About Us

Please contact us at the information below to set up a consultation or to find out when our next workshop or group presentation will be held. Face-to-face consulting services are $200 for a 2-3 hour consultation, payable at the time of the meeting.

Rita Mills — Owner & Project Manager
The Book Connection
rita@bookconnectiononline.com

Rita Mills’ passions are the First Amendment, books, and literacy, so it is understandable that her career would take its charted path.

In the early ’70s she started a 20-year stint at a major metropolitan newspaper, The Houston Post, where ink permanently took up residence in her blood. She left there in the early ’90s to become the Managing Editor of Arte Publico Press at the University of Houston where she organized their production department and coordinated a half-million dollar annual print budget. While there, Rita also helped with the start-up of a new children’s picture book imprint, Pinata Books.

After what turned into a 4-year apprenticeship in the book publishing business, she left the University of Houston to start her own business, The Book Connection, where she consults with small and independent presses in proper book-publishing-industry standards and protocol. The Book Connection utilizes 35+ freelance individuals with book-specific experience in all areas of writing, editing, design, illustration, marketing and public relations. She guides her clients through the publishing maze to produce and sell bookstore-quality books. She is a resource for the printing of all types of books from B&W interiors (printed in the USA) to 4-color books (printed in Hong Kong).

Her 19 years in the book business has resulted in the packaging and consulting on more than 400 different titles, ranging from simple mass-market paperbacks to hard-cover, coffee-table books. Included in this smorgasbord of books are a 4-book reference set; companion books for two PBS series; 30 hard-cover children’s picture books; 6 cookbooks; 8 books used as fund raisers for nonprofits; and 11 books that have won various publishing awards.

Rita’s passion for literacy has led her to get involved with several local Houston charities that deal with childhood literacy including Operation Storytime and Gifts with Heart.

Her latest endeavor takes her back to her newspaper roots in the form of an online newspaper called The New Era Times.

Some of the Book Connection’s Freelancers

• Rebeca Eigen — Graphic Design
• Debbie Frontiera — Editing and Writing
• Victor Higginbotham — Illustration
• Danette Kubanda — Public Relations
• Sandy Lawrence — Marketing
• Vicki Mark — Graphic Design
• Gladys Ramirez — Graphic Design
• Deena Schoenfeldt — Ebook Conversions
• Peggy Sue Skipper — Critique Evaluations
• Peggy Stautberg — Critique Evaluations
• Melinda Taylor — Website Design
• Shirin Wright — Editing