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Southern Independence in Montgomery

NewSouth Books’ Great Publishing Gamble

How does a small house located outside of the NYC arena without deep pockets manage to create an identity and secure a place for itself? If a revered company like Random House fires its editor-in-chief for poor financial performance, how does a small regional outfit expect to build a quality publishing program and survive?

They do it the old-fashioned way, according to NewSouth Books co-founders Suzanne La Rosa and Randall Williams.

ìGenerally, I'd say that as a company NewSouth aspires to publish books worthy of national attention but with a slightly regional flavor,î says La Rosa. ìWe recognize that for our economic model to succeed, we need a broader, deeper market larger than that represented by the geography of our company base (Alabama, and the Deep South). We also don't want to be limited by that geography in seeking literary material. On the other hand, we can source many good books from our region, so we also try to take advantage of that.î

NewSouthís mission to publish into the African American and Native American marketplaces stems mostly from their mission to publish titles reflective of the diversity of the American experience. But it is not limited to books going to a black audience. For example, they have published a critically acclaimed, PEN-Oakland award winning work by an Arab-American entitled On the Hills of God. It is a sweeping work of fiction and Exodus-style story told from the Palestinian point of view. The book has been called ìmonumentalî by noted critic Ismael Reed, and it comes at an important time, especially for those who feel there should be a reasonable meeting place between the voices of extremism in the Jewish-Arab standoff.

Author Ibrahim Fawal is a lifelong resident of Birmingham and a film scholar (hence the cinematic nature of the book); he was assistant to David Lean in filming Lawrence of Arabia, among other things. ìOn the Hills of God ëfitsí into our list because it's literary, and because it's what we call ëcommitted literature,íî says La Rosa. ìFawal is an American with Jordanian roots who speaks passionately and eloquently for moderation in the Middle East and for bridging differences. Hence, the book also ëfitsí because it adds cultural dimension to our program.î

A good list is the backbone of any publishing program, but La Rosa acknowledges that simply having strong titles does not guarantee success. The world must be made aware of these great books. To manage this process, NewSouth put in their own short-run printing operation, allowing them to print all the publicity and promotion materials they need, and quickly.

ìWe have spent a small fortune in the printing of bound galleys for blurbs and advance reading copies going to reviewers and key retailers and the generously supplying our sales reps with materials they need. All day long, weíre pumping out galleys and post cards, and having this capability in-house has been central to getting the word out about our books.î ìAdded to that, NewSouth has a small publicity staff which has been extremely creative, focused and hard-working in observing all the time-honored steps to getting blurbs and press. We feel that getting press notices is necessary to leverage our efforts, because we have virtually no dollars to put into an ad budget. Because we are relatively young, our company does not have the fully developed set of retail and media relationships that we expect we'll have in a few years.î

ìOur sales reps and the media have praised NewSouth over and over for the good job we've done in getting our books in front of people and developing awareness of our program. The credit goes largely to publicity department manager Mildred Wakefield and her assistant Amanda Davis -- and to the many interns who've paraded through our offices to help us out. Both these people are extremely articulate about our program, which I believe has been key in helping create awareness of our company identity.î

One of the interesting steps NewSouth took was to sign established writer Hans Koning. They published his new novel, Zeeland, or Elective Concurrences in 2001, and agreed to bring back all his out-of-print fiction as part of the deal. This paid off by netting some extra attention in the form of a Publishers Weekly story. Though Koning is not a household name, he is a truly gifted writer with a large body of work behind him and who has been praised widely over the years. This former reporter for The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly is well known in literary circles, so as a consequence NewSouth had more reason to be noticed by the New York press. A positive interesting side development of this has been that a number of other established writers with out-of-print backlists have approached NewSouth in hopes they will do the same thing for them.

ìWe've tried hard to use our key authors to develop closer retail relationships, especially with the better bookstores across the South. I canít say enough about how gracious many of these booksellers have been in recognizing us. When Quail Ridge's Nancy Olson unexpectedly stated in her email newsletter how much she appreciated NewSouth's keeping Hans Koning in print, we felt vindicated. (The Boston Review, in a review of Zeeland, also credited our company with taking this kind of risk.) Malaprop's and Lemuria both supported us big time in our unusual move to print a limited (signed and numbered) edition of advance reading copies of There is a River, the third novel in a trilogy by our most popular author, Charlotte Miller.î

ìEven with sales ramping up quickly we still struggle financially -- but the signs overall have been encouraging. I'm painfully aware that sales need to continue to grow, however, because the small print runs to which we've been held are extremely costly. Yet, I am reluctant right now to risk putting dollars into inventory we can't move. We have been very cautious, and must continue to be.

La Rosa says NewSouth has had to do the following in order to stay true to their mission and achieve their goals:

* Find really good manuscripts, and be creative in acquiring authors we otherwise could ill afford (no eight-million dollar advances for us!).

* Publish titles that add to the literature on a subject and always publish to profile and within our mission.

* Be conservative in our business projections, keeping, among other things, print runs low.

* Take creative and intelligent risks.

* Market and publicize our books as though our lives -- and livelihoods -- depended on it. (And they do!)

In the few years since their founding, NewSouth has received favorable blurbs and press for dozens of titles. It helps that they have acquired some fine books, in addition to those previously mentioned: A Writer's Tool Kit, by Carroll Dale Short; Thirty Years a Slave, by Louis Hughes (a re-published slave memoir that has been getting rave reviews: ìHughes has given us a historical and social gem.î - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); The Politics of Presidential Appointment, by Sheldon Hackney; The New South Creed: A Study in Southern Mythmaking by Paul Gaston; Cracker's Mule by Billy Moore; and many more.

ìIt's true that we have a dedicated and focused staff. We are an enthusiastic group of six who really, really believe in what we do. And therein, I suspect, lies the difference. If you asked me, I'd even suggest that NewSouth doesn't want to be a Random House, though that may be hard for the publishing world at large to believe.î

Not so hard to believe from a fiercely independent and committed publisher.