Roy Miller's Blog, page 282
February 5, 2017
Getting the Story Out
It has been almost a decade since I decided to write the story of my tumultuous years as the father of a teenager and my experience after his death in a car crash, and also how I rebuilt our relationship in the aftermath. I had hoped for a traditional publishing route, but I have learned that tradition is not always the most expeditious path.
Reid was a rambunctious, sometimes rebellious teenager. Midway through his senior year in high school, in 2006, he was accused by his school of misconduct, which he vehemently denied. Several days later, while the situation was still unfolding, he died, the driver in a one-car crash.
In the months following Reid’s passing, I devoured every book I could find about grief and recovery. But the books I plowed through were less than helpful, because they focused on bereavement, not my continued responsibilities as his father or my accelerated need to evaluate whether I had struck the right balance between exposing Reid to life’s risks while protecting him from its dangers.
So I began to write. I noted the challenges—the memoir market is saturated, and parenting is a tough sell—but resolved to write a different book, a disarming account of my family’s truths, my unanticipated parenting obligations, and how, from a flood of condolence messages as well as posts on something new called Facebook, there emerged a portrait of Reid that was barely known to me when he was alive, and which became the basis of our new bond.
Within a year, I had a manuscript, His Father Still. I hired a highly regarded freelance editor to evaluate my draft. She affirmed its quality and recommended agents, one of whom said that my project was one of the most moving she had ever read. She was cautious, however, warning that reviewing editors might be parents for whom the book’s tragic opening and painful vignettes would hit too close to home.
Although the publishing business in 2009 was convulsed by the economic downturn and the emerging e-book market, we lodged proposals with both major and niche publishers. In response came rejections whose consistency nearly smothered my hope: “Beautifully written, but a first-time author, sad story.”
Yet giving up never crossed my mind: I was writing for my son.
My agent and I regrouped, devising a plan to build my visibility by publishing a prescriptive book about safe teen driving, which had become my avocation. In 2013, I published Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving (Chicago Review Press). For that work, I garnered national public service awards and media exposure.
We repositioned my memoir as a cautionary tale for parents about balancing freedom (“letting out the tether”) with protection, and not letting the challenges of raising a teen camouflage a young adult’s true character. Wiser, and armed with my experience as an author, we resubmitted.
Rejections came again, this time more varied and less pointed. The question arose, what avenues are available for a manuscript that has not been embraced by traditional publishers but has the encouragement of publishing professionals and an emotional impetus? My agent and I settled on Argo Navis, part of Perseus Books, which offers to agented authors national e-book distribution and print-on-demand paperbacks. I swallowed my misgivings about the prefix self and embraced the hybrid format. With Argo Navis, we have devised a promotional campaign rooted in social media, radio, and leveraging every personal connection I can muster.
As we stand on the cusp of the release of His Father Still, we have propitious national media buzzes. My mind-set is a mix of gratitude for the hybrid option that timely presented itself, and an abiding faith in the usefulness of my story for parents. We shall see if my perseverance was warranted.
Tim Hollister is the author of the forthcoming book His Father Still: A Parenting Memoir (Argo Navis, Sept.) and Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving (Chicago Review, 2013). Since the death of his 17-year-old son Reid in a car crash in 2006, Hollister has become a public advocate for safer teen driving.
A version of this article appeared in the 08/31/2015 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Getting the Story Out
The post Getting the Story Out appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Book Sales Reps: More Important Than Ever
One of the predictions at the advent of the digital age was that it would make many jobs redundant. Among those understood to be most at risk: the well-traveled sales representative. But though digitization has made some parts of selling books easier and more efficient, it has also made sales reps more important than ever.
“With all the noise of the Internet, we reps continue to serve an important role as a sieve to get the books to buyers that are appropriate for their markets,” said Johanna Hynes, field sales rep in the Midwest for PGW.
“We are the cardiovascular system of publishers, because we are the interconnecting thread between booksellers and publishers,” said Teresa Rolfe Kravtin of Southern Territory Associates, who has been a Southeast rep for three decades. “For me, it is all about relationships and the integrity and investment in yourself and what you do. We consider ourselves partners with the independent bookstores and have a role in helping them succeed. It’s not a cookie-cutter business at all. Each bookseller is an individual business with a local customer base.”
Jennifer Sheridan, a children’s field sales rep for HarperCollins, who also acts as a liaison between the New York office and other field and telesales reps, said that one thing that has changed is that she now meets with everyone working in a bookstore, not just the buyer. “Now that many independent bookstores are not just a place to buy books, but are a place for community to gather, I find I am spending more and more time with floor staff, book club coordinators, and events managers,” she said. Sometimes, Sheridan added, she even works directly with customers when she visits children’s bookstores and brings YA galleys to teen reader meet-ups.
The job of the sales rep might seem old-fashioned, admitted Jen Adkins Reynolds, director of field sales for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. But “we are in a people-driven industry,” she said. “Working with accounts the old way, through one-on-one interactions, remains the building block of the business.”
Though the advent of digital catalogues and online ordering tools such as Edelweiss has eased the burden on some reps, it has also created challenges. On the positive side, there is no longer the need to haul catalogues around. And, said several reps, Edelweiss often eliminates the need to review the obvious buy-in titles during appointments. On the downside, Edelweiss presents every book the same way, making the titles look flat and stripping away relevant context.
“Plus, Edelweiss can be information overload for buyers,” said Lise Solomon, a commission rep on the West Coast with the Karel/Dutton Group. She spends a lot of time writing markups and making sure that they are unique to her and her customers. “Now, when I have my appointments, I’m often spending time talking about the books my buyers missed on Edelweiss,” she added.
And it is increasingly easy to miss titles in digital catalogues. “There are now so many more books being published, and there are so many books that clone themselves,” PGW’s Hynes said. “Working with small indies as I do, it is my job to point out small gems. But I still have buyers who need to scroll through a 1,000-plus-title catalogue, and I have to find a way to make sure that they find the books that interest them.”
In this regard, reps are also keen to underscore that they still have the power to “make” tricky books. HMH’s Reynolds pegged the success of two recent titles—Sara Baume’s Spill Simmer Falter Wither and Laura Barnett’s The Versions of Us—to the sales reps’ ability to persuade booksellers to read the galleys. Ultimately, the bookseller-rep relationship is about human collaboration. “We are in a creative business and are selling people creative efforts,” Southern Territory’s Kravtin said. “The more technology we infuse the industry with—whether it’s e-books, digital catalogues, or computer inventory—all those take away from what is essentially at the heart of what we do. You need to be a human being to really communicate. Our job is less about selling now than it is about manifesting and continuing to evolve those relationships.”
One digital-age advance that does promise to change the job of reps for the better is self-driving cars. “Honestly, I’m still as much [of] a long-haul trucker as I ever was,” Hynes said. “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just sit there and read all my galleys while my car drove me to all my appointments? That would be a whole different world.”
A version of this article appeared in the 02/06/2017 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Sales Reps: Even More Important in the Digital Age
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These were the most borrowed books from the Boston Public Library in 2016
The Boston Public Library has released its list of the top 10 most frequently borrowed books in 2016, and the two titles that led the list in 2015 are once again the most popular.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the Light We Cannot See flipped with thriller The Girl on the Train into the No. 1 spot from its position as runner-up last year. Local author Jeff Kinney, who lives in Plainville, also made the list again with one of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books nabbing third place; last year, the eighth Wimpy Kid book was the seventh most borrowed book in the city.
New titles on this year’s list include Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me.
The top 10 most borrowed titles of 2016
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
See the library’s list, and place holds on the most borrowed titles, here.
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Nonfiction: A Father’s Wrenching Memoir of Death, Guilt and Reckoning
In “Disaster Falls” Stéphane Gerson explores the aftermath of his young son’s tragic death.
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Microsoft pilots ebook sales in Windows 10 | Books
Two years after Microsoft walked away from digital bookselling, a leak of its latest software has hinted that it may ready to try again.
In what may be a fishing exercise to gauge interest, a dedicated bookselling section features in a leaked build of the software giant’s Windows 10 update for phones.
News that the company may enter digital bookselling was welcomed by publishers, although senior figures said they not been approached to supply titles to the store.
Andrew Franklin, managing director of Profile Books, said: “The more competition in the field, the better.” Literary agent Gordon Wise, who also heads the Association of Authors’ Agents, said: “A lot of business goes through one retailer, so it is always very helpful to have other people taking up a book offering.”
An early look at the new software by MSPowerUser showed a shop window for ebooks that, the website claimed, will be integrated into the Windows Store available across all platforms, including PC and mobile. It would plug a hole in Microsoft’s retail offer, which until now has included films, apps, games and music, but not books. According to Strategy Analytics, Microsoft currently only holds 14% of the tablet market.
Microsoft played down the reports of an imminent entry into the book market and hinted that the leaked content may be little more than a teaser to gauge whether there would be widespread consumer interest.
A spokeswoman told the Guardian: “We regularly test new features, and changes to existing features, to see what resonates well with our fans … stay tuned for more information soon.”
The provisionality of the new offering appeared confirmed by publishers, none of whom had been approached to negotiate terms of supply. These could prove a sticking point if they include demands for free content.
Gordon Wise said that any enthusiasm felt by publishers would quickly die if Microsoft proposed giveaways or a Spotify-style service. “We’re always very sceptical about subscription models and ‘freemium’ giveaways,” he said. “As long as it keeps the value of a book then it would be welcome.”
It is not the first time Microsoft has been linked to digital bookselling. In 2014, Barnes & Noble walked away from a deal with the software company after Microsoft invested $300m (£244m) in a deal to distribute B&N’s Nook app.
At the time, Microsoft was reported to be withdrawing completely from the e-reader app market and rumoured developments never materialised.
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February 4, 2017
Mike Scalise on His Rare Condition and the Illness Memoir
On the surface, The Brand New Catastrophe by debut memoirist Mike Scalise is a book about a rare medical condition called acromegaly, a hormone disorder caused when a brain tumor grows in the pituitary gland. Acromegaly exists just outside the periphery of our collective cultural knowledge. Among the populace, mention of the illness might invoke some vague association with the icon, Andre the Giant—the most famous acromegalic—though it is far more likely to draw blank stares. The scattered books and documentaries about the subject tend to focus on the novelty of this rare condition; since untreated acromegaly can cause facial and bodily deformities, in Hollywood, acromegalics have sometimes been cast in fantasy and horror movies, as lovable monsters—or more often, as villains.
For his part, Scalise, whose acromegaly was caught early in life, at age 24 when a tumor burst in his head, doesn’t ignore Andre or the other historical associations with the condition. But he doesn’t stop there to gawk either. Rather, The Brand New Catastrophe reveals the human experience of acromegaly with a beautiful and skillful clarity, rendering the rare and misunderstood disorder with an intimate, personal grace.
In the book, Scalise deftly and compellingly captures his struggle—that of a “busted” man searching out a new normal—with a defiant emotional candor, a generous spirit, and an utterly infectious sense of humor, amidst gut-punch moments of pain, anger, exhaustion and heartache over living within a body that has betrayed itself. From start to finish, The Brand New Catastrophe is full of masterful writing that both enacts and transcends the illness memoir genre, exploring what it means to be a son and husband; an artist; a friend; a man; and yes, an acromegalic in the first two decades of the 21st century.
Scalise currently lives with his wife in Brooklyn where he writes and works for a DC-based non-profit. I spoke with him from his home, via Skype.
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Andrew Cartwright: Your book won the Doheny Prize from the Center for Fiction, awarded to outstanding fiction or nonfiction that deals with physical illness. When you set out to write the story of your experience with acromegaly, how conscious were you of entering into an “illness memoir” conversation?
Mike Scalise: I was really conscious of the illness memoir aspect of it because at first I was really reluctant as a memoirist. I tried a couple different avenues with this story that were a little more journalistically-driven, to tell the larger story of some of the more famous acromegalics like Andre the Giant, Tony Robbins, Gheorghe Muresan, Rondo Hatton and others. But I quickly found that, in order to access their stories in the way that I wanted to, I had to put myself at the middle. This was a long trial-and-error process for me, but when I got there, I knew that it needed to be an illness memoir, and I knew that I needed to take the genre seriously.
AC: So, did you read any other books within the genre leading up to writing your book?
MS: Yeah. I really responded to a number of really well-known illness memoirs. Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face obviously was really interesting to me, and then Philip Roth’s Patrimony, which is a book about his father’s diagnosis with a brain tumor that kind of weaves around in a strange way and has moments that range from heartbreaking to hilarious. I read it and I was like, Oh, you can do this?
AC: I think your book does that well, too.
MS: Thanks, man. It was all about finding a series of memoirs that gave me permission. Another one was Donald Antrim’s The Afterlife, which again has a non-traditional memoir structure that talks about his relationship to his mother in a way that really resonated with me. The other one that was really key for me was Deb Olin Unferth’s Revolution which didn’t have a lot of overlap with me with regards to subject matter, but I did find her structure and her voice and the way that she managed a timeline to be really helpful for me writing. So, when it came to memoirs, I had to develop a familiarity with the genre and then a second familiarity with what within that genre really energized me to write. Early on, with this particular book, it became a situation where, no matter how much I tried to not write personally—every time I would try to sit down and craft a journalistic narrative about say, Andre the Giant—the personal wouldn’t get out of my way. It was really frustrating. And so at some point, I just said, Alright, well, we’re going to tackle this and see what happens. Once I figured out was the only way to write through the personal stuff, I knew I needed to prepare otherwise.
AC: Let’s talk about Andre a little bit, if you don’t mind. So, he had a condition called gigantism, which is related to acromegaly, but it’s like child-onset acromegaly, is that correct?
MS: Yeah, it’s the exact same condition, just with a different name. It happens earlier before someone’s bone cartilage has a chance to mature, so that’s why it expands them.
AC: Okay. It seems like Andre kind of ghosts this piece, appearing from time to time, sometimes just as a figure of interest but other times as a foil of sorts to what you, as the narrator, hope to be and do with this condition you both have shared. First off, what did you learn from the research process looking at Andre and his life?
MS: I mean, I’m still kind of learning. Andre Rousimoff, I think, was somebody who led a couple different lives: one he had a lot of control over that we didn’t get to see; one he had no control over that we all got to see which lived well past him in many different ways; and one in the middle which he seemed to sort of manipulate people with, his public wrestler persona. I think he was a really savvy person about how people were looking at him and what he could do with it. So, what I learned from him that was really unexpected, was that you can be in control. You may not have control over what a condition has secretly done to your body. But you can control what you do with that information, who you give it to, how you present it, and how you teach people to react to your condition.
AC: There did seem to be some angst directed at the figure of Andre, however, say in the scene from the book where you are looking in the mirror, kind of wondering and worrying, Do I see Andre in my own face?
MS: That anger isn’t so much at Andre or what he meant, but more at the fact that you just kind of find out one day that your endocrine system has betrayed you and has betrayed you for many years, in ways that you think you trust yourself to notice, but you can’t. It’s a nebulous anger and it doesn’t really have any direction. But, when you learn of this condition, you learn that you inherit this complicated history of people who aren’t, on their face, very well regarded by the culture. You know, Andre is a really famous person that seems to have engendered a lot of affection from people, but Rondo Hatton hasn’t, Eddie Carmel hasn’t. So, you start to ask yourself, what does it mean to be among these other people who have this condition. And it can be really frustrating at first. But eventually, you know, they’re just people. And hopefully the book starts a little bit of a conversation about what kind of people they are and how to look past that.
AC: Absolutely. How much did you know about acromegaly before the “explosion” in your head?
MS: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn’t even know it was a thing. It was all brand new to me. In a sense, that was great from a writing standpoint because you’re a stranger in a strange land. But, for a while, I didn’t want to know anything. I didn’t want the information. Because I hadn’t chosen any of that, and it didn’t match with the image that I had in my mind, or what I envisioned for my future. So, it took a long time for me to begin to see myself as part of that family. And I do have to say, I only had acromegaly for a year and a half. There are people who’ve had it for much longer than me who this experience is far different for. I was diagnosed at 24 but most people are diagnosed at 50 after many, many years. And that experience I don’t want to speak for. For me, yeah, it was a rough transition, mentally and physically, just really difficult.
AC: There are a lot of really impressively accessible medical passages here that describe the illness in an understandable way, which seems like a tough thing to do. If I were to write about acromegaly, for example, I wouldn’t know where to start beyond just the basic description—It’s a pituitary condition . . . Andre had it . . . —but you capture it well. How much of that fluency or fluidity comes from your personal experience?
MS: You know, that kind of writing wasn’t actually a natural fit for me, either. It was something I really had to work at. There’s a type of nonfiction writer that I’ve always deeply admired, but could never emulate, who seems to have an enthusiasm for the information, enthusiasm for the idea of information and the stories it can tell, the possibilities of it; there’s an engine behind the writing about that information that is really attractive. Mary Roach, for instance, is somebody who really just kind of has a verve for whatever story the information presents. She’s able to filter it through her own sensibility in a way that’s really palatable to the reader. However, I really struggled whenever I would try to write these research-heavy passages until I started to realize that it wasn’t necessarily important for me to be a scholar, it was important for me to see the information as rhetoric. You can use what’s in that research in a way that empowers your own sensibility and then leave the rest.
AC: What’s next for you? I know that this book is just releasing so you have a lot of work left to do, reading engagements and other promotions with Sarabande, but what else are you working on?
MS: The projects that I was working on in the years that Brand New Catastrophe was finding a publisher were more fiction-based, and I’m really looking forward to getting back to those. The one thing about having an illness and finding yourself compelled to write about it is that I had an idea of what I wanted to write before all of this. Then this illness happened and it put itself in front of me in a way that forced me to contend with it. I do feel lucky that this story that has given me a clean break—I don’t have anything else to say about it; the tap is empty.
AC: So, by nature, it’s something you’ve kind of written out of yourself, and now it’s time to move on to something else.
MS: Yeah. Now I’m really looking forward to doing the kind of work that I really wanted to do before this happened. It’s a really exciting graduation point.
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How to Sell Your Book: Tips From a Bookseller
For a year now, while preparing my debut novel for publication, I’ve worked part-time at Bookmark It in Orlando, Fla. I’ve sold books at our intimate Friday-night Wine & Signs event and our bustling Locally Grown Words fair, and I’ve gleaned some crucial knowledge while wearing these two hats. Some of what I share here will be familiar to authors; other observations may come as revelatory. Above all, I’d like for both booksellers and authors to learn how to better connect with readers, and through that connection, to increase sales. Our livelihoods depend on it.
1. Selling books is difficult—especially literary titles. Selling short story collections is tough, but not as tough as poetry. For any book, the more a staff member can speak to the work in a heartfelt way, the better the chance that the customer will buy it.
2. People gravitate toward the tables, but books that are displayed face out sell almost as well.
3. Cover designs matter perhaps more than titles, and titles posed as questions are a natural draw. We have titles displayed that feature well-done graphic covers in dark color schemes. Even when these are placed face out, I rarely see customers pick them up. Bright, sharp photographs as covers seem to attract more attention.
4. If a bookstore—or any store—is carrying your book, tweet and share it. Whether you’ve gotten your book into Barnes & Noble or a small indie such as Bookmark It, that’s only the first step. The next is making everyone you know aware of where they can get it. (And refer to #1.)
5. In planning events as an author, do your best to get one or two staff members to read your book beforehand so they can speak as third-party voices during your event. Encourage them to select the book as a staff pick or review it on their blogs. Thank them profusely later.
6. Be aware of other events going on seasonally and regionally before you line up an event at your bookstore. You don’t want to book an author appearance in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, for instance. Attendance at our events dropped in March, when local schools went on spring break.
7. Bookstores work hard to promote their events, so, as an author, be considerate and give a store a 30-day exclusive after appearing there before booking an appearance at another store in the area. Furthermore, too many events will likely dilute your draw. Everyone will appreciate this, including you.
8. Authors should bring extra copies of their books to events whenever possible. Maybe the bookstore owner thought she had more copies in back stock than she did, or the distributor can’t get more in time; the books will take too long to ship. Best-case scenario: your event is packed and the store runs out, but you don’t.
9. Be a good customer when you attend events. It’s rude to talk to an author or bookseller for a significant amount of time, express interest and enthusiasm, and then not buy the book. Bookselling and being “on” all night may appear to be fun—and it is for the most part—but it requires energy. Be aware of how the “chat up and walk away” rubs the person on the other end.
10. Sometimes you and the store can promote your hearts out, and an event simply doesn’t make it. Maybe it’s the time of year: the snowbirds have left town, or there was just a book festival at the local university. Maybe a hellacious thunderstorm strikes. Sell some copies to the staff, then go out for dinner or drinks. You still worked hard, you deserve it.
11. I took a workshop once with Margaret Atwood in which she told us, “There are many, many, many different kinds of readers.” All too true. People buy, and don’t buy, for a whole bunch of reasons you’ll never figure out. Maybe a potential customer’s bank account is overdrawn that day. Or maybe he or she is committed to supporting the local library. The mystery remains.
And yet, most of the time, if you stay relaxed, ask what someone likes to read, and articulate a few salient observations about a book, you stand a darn good chance of selling it—whether you’re pitching someone else’s book or your own. It’s one of the greatest pleasures I’ve come to know, as a person who has been devoted to literature since before I could see over the counter at Waldenbooks. The heart of the bookseller matches the heart of the writer, for both make the magic of human connection their mission, continuing the unbroken chain of conversation across the centuries.
Vanessa Blakeslee is the author of Juventud (Curbside Splendor, Oct.), her debut novel, and a staff member at Bookmark It, Orlando, Fla.
A version of this article appeared in the 09/28/2015 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Tricks of the Trade
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Bookselling in a Time of Political Upheaval
Given the highly charged atmosphere following Donald Trump’s election as president, it came as little surprise that Winter Institute 12, which began on the same day that Trump issued a temporary executive order banning travel from seven countries with Muslim-majority populations, turned into the most political bookseller gathering in recent memory.
Trump’s actions created a sense of urgency that extended to issues that have roiled the bookseller community for years, particularly its lack of diversity. “America’s a different place,” ABA CEO Oren Teicher said. “We’re part of that. This was more political [than previous years’ Winter Institutes]. But it’s about how stores respond to that and the changing [climate in] America.”
Two talks early in the conference, which was held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis from January 27 to 30, captured booksellers’ and publishers’ attention and helped move it away from focusing solely on bookselling basics. On the afternoon before Winter Institute’s official opening, Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation, addressed the inaugural meeting of the Independent Publisher Caucus, founded by Tom Hallock, associate publisher of Beacon Press, and Dan Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press. She told indie publishers that it is time to get beyond merely talking about diversity. “I think we’re leaving writers and readers on the table,” Lucas said. “How do you get a diverse staff? You have to do the work. Not by starting a committee. This is embarrassing. It’s actually shameful how homogeneous this community is.”
Many of her words were echoed the next morning by Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay in her opening keynote. Rather than speak about her new story collection, Difficult Women, Gay addressed diversity and making bookstores sanctuaries. “This is the state of most industries, and particularly contemporary publishing. People of color are not asked about our areas of expertise, as if the only thing we are allowed to be experts on is our marginalization. We are asked about how white people can do better and feel better about diversity or the lack thereof.” Rather than offering absolution, Gay called on booksellers to do the work to make the publishing industry inclusive and to make brown, black, and disabled readers feel welcome in their stores, particularly at this political juncture.
“You’re smart, passionate book people,” Gay said. “You can forego the distance of needing to be taught what you can learn through trial and error. You can figure out how to be more inclusive in all ways. You can get political. You can get uncomfortable. You can remember that you are not just selling books. You are providing sanctuary. You are the stewards of sacred spaces. Rise to the occasion. Rise.”
Much of the passion that both Gay and Lucas put into their talks was channeled by booksellers at the ABA Town Hall, which drew roughly 350–400 booksellers, or more than half of the 654 attending the conference (overall attendance was up 30% from previous years, when it was capped at 500). Many came with prepared remarks or calls for action: to make the ABA more inclusive and to make Winter Institute more reflective of the outside world.
“It’s been a disconcerting juxtaposition, to contrast the updates in my Facebook and Twitter feeds with the largely business-as-usual panel topics and programming we’ve been engaged in here,” said Christin Evans, co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco and a director of Kepler’s in Menlo Park. “The Bay Area is erupting in almost daily protests. My request is that ABA open up [a] discussion of what stores are doing and thinking about doing now.” She also took exception to ABA’s stance to defend, on free speech grounds, Simon & Schuster’s decision to publish Milo Yiannopoulos’s book Dangerous.
Denise Chavez, co-owner of Casa Camino Real in Las Cruces, N.Mex., offered to serve on an advisory committee for the ABA so that it can diversify. “I deal with racism daily,” said Chavez, who gets at least one call a day from people who tell her that it’s un-American to have an answering machine message in Spanish.
Hannah Oliver Depp of Word in Jersey City and Angela Spring, who is opening a bookstore in Washington, D.C., spoke in alternating sentences on diversity. “As the independent bookstore community grows, we need more diversity for owners and staff. We challenge you [the board] to make diversity not just symbolic, but systemic,” they said. The two are founding members of Indies Forward, an organization formed to help booksellers share resources and information.
Other booksellers such as Noëlle Santos, who is looking to open the Lit Bar in the Bronx, N.Y., encouraged more booksellers to participate in the ABA’s Abacus study. According to Santos, realtors and lenders don’t want to just see a report that only reflects how the best stores are doing, they want a picture of bookstores across the spectrum. Single mother Maria Stasolla, manager of Ye Olde Book Shoppe in Warwick, N.Y., wanted to know why the ABA couldn’t provide health insurance, a topic that also came up at the Independent Publisher Caucus.
The morning after the town hall, ABA president Betsy Burton, co-owner of the King’s English in Salt Lake City, thanked booksellers for an “amazing” meeting. As a result of the questions raised there, the board will create a task force on diversity and increase the diversity of the Booksellers Advisory Council. “We are one organization and want to be inclusive,” Burton said.
While Burton was making her announcement, a second meeting took place in another part of the hotel of a loosely organized group of about 50 people calling themselves Booksellers Resist. Led by Depp and Spring, along with Anna Thorn, general manager of Upshur Books in Washington, D.C., and Lacy Simons, owner of Hello, Hello Books in Rockland, Maine, their goal was to talk about how to work together in Trump’s America and how to be inclusive. “One of the most important things,” Thorn said later, describing the meeting, “was [to end up with] action items and not just discussion.” She encouraged those who want continue the conversation in Indies Forward’s Slack group to request an invitation by emailing indiesforward@gmail.com.
Despite the fact that the convention programming focused on best practices for increasing margins, selling used books, and managing store brands, and included numerous opportunities to meet authors, the overwhelming theme was running a bookstore during changing times.
“There is more political energy at this Winter Institute than I’ve ever seen,” said Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo, co-owner of Greenlight Books, which has two stores in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I’ve never been to a town hall that’s so exciting. It’s partly the reaction to Trump’s America. It feels so urgent to people, even the stores that have never been political.”
While many found the conference “energizing,” Ruth Liebmann, v-p of account marketing at Penguin Random House, found “galvanizing” to be more accurate. “If I had to pick one adjective to describe this Winter Institute, it would be galvanizing for booksellers, publishers, and writers,” she said. “From the town hall to the editorial sessions to the ad hoc sessions in the bar, it seems like everyone is leaving with mission and excitement.”
A version of this article appeared in the 02/06/2017 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Bookselling in a Time of Political Upheaval
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BJ Novak is working on another children’s book
NEW YORK (AP) — B.J. Novak is back to his old tricks.
The actor and million-selling author is following up his beloved, all-words “The Book with No Pictures” with “The Alphabet Book with No Pictures,” Penguin Young Readers told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The new work, which Penguin calls a “non-traditional” approach to teaching kids about language, is scheduled for publication next September.
In a statement issued through his publisher, Novak said he wanted young people to think of words as “funny, exciting and powerful.” Novak, whose acting credits range from “The Office” to “Inglourious Basterds,” has also written the story collection “One More Thing.” In 2015, he and “Office” co-star Mindy Kaling reached a reported multimillion dollar deal to collaborate on a book.
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New Life for Dracula – The New York Times
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The New York Times
In 1898, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” was translated for the first time, into Hungarian. Just a couple of years later, it was published in Icelandic. But it turns out the Icelandic rendering was much more than a translation; it was a radically different version of the story. In a foreword to “Powers of Darkness,” an annotated English-language edition of that version, Dacre Stoker, the great-grandnephew of Bram, says the author “could not have been immune to the influences of the Icelandophiles who surrounded him,” people who had traveled to the country and studied its myths and literature.
He concludes that his ancestor “was not only aware of the differences” between the two texts, but “orchestrated them.” He calls “Powers of Darkness” “another version or draft of ‘Dracula,’ written by Bram sometime during the 1890s.” The Icelandic translation, by Valdimar Asmundsson, allowed Stoker the opportunity to make the book “unique and more relevant to Icelandic interest,” Dacre writes. “ ‘Powers of Darkness’ — a different title for a different book.”
In his introduction, the back-translator, Hans Corneel de Roos, writes that several of Stoker’s planning notes that didn’t end up in “Dracula” do appear in “Powers of Darkness.” Those details include a hidden room in the count’s castle and a more active presence in the story for the investigative police.
The book received only one review in the Icelandic press, and in 1906, several years after it was published. The critic said the novel “would have been better left unwritten, and I cannot see that such nonsense has enriched our literature.” But according to de Roos, despite that solitary pan, the book did leave a lasting impression on Icelandic culture. And now, with the discovery of its vast differences from “Dracula,” it will have a lasting effect on the world of vampire studies too.
Quotable
“I was shocked by how many ethnically Korean women I interviewed discussed the necessity of suffering in a woman’s life. That said, I think the idea of not needing to suffer in life and choosing happiness is a fairly recent American notion.” — Min Jin Lee, on researching her novel “Pachinko,” in an interview with Origins
Biographer With A Lens
Patricia Bosworth’s new memoir, “The Men in My Life,” is reviewed this week by Penelope Green. Bosworth has written a lot about other people’s lives, including biographies of Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and the photographer Diane Arbus. In Interview magazine in 2012, Bosworth recalled posing for Arbus as a teenager, and made her sound like a bit of a biographer herself. “She was always very interested in you,” Bosworth said. “She focused on you. . . . She pulled stories out of people, which is why she was able to take such interesting pictures. Her subjects always revealed themselves to her.”
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