Small Press Publishing Lives
Barney Rosset
"When we got Samuel Beckett in 1953, I thought we made a very magnanimous offer of a hundred and fifty dollars for Waiting for Godot, which was accepted. But it was an important book to me. I then got on a boat and went to Paris to meet him, and I never looked back. He had to be successful. And the first year that we published Godot, it sold three hundred and forty one copies, and the last I ever knew, it was well over a million. But that didn't happen by accident. It happened because we kept going after it, and after it, and after it, to schools, to universities, first to PhD's, then to MA's, then to graduates, then down to high schools, finally down to the eighth grade. So it didn't just happen by luck. Either you believed in this person - and if you believe, you're going to die for it. And if you die for it, okay. There's some more behind you. Let me tell you, we're very happy to make money."- Barney Rosset, speaking at the Publishing Lives panel discussion held at the Small Press Center in June 2001. For many years Mr. Rosset was the driving force behind Grove Press. He is now Publisher and Editor of Evergreen Review, Inc., President of Foxrock, Inc., and has been named to receive this year's Curtis Benjamin Award for Creative Publishing. The award will be presented at a luncheon at BookExpo in New York on May 4.Advertisments
Twenty-Three Things to Do for Small Press Month 2002
Book Marketing Ideas for Small Presses &Independent Publishers
Some marketing ideas courtesy of the Small Press Center and the Publishers Marketing Association and PMA's affiliates, sponsors of Small Press Month.1. Contact your local bookstore or library and suggest they put together a special display for Small Press Month. You can obtain posters and bookmarks from: Small Press Book Month Coordinator, Publisher Marketing Association, 627 Aviation Way, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, Phone 310/372-2732.
2. Suggest that your local bookstore offer a discount off Small Press titles this month. Offer a special 20% discount on all of your titles.
3. Hold a seminar on "How to get Published" or on a subject related to your books. You might wish to cooperate with other small presses in your area to get this event off to a roaring start. You might wish to charge a nominal fee for the seminar.
4. Contact the book review editor at your daily newspaper about any events that you plan, and the calendar editor, if your paper has one. Also speak to the features editor. The business editor is always interested in a successful publishing story.
5. Send Publishers Marketing Association a list of participating bookstores and libraries. PMA can send them publicity and display material.
6. Be sure to inform PMA and the Small Press Center about any activities you have planned for Small Press Month. That way, PMA can include your plans in their national database and mention them when they are in touch with the media.
7. Get in touch with any weekly papers in your area about events.
8. Approach an interviewer at a local radio station about airing a segment regarding the problems and rewards of running a small press, or set one up for an author.
9. Make arrangements with any local non-bookstore outlet that is appropriate for any of your books. For example, if you publish cookbooks a grocery store might stack them up near the door for a month, particularly with a special discount as an incentive.
10. Try for an interview at your local daily paper or the weekly paper, remember that the media is always pleased to find to find that there are successful publishers and writers in the neighborhood. So pitch not only yourself but your colleagues.
11. If you have a personable, articulate author who is available to speak in his or her area, try setting up interviews with the local media.
12. Band together with other small presses and compile a combined exhibition of titles in a subject area. Offer your library the ready-made exhibit of locally published books in the areas you choose.
13. Schedule an interview for yourself at the TV station. Be sure to offer visuals if available. Footage of an author doing exciting research in a jungle, a sports book author on the ski slopes, for instance, would be helpful to getting TV time. Focus on the unique angles of your books and authors.
14. Find a college or university that would be receptive to a roundtable discussion on a topic like "What is a Free Press" or "The First Amendment and the Mass Media."
15. A goodwill talk to high school students about how to become an author could be a highlight of the school programs during the month.
16. Use excerpts from a current or upcoming book on your website. Remembering that an entire excerpt, a whole recipe, for example, is more productive than a tantalizing tidbit.
17. Arrange readings and signings from your list to be held during Small Press Month at your local bookstore and library.
18. Take Small Press Month posters and bookmarks to your local bookstore or library and be sure that they are displayed and distributed.
19. Join with other small presses and take out a co-op ad in your local newspaper.
20. Be sure that every club or local organization to which you belong to displays a poster about Small Press Month and has your catalogue available as a handout for Small Press Month.
21. Keep your alumni magazine up to date about you and your small press.
22. Host a wine-a-cheese party in your office for the press, booksellers and other friends of your publishing house. Celebrate Small Press Month!
23. Gather together all your press cuttings and document the successes of Small Press Month and please send to Karin Taylor for use next year. Send to the Small Press Center, 20 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.