According to a Gallup survey commissioned by the American Booksellers Association, some 9.9 million African-Americans purchase about 39.7 million books in any given quarter. Pushkin Management Group, a full-service literary management firm, was established to help its clients reach this growing market. Specializing in creative marketing campaigns, the agency is attracting the eyes of authors and major publishers alike. The firm offers a full range of services including: direct marketing, organizing literary tours, media planning and event marketing. Promising writers turn to Pushkin for editing services and assistance in manuscript submissions to appropriate editorial personnel. Areas of focus are women's issues, self-help, career management and entrepreneurship. Its clients have been featured in Self, Essence, USA Today and the Chicago Sun Times. Established in 1992, BlackBoard bestsellers, Opal Palmer Adisa, Debrena Jackson Gandy, Donna Marie Williams and B.E.T. Weekend managing editor, Ingrid Sturgis are among its clients. Call Evangelia Biddy, Executive Director, 201-332-4618.

Prime Access, an advertising and direct marketing agency, specializes in helping clients, such as Merck & Co. and Remy Martin Cognac, reach three important urban markets: African-American, gay/lesbian and Hispanic consumers. This is accomplished not only by producing great advertising but by managing the relationships their clients hold with these communities. Relationship management requires a thorough knowledge of the consumer, the consumer's mindset and decision-making process. One of Prime Access's ground-breaking campaigns is a national direct mail effort for AT&T targeted to gay and lesbian users of long distance service. As a full-service agency, Prime Access's expertise includes identifying event sponsorship opportunities, planning and buying media and monitoring competitive activity. Among their other clients: American Express Company, Showtime Networks/Viacom and the not-for-profits Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the People With AIDS Coalition. Call President Howard Buford, 212-696-5000.

Is the U.S. Hispanic press writing favorable articles about your company? Are your competitors advertising in Spanish-language newspapers and magazines? Latin Reports, the first media tracking, clipping and analysis service specializing in U.S. Hispanic publications can help you evaluate your Hispanic market public relations and advertising initiatives, as well as those of your competitors. Services include LatinClips, a tracking and clipping service which monitors over 200 U.S Hispanic publications; LatinBriefs, a placement report service for Hispanic print editorial and advertising clippings; LatinMonitor, a competitive tracking and clipping service; and LatinReviews, a placement analysis service which summarizes the content of editorial and ad clippings. Latin Reports offers clients an extensive Hispanic media database, a keen understanding of U.S. Hispanic publications, and strong contacts within the Hispanic press. Clients include agencies and companies working in the telecommunications, food & beverage, media, and publishing industries. Call Latin Reports, 212-730-6036, ext. 240.

Don Coleman Advertising, Inc., formerly Don Coleman & Associates, is the second-largest and fastest growing minority-owned advertising firm in the United States. This nine-year-old firm specializes in creating ads with a positive spin for companies that want to tap the growing African-American, Hispanic and Asian markets. DCA, Inc. develops and executes strategically focused and fully integrated marketing plans specifically designed to build awareness, increase sales and promote consumer loyalty. Owner Don Coleman says the firm has proven successful because they create ads that are "engaging, insightful, respectful and relevant" to their target audiences. DCA, Inc. recently was named K-mart's specialty agency to support the retailer's efforts to build on its urban presence. Among the other clients benefiting from DCA's expertise are Chrysler Corporation, Carson Products (makers of Dark & Lovely) and Domino's Pizza. Call Chuck Morrison, Executive Vice President/Partner, (248) 223-8900.

Hispanic Market Weekly offers readers up-to-the-minute information on this growing, lucrative market in a newsletter format sent by fax every Monday morning. Editor Arturo Villar says, "You'll know which advertiser is entering the Hispanic market, what they're looking for and who is leading the charge. Who bought or sold a radio station. Which research projects are in the works and who is sponsoring them. And the latest trends in the Hispanic media and marketing industries." Each issue includes a full-page profile with all contact information for a leading Hispanic ad agency, media buying service or Hispanic marketing department at a Fortune 500 company. Nielsen and Arbitron figures are analyzed and compared as they become available. Subscriptions: $197 per year. For subscription and advertising information, call Rosemary Ravinal, 212-316-5721.

Now in its third year, 618 EASY, a telemarketing and direct sales company with lucky numbers in its name, is connecting companies with ethnic households. Admerasia, a leading Asian advertising and marketing company, launched 618 EASY originally as a separate division and did so with relative ease: because they are located in New York City, they have been able to recruit some of the most highly-skilled bilingual telemarketers in the world. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian and Indian dialects can be heard at the 50 telemarketing stations in the office. The company has a lengthy New York client list, including NYNEX, and other local and regional companies wishing to tap into their database of over two million Asian households. They've also provided service for Japanese and Korean companies wishing to reach Americans. Overseas clients include Ajinomoto, a Japanese food and package company, and Anam, a Korean manufacturer of Karaoke machines. Call Helen Liu, Manager, 212-252-1533.

Bailey Broadcasting Services (BBS,) a multi-faceted broadcasting organization dedicated to radio excellence, is well known for their flagship "infotainment" program, RadioScope: The Entertainment Magazine of the Air, which has the 411 on Black/Urban radio's favorite celebrities. Now BBS Interactive has been established and has launched the Electronic Urban Report (EUR), loaded with the latest news, gossip, and interactive reader responses. It's available to e-mail subscribers and on the newly-premiered www.EURweb.com, the urban cyberstation, already receiving 2 million hits per month. BBS, headed by radio legend Lee Bailey, started in 1979 as a radio commercial and voice-over production company, and now offers 12 programs in 400 US markets and over 70 countries, reaching 30 million listeners. RadioScope, originally produced in Bailey's garage in 1983, is now distributed to over 150 premier stations, sponsored by Coca Cola, the U.S. Army, the Chrysler Corporation, Wal-Mart, Sears and McDonalds. Call Lee Bailey, President, 800-364-9141.

Vanguard Communications, one of the fastest-growing ethnic marketing communications firms in the U.S., has added two staff members, a reflection of the agency's rapid growth since opening its doors in 1994. Antoinette Mabry joins as Account Supervisor, Tropicana Dole Beverages; Ana Gilson will manage Vanguard's Hispanic media relations division and will be an account executive for Gillette. Both have extensive promotions, public relations, agency and packaged goods experience. Vanguard's growth, an increase of 70% over the previous year's billings, outpaced even the industry's impressive numbers, stimulated by the trend toward targeting ethnic consumers by today's major marketers. Vanguard Communications is a single source for client companies, agencies and organizations who target the African-American, Hispanic, Caribbean, Asian and other diverse audiences in the United States. Other clients include AT&T and Summit Bank. Call Esther Novak, President, 212-626-6751.

LLT Advertising has launched Teleglobe International Corporation's first-ever consumer effort, an international calling service that gives customers free domestic minutes with every international long distance minute called. The campaign, targeted initially at Chinese, Russian and Korean customers was kicked off in May in New York, an effort that represents the first phase of a national rollout that will eventually be expanded to other target groups. LLT Advertising, Inc., established in 1988 and headed by CEO Jennie Tong, is a full-service agency which specializes in targeting North Americans of 12+ ethnic and niche markets for clients such as MetroPlus Health Plans, Charles Schwab, Toyota, Hong Kong Bank, Bell Canada and Cathay Pacific. Call Rich Kahn, Dir of Client Services, 212-941-6633 ext. 233.

In a recent, head-to-head test of in-language vs. English telemarketing campaigns, TelAc, Inc., a leading provider of multilingual telemarketing services, confirmed that customers are at least twice as likely to buy from a company that speaks to them in their preferred, native language. The test consisted of a financial services customer acquisition program and reinforces the transferable success attained from 6+ years of in-language telemarketing programs performed by TelAc for the long distance industry. In-language telemarketing shows respect for the audiences language and culture, enhances their comfort level with the sales process, increases retention and allows companies to thoroughly explain a product or service. This is especially true when confidential information is needed for credit card applications. In-language telemarketing creates a connection that sells. Call Chris Purdy, VP, Marketing & Sales, 800-522-3447.

Looking for a new way to promote her five top photographers using new media, Elka Kristo-Nagy has launched www.photoagent.com, the first website by a commercial photographer's agent that not only showcases their work but gives a sense of who they are. A photograph by each artist is on the home page; click it to view each photographer's bio and gallery of their work. The website, which can be bookmarked for later reference, is a complement to the marketing plan that Elka has created for each photographer, consisting of direct mail, ads in source books, circulating portfolios and direct personal contact with clients. The sampling on the Web is meant to entice an art director or photo editor to request a portfolio. Call Elka Kristo-Nagy, 212-475-5156.

May we brag? This newsletter just won 2 awards: a Big Apple Award for the year's "Best Newsletter" from the Public Relations Society of America/NY and an Award of Communication Excellence (ACE) from the International Assoc. of Business Communicators. To find out how your company can be profiled in an upcoming issue call Lisa Skriloff, 212-242-3351.

The Spanish-language edition of ALINA, the newsmaking memoirs of Fidel Castro's only daughter, Alina Fernandez, will go on sale in the U.S. on July 7. Subtitled Memorias de la hija rebelde de Fidel Castro (Memoirs of the Rebel Daughter of Fidel Castro), the 250 page volume has a suggested retail cover price of $16.95. In this extraordinary testimony, Alina, who found out at the age of ten that Castro was her father, recounts her life up to the point of her exile from Cuba. ALINA will be published by Plaza & Janes (Spain) and distributed nationally by Bantam Doubleday Dell as part of a new Spanish language program aimed at the Hispanic market. Two books will be published each month, including titles by bestselling authors such as Elena Poniatowska, Danielle Steel and Carlos Alberto Montaner. Call Teresa Zampino, Dir. Int'l Projects, 212-782-9499.

VIBE magazine, the definitive chronicler of urban culture, announces the VIBE Music Seminar at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria on August 20-23, the annual urban entertainment business platform that does what no other conference can -- effectively link urban film, fashion, new media, print and television with music. At the seminar, entertainment executives and entrepreneurs get a comprehensive look at the rapidly expanding urban culture phenomenon and learn from the authority how to participate in and profit from its exploding growth and influence. Attendees will forge a direct connection to the soul of American culture at the three day seminar that Keith Clinkscales, VIBE's president and CEO calls the "graduate school for the urban entertainment industry." Sponsorship packages grant marketers unparalleled access to the audience at power clinics, receptions and showcases. Sponsors already on board include Nissan, Sprite and Ray-Ban. Call Audrey Addison, Communications Director 212-522-1722. To register, call 212-448-7499.

Hispanic Market Connections, Inc. (HMC) a leading Hispanic marketing research and consulting firm, is proud to announce the appointment of Angelina Villarreal, Ph.D. as the new Executive Vice President and Director of Research. In her new position, Dr. Villarreal will report directly to Isabel Valdés, President and founder of HMC and will be responsible for overseeing operations and research activities for the company. Dr. Villarreal brings to HMC more than 20 years of hands-on Hispanic consumer marketing and research expertise in the U.S. and Latin America. Dr. Villarreal obtained her Ph.D. in Consumer Research from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. She also has master degrees in Applied Statistics and in Economics. Dr. Villarreal joins HMC from Miller Brewing Company where she was the International Research Manager. For information on HMC's award winning database, services and capabilities call Michele Clark, Director of Marketing & Sales, 415-965-3859.