NBCC Demonstration Draws Book Fans, TV Cameras

By Edward Nawotka -- Publishers Weekly, 5/3/2007 11:41:00 AM

About 50 protestors showed up outside the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today for a "read-in" organized by the National Book Critics Circle to protest the the dismissal of the newspaper's book editor Theresa Weaver. Protestors, who included area booksellers, novelist Joshilyn Jackson and the British essayist Alain de Botton, chalked "I’m a book lover, not a fighter" on the pavement in front of the paper’s offices. Emory University creative writing instructor Joseph Skibell read from his work; another protestor read a poem by Georgia poet-laureate David Bottoms, and others from Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

WAGA-TV, Atlanta’s Fox 5, interviews Philip Rafshoon, owner of Outwrite Bookstore, located in Midtown Atlanta. Behind the reporter is Jeff McCord, owner of Bound to Be Read Bookstore, which is located in East Atlanta Village.

CNN, Fox News and C-Span filmed the event.

Vivian Lawand, former director of Marketing and Public Relations for Atlanta’s all-but-defunct Chapter 11 bookstore chain, was impressed. "The media attention this is getting is also very encouraging," she told PW.

NBCC president John Freeman met with Julia Wallace, the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and managing editor Burt Roughgon. He said he was told the paper remains committed to covering books and a features editor will be assigned responsibility for the section. "I’m not exactly sure how they plan to work it out without a book editor," Freeman told PW, "They also tell me they won’t have a traditional sports editor either, so it appears they’re doing some kind of editorial reorganization. At the very least, I think I convinced them to send an editor to BEA to talk to publishers."

For her part, Theresa Weaver told PW earlier this week that she has since applied for a writing position with the paper and will find out June 11 if she will get the job.

The campaign to save Weaver’s job began with an online petition, which has since attracted some 4,500 signatures, including more than 150 from writers such as Salman Rushdie and Richard Ford. It has since morphed into a larger "Campaign to Save Book Reviewing," supported by a series of essays posted on the NBCC blog, Critical Mass. Freeman has appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to discuss the campaign and is scheduled to appear on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show next week.

Robert Miller, president of Hyperion Books, is supportive of the effort. "With hundreds of thousands of books published every year, book reviews provide readers with guidance that they sorely need, he said. "In a world without book reviewing, only the authors who are already established will continue to sell. We need book reviewers to help us introduce readers to the authors of tomorrow."

Authors Karen Abbott and Joshilyn Jackson reading each other’s books beside other protestors

Author George Saunders, who was an early signer of the petition to save the book editor’s job at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, contributed an essay which argued that the decision of newspapers to reduce book reviews is a symptom of a larger trend toward anti-intellectualism in the culture. "Somehow we've taken to distrusting literature and, for that matter, all things cerebral or difficult or seriously critical," he told PW. "I'd argue that part of the reason we rushed into Iraq, for example, was that as a culture we've forgotten how to have a good, articulate, no-holds-barred argument that is able to invoke all levels of discourse: religion and morality and the whole nine yards - and not just materialist pragmatism or jingoism or the ritual incantation of catchphrases."

Freeman said he understands the financial pressures newspapers face, but argued that it’s in the newspaper’s self-interest to keep book sections. "What book sections do more than anything is foster reading. If newspapers have any hope to maintain their own readership, they would do well to promote books in their pages."

"Read-in" to Save Atlanta Book Editor Job

Does hell have no fury like a book critic scorned?

Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the National Book Critics Circle has planned a “Save the Book Review" protest in front of the Atlanta newspaper’s head offices. The rally was prompted by the firing of Theresa Weaver as book editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution after nine years on the job.

So do the Atlanta police need to break out their riot gear? Probably not. “We’re asking protesters to bring a book and read silently or aloud, as they wish," said John Freeman, the president of the National Book Critics Circle. He anticipates more than one hundred people to participate in the “read-in.” The organization has already accumulated more than 4,500 signatures on a petition to save the book position of book editor at the paper; signatories include literary luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Richard Ford.

For its part, management at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have promised not to cut books coverage -- which encompasses approximately two pages on Sunday as well as a single review during the week, though the editorial responsibilities for book review editing will be given to an editor with other duties. The paper will also continue as the principle sponsor of the Decatur Book Festival, which was inaugurated last year and attracted some 50,000 people to readings by more than 100 authors.

Weaver said has applied for a writing position at the paper and will hear on June 11 whether she has been given a new job.

The Atlanta “read-in” is the outgrowth of a larger “Campaign to Save Book Reviewing,” In the wake of the a series of editorial decisions at newspapers that have seen book sections shrink at papers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.

The impact of reduced coverage of books in newspapers has the greatest impact on publishers, who rely on the book pages for what essentially amounts to free publicity. Michael Taeckens, publicity director of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a highly regarded publisher of mostly Southern literature, was especially aggrieved by Weaver’s firing. “Teresa has always been an advocate of new and undiscovered writers, which has been essential to awareness of Algonquin's authors.”

Robert Miller, president of Hyperion Books, a division of Disney, concurred. “With hundreds of thousands of books published every year, book reviews provide readers with guidance that they sorely need, he said. “In a world without book reviewing, only the authors who are already established will continue to sell. We need book reviewers to help us introduce readers to the authors of tomorrow.”

Author George Saunders, who was an early signer of the petition to save the book editor’s job at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, views the reduction of pages in newspapers to book reviews as a symptom of a larger trend toward anti-intellectualism in the culture. “Somehow we've taken to distrusting literature and, for that matter, all things cerebral or difficult or seriously critical. I'd argue that part of the reason we rushed into Iraq, for example, was that as a culture we've forgotten how to have a good, articulate, no-holds-barred argument that is able to invoke all levels of discourse: religion and morality and the whole nine yards - and not just materialist pragmatism or jingoism or the ritual incantation of catchphrases.

Ultimately, it’s all about the money. As advertising pages in newspapers dry up, editors are forced to look at which sections are profitable. Book review sections don’t generate nearly as much advertising as sections on real estate or automobiles.

Freeman says he understands the financial pressures newspapers face, but argues that it’s in the newspaper’s own self-interest to keep book sections. “What book sections do more than anything is foster reading, which, if newspapers have any hope to maintain their own readership, they would do well to promote books in their pages.”

Louisiana Bookselling

by Edward Nawotka -- Publishers Weekly, 4/30/2007

Hurricane Katrina did little to dampen Louisiana's enthusiasm for reading. With a total of 177 booksellers spread across the state—including 10 Books-a-Million outlets, nine Barnes & Nobles, six Borders, 98 Wal-Marts and more than 40 independents—book buyers have plenty of options.

Despite a reduction in population from 450,000 to 250,000, New Orleans remains at the heart of bookselling in the state. The city boasts a handful of highly regarded independent stores, including the Garden District Book Shop, Octavia Books, the Maple Street Book Shop (famous for its “Fight the Stupids” bumper stickers), and a variety of antiquarian and used stores. A new store, Beth's Books, opened in the vibrant Bywater arts community in 2006.

Faulkner House Bookstore, a tiny shop located in the French Quarter, specializes in new fiction and signed first editions. The owners, Joe DeSalvo Jr. and Rosemary James, report that the drop in tourism hit their sales hard, reducing it to 10% of previous levels in the months after the storm.

Joseph Billingsley, sales manager for New Orleans–based Pelican Publishing, remains optimistic. “I think it's safe to say that there are some post-hurricane changes,” he said. “The distinctions from bookselling in New Orleans and the rest of the state are more sharply drawn. The stores that cater to the tourist market suffered, but now the tourists have started to come back at 75% to 80% of their pre-Katrina level, so that, too, is changing.”

Remarkably, the Garden District Book Shop and Octavia Books, both of which are in residential neighborhoods and cater primarily to locals, reopened within six weeks of the storm. They both report booming business, in part due to tremendous interest in Katrina-related titles.

Britton Trice, owner of the Garden District Book Shop, said, “Our store has been doing great, bounced back remarkably quick. We're at a level equal and greater than before.” Tom Lowenberg of Octavia Books said sales at his store have increased in each of his six years in business—including 2005, the year of Katrina.

The flooding in New Orleans led to the closure of three independents: Beaucoup Books, formerly on Magazine Street, and two locations of the Afro-American Book Stop, one of which was in a shopping mall connected to the Superdome. Michele Lewis, owner of Afro-American Book Stop, continues to sell online and hopes to open a new storefront sometime this year. The Community Book Center, another African-American bookstore, was also flooded, but moved to a new location.

Of the chain stores, Barnes & Noble's Metairie superstore was worst hit by Katrina. That store remained closed for eight months, until its gala reopening in March 2006, an event New Orleans Times-Picayunebook editor Susan Larson told PW was “like Mardi Gras.”

“People were so happy to have a place to go, it was just wonderful to see,” she said, adding, “The booksellers here have a strong sense of the greater good. There's a renewed spirit of cooperation there. They're activists on behalf their own survival. “

In addition to using the reopening of its Metairie location to raise money for the Jefferson Parish Library, Barnes & Noble showed early support for post-Katrina Louisiana by announcing plans to open a new store in the capital, Baton Rouge, just weeks after the disaster.

Elsewhere in Louisiana, destination booksellers thrive. These include Author's Alley in Deridder, near the Texas border; the Book Merchant in Natchitoches in the northwest corner of the state; and Paddy's Book Nook in Gueydan, deep in the heart of Cajun country. The best known of all is Windows a Bookshop in Monroe—a result of its regionally syndicated radio talk show, The Book Report, which helps attract touring authors to remote northeast Louisiana.

Rick Riordan and the Olympians

The San Antonio author and UT grad brings the latest volume of his wildly popular children's series to Austin

By Edward Nawotka
Special to the American-Statesman
Tuesday, May 01, 2007

With the Harry Potter finale fast approaching and J.K. Rowling hinting that she might kill off her main character, readers are increasingly protective of their literary heroes. According to San Antonio author Rick Riordan, the question he hears over and over again from worried fans across the country is: "Are you going to kill Percy Jackson?

Jackson is the eponymous hero of Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," a projected five-volume series chronicling the adventures of contemporary teenagers who happen to be the children of Greek gods. Much to the relief of hundreds of thousands of children — many of them in Austin, where the books are very popular — the third book in the series, "The Titan's Curse," brings good news: Percy lives. (Though not everyone does.)

Riordan is not fond of series that kill off their main character at the end. "For a reader to put all the investment in a character and to write 'And then he dies' feels a little cheap to me," he says. "I think it's better to let the character live on in the reader's imagination."

The dilemma of how to end a series is something Riordan will have to face up to twice in the next few years, first with Percy Jackson and then with his award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series. Navarre, a San Antonio private investigator, debuted in 1997's "Big Red Tequila" and has appeared in five more books, including 1999's Edgar Award-winning "The Widower's Two-Step." The penultimate Tres Navarre mystery, "Rebel Island," will land in bookstores in August.

"Once the Percy Jackson books took off, they became a huge demand on my time," admits Riordan. "But I feel a responsibility to wrap up the Tres Navarre story for all the people who have been following the series over the years. They deserve closure."

While Tres Navarre brought Riordan critical acclaim and modest success, Percy Jackson offered a far larger audience. Together, the first two Jackson books have sold nearly 400,000 copies in hardcover and paperback combined. Riordan's publisher, Hyperion, is betting big on "The Titan's Curse," publishing 150,000 copies of the new hardcover, which arrives in stores today.

Granted, these numbers are no match for Harry Potter. The sixth Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'' sold 6.9 million copies in the United States in the first 24 hours it was on sale, and Scholastic is printing some 12 million copies of the finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Nevertheless, Riordan's numbers make him one of the top-selling children's authors of the last two years.

His own Percy

The appeal of the Percy Jackson books can be attributed to Riordan's savvy adaptation of Greek myths to a contemporary setting. Percy has dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, which have helped him attract "reluctant readers," especially boys, who identify with the hero.

It might come as no surprise to learn Percy Jackson was inspired by one of Riordan's two sons, who was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD in the second grade. "At the time, he was only interested in Greek mythology," says Riordan. "When I ran out of the original stories, he told me to make one up."

Riordan, who taught middle school for 15 years, most recently at St. Mary's Hall in San Antonio, found the transition to writing for children suited him. "I was always a storyteller in the classroom, and my students would ask me why I wasn't writing for children," he says. "It took me a long time to figure out that they were right."

Storyteller emerges

The books are gripping from the start. The first book in the series, "The Lightning Thief," begins during a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Percy's math teacher transforms into a Fury and attacks him.

It's a perfect concoction of fast-paced action (as well as humor) for a generation raised on video games and the Internet.

Riordan says the one thing that surprises the students he meets during his many school visits, which he does to promote his books and "test out his jokes," is that he plays video games. "I'm 42 years old and was raised on 'Dungeons & Dragons' and 'The Lord of the Rings' books," he says. "Now, I play 'World of Warcraft' with my sons. When adolescent boys find this out, they are blown away and always try to find out my screen name."

A San Antonio native and University of Texas grad, Riordan found an early champion right here in Austin in Topher Bradfield, a bookseller at BookPeople. Bradfield, the store's 36-year-old children's outreach coordinator, is responsible for visiting Austin-area elementary schools to do readings and run book fairs. "Often," he says, "I found myself reading from the first chapter of 'The Lightning Thief,' " he says. "It was a great way to get the boys to pay attention."

Bradfield's relentless pushing of the books has paid off; BookPeople has sold nearly 2,000 copies of "The Lightning Thief" and nearly 1,000 of the sequel, "The Sea of Monsters." For Riordan's appearance at BookPeople tonight, the store has ordered 900 copies of "The Titan's Curse."

Enthusiasm for the book has run so high locally that last year Bradfield was inspired to create "Camp Half-Blood," a summer "book camp" that took place last year in Zilker Park. The event, which was based on a camp of the same name that Percy attends in the books, offered mythology lessons, Greek dancing and drumming, sword fighting and a weeklong quest to refashion "The Apple of Discord" (which was in part responsible for the Trojan War).

In a suitably postmodern twist, Percy Jackson's Camp Half-Blood was modeled on the real-life Camp Capers, an Episcopal summer camp in Waring, where Riordan spent three summers during college as musical director. "I incorporated all the goofiness and practical jokes I saw there into the books," he says.

With two of three sessions planned for this summer already sold out, Camp Half-Blood has become something of a phenomenon. It has even inspired imitators, with another Camp Half-Blood taking place this summer in Atlanta. (As a show of appreciation for all he has done, Riordan dedicated "The Titan's Curse" to Bradfield and Toni Davis, a bookseller in the U.K.)

The fourth, as-yet-unnamed, book in the series is all but finished and, says Riordan, "concerns the most dangerous place in all Greek mythology: the labyrinth."

Readers can rest assured that even book five won't be the end of the story: Two weeks ago, Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies, signed on to direct the film version of "The Lightning Thief."

As for Riordan, he says he's hooked on adapting classic myths to a contemporary setting. "Next, I'm toying with the idea of modernizing the Norse myths," he says, adding, "We Texans have a reputation to uphold for telling tall tales. Mythmaking is in our blood."