Not
Small Apples: New York Independent and Small Press Book Fair 2006
by Janine Armin
100 000 small presses currently operate
in the U.S. And this year’s New York Independent and Small Press Book
Fair (December 2-3, www.smallpress.org)
did the numbers justice. 100 presses represented, and a veritable buffet
of insightful panels and readings featured such literary and political
luminaries as Greg Plast, Katha Pollitt, and Amiri Baraka.
Irrepressibly hip publishers were
jammed into the beautiful General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
building located on 44th Street, the same street as the New
Yorker’s former digs. When not packed with books and the 3000 fans who
attended this year, according to fair consultant Mark Kohut, the
building offers free draftsmen courses.
In an inlet just off the entryway The
New York Review of Books, Pen America and The Nation established ranks.
On the outskirts of the elite clique, a table littered with copies of
BOMB showed off the magazine’s surprisingly healthy literary bent. In
the central corridor Seven Stories faced Akashic; the two leading indie
presses were magnets for traffic.
Behind a sound curtain provided by a
coat rack, Akashic publisher Johnny Temple was kind enough to comment on
the virtues of the fair which he said, has "really helped us
elevate our profile." He loves the "distinctly
non-commercial" aspect, that these are "a bunch of businesses
that are not driven by the bottom-line imperative." Judging by the calibre
of his books, and those of many other publishers there,
phenomenal authors are also attracted to the nurturing objective.
For small presses, as Temple says,
"thriving" means "staying afloat." Success must be
measured differently. And money must be spent wisely. The key is in
"a low overhead," says Temple, and "finding amazing
writers."
That spirit for books translates into
spirited sales manoeuvres. Small presses must combine regular sales
tactics with ingenuity. AK emphasized the importance of old school
practicing like hand-selling books. Seven Stories concurred, and
suggested the importance of publisher-involvement.
Spanning three floors, on the mezzanine
publishers like Melville House and IG displayed their wares. Melville is
known for its bite-sized classics, smaller format and condensed, they
make perfect gifts and light-weight heavy reading. IG’s authors are
getting attention from major publishers too, particularly for Grant
Bailie’s Cloud 8, an imaginary romp through a free but boring
afterlife.
Melville publisher Dennis Loy Johnson
sat down for a talk with me in the café. I was stunned by his fame, as
he confessed to being the original book blogger, Mobylives. To my
surprise, he said blogs didn’t generally lead to increased sales. But
that isn’t the most difficult part faced by his press, it’s
"getting mainstream media to pay any attention to us," he
said. Oddly enough, they have "no problem distributing."
That contradicts a lot of the mystique
that surrounds the small presses. Many say distribution is a problem,
including Publisher’s Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson. She stresses
that publishers should make sure "to pick the right
distributor."
Festival facilitator Mark Kohut, a
veteran in sales and marketing for corporate publishers, now provides
services to small presses. At the Publisher’s Breakfast, Kohut and
fellow sales bigwig Mark Levine divulged the tricks of the trade to an
enrapt audience of muffin-munching publishers.
 I
spoke with Kohut in the cramped small press office, where I assisted in
retrieving a plastic fork for one of the festival organizers. Small
presses face different problems, Kohut says, the "major difference
has to be resources and time and attention to which the major publishers
the focus they can offer to the books they wish to market in a big
way."
Technology helps. "It’s easier
for small presses than it used to be," he says, "the greatest
expense . . . is the set-up." And with new technologies, set-up is
significantly easier. "You can set them [books] up for less than
two hundred dollars," Kohut continued, adding "on demand books
don’t need to be printed until they’re bought."
Authors are also instrumental in
selling their books. Small presses tend to welcome their unique
knowledge about their market. Temple says "we look for people that
inspire us but that our style of work inspires them." Speaking on a
panel, Akashic author T Cooper supported her publisher’s ideal,
"once I learned that they trusted me," she said, "I felt
that I trusted them implicitly." With recent successes like Joe
Meno’s Boy Detective Fails, the reciprocal relationship that
allows Akashic to sometimes "accomplish more than the giant
budgets," seems to be working.
Key conferences included a panel on
literature of colour with Pen America authors Monique Truong, Martha
Southgate and Jaime Manrique and an interview with Michael Cunningham.
The ever-eloquent Ed Park, an editor
for The Believer and former editor of the Village Voice Literary
Supplement, moderated a panel on writing good fiction under the
corporate gun. T Cooper, Peter Plate, and John Cotrona proffered animated
commentary. Cooper, whose first book was published by Akashic, spoke
about the money corporate publishers waste on touring. Self-published
author John Cotrona, who "purposely hadn’t smoked pot since
noon," was lucid enough to mention the importance of good book
design in grabbing the attention of potential readers. Peter Plate
charged the atmosphere with revolutionary statements on "what
writing is when it comes from the bottom of society," and the
necessity for writers to be historically informed and to understand
their "impetus" for writing. And T Cooper countered with sober
advice on the practicalities of getting books published.
The Roe Vs. Wade panel also proved
fascinating. Nation columnist Katha Pollitt, Third Wave feminist
crusader/author Jennifer Baumgardner and journalist Eyal Press heatedly
discussed the insane American struggle to protect women’s rights,
which religion has made into a catastrophic issue. As a Canadian, it was
mind-boggling to watch. The argument spilled out onto the street where a
virulent Katha Pollitt and animated Jennifer Baumgardner continued the
discussion of abortion rights. I interrupted them, and contributed my
inwardly heated and uniformed comments.
After she moderated the Roe panel,
editor-in-chief of Publisher’s Weekly Sara Nelson commented on the
state of small presses while she braved cold gusts by an open window.
"I think it’s very hard for the small presses to do well,"
she said. However, she sees light in the small press future with an
exciting concept: "as bigger houses get bigger they create a place
for the smaller presses," she said, and like Hollywood
blockbusters, the big houses create a market for the small houses.
From fisheries publishers to
politicians, save the repeated misplacing of my water bottle, the
festival went off without a hitch. Next year I hope to stay into the
week and sign up for a drafting course.
Janine Armin has
written about books for the Village Voice, the Globe and Mail, and
Bookslut. |
