FOREWORD THIS WEEK 04.30.08

1. THE COZY BOOK SHOP ON THE CORNER

Forty years of bookselling built on love of books and watching inventory.

2. FAST FOREWORD

News, awards and announcements from our wire.

3. FOREPLAY: TARA YELLEN

Meet Tara, the author of the debut novel, After Hours at the Almost Home. Tara appreciates good snacks and bad TV.

4. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES

Titles of note from our review stacks.

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ATTENTION PUBLISHERS: FREE BEA LISTING ForeWord This Week is featuring a list of BEA show specials from small presses in a forthcoming edition (Author signings, Guest appearances, giveaways etc). To be included in this FREE listing please REGISTER ONLINE by May 14th for publication in our BEA planning issue, scheduled for May 21.

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1. THE COZY BOOK SHOP ON THE CORNER

If you are a book lover positioned anywhere along the publishing supply chain, a visit to The Book Shop on the corner of West Street in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, is a must at least once in your lifetime. It is a magical place that reveals all you need to know about why we do books.

Inside, you can forget the quaint little village outside and the larger traffic flow speeding along to and from Boston, 32 miles to the south on Route 128, a few miles to the west of the shop.

It is a Secret Garden for wonderful words of all kinds, and a Magorium’s Emporium for instant gratification. “You don’t have to wait for something to arrive in the mail. Just head on down to 40 West Street and we’ll help you find something great to read, “ the owners say.” We’re here Monday-Saturday 9-5.”

Of course, that is how I saw it--and it is all in the eye of the beholder. So let me not raise expectations beyond your level of curiosity.

While you adjust to the cozy collection lining the walls and the window benches in a small honeycomb of rooms, Pamela Price, the managing partner among the five women who bought the store twelve years ago from its founders, can tell you why each book is there. Watching inventory like a hawk helps maintain the store’s high turn, good cash flow, and steady stream of customers. Moms and pops with little kids, pre-teens and teens, seniors, grandpas, and grandmas all come in and exchange greetings and updates about the family before getting down to brass tasks about what’s new that’s worth reading.

In fact inventory--the exact number and value closely guarded (or perhaps not actually counted)--seems to be ordered to fit the available space with books that the partners will have read themselves or know enough about to recommend, leaving sticky notes with their comments on covers here and there.

The Shop resides in a simple two-story wood-frame building, with about 1,100 square feet of floor space. Its front door is framed on either side by striped awnings labeled “The Book Shop” on the flaps. It signals none of the discovery that comes alive when you enter.

A Few Doors Down from Bliss

Located on the corner of West Street just before it crosses the railroad tracks, The Book Shop is across the street from the train station itself. It is also a few doors down from Bliss, the aptly named local gourmet pastry and coffee shop where you can either prepare for your visit to the Shop, or celebrate its completion with a quick scan of what you just bought. No need for an in-store Starbucks coffee bar.

It is local author John Updike’s favorite bookstore (at which you can always find signed copies of his books), and a cozy community center for young and old, and those in-between. On occasion a teenage couple have been caught stealing a kiss with book in hand on the second floor window seat. Little kids can leaf through their favorite picture books, while mom looks for a new great story to escape into.

Celebrating their fortieth year, Price and her current co-owners Lee Brown, Deb Twining, Janet Weeden and Becky Jacques, observe that “The Book Shop provides a haven from the fast pace of modern life. People who step into the Book Shop find themselves relaxing and enjoying the wide range of books for every age and interest. Members of our staff read a great deal; they’re always happy to make recommendations. We order books every day and, if a book is currently in print in America, we can have it here within a day or two.”

Some of the young people who have worked part time at the store have set up a space on Facebook called I LOVE THE BOOKSHOP. But Pam and her partners remain committed to hand selling inside the store. Their Web site, www.realbookshop.com, is engaging in its uncluttered display of featured titles, information on ordering books by phone or e-mail, and programs the shop runs with the local schools. However, they’ve chosen not to have a shopping cart feature, since they feel that people who want to order online will head to Amazon or B&N, and those who want to order from them can easily do so with an e-mail note.

Of course most of the popular classic or current titles are from mainstream publishers such as Harper/Collins, Random House, Simon and Shuster or their imprints--but books from independent publishers are always considered. Commission reps from distributors such as IPG, NBN, and Perseus are welcomed and listened to.

BookSense recommendations are valued also. Interestingly, though, because The Book Shop doesn’t really need (nor can it afford) an automated cash register inventory control system, it can’t join Book Sense--consequently, they don’t feel right about having the BookSense list on their Web site.

It’s All About Storytelling

Talking to Price about the bookstore is like savoring a good meal, laced with good humor and the wit of experience. She is particularly proud of their selection for children. “We get a lot of seven, eight, nine, and ten year-olds--and a lot of young moms. We’ve never had a grandparent come in here and say ’my grandchild is kind of slow,’ it is always, ’the child is really a good reader.’“

In addition to the new and interesting, “We choose titles that have a steady following–like the E.B. White books--and of course The Little House on The Prairie. We make sure that no one who comes in asking for Huckleberry Finn goes away empty-handed. In the children’s section series books are very strong, such as Susan Cooper and Anthony Horowitz--good storytellers.”

Her own favorite new children’s book? Never Take a Shark to the Dentist: and Other Things Not to Do by Judi Barrett and John Nickle (Atheneum). She thinks “it is really good sense” from the authors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. (Aladdin).

Her favorite adult title of the past year or so is Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (Penguin), “a fantastic book about opening schools in Afghanistan and getting connected with a small village at the edge of a cliff--a beautifully written book with an inspiring message.”

The store also has a section for local and regional authors. Two pictorial books Pam noted:

Cape Ann: Photographs by Andrew Borsari (Commonwealth Editions, 978-1-889833-87-3). Beautifully illustrated and printed, Price remembers when the publisher dropped into the store eleven years ago to get feedback about launching his imprint with a regionally popular author, Joe Garland.

Marco the Magi--Magic Show (White Horse Productions, 978-0-940376-11-3). The remarkable story of the first fifteen years of “Le Grand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company” (1977-1992) at the Cabot Street Cinema Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts—self-described as the longest consecutively running stage magic show in the world.

Says Price on their Web site, “One of our favorite challenges is figuring out what people want when they don’t know the author or the title. We usually start by asking, ’Is there a dog on the cover?’ We had a request for How to Kill a Mockingbird. I had to explain that this isn’t actually part of our ’how-to’ collection.”

“We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished during the past forty years and hope to see all of you at our fiftieth anniversary celebration in 2018!”

by Eugene G. Schwartz, Editor-at-Large

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2. FAST FOREWORD

Major Movie Deal for Square One Memoir

Taking Woodstock by Elliot Tiber, published last year by Square One, will be made into a movie directed by Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Paste magazine reports that Lee is in talks with Focus Features and hopes the movie will be in production by the end of the year.

In Taking Woodstock, Tiber, who helped the organizers of the Woodstock Festival find a location, tells the story of how the legendary music festival came to be.

AAP to Host Publishing Boot Camp

The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) division of the Association of American Publishers will hold a seminar, “Professional, Scholarly & Academic Books: The Basic Books Boot Camp,” on Friday, May 9, at the AAP offices in New York City.

The course will provide an overview of the industry for people professional, scholarly, and academic publishing with less than three years or experience and will educate professionals with limited experience about other PSP job functions.

Small Beer Press Releases Free eBooks

Small Beer Press has released two free eBooks on its Web site this month under a Creative Commons license. More than 5,000 people have downloaded John Kessel’s The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, and is now offering Mothers & Other Monsters, a collection of short stories by Maureen McHugh.

“It’s hard to tell if there’s been a sales bump yet, but releasing the books this way has definitely led to more readers and a stronger bond with some of them,” Publisher Gavin J. Grant said. “Our books are the best advert we have. If a reader likes one, chances are they may like another…If we can get our books out to a couple of thousand extra readers, what can the downside be?”

Both books are available in PDF, HTML, RTF, and text file formats online. Readers are encouraged to modify the text for other platforms as well; users have already created Mobipocket, Palm-compatible, and Sony Reader editions, also available for download.

From staff reports. Share your news and information with Whitney Hallberg, Managing Editor.

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This week at Publishing Matters, Eugene G. Schwartz takes a new look at Amazon. Is it a threat or an opportunity?

At Shelf Space, Eva Mays proclaims that we're all library patrons. Or at least, we should be.

At Publishing Insider, Rudy Shur discusses how he founded two successful publishing houses.

At Editor’s Notes, Editor in Chief Heather Shaw discusses four new travel books.

Visit www.forewordmagazine.com for publishing news, book reviews, and the ForeWord Book Club.

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3. FOREPLAY: TARA YELLEN

Tara Yellen’s debut novel, After Hours at the Almost Home (Unbridled, 978-1-932961-48-5) was published this month and is a May BookSense Pick. The book tells the story of a night at the Almost Home bar after the bartender walks out in the middle of her shift. Tara was a Henry Hoyns Fellow at the University of Virginia Creative Writing Program, and her fiction has appeared in such magazines as Five Points and Prism International.

Dossier

Occupation: Writer(/teacher/editor/babysitter)

Residence: Washington DC

Why you know the name: It’s on my book. Also, my parents accidentally named me two names of circumcision clamps…it could be that…I discovered that fact recently, quite on accident, when Googling my name. There’s a “Tara KLamp” and a “Yellen Clamp.” It’s something I should never admit.

In her free time: Read, write, run, sleep, paint, catch up on email, worry about stray animals, watch Top Chef.

In her former life: I didn’t get enough sleep.

ForePlay Questions

What book are you currently reading, and where is your favorite place to read?

I’m reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time, actually. Also, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I can catch up on restaurant books and movies now that my book is out and I don’t have to be afraid of wanting to steal something. I love to read in bed. Or the bathtub. Some of my books are a little warped as a result. I don’t like reading in public--or writing in public. Feels a little naked.

What qualities do you value most professionally?

Blunt honesty, reliability, flexibility, and a sense of humor. And good snacks. People should carry good snacks.

What are you still determined to learn to do?

Downhill ski. I’d also love to take singing lessons.

If you were a member of a tribe, what would be your special role in it, and why?

Watching children. I like hanging out with kids. Or I might be given some very specific and simple role to keep me out of trouble: woman-who-counts-the-root-vegetables.

What is your favorite hometown library and/or bookstore?

The Book Nook in Fredonia, NY, because it was my “first bookstore.” And I love the Tattered Cover in Denver. And, in D.C., Politics and Prose, and Kramer Books, and Olssons…Urban Think! in Orlando. Can I keep going?

What kind of music do you enjoy while you are reading?

I can’t listen to music while I read. Okay, sometimes classical. Bach.

What would you save from your home if it were burning?

Friends, animals, and my photo album.

What question has never been answered for you?

“Are we there yet?”

What would surprise most people to learn about you?

I like bad TV. Or they may not be surprised. But they should pretend to be surprised.

If you could have any five people over for dinner, who would they be?

Greg, Kristin, Laura, Lisa, and Michael. And Kristin has to bring her great summer rolls.

What book has impacted you the most and why?

Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary. It was the first “chapter book” I read. I read it over and over--and hoped to write a book someday myself…

What is your prediction for independent publishing in 2008?

I predict wonderful things…it’ll get better and better for the independents. And I’ll drink to that.

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4. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES