PPN Honors Brooke Warner with Distinguished Service Award

Brooke Warner, founder of Bay Area hybrid publishers She Writes Press and SparkPress, is the recipient of the Publishing Professionals Network’s 2024 Distinguished Service Award. PPN conferred the honor at its annual conference in Berkeley, Calif., on April 26. According to PPN, the DSA, established in 1982, recognizes “the contributions of those across the industry who work toward promoting excellence through education, career development, and community building.”

In her acceptance, Warner said, “I've been working from the get-go, since I started SheWrites Press 12 years ago, to level the playing field for authors.” She explained that her “core goal” in the industry has been “upholding standards for all nontraditionally published authors,” including by developing criteria for hybrid publishing. Warner is a former chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association and present chair of the Bay Area Book Festival, to be held this June 1–2. 

“I have long admired how tirelessly Brooke works to educate both authors and her fellow colleagues in the publishing industry, especially given how opaque and seemingly irrational our industry can be,” PPN advisory board member and previous DSA recipient Johanna Vondeling wrote in a statement. “We all benefit when Brooke weighs in on controversial topics with her unique, circumspect, and deeply ethical perspectives.”