Publishing Literary Fiction in Paperback

Submitted by Margaret Doyle, Port Gamble Publishing
I’ve had many great moments in publishing in 2006, and I’ve found it modestly but pervasively gratifying to see a growing appreciation for a book’s first issue to be in paperback.

In 2004, when I was making decisions about publishing the novel, The Fisherman’s Quilt, I thought about my own book-buying habits, and about the demographics of what I saw as Quilt’s readership: Boomer women who’d raised a family.

I was reluctant to pay over $20 for a hardcover book, and invariably “waited it out” until a book was available in paperback. So I decided to go with a paperback or softcover for the first printing of The Fisherman’s Quilt.

It was uncomfortable therefore to read Stephen Rea’s column in Pacific NW Booksellers’ January 2006 newsletter, disdaining first edition paperbacks, with his comments: “None of us are fooled by the phrase ‘paperback original.’ We all read that as ‘See, we paid this author a pretty good amount of money in the form of an advance, and the book wasn’t very good, so we knew we’d never recoup that cash by throwing more of it into a hard cover edition.’”

His assumption was a first edition paperback meant the publisher didn’t have the confidence in the book to issue it as hardcover first.

I want Port Gamble Publishing’s books to be read by as wide an audience as possible. Now that I know more, I will price PGPub’s books at even lower prices than Quilt, ($18.95 for 289 pages) and continue to issue them in paperback to keep the price affordable to the reader.

Since Rea’s column was written, the readers of Pages voted 47% in favor of printing literary fiction in trade paperback only. In its Sept/Oct issue, Pages published such opinions as “It [publishing trade paperback] will spark sales and more people will read these books.”

The New York Times reported on March 22, 2006, that “a growing number of publishing companies, from smaller houses like Grove/Atlantic to giants like Random House, [are] adopting a different business model, offering books by lesser-known authors only as 'paperback originals,’ forgoing the higher profits afforded by publishing a book in hardcover for a chance at attracting more buyers and a more sustained shelf life.” (“Straight to Paperback: Literary Novels” by Edward Wyatt)

As reported in the Times, some notable literary works were first issued as trade paperbacks. Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984) was first released as a softcover by Vintage Contemporaries. More recently, in 1999, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, a trade paperback from Houghton Mifflin’s Mariner Books, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Harper Perennial, the literary paperback imprint of HarperCollins, will more than double the number of paperback originals issued, 22 this year as opposed to 10 last year.

Harper's reasoning, as reported by Wyatt in his article, was “The advantage of paperback is that if a book proves to be even a modest seller, booksellers are less likely to return all of their copies, figuring they can stock a small number permanently on their shelves, something they rarely do with hardcover books.”

In response to the article, one New York Times reader wrote back: “Where's the incentive to pay more? I buy a hardcover only if it's a book I can't live without, which usually means I've read the paperback.”

I always strive to make Port Gamble’s books absolutely flawless in text, rights, and design. And I respect the pocketbooks of my readers, not asking them to do something I wouldn’t do, namely spend more than $20 for a new book.

Books are physical objects and should be as beautiful and representative of the work inside as possible, but hardback issue for inflated profit or to satisfy someone’s vanity is not as important as making the book accessible to the reader who, we hope, will curl up with our books on their living room sofa, or throw them in a bag or on the car seat as they start on a trip, for the pleasure of reading.

This is a publishing decision I am proud of.

Listing Your Children's Book in PW

To receive a notice of Publisher Weekly’s Fall 2007 children's announcement book listings (published in July 2007), fax a note to Joy Bean, associate children's book editor, containing your address and the correct contact name. Bean's fax number is 646-746-6738. This July issue of Publisher’s Weekly contains free listings of all children's books published due to be published in the fall season; a letter requesting this information is sent out three months prior to the issue date.

Seattle Graphic Artists Cancels January Lunch

Seattle Graphic Artist Guild has cancelled its regular January luncheon as they are currently seeking a new meeting venue. The Guild is planning a February Luncheon on the last Wednesday in February.

The new venue will be annouced at
www.seattleguild.org.

Village Books Hosts Radio Show

Village Books of Bellingham introduced the Chuckanut Radio Hour on January 10. The variety show will feature authors, music and other entertainment and be taped at the American Museum of Radio & Electricity in Bellingham for airing KMRE-FM.

American Library Association Show in Seattle

American Library Association Midwinter Meeting 2007 began today in Seattle. Approximately 10,000 librarians, publishers, authors and guests are expected to attend the convention in Seattle from January 19 to 24.

The exhibition will open at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 19, at Washington State Convention & Trade Center, located in downtown Seattle at 7th and Pike Streets. Exhibits will be open Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, and Monday, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm. Approximately 450 exhibitors have brought the latest in books, videos, computers and other materials and resources suitable for libraries.

PNBA Spring Trade Show

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association is now taking registrations for the Spring Trade Show in Portland. Book Publishers Northwest (the Washington-based publisher group) is currently discussing doing a joint catalog with Northwest Association of Book Publishers (the Oregon-based publisher group) for this show. BPNW will also being doing a display at the PNBA Fall Trade Show, which will be held in Bellevue in 2007.

Registration for the 2007 Spring Trade Show is now available online.. PNBA’s Spring Convention and Tradeshow, scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 15-17, 2007 at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn. Approximately 300 booksellers from about 100 Northwest stores are expected three days of bookselling and booktalk.

On Thursday, PNBA will produce a full day of FREE educational workshops, including one series for publishers and authors. Exhibits will be open for one day only, Friday March 17th from 9:30 am until 4:30 pm. Exhibits may be set up on Thursday, March 16 between 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. and from 7:00 - 9:30 a.m., Friday, March 17.

PNBA is also taking orders for an ad in the show program (deadline: Feb. 2), or inserting a flyer in the mail to pre-registered attendees (deadline: March 2) or as a “stuff-it” in attendees’ bookbags (deadline: March 9).

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
2007 Spring Show: Thursday - Saturday, March 15-17, Holiday Inn, Portland Airport
2007 Fall Show: Wednesday - Friday, September 19-21, Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA

For more information on 2007 BPNW or NWABP activities, be sure to register for the regional group closest to you. BPNW membership forms are available on this site.

Promoting Spring Titles to NW Booksellers

The deadline for submissions for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's Spring/Summer NW New Title Preview is January 12, 2007. The program helps you target your distribution of free review copies of forthcoming books, ARCs, or galleys directly to bookstore buyers in the Northwest.

For $120, PNBA will include your book in an online listing of new and regional titles with jacket art, a blurb, and a linked email address of the contact person at your company for bookseller requests. Booksellers can then e-mail you to request the books. A submission form for this program can be downloaded at:
www.pnba.org.

Taking Refuge in Renton

Here's a storm report from member Bette Filley, Dunamis House:

The good news is, we've got water and a working gas range. (But no way to wash dishes). Our yard is a foot deep in broken branches, but none broke anything or came through the house or barn on the way down. Darn! And we just finished cleaning up all the broken branches from the storm of December 26, 1999.

The bad news is we've got no electricity, no phone service, no cable or internet service. The house went from Warm and Christmassy to bitter cold, dark, and clammy. Several trees are lying across the road coming toward our place, and when they fell, they took the phone poles with them. the street is a jumble of cables and wires.

Our daughter east of Renton got her power back today (day 4), so we've all barged in on her with our empty tummies and dirty laundry.

The power company says they still have 200,000 customers to go, and they're out of telephone poles. They're got to bring in more from out of state, and we may be out of luck until after Christmas!

Hope all is well at your house. Count your blessings, and have a wonderful Christmas.

Bette Filley

Storm Swamps Kirkland Bookstore

From Paciic Northwest Bookseller's Association, we received the following report.

Just weeks after celebrating their 20th Anniversary, Parkplace Books in Kirkland, Washington experienced a devastating flood in this past week's rain and wind storm. Overflowing storm drains drenched the bookstore and a dozen other businesses on Thursday, Dec. 14th, with over 4 inches of water filling the store, rushing in through doors and walls. Relief was hampered by the high winds, which knocked out power all over the Eastside. Downtown Kirkland remained without any power for several days, making it all but impossible to use pumps or dryers to try to save merchandise. Owners Mary Harris and Rebecca Willow are still assessing the damage; carpets have already been pulled up, but the walls must still be dried out before fixtures can be replaced. The store's computers remain operable, and with the restoration of power, the phones are working again. Despite the damaged floors and watery smell, the store will be open for business again on Monday, December 18th, in hopes of salvaging some holiday sales. Says Harris "We even had some sales on Saturday, with customers sloshing about in the dark."

Sales reps wishing to donate books to help replace lost inventory can bring or ship directly to the bookstore, as traffic to the Eastside should be back to normal after Monday.

Larry West, Executive Assistant
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

Books & Bubbly Tonight

Book Publishers Northwest celebrates 2007 and wishes all its members a

Happy, Healthy, and Creative New Year!

Microsoft's Live Books

Microsoft is launching an online search service for books called Windows Live Book Search. Participation in the program is open to all rights holders—publishers and authors. Books selected for the program will need to be written in English and have a valid ISBN.

For more information on how this program works, see the
Live Books FAQs.

PNBA Planning Spring Show

Dear Publishers, Publicists and Reps:

It's time to send PNBA your author proposals for the Spring show, which will be March 15-17 at the Airport Holiday Inn, Portland, OR.

Our shows are a terrific opportunity to introduce, or re-introduce, your books and authors to hundreds of booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana. Authors who appear at our shows get invited to speak and sign in NW bookstores, win PNBA awards, and find their books on the Book Sense Picks lists and the Pacific NW Indie Bestseller lists.

Deadline for proposals is January 12, 2007.
Sincerely,

Larry

Larry West, Executive Assistant
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
214 East 12th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401-3245
T: 541-683-4363
F: 541-683-3910
E: larry@pnba.org
W: www.pnba.org

[Editor's note: PDF forms for the Spring Trade Show are available on the PNBA website or contact Larry West at the numbers listed above].

2007 Spring Show: Thursday - Saturday, March 15-17, Holiday Inn, Portland Airport
2007 Fall Show: Wednesday - Friday, September 19-21, Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA

ALA Midwinter Show in Seattle

The American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting will be in Seattle, Washington, January 19 - 24, 2007.

ALA Midwinter attracts library professionals from across the country. Librarians who attend the Midwinter Meeting include the Association's Executive Board, budget assembly, councilors, members of the executive boards of ALA's divisions and round tables, and officers of committees and sections.

According to statistics supplied by ALA:

• 62% of the Midwinter Meeting attendees found new companies to do business with based on their time spent in the exhibits.
  
• 81% of attendees have operating expenditures of over $1 million
  
• 95% of the attendees are a buying influence for at least one of the products and services exhibited at the Midwinter Meeting.
  

Although early e-mails from ALA stated that all booths had to be reserved by July 2006, the organization recently sent out an e-mail saying that reservations received by Nov. 21 would still receive a listing in the show guide.

Online applications are available. Prices start at $700 for a “press table.” Booths are priced by square foot.

For more information on exhibiting at ALA, contact the organization by phone 630.434.7779, fax 630.434.1216 or via e-mail ala@heiexpo.com.

PNBA New Mailing Address

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced that they do have a street address:
214 East 12th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401-3245

The organization retains their old phone, fax, and e-mail addresses. For more information, see pnba.org.

November Meeting: netGalley.com

The meeting topic for November has changed. Local software developer Ted Treanor will be our guest speaker. He will be discussing netGalley.com, a new online community launching in November for authors, publishers, book reviewers, bookstores, and librarians. Under development for the last six years, this new site will use the latest Web technology to allow publishers to build a network of reviewers, bookstore buyers, and librarians who want to receive their galleys in digital or print form.

Treanor has worked with a wide variety of publishers, authors, reviewers, librarians, and bookstore owners to help form a web service that will provide a more effective way to deliver galleys to reviewers and market books to stores and libraries. Don't miss our last meeting of 2006 at the Good Shepherd Center, 4 pm to 6 pm, on Nov. 16.

BPNW Blog Gets an Author Recommendation

Greetings,

I wanted to let you know that I have included the BPNW website as a recommended resource in my new book: From Entrepreneur To Infopreneur: Make Money With Books, Ebooks And Information Products (John Wiley & Sons, December 2006)

Thank you for providing such a valuable resource!

Warm regards,

Stephanie
Stephanie Chandler
Small Business Expert, Author and Speaker

*FROM ENTREPRENEUR TO INFOPRENEUR (John Wiley & Sons, December 2006)
*THE BUSINESS STARTUP CHECKLIST AND PLANNING GUIDE (Aventine, Sept 2005)

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Moving

Hello,

This is just a quick note to let you know that we are moving our offices on Tuesday, Nov 7th.

We need to have our phone and data lines switched and if there are any glitches, we may be out of touch for a day or so. We hope to have everything back up and running by Thursday, Nov 9th. Keep your fingers crossed!

We are still working with the City of Eugene and the post office to get our new mailing address established (it's a long story). We will notify everyone as soon as we have it.

Regards,
PNBA Staff

Larry West, Executive Assistant
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
317 West Broadway, Ste 214
Eugene, OR 97401-2890
T: 541-683-4363
F: 541-683-3910
E: larry@pnba.org
W: www.pnba.org

Book Publishers NW at PNBA

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fall trade show drew approximately 355 exhibitors to the Oregon Convention Center this October. Book Publishers Northwest displayed more than thirty of its member’s books at this trade show. For the first time, BPNW allowed books to be ordered on site, but this resulted in only a few sales. Most interested booksellers made notes, and picked up brochures and postcards as a reminders, then intended to order from their distributors.

BPNW volunteers worked on the exhibition floor Thursday evening setting up tables for BPNW and for PMA/Independent Book Publishers Association. Books were flying everywhere but by Friday morning each table was beautifully arranged and well staffed.

BPNW volunteers had opportunities to interact with 78 librarians and 390 booksellers representing about 126 stores from the region. Floor traffic both days was disappointing and exhibitors perceived a much lower attendance versus past years. However, many reported that people spent more time talking books at booths compared to years when the floor was jammed.

BPNW volunteers staffed both the BPNW and the PMA booth with enthusiasm. Representing the association were Lani Jacobsen (74th Street Productions), Peter Kahle (74th Street Productions), Jan Walker (Raven Publishing), Diane Kinman (Wimer Publishing), John Diviny (Wilder Productions), and Margaret Doyle (Port Gamble Publishing). In addition, BPNW sister association in Oregon, NWABP, provided help, experience and good will from members Marvin Mitchell, Barbara Whittaker, and Linda who all did double-duty staffing the PMA booth and their own adjacent table.

At the conclusion of the show, remaining books were donated to the Hooper Bay Library and the White Mountain Library in rural Alaska – both totally destroyed by fire this year. This was a satisfying and warm finish to a warm October weekend.

submitted by Lani Jacobsen, 74th Street Productions

Fantagraphics Opens Bookstore in Seattle

Comic book and graphic novel publisher Fantagraphics Books wil open a new bookstore in Seattle to sell the publisher's in-print books as well as discounted titles and out-of-print books still in the publisher's stock.

Located in Seattle's Georgetown district at 1201 South Vale Street, Fantagraphic Books officially opens in December and will begin hosting events in 2007.

PMA Online Course: The Buck Starts Here

Join PMA's Publishing University Online on Wednesday, October 25 when Book Marketing Guru Brian Jud addresses how:

The Buck Starts Here
Event Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Time: 2:00 p.m. EST

Sign up
Wednesday October 25, 2006
2:00 PM Eastern (US)
60 Minutes

You can make more money, eliminate returns and increase your sales when you sell your books in non-bookstore segments such as gift shops, catalogs and other lucrative segments. In addition, the buying and payment periods are shorter, and direct access to buyers will make your promotional dollars more efficient. But the purchasing process is different for each niche.

Learn the nuances, buying practices and selling techniques that will help you sell more books, more profitably in special-sales markets.

To sign up, visit the PMA Website and follow the directions there.