There's More Than One Way to Hook a Great Author Event--The Tale of Kelly McNees and The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott

There are lots of ways to book author events.

a. We can make requests through the publicity department, this is run through sales and marketing, cities are determined, and then we get the lucky call. If your store is in Boston, you get that call about six months out. If you're in Milwaukee, most of the time that call is closer to three months out when we get on the official tour.

b. We can miss the first round of touring but wind up as a sub city. Or there will be a revelation that there is an extra day in Chicago. Or another city will fall through and the rep or author will make a big case for us. Those events are booked more like two months out.

c. The author will book his or her tour on their own. Sometimes they are coming to see relatives or speaking to another group. Sometimes that event is booked 4-6 weeks out.

d. A third party will come to us and request that we sell books at their event. Some really great events happen that way, such as the two events to celebrate Alverno College's Research Center for Women and Girls. They've got Rachell Simmons on April 8th (tomorrow) and Sheryl WuDunn on April 12th. You need to pre-register. Alas, the event with Bill McKibben for Eaarth is full and the waiting list is long. However, you might be able to attend some of the films in the Making it Home festival, April 16-18.

It's not too often that the impetus for an event starts from the agent. I know a few, but no, I can't pitch your manuscript to them right now. Alas, there are a lot of other things I need to read, but I won't sign off on anything I haven't read (and there's another blog about the pitfalls of that someday).

That said, I was talking to Marly Russoff, ex-bookseller, ex-rep, ex-book-publicist (two jobs I've also done) about that Serena jacket change, and we wound up having a long conversation about all the great books she had that were coming out. Russoff's taste is impeccable and as a champion of devloping authors, she's really an independent bookseller's best friend.

One of the books she was talking about was The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, a novel about a love affair Alcott might have had that inspired the story of Jo and Laurie. She was very enthusiastic about the book, and as McNees lived in the Chicago area, maybe we could come up with something.

It's a novel about an imagined affair that Alcott may have had that influenced the story of Little Women, regarding the relationship of Jo and Laurie. One Boswellian says it best:

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, a novel by Kelly O’Connor McNees, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, April 2010, $24.95
"As someone who owns her mother’s copy of Little Women and has read it dozens of times over the years, I could not wait to read this book. Although the story is fictional, the author has taken information from Alcott’s letters and journals to create a tale that might have happened. Most people are aware that Alcott is Jo March, but this lovely story answers the questions of who is Laurie, and why didn’t Jo marry him? It also offers up some surprising details about Alcott’s home life, and the difficulty of living with a father who believed that his ideals would be compromised by holding a steady job. Thus, it fell to Louisa, her sisters and their mother to keep the family fed and housed. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott adds a bittersweet romantic interlude to Alcott’s mostly solitary life."
--Sharon Nagel, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A couple of months later and McNees called; she was hoping to set up a stock signing.

"You're coming up here to sign stock? "Why aren't we doing an event," I replied.

McNees knew about the hesitation publishers have for events with first-time authors when there are few relatives and friends in the market. What she didn't know was that we've already had a few reads on the book, and we were very enthusiastic to put something together. The reads pull the book out of the pack. A novel playing off of Little Women. An event just before Mother's Day?

It's a great book and this is a great opportunity. We got the okay from Penguin, so we've scheduled an event for Kelly O'Connor McNees and The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott for Thursday, May 6th, at 7 PM, and we'll do our best to have a nice crowd.

Full circle--the other book Marly was very excited about is from Viking. It's My Name is Mary Sutter, and it's a historical novel about a midwife who wants to become a surgeon. We're not hosting Robin Oliveira...at the moment.

Searching for Pete Nelson--There's More on His Resume Than I Thought You Were Dead

I've been thinking all along that Pete Nelson, author of the new novel, I Thought You Were Dead, was a first novelist. It's the #1 Indie Next book for April, but it certainly didn't get all those reads from track record.

If you read the flap copy for Nelson's new novel, or rather, a love story with a protagonist who has a different name, he's written "several books." But if you look at the author bio on our bookseller's web site for Nelson on Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis, you'll find out he's written 18! This guy is a seasoned writer and it shows. No first-timer's luck involved.

I only started to think about this when I was writing back and forth with Rick Reiken, author of my favorite book of spring, Day for Night, and he saw on my signature (where I list the last ten or so books I've read, with info if we're doing some sort of event) and wrote the following:

"I know him from around here - actually it was through Elinor Lipman that I met him, about 10 years ago. I needed a dog sitter on short notice and Ellie arranged it because she knew Pete had a dog and would be mellow enough to deal with my dog's separation anxiety issues. Incidentally, that dog of mine (a basset-German shepherd mix -- he looked like a giant basset hound), who passed away a few years ago, at age 17, was named Boz, and many people called him Boswell."

Lipman comes up because Reiken knows I know her. In fact, she went up to him in Northampton and said she was excited about Day for Night because Daniel and the Boswell folks had already talked it up to her. And that Boswell thing? Sigh.

So I write to Lipman. Here's what I find out:

"Peter was the first writer I met when I moved to Northampton in 1987. (We had the same editor, Mindy Warner, at Viking, and she put us in touch). Peter was well-known as a writer, singer and host to almost every act who/which came to the Iron Horse and couldn't afford a hotel. But more famous than Peter was Stella, his yellow lab. He had a loooooonnnnng coffee hour every day at a restaurant on Main Street, and Stella would wait patiently outside the door, pre-leash law. So well-known and beloved that when Stella died, there was a feature about her in the local paper, so I guess one could say she got an obituary. Of course, she wore a bandana."

Most folks don't know or remember that Lipman published a book of short stories at Penguin before she moved to Pocket for her first novel, Then She Found Me. Which was 20 years ago! Her new book, The Family Man, is just out in paper and is one of my book club picks for spring summer. Come into the store and pick up my handout (Or maybe that's another blog post).

Oh, Stella! Nelson's dog makes the reader fall in love with her the way a whole town apparently did.

Still looking for the obit. I'll let you know if we find it.

Pete Nelson is appearing at the store with Joe Meno on Tuesday, April 20th, at 7 PM.

McCann Book Club Tonight/Last Day for Bergian Essay Contest

Tonight is our book discussion for Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. I am about halfway through the book and love, love, love it. So beautiful. It reminds me of (and I apologize for another Project Runway reference) Jonathan Peters when he was defending his fabric that the judges referred to as a dirty tablecloth. What's wrong with inspiring sadness? The judges do not read much.

Next month is Jayne Anne Phillips' Lark and Termite.

***

Today is the last day to submit entries in our Elizabeth Berg-inspired The Last Time I Saw You essay contest:

--500 words

--reunion inspired

--original

Send to thelasttimeisawyou@boswellbooks.com. We have enough entries that we actually have to do some pre-judging!

My Semi-Annual Markdown Table Post

We consolidated the gift markdowns with the 2010 calendars, now at 75% off. We've also got a small spinner of 75% off cards. I think Anne made it look rather pretty, don't you?

Yes, It's a Year Since Our Soft Opening

Our soft opening was April 3, 2009. If I were more organized, I would have brought in a cake. But all I have is a wood one.

We're open for Easter, by the way. 10 AM-4 PM.

Other places to go on the block and in the neighborhood:

Downer and Oriental Theatres

Cafe Hollander (8 AM - 3 PM)

CVS

and

The adjoining Starbucks.

And Beans and Barley is open too. If I can walk there for my lunch, you can stop by after you eat there and say hi.

I assume the Original Pancake House is open for brunch too. Pancakes seem so Easterly.

Wooden Postcards Cause Unjustified Buyer's Remorse

So I'm poking through catalogs and come across these wooden postcards. One of my booksellers had seen them before and liked them; I had as well on a trip to visit my mom in Massachusetts.

They mail for regular postage!

We put together an order and send them out. In the meantime, I visit the store where I last saw them and they've marked them down.

Panic.

Then they arrive and well, many of them are sort of warped. I contact my rep, who puts me in touch with them. They explain how the cards, being wood and all, will do this, though I'm the first person to complaion. She assures me that they are made to actually straighten a bit as they dry out.

My booksellers, well at least some of them who like the cards, assure me that they will do just fine. Stop worrying.

It's a month or so later and they were right. The cards are selling just fine. I like the pheasant best, and we're almost out of our first order. The designs have a retro quality, some pretty and others a little more fractured. They certainly get folks' attention.

So now I'm done with that and ready to panic about something else. Where are my tyvek wallets?

The Collapse of General Motors and the Return of Ralph Nader to the Library on Sunday, April 25th, 1:30 PM

I'm currently reading Sixty to Zero: An Inside Look at the Collapse of General Motors and the Detroit Auto Industry, by Alex Taylor III. Taylor is a longtime follower of the industry and a journalist more of the business variety than investigative.

It's Taylor's thought that the company's leadership model moved from innovator to bean counter sometime in the fifties. This led to the various car lines interchangeability. At the same time, there is a fine line between competition and infighting, and apparently GM crossed it. Oh, and the design got boring.

And then there was the quality issue, brought to head by the Corvair. Here's a passage from Sixty to Zero:

"Despite its shortcomings, the Corvair continued to sell respectably for several years until a young lawyer named Ralph Nader appeared on the scene. In 1965 Nader published a book entitled Unsafe at Any Speed that exposed a list of safety and mechanical problems that went beyond the stabilizer bar. Nader made three complaints: the Corvair was unsafe on turns; the cooling system leaked carbon monoxide fumes; and in a front end crash, a driver could be speared by the steering wheel."

The book goes on to chronicle the private detectives set on Nader's tail and the public apology that followed when the full story was brought to light.

This is just one story of many regarding the difficulties facing the General Motors. It's like a rollercoaster ride for GM, downhill for fifty years. I can't say it's exactly a business book, because there isn't much good advice here. Just about everything eventually goes wrong, no matter what the company does. The book should be in stores shortly.

I bring this up now, not only because I really am currently reading this book, but because the Milwaukee Public Library is hosting Nader on Sunday, April 25th, at 1:30 PM. It's a talk and signing, on his way to another event in Appleton. The event is at Centennial Hall, 733 North Eighth Street.

There's a special offer too, that harkens back to his roots as a consumer advocate. While at the event, if you buy two copies of his current novel, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, you will get a free copy of Winning the Insurance Game. Supplies of the free book are limited.

Quilt Local! Our Jennifer Chiaverini Event (4/10, 2 PM) is Co-spsonsored by Patched Works of Elm Grove Quilting Shop

Jennifer Chiaverini is a Wisconsin author with a strong Schwartz connection. For years, her novels based on the Elm Creek Quilters were a must-attend event at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Brookfield. In fact, Chiaverini was one of the three guest authors at the Brookfield wake, set up when the closing was announced last year. (Read about ex-bookseller Brian's acknowledgement in A Quilter's Legacy.) Chiaverini has built up a following at various stores around metro Milwaukee, but this is time we get to get a try at hosting her.

Though our events draw from a much wider area than our neighborhood, you'd be suprised how many quilters don't live that far from our store. That said, I thought we needed a partner to get the excitement going.

I asked Judy, one of my quilting customers where she went for her quilting supplies, worried that she'd mention a chain fabric store or mass merchandiser. The likelihood of partnering with them was pretty much nil. Fortunately she told me about Patched Works in Elm Grove, a full-service shop that has been around since 1976.

Last week I took a pilgrimage out to Elm Grove to see the store. Like the best quilting stores, it has wonderful fabrics, along with beautiful quilts mounted on the walls. They have quilting supplies, and books too. I used to visit the Cutting Table in Bay View just to look at the colors and designs. Mesmerizing!

Alas, I got there just as owner Julie Karasek was closing up shop. Fortunately, she was very gracious and let me take a few photos. She told me about a special project that is being led by quilter Jen. They have a club that is quilting squares from Jennifer Chiaverini's design, based on the wedding quilt in the book, The Master Quilter.

Patched Works Quiltseller Jen sent me some information explaining the program:

"For our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler program we are doing 4 blocks a month as the sampler is 140 blocks it will take us about 3 years. There is no large up-front cost commitment other than purchasing the book (Sylvia's Bridal Sampler). For $2.50 per month, participants get a challenge fat quarter (18" X 22" cut of fabric) to use in their four blocks. They are also getting their paper piecing foundations printed out for each block and an extra instruction sheet as a companion to what Jennifer Chiaverini has written in her book.

"Customers are coming in the first Wednesday of each month (We just started in February) to pick up their blocks. We are open 10-8 each Wednesday so they can drop in at any time. If they are unable to come on the first Wednesday they can pick their blocks up any time thereafter.

"We plan on keeping enough print outs and fat quarters on hand so that if someone joins they can still get caught up with any of the earlier blocks that they might have missed."

Got more questions? Email julie@patchedworks.com.

How will the event go? The set-up would be similar to our very successful event with The Loop yarn shop in Riverwest. They come, bring some patterns and fabric, we promote them, they promote the event, Chiaverini discusses the book, takes questions, signs copies, and everybody dances the twist in the big scene at the end.

Or should I say the hula? Chiaverini's new book, The Aloha Quilt, has a Hawaiian theme. Bonnie Markham of the Elm Creek Quilters starts a quilting camp and Hawaii. Chiaverini explores the heritage of Hawaiian quilting as Bonnie fights for ownership of her business with her ex-husband.

Now I'm wondering if I should have partnered with Sushi a Go Go at the Milwaukee Public Market. Have you had their Hawaiian plate lunch?

Come join Chiaverini and the Patched Work folk on Saturday, April 10th, at 2 PM. More on Chiaverini here.