Monday, November 26, 2007

Wicker Park Goes Regional

By Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 11/6/2007 6:47:00 AM

Eric Miller, a commission sales rep with Miller Trade Book Marketing, is giving a new direction to Chicago-based Wicker Park Press, the small press he launched in 2002, shifting its focus from publishing primarily satire to specializing in regional titles about Chicago landmarks. Wicker Park's first regional title, Water Tanks of Chicago: A Vanishing Urban Legacy, photographs and paintings by Larry W. Green, has just been released, and Miller has shipped 500 copies of a 3,200-copy print run.

“There's a lot of people out there, who identify with Chicago,” Miller explained about his switch in emphasis. “There's a strong market for regional books.” His next title, which doesn’t have a pub date yet, will be on Chicago's celebrated Maxwell Street Market.

While ordering only a few copies of Water Tanks of Chicago for her store, Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of St. Louis's Left Bank Books, believes that Wicker Park's offerings will find their audience. “Regional is a niche that works, no matter what the region,” Kliendienst said. “And [Miller] chooses interesting books on interesting topics.”

Along with the change in publishing direction, Miller has revamped Wicker’s distribution. He is now selling the list to his accounts and has hired Partners Book Distributing to sell to the chains. Wicker Park titles had been distributed by Academy Chicago Press, founded in 1976 by Eric Miller's parents, Jordan and Anita Miller. Academy Chicago releases are in turn distributed by the Chicago Distribution Center.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Wendell Berry on Gene Logsdon's novel, The Lords of Folly

"I know. You're going to insist that all that stuff you put into The Lords of Folly really happened, but I'll never believe it. You kept yourself awake hard to tell how many nights, rolling around in bed and giggling at the productions of your comic genius. Actually, truly I think the book is a delight. The funny parts are very funny. The humor is never overstated or off key. The book moves right along at the right pace. Except, I think, for too much of 'oh wow' , the dialogue is wonderful. The characters sometimes say some fairly preposterous things, but what they say is never improbable; one never doubts it. The comic questions of who is sane and how can you tell are also convincingly serious.
"I don't think anyone who knows you will be surprised at what a romantic novel this is."

-- From a personal letter written by Wendell Berry, poet, novelist, essayist and farmer to the author.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Books of interest for all discerning readers -- Fall 07

Art Spiegelman: Conversations
Edited by Joseph Witek – September 07 – 6 x 9, 17 illustrations, paperback, 320 pages $20, ISBN 978-1-934110-12-6 Comic Studies/Biography UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI
“Comics have a pipeline to something very basic about the way people think.” Spiegelman, bestselling author of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, is the most famous alternative cartoonist in America. With his wife, Francoise Mouley, he found the journal RAW, a showcase for avant-garde and comics in America. This collection of interviews and profiles goes from 1976-2006.

Barak Obama: This Improbable Quest
By John K Wilson – October 07 – 6 x 9, 12 photos, cloth, 192 pages, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-59451-476-0 Politics/ Biography PARADIGM PUBLISHERS
This is an in-depth profile of the Senator from Illinois and current Presidential candidate, and it outlines what has shaped Obama’s political views. Wilson studied Law with Obama at University of Chicago and has watched his career from the Illinois State Senate to the US Senate to his existing Presidential campaign.

Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford
By David Hume Kennerly – Introduction by Tom Brokaw – October 07 – 10 ½ x 13 1/2, cloth, 125 tritone photos, 224 pages, $49.95, ISBN 978-1-4243-3656-2 Photography/History UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS
This is a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary record of Gerald Ford’s presidency by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.

Sedaris
By Kevin Kopelson – September 07 – 5 x 8, paperback, 224 pages, $17.95, ISBN 978-0-8166-5085-9 Biography/Literature UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
This is an engaging and essential introduction to the work of America’s premier satirist, David Sedaris, by an English professor from University of Iowa.

Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President
By Edward Steers, Jr. – October 07 – 6 x 9, cloth, 288 pages, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8131-2466-7 History UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
The folklore surrounding a towering figure in history often overshadows actual scholarship. Here noted historian and Lincoln expert Steers carefully scrutinizes some of the most notorious tall tales and distorted ideas about America’s iconic 16th president.

Owls of the United States and Canada: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior
By Wayne Lynch – November 07 – 9 x 11, cloth, 200 color photos, 272 pages, $39.95 ISBN 978-0-8018-8687-4 Nature JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
There is no group of birds more fascinating and mysterious than owls. The loudmouths of the raptor world, they peep, trill, toot, bark, growl, shriek, whistle, chuckle, whoop, boom and buzz. They rarely ever actually “hoot.” This is a gorgeous book that is chock full of information about these amazing birds of prey.


Surviving Iraq: Soldiers’ Stories
By Elise Forbes Tripp – October 07 – 6 x 9, paperback, 288 pages, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-56656-693-3 Current Affairs/Politics/Oral History INTERLINK PUBLISHING GROUP
“This fascinating collection of testimonies underscores the universality of all war” – Ken Burns, filmmaker. The Iraq War is being fought by an all-volunteer army mostly from working-class America, and these men and women are the stars of Tripp’s powerfully moving book. This is the result of a close collaboration between Tripp and 30 veterans who tell their stories of the invasion, occupation and ongoing quagmire in Iraq.

A Very Private Enterprise
By Elizabeth Ironside – October 07 – 5 ½ x 7 ½ - paperback, 200 pages, $14.95 978-1-933397-94-8 Mystery FELONY & MAYHEM
A few years ago Ironside’s Death in the Garden took the mystery-reading world by storm. It was reviewed everywhere, won many awards and citations, and was a top-selling book in many bookstores across the country. This is the first US edition of Ironside’s debut book, set in India and the wilds of Tibet, and it is rich in elegant prose and exquisitely etched characters that Ironside’s readers have come to expect.

Bad Karma: Confessions of a Reckless Traveler in Southeast Asia
By Tamara Sheward – October 07 – 5 x 8 – paperback, 316 pages, $17.95, 978-0-89733-565-2 Travel ACADEMY CHICAGO PUBLISHERS
This hilarious travelogue comes to us from Down-Under, where it was first published, and is probably unlike any travel account you have ever read. Sheward hits the road with her twenty-something chum, Elisa, as they head for Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia with nary a plan. “Sheward’s writing is fast and furious. A roller coaster off the rails, with beers”- Adventure Travel Magazine

Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe
By Tom Batiuk – October 07 – 10 x 7 ½ - 252 pages, paperback, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-87338-952-5 Comics/Literature/Medicine KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
This is a story from Batiuk’s widely syndicated and popular comic strip Funky Winkerbean that will make you laugh and make you cry. Lisa Moore is a main character who discovered she had breast cancer. After treatment and recovery and continuing on with her life, the cancer then returns to her. This is an ongoing story in the comic strips today, and it also includes valuable resource information on breast cancer, including early detection, support systems and health care.

Water Tanks of Chicago: A Vanishing Urban Legacy
By Larry W Green – Foreword by Tony Jones - October 07 – 5 ½ x 8 ½ - 50 pages, 37 illustrations, paperback, $19.95 ISBN 978-0-9789676-0-4 Photography/Art/Chicago Architecture WICKER PARK PRESS
Green is a Chicago artist who has been photographing and sketching water-tanks in Chicago for the past twenty years. The book contains arresting black-and-white digital photographs with captions, and a section with paintings in the back. Jones, President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, says “Chicago crumbling water-tanks take on a new significance in Larry Green’s paintings.”

Midwest Book Review reviews Water Tanks of Chicago

Midwest Book Review October 2007

The American History Shelf

Water Tanks Of Chicago
Larry W. Green
Wicker Park Press Ltd.PO Box 5318, River Forest, IL 60305-53189780978967604, $19.95 http://www.wickerparkpress.com/

Water tanks, constructed for the purpose of supplying water through a gravity driven system for businesses, buildings, neighborhoods, and communities, were once ubiquitous components of an industrial past, but are now rapidly disappearing as crumbling, obsolete relics as technologies and the city have continued to evolve. For the past twenty years, Larry W. Green is a Chicago artist who has been photographing and sketching water-tanks in and around Chicago, Illinois. Now compiled and presented to the public in "Water Tanks Of Chicago: A Vanishing Urban Legacy", Green showcases and captions 37 of those images he has preserved or recreated. The purpose in publishing his work was to inform and alert the public to the need to preserve those (often crumbling) monuments to a yesteryear Chicago for their esthetic and historical significance. A superb presentation, "Water Tanks Of Chicago" is very highly recommended and could well serve as a template or example for photographically preserving similar landmark constructions in other American communities wanting to treasure and preserve their historic past in a rapidly changing present for the sake of future generations.

On the aging demographic of commission reps

NAIPR President Eric Miller reflects

An Independent Rep Reflects at Fifty

In this issue of NAIPR News Online we are reprinting Sara Huneke’s thought-provoking and remarkable story on commission reps from Publishing Trends. The thing that really struck me in the article was the aging demographic of independent reps. Ouch, the truth hurts. Especially since I just had my 50th birthday last month, and I was recently invited to Chris Kerr’s (of Parson Weems’ Publisher Services) 60th birthday bash in NYC. I remember when our group (Miller Trade Book Marketing) used to hire reps fresh out of the bookstores, young ones, and bring them to NYC for sales conference marathons. These reps were in great physical shape, but they could not handle the meetings, day after day. They would crack under the pressure, and sometimes it was amusing to see and sometimes it was frightening. My partner Bruce and I would look at each other as if to say, what's wrong with so-and-so? So, being a commission rep is not for everybody, and maybe that's one reason why the people who are in it, stay in it, and figure out a way to thrive.

While age and wisdom do not necessarily go hand in hand, years of experience count for a lot. It’s both art and practice that allow reps to put things together and to make important connections. Rep work, and especially independent sales, is a right brain kind of activity. It’s the ability to make people laugh, to synthesize widely differing elements, and to apply a deeper understanding to all kinds of situations in which sales reps find themselves. These unique elements are part and parcel in rep’s overall ability to survive in a fiercely competitive market, and still come out ahead while continuing to do their own thing. We are curious creatures, we old-timer reps, and the fact that we are still here in the 21st century—and making plans for the future—is a testament to the unique qualities a rep must demonstrate: the ability to promote a publisher of home improvement guides and a poetry press at the same time—to figure out how to succeed with both in a given territory.

I am not sure that the critical success factors as a commission rep or as an independent bookseller can necessarily be learned. One must already be an individual who can think flexibly and nimbly; one must understand innately how to make connections between seemingly disparate ideas; and one must be by nature a bit of a cockeyed optimist. A good sense of humor is also essential. Perhaps it’s not surprising that young people are not flocking to this business in droves because there are legitimate fears of dealing with the uncertainties and all of the vicissitudes of a very dynamic business. And yet there is no employer but yourself to turn to in your darker moments. Heck, you could starve to death in this business! And so it goes. But the fact that we have NAIPR, a unique and thriving association of independent reps who work successfully in the marketplace of ideas, who constantly adapt themselves to changing realities on the ground, who manage their businesses on their own terms, who have developed their own comfort zones and inimitable styles of doing business is, in my humble opinion, a beautiful thing.

Maybe the young ones will eventually figure out that they may be missing out on a on a significant opportunity. But in the meantime, we in the business, sprouting gray hairs and developing osteoporosis, will continue to soldier on and make the most of our hard-won freedoms and continue with our own brand of management and personal fulfillment.

Eric Miller
President, NAIPR

'Publishing Trends' On Commission Reps

The Bookstore Effect The Saga of the Independent Rep Continues
FROM PUBLISHING TRENDS (SEPTEMBER 2007)To see the charts that accompany this piece, please download the PDF issue here.

The effects of one independent bookstore closing are felt throughout the delicate ecosystem of publishing, and independent reps are bellwethers for what’s in store for the rest of the industry. When Publishing Trends checked in with commission reps three years ago (see PT Nov 04), the prevailing mood could be called reservedly optimistic. Since then, even with the recent spate of legendary independent store closings across the country, consolidation across the board, and an aging rep demographic, the mood, style, and MO haven’t changed all that much. By and large, the publishing industry and independent reps themselves are both eager to discuss the recent changes afoot, but not ready to succumb to them. “I’m not at all negative about the business; it’s changing all the time and you must adapt,” said Eric Miller, a 20 year veteran who, with his brother, Bruce, runs Miller Trade Book Marketing in the Midwest. “Reps are great whiners.” Others, like Dan Fallon who’s been with the Rovers Group for 15 years, is jovially incredulous at the staying power of indy reps. “It’s hard to believe we’re still here,” he commented. “I’m completely mystified. It’s great to even have a future to peer into at this point.”

Passing on What Torch? To Whom?

In what used to be a business where reps handed down an account relationship carefully cultivated over decades to an appointed heir, these days, the heirs aren’t quite apparent. “It’s harder to find younger people who want to go into the business. I don’t see that happening as much. The commission population is aging,” said Fallon who thinks most reps seem to be at least 45. Angie Smits of Southern Territory Associates thinks she’s the youngest of the breed at 42 and if she had to replace a rep in her group, she’d be at a loss to know where to find one, but probably from the bookselling side. For the rep on the brink of retirement, doling out a few lines to another group is turning out to be a viable way of selling off an intangible business. “Dedicated New England reps are an endangered species,” said Michael Watson of Watson and Woodward in New England. “I’ve been approached by Mid Atlantic reps [to share the territory]. Whether it’s formalized with a subcontract or informal, it’s happening more and more.” Indeed, the Rovers Group took on a few publishers from Frank Moster (Melman-Moster Associates) and Steve Williamson (New England Book Reps) in New England this year, but consolidation, such as the merger of Fuji and Heinecken, two major Midwest groups, and the consolidation at Tony Proe’s Empire Group is a new phenomenon. “I think consolidation will happen a lot more in the future. It follows from the consolidation in the publishing and distribution industries,” commented Fallon. “It’s good for people like us as it gives more access to publishers. Though it also makes some companies viable and some not at all. For us, it’s important.” However, not everyone is thrilled about consolidation, especially booksellers who have developed longstanding relationships with their commission reps, and quiet protests pop up across the country. “There are some booksellers who, of course, buy from whoever is selling what they need, but who grumble about the groups being from outside the territory,” said Nanci McCrackin of McCrackin & Friends in New England. “One prominent bookseller claims he restricts his buys to a few lines from those fellows to make his point.” But it looks like booksellers will have to get used to being pitched to in a different accent.

Weeds of the Northeast

What else can be done to stay afloat? The Parson Weems Group in New England/ Mid Atlantic has developed a robust client list of university presses. Their regional SKUs, such as the perennial bestseller Weeds of the Northeast from Cornell University Press, backlist strongly, commented Chris Kerr. Children’s picture books that need an in person presentation also work to the commission rep’s advantage. And Parson Weems isn’t the only group to go academic, regional, and juvenile. Smits, of Southern Territory Associates, along with just about everyone else, reported a ramping up of these categories too. She reps the University of North Carolina Press and one of her accounts, Quail Ridge in Raleigh said their Encyclopedia of North Carolina “saved their year.”Before (and if) merging becomes inevitable, some independent reps are finding other strategies to cope with changes. “Our approach is to stay the right size and increase our business by working closely with our clients and to help them grow with their publishing and distributing,” commented Stu Abraham of Abraham Associates, Inc. in the Midwest who’s been in the business for almost 30 years. Miller Trade has taken on a more active role in marketing, setting up “mini-trade shows” in key cities in its territory. In Traverse City and Lansing, Miller invited regional authors they rep to give readings and sign books. He and his brother also started a blog (www.millertrade.blogspot.com) where they feature “picks of the lists” and comment on the industry. “It’s a good way to expand our customer base,” said Miller. “One rep group can’t have all the lines or there will be fall-out. Different groups fit differently with accounts.” Out West, the thriving museum store market just might save the commission rep. “We couldn’t survive without them,” reported Howard Karel of the San Francisco-based Karel/Dutton Group who makes the rounds to the Seattle Asian Museum, De Jonge, and San Francisco MoMA. Karel also partially reps Globe Pequot, sharing territory with GP house reps who peddle their books from vans to all manner of accounts.

Publishers Respond

At the end of 2005, Simon & Schuster’s response to the shrinking retail market was to reorganize their field sales rep force and combine adult and juvenile teams. Claimed as a way of avoiding similar layoffs at other publishers (such as Random House), the shake-up resulted in replacing commission groups with all in-house field reps to handle non-traditional accounts. The newly re-trained S&S group sells only books, a novelty to specialty store buyers used to picking up ashtrays, tchochkes, and picture books from the same rep. “Expanding past traditional markets gave reps more to do,” said Frank Fochetta, VP, Director of Field and Special Sales. “We might be missing opportunities at very small specialty stores, but we’re growing in the middle area. We’re opening fewer accounts, but the average dollar is higher.” He reported S&S is up 15-20% in non-traditional, non-bookstore accounts. Compare with Globe Pequot which has also been moving toward a multi-focused in-house team over the past few years, calling on various accounts with their camping, travel, and outdoor lines. However, Chris Grimm, Director of Field and Specialty Sales, said he would not dream of disbanding his network of commission sales groups which have proven invaluable. Shuffling the rep deck isn’t the best way to a healthy bottom line for every publisher. Matty Goldberg, Group VP and Director of Sales at Perseus, doesn’t think a multi-tasking in-house force alone could work for their list, saying it wouldn’t provide enough coverage to satisfy their distribution clients. With the recent mélange at Perseus Distribution Services (which now, of course, includes the varied lists of PGW, CDS, and Consortium), careful attention had to be paid to what kinds of reps would work best for which lines. Sabrina Bracco, VP Client Services at PDS, tried to bring on as many of the PGW sales force as possible which meant commission reps lost out again. But Julie Schaper, President and COO at sister company Consortium responded to her publisher clients who begged not to be deprived of the commission reps who’d spent years selling their literary fiction and poetry collections in face-to-face meetings. “We still think [independent reps] are the best bang for the buck,” she commented. “Obviously you get more control with house reps, but the Consortium list can be a challenge. It’s very eclectic and you can’t explain these titles in one line. Independent reps have the ability to put in more time and effort.” She’s not ready to change at the moment, but the bottom line will always be how to best benefit their publisher clients.For independent reps, and not just those who work with Consortium, Schaper’s dedication even after the PGW/Perseus merger is a welcome vote of confidence.

On the Merger of Fujji & Heinecken Associates

The View from Chicago

The merger of Fujii Associates and Heinecken & Associates here in the Midwest will be a watershed event in the history of selling on commission in the US. It creates a super-group from two of the largest organizations already in the territory, and it also perhaps opens up opportunities for other Midwest groups as the publisher deck inevitably gets reshuffled and realigned. I’m sure all NAIPR members will join me in wishing the new Fujii Associates great success. We look forward to their continuing support of our association, as well.

When Ted Heinecken, veteran group head who started up in 1978, talks about attempting to “raise the bar of service to a new industry standard” with this new association, I believe he is referring to the considerable talents of their group members, which, even just between the two principals equals fifty-three years of combined experience. That’s a formidable advantage going in, and Fujii’s ability to court mainstream publishers and large distributors should be enhanced. This is a good thing for all of us. I’m sure the new, improved Fujji Associates under the direction of Don Sturtz will attract a premier lineup of publishers, and that bookstores will stand up and take notice.

Yet how many publishers can one commission group reasonably sign up? There are many other talented and experienced rep groups across the country; the combination of two key groups is just one example of the creative energy and innovative thinking that goes on all the time among independent sales reps. There’s room for many different kinds of sales groups, and a merger of this kind will only attract positive attention to our industry segment. NAIPR itself grows stronger as its members continue to think outside the box and utilize their varied resources.

Even as our sales meeting marathon is under way in New York, we should look ahead to Book Expo America, where we will have our own “Enjoy Your Independence” party on Saturday night, complete with top-flight musical entertainment, where we will be able to say “thank you” to our buyers, our publishers, our membership, and to our many other colleagues throughout the industry.

And for all of us, life continues apace with some exciting times ahead. . . .

Eric Miller
President, NAIPR

An Alphabetical Life

Eric Miller reviews memoir by Wendy Werris due out in November

An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the Business of Books
by Wendy Werris
New York: Carol & Graff, ISBN 0-7867-1817-X Paperback Original $15.95 November 2006

“The whole culture grapples with who is in charge and what can be known, who must be listened to and what must be remembered. As authors, authors sense acutely the complicated relationship they have with authority. ‘Author’ and ‘authority’ – it goes beyond the mere suffix following the word. In the classroom or out of it, what one speaks, what one writes is always seeking a purchase, looking for traction, hoping this word will take.”
-- Michael Martone, Unconventions: Attempting the Art of Craft and the Craft of Art, 2005

Wendy Werris has written a corker of a book: a memoir that is a brave, honest, and thoroughly engaging narrative of her coming of age in the book business in 1970s Los Angeles and beyond. We join Werris on her journey from the venerable Pickwick Bookshop of Hollywood, cutting her teeth in an urban melting pot of high glamour and downright squalor, to the 1973 ABA book convention in downtown LA where she scores her first publishing job at a company called Straight Arrow in San Francisco, a subsidiary of Rolling Stone. Werris quickly figures out that an office job in marketing is not for her, and she lands a sales gig with a newly formed distributor called Two Continents Publishing, run by the legendary Leonard Shatzkin. This brings her back home to LA where she hits the road and becomes for all intents and purposes a “young lady salesman.” She joins a commission group, Nourse-McKay, and gets the Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico territory. She has the experience of handling a bestseller —The World According to Garp — for EP Dutton, for which she will later become a house rep. Werris forms her own commission group, I – 5 Associates, with George Carroll and Jack O’Leary. She deftly describes the many eccentric bookshop characters she encounters; my favorite is the proprietor of Anne Chiquoine Books in tiny Ventura, CA, an heiress who runs her shop out of the local Elks lodge and affectionately calls Werris “Poopsie.” It is oddball characters like this one, both famous and infamous, that populate Werris’ memoir that make it crackle with energy.

There is also quite a bit of pathos in Werris’ life story, the decline of her father’s writing career in Hollywood, the diminishing bookstore landscape in her territory, the early death of a close friend, and her own experience with sexual assault. Werris weathers the worst of it with humor and authority, and we begin to see a life that has been sustained through the business of books. Through it all she still has her customers, the lines she is selling, and the new books and personalities she encounters along the way. It’s a rich ride, and I always knew that Wendy was cool, sitting in many publisher sales meetings with her year after year. I just wasn’t sure exactly why she was so cool, and now I know and I’m very glad of it. Werris has blazed a trial with her new book and become the poet laureate of publisher’s reps.

Eric Miller
President, NAIPR