced today a partnership with Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, which will provide the company with legal guidance and support as well as law experts for aois21 podcasts and events.

From their website, waladc.com:

Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts began in 1983 as a unique collaboration of lawyers and artists to fulfill a mission to serve artists in need of legal knowledge and assistance. Since then, WALA has supported artistic expression and creative innovation serving the legal needs of the arts and cultural communities in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia.

As our company has grown and expanded into new markets, we have had reason to need legal advice. Additionally, there are many topics we have had interest in covering on our various podcast series that would benefit from the legal subject matter experts who are part of the WALA alliance. As aois21 maps out the coming months, having the legal guidance of WALA will help make sure the staff and Creatives get the support they need.

"It is always amazing to me that we can find exactly what we’re looking for exactly when we need it,” said Keith F. Shovlin, aois21’s publisher. "We met Executive Director John C. Good at the DC Author Fest and were eager to sign up, not only for the good of our company, but also for our Creatives and those who will benefit from the information we will help them share."

aois21 announces fifth and final aois21 annual

Literary magazine has suffered from failing sales, interest

MOUNT VERNON, VA – aois21 media, LLC is happy to announce that the fifth aois21 annual will be released this fall, but it will be the last due to weak sales and falling submission rates.

For the past four years, the aois21 annual has brought literary and art works from around the globe together in a concise magazine that we have assembled with great pride. Rising print costs and low sales necessitated a move to an all-digital release the past two years. This allowed us to experiment with different digital presentations and include audio and video submissions. This change, though, also led to an even starker decrease in sales and a 40% decrease in submissions from the previous year.

Past contributors to the aois21 annual have gone on to much success. Michael B. Judkins became an aois21 Creative after submitting material for the 2015 aois21 annual. Brendan Loper drew an original comic for the 2015 annual and now appears regularly in the New Yorker. Dr. Deepan Chatterjee shared some new work beyond his poetry and short fiction and now writes regularly for Huffington Post. And beyond the contributors, two videos recorded for the 2017 annual led to the launch of a new aois21 video series, 21 seconds, capturing real life 21 seconds at a time.

“It is with a heavy heart that we decided it was time to let the annual go,” said Keith F. Shovlin, aois21’s publisher. “When you consider the amount of time and effort that went into creating the magazine, the community reaction was not worth it. Those who submitted their work deserve better, and this will allow them to pursue other journals that can suit them better.”

This year’s annual will be released in October. It has not yet been decided whether it will return to print for this final edition. If so, a crowdfunding campaign would launch in June to help cover the costs of printing. After its release, a launch event will be held at Walls of Books in Washington, DC.

aois21 media celebrates 4th birthday with long list of accomplishments

A strong shift toward new media marked fourth year

MOUNT VERNON, VA – aois21 media, LLC celebrates its fourth birthday on May 8th and looked back at the accomplishments of the past year in an event at Walls of Books in Washington, DC on May 4th. The independent media company’s fourth year included these accomplishments:

• Changed course from books to expanded media under a new name. At last year’s birthday party, we officially became aois21 media, signaling our growth beyond books and increased focus on audio and video content. We are a storytelling company and want to help others tell their stories.
• Released the fourth aois21 annual. After forgoing another crowdfunding campaign, we continued the annual in an all-digital format. The launch event was held at Walls of Books in Washington, DC, and broadcast on Periscope and later on YouTube.
• Signed two new Creatives. We announced a moratorium on new Creatives, allowing for only those we were currently in negotiations with, including Tommy Reynolds, author of a forthcoming novel telling the story of an American family told through the history of baseball. We also signed podcast host and writer Evan Tucker as a Creative, showing our shift in focus away from books alone.
• Released new titles. We released the third book in the HIVE series, HIVE: A Matter of Gravity, by James D. King, as well as the long-awaited American Presidents at War, by Thomas P. Athridge, which led aois21 sales for several months.
• Launched three new podcast series and joined new networks. Our audio series continued to grow, first with a new website, audio.aois21.com. aois21 Creative Evan Tucker launched his third podcast series, the first educational series from aois21, History of the Symphony, recorded live at Grace Methodist Church in Baltimore, MD. This 10-week course will be running monthly through 2018. After putting her original podcast on ice last May, aois21 Creative Aylin Vega returned to the airwaves with cohost Drusilla Vincent in the new sexuality podcast Two Girls, One Joint. Stepping into the world of politics in this midterm election year, aois21 Creative Deepan Chatterjee, PhD, and his wife, Shreyasi Deb, PhD, launched Between the Beltways, sharing political news from the central Maryland counties of Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s. Several series are also now available on Spotify.
• Organized and participated in many events. We hit the road and took part in book fairs in Fairfax, Falls Church, and Charlottesville, VA; Gaithersburg and Kensington, MD; and in DC for DC Author Fest. We partnered with Walls of Books in DC for a series of popular events in December as part of our #GiveABook campaign. The most popular of those events are now held monthly at the independent used bookstore, with aois21 Creatives and staff stopping by.
• Hired new staff. With the increased podcast production, we welcomed Gareth Phillips as audio consultant, helping to produce History of the Symphony and Between the Beltways. John Mulcahy, Chief of Visual Design, has also taken on some duties for video production.
• Explored new opportunities. We worked with a new vendor, National Pen Company, to acquire three popular giveaway items: pens, monthly planners, and phone stands. We took part in the Fairfax County Book Club Conference and met prospective readers. We also helped with the launch of the Possibilities Conference in April, organized by the Possibilities Publishing Company and Social Media Rescue.

"Each accomplishment is an opportunity to do something more," said Keith F. Shovlin, aois21’s publisher. "I’m amazed by everything we’ve been able to achieve, and excited by everything that is yet to come. Here’s to a fifth lap around the sun!"