Borders Bankruptcy File--We Help Out and Pick Up Sarah Blake's Event for The Postmistress for Next Wednesday, 2/23

It's the news we've been expecting for some time. Borders declared chapter 11, and announced the closing of 200 stores, including all three in the Milwaukee area. Since it happened, news orgs have been calling to get our local spin on the story.

Honestly, I'm not rubbing my hands with glee. I'm worried about the publishers that will be affected, especially the smaller ones that may not be able to recover, as well as the booksellers who will lose their jobs.

Even though there is a Borders store only a few miles away from us in downtown Milwaukee, I don't expect to pick up much of that business. Downtown traffic is a funny thing; it doesn't migrate to the next closest store, but seeps out through the rest of the metro area (and probably into the internet).

I think there's a little bit of business, to be sure, and probably a drop more from the Fox Point store. I'm hoping that more of that Fox Point Borders business will travel to our friends at Next Chapter.

One thing we did pick up was an event with Sarah Blake for her paperback tour of The Postmistress. This wonderful novel was a hit with booksellers and critics alike, including several Boswellians. Here's a rec from our ex-bookseller and still good friend, Rebecca:

"WWII offers limitless opportunities for good storytelling, and The Postmistress introduces us to both a new front -- a small town on Cape Cod, where tension is mounting on the eve of America's entry into the war -- and new voices. You won't soon forget Frankie Bard, radio gal!"

It pays to throw away nothing. Thanks, Rebecca! Are you coming?

So here's the scoop on our event:
Sarah Blake, author of The Postmistress
Wednesday, February 23, 7 pm
at Boswell
which, as you know, is at
2559 N Downer Ave.

and here's the rest of the tour!

Monday, February 21, 7 pm
Edina (Minneapolis)
Barnes and Noble
3225 W. 69th St.

Tuesday, February 22, 7 pm
Madison/Barnes and Noble
7433 Mineral Point Road

then us on 2/23 (see above!)

Thursday, February 24, Noon
Lunch at Mirani's, Winnetka
Sponsored by The Book Stall
727 Elm Street
Reservations required. Please call 847-446-8880

Thursday, February 24, 7 pm
The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square, Chicago
4736-38 North Lincoln Ave

Friday, February 25, 7 pm
Left Bank Books, St. Louis
399 N Euclid Ave (Central West End)

In March, the author visits Books and Books in Coral Gables and the Vero Beach Book Center. It's not too late to plan a getaway!

And for you folks in Milwaukee, you absolutely must attend one of the great book events going on next Wednesday. While Stacie is in the store with Blake, I'll be at the launch party for Lisa Paula and her book, Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope at the Shorewood Public Library. That event begins at 6:30 pm. The library is of course at 3920 North Murray Avenue.

Next Chapter in Mequon has a great event as well, Roberta Gately's novel, Lipstick in Afghanistan (I'm linking you to more info, but if you go, buy it at the event, not from us!). It's the story of a humanitarian nurse in war-torn Afghanistan, who finds both tragedy and beauty in her new environment. Booklist called the book "utterly engrossing" and it seems a wonderful pick for book clubs. More on their website.

Why You Shouldn't Put Off Buying Postmistress

Recent printings of The Postmistress have dropped the rough-cut edging. Jason and I have talking about watching books in later printings drop in quality. In this case, it's an aesthetic choice. Sometimes it's about thinner paper. That said, you can still find some nice copies of the book around, and that includes Boswell.

In the picture at left, the top book is an earlier printing and the bottom is more recent.

Hey, one way to fight ebooks is with the quality of the book, right? I'm paying attention.

Amy Einhorn and I Chat About The Help, The Postmistress, and Well, Whatever My Rather Mixed-Up Brain Shoots Out

In yesterday's post, I noted that our top two hardcover bestsellers last week were from Amy Einhorn Books. I contacted Einhorn with some questions, and that answer led to an interesting email discussion about the line from there to here.

Goldin: How did you get from doing those Five Spot original paperbacks at Warner (Grand Central) to this? I see new imprints from editors all the time, but honestly, they aren't usually this successful right off the bat. Even Jason Kaufman's followups to The DaVinci Code didn't follow in Dan Brown's footsteps, thought folks may not know that he was the editor for the Darkly Dreaming Dexter series, which has won many fans through the spinoff cable series.

Einhorn:
Yes, I was at 5 Spot at Warner. But I had a long career before/after/during including stints at FSG (where I started), Washington Square Press, etc. I started 5 SPOT at Warner but that wasn’t really my own thing. The company wanted a trade paperback program and I was given marching orders to run it. Warner (Grand Central) was a commercial house, more so than what I’m doing now, but while I was there I published some very good titles/authors: Robert Hicks’ Widow of the South, Lolly Winston Good Grief, Amy Sedaris’ I Like You, and Min Jin Lee’s Free Food For Millionaires.

Goldin:
Oh, that makes a lot more sense, although of late, Washington Square Press is pretty similar to Grand Central in what they publish (meaning, when it became a feeder for Atria instead of for all of Simon and Schuster). The FSG start is interesting--did you acquire or just work "at the knee of." In a sense, I see what you are doing as FSG + Washington Square Press + Grand Central. Does this seem fair?

Einhorn:
FSG was my first job in publishing—I was a lowly assistant. But I got to be around Roger Straus, Jr., Jonathan Galassi, Rick Moody (then the managing editor)– pretty cool people to be around when you’re 22 (or 62, actually). I’m not sure your equation works, but yes, my imprint aims to hit that sweet spot between literary and commercial and I think we’ve been pretty successful at that.

Goldin:
It's almost like you picked up a new skill everywhere you went. I'm quite jealous of that. I don't really like change, but could have had a few more stints to get ideas. Fortunately (it didn't seem so at the time) I got to do some new things in the last years of Schwartz, or when our stores closed, all I would have known how to do was be a good buyer, and that ain't gonna keep a bookstore going.

Einhorn:
One of the good things about moving around is that you do pick up something from every place where you’ve worked. I think I’ve been able to put what I’ve learned into practice.

(Editor's note--I lost the transition here, but Ms. Einhorn wrote something to me about starting a bookstore, which is why I start yapping about it here. I can't find the comment that led me to this, but the point was that we were both jumping into change, but many would considered it old-fashioned change, behind the times.)

Goldin:
I'm generally in a panic about the opening the bookstore, but when I step back, I'm fascinated...which customers followed us and why, which publishers seem most interested in our success, how my booksellers have responded to a change in ownership and attitude--let's just say that they aren't always that thrilled with my disorganization, but running a bookstore on the cheap means less time to write up lots of rulebooks. That said, I promise to everyone that I will try to do better in 2010.

I did some shaking up at the beginning (mixing new and used, painting and fixture change, ramping up events), but now I feel like you have to keep moving along and throwing out new ideas. Last year we had a tango concert and an in-store farmer's market--now what?

Einhorn:
What about things like open mike readings like KGB does here with The Moth? Have you heard of them? I think they’re pretty successful.

Goldin:
I would like do to that. Stacie! Where are you?

I just came back from Winter Institute and my head is spinning. It was E-everything. I read the general media stories and think, "Who needs us?" I know we need to social network so we do it all, but some better than others. Our Facebook is ok, our Twitter sucks. Is email social media? I guess not because there're no comments. I am happy with that, though I break all the rules--way too long. I think the blog is our best thing, but I am more proud of some posts than others

Einhorn:
I’m not as up on the internet stuff as I should be. Recently six top bloggers started an “Amy Einhorn perpetual challenge” where they’re reading all the books I’ve published (or will publish) at the new imprint, and are then going to discuss them. It’s very flattering, and a great way to reach people. But I’m not sure that Tweeting (as some have suggested) or having a Facebook page is the way to go for me. I’d much rather have my authors be the ones out there in public, getting the attention.

Goldin:
OK, back to the books. It's just amazing how customers buy The Help. A couple years ago there was no hardcover fiction book selling like this--for years it was all nonfiction with Eat, Pray, Love or Reading Lolita in Tehran. You get a book like this and think, oh, it can be done--that mix of reading tastes that all coalesce over one thing, though admittedly, at least in our case, the taste has been decidedly female. (A note from the dinner party I recently attended. One writer asked me whether memoirs were still hot, the way her agent told her. I'd have to say no.)

Einhorn:
Yes, it’s been incredible how well the book is doing, thanks in big part to the handselling of booksellers, and the word-of-mouth recommendations from readers. It’s nice to see that at the end of the day, with all the marketing bells and whistles that we all try, this is what it all comes back to.

Goldin:
It’s all about the book. Hey, The Postmistress is just starting to pick up. We did a feature in our last email newsletter. Rebecca, who read it, liked it, but was curious about the focus on three protagonists when she thought it was really only about one.

Einhorn:
I think it is really about the three women, Frankie, although maybe it’s more about Iris and Frankie than Emma. Some reviewers have taken issue with the title, but I wonder if they’d be reviewing, or even reading it, if it were called "The Journalist."

Goldin:
As a publisher, you probably had more say in that than you would have back when you were just editing. Ever have a book leave your hands and then go in a direction you hadn't intended?

Einhorn:
Well, I think we (editors and publishers) have had books we love that go out into the world and don’t find their way—that breaks our hearts. The hope is that if we love it, the transitive property will apply and everyone else will too. I think one of the nice things about the success of The Help is that it worked exactly as I dreamed. You love it, the company loves it, and then it turns out everybody else loves it too. If it happened like this all the time, you and I would have much easier jobs!

Goldin:
And even more competition. It’s a good thing our careers are also filled with frustration.

Some of you may know that my family name on my mother's side is Einhorn. To my knowledge, we're not related. Oh, and at the end, I asked her to give a plug for a book that might not have reached the audience it deserved. Einhorn chose Kate Ledger's Remedies, a novel about a couple whose seemingly perfect marriage is scarred by grief from the death of their firstborn. The book came out last fall in hardcover. Perhaps Penguin will break out the paperback.

Next post: Daniel buys more plexy signholders!

Help, It’s Another Story About The Help.

It’s not often that books come out of nowhere to become huge bestsellers. And as we’ve beaten the one-year mark on Katherine Stockett’s The Help, it seemed like a good idea to ruminate on its success. Will publishers decide there was a formula and try to duplicate it? Will they be shocked when the formula doesn’t pan out?

Do I have to tell you about the book? No, you’ve probably already read it. If you haven't read it, it's success has already colored what you likely think of it. As I was saying to some friends this past weekend, at this point you're going to judge it based on its success, and so the book is going to read really differently than right out of the slush pile (remember all those successful books that were rejected 30 times) or as a book that was overlooked but you'd read a couple of good reviews and one of your friends said there was really something there.

Stockett hits the sweet spot between literary and commercial, which is much more likely to be achieved in trade paperback; this gives hope to hardcover publishers. I haven’t read it yet (it won’t affect my sales) but I actually have bought a couple of copies as gifts. Will I eventually? Probably. When a book is this book, you want to know what makes it connect.

One thing a lot of folks have focused on is that The Help was the first release of the eponymously named imprint Amy Einhorn Books. The imprint has a new book out called The Postmistress that is also getting a good amount of buzz. It is fitting that I bring this up this week; here are our top five fiction sellers for this past week:

1. The Help, by Katherine Stockett
2. The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake

3. The Man from Beijing, by Henning Mankell

4. Union Atlantic, by Adam Haslett

5. Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich.

Wow!

I only remembered two things about Amy Einhorn:

1. She headed a paperback original imprint called Five Spot at Warner (now Grand Central) and had a decent-sized bestseller in Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress (also a paperback original). The imprint, like Downtown Books at Pocket, was targeted to twenty-to-thirty-something women with escapist fiction.

2. I once ran into her in a cafeteria at the Book Expo convention where I chatted with her and Jon Karp the publisher of Twelve, an imprint at Hachette. Hey, I was the only person in that conversation who didn’t get my own imprint.

So I figured I’d ask about the road that led her to the AE colophon, a huge bestseller, and another perhaps positioned to be so. How did she get from there to here? I was a bit mystified.

What happened? Stay tuned until tomorrow.

***

I was doing some errands for my mom this morning, including making copies of some forms. Across from me was someone copying their book manuscript. Really? Not in a file? I'm not going to say the title (as that person might surf upon it), but if you were at a copy shop on Beacon Street with your manuscript, that working title doesn't work! Change it.