The New Mexico Book Co-op generated over 100 articles in the media, both local and national, as well as radio and tv coverage, for the New Mexico Books & More store at Cottonwood Mall. Here is a sampling of some of that coverage.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Publishers promote books and local writers
New Mexico Business Weekly - by Tom Gibbons Special to NMBW
Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt launched LPD Press, then used what they learned about marketing to help local writers.
When husband-and-wife team Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt decided to share their love of Hispanic art and culture with a national audience, they opened LPD Press in 1982.
"It was a particular love of ours," Rhetts says, "and that was a particular niche we carved out."
LPD creates the esoteric, specialized books that national publishing houses tend to stay away from due to low sales.
Books like those on The New York Times bestseller list that sell in the millions are rare among the 150,000 to 200,000 books released each year in the United States alone, says Rhetts.
"The average successful book sells about 500 copies every year," he says. "We can focus on the kinds of books that major publishers won't touch. Their mission is to sell 10,000 copies of any one book [in] a year."
The first LPD Press books sold well, even though they covered unusual topics that don't make for giant sales figures or mass appeal. For example, "Charlie Carrillo: Tradition and Soul" profiled a New Mexican santero (a maker of santos, Hispanic devotional statues of Christian saints).
"Typically, an initial print run might be 1,000 to 1,500 copies. We printed 7,500, and sold twice the number projected for the first year," Rhetts recalls.
To promote interest in Hispanic art and culture, Rhetts and Awalt publish a magazine, "Tradición Revista," which they started in 1995.
They also hosted a traveling exhibition of New Mexican santos, titled "Our Saints Among Us," from 1997 to 2001. Rhetts and Awalt retained all of the pieces from the original show, and now lend pieces and books to other institutions.
"The tours helped to solidify the connection of the LPD name with Hispanic art," Rhetts says, "and we're always finding new venues through which to sell books."
Rhetts and Awalt found that bookstores are not the only option.
"Whenever we loan out pieces, we are introduced to more people and places that will provide a good reception for our books," Rhetts points out.
After exceeding projected numbers with each release, Rhetts and Awalt started Rio Grande Books, LPD's first imprint. The publishers initiated the new label to group books of specialized focus -- in this case, a broader view of New Mexican culture -- under a different brand.
The eight books LPD released in 2007 were published under the new label, and each is award-winning. "Avenging Victorio," a work of historical fiction by Dave DeWitt, was named a finalist in the New Mexico Book Awards. "Navajo and Pueblo Earrings: 1850-1945" by Robert Bauver received nine awards, including the 2007 silver medal "IPPY" for Best Regional Nonfiction from Independent Publisher.
Rhetts and Awalt took what they learned about marketing the books they publish and opened a nonprofit organization to help New Mexican writers with this often-overlooked aspect of the book business. The New Mexico Book Co-op began in 2004 when they and several other publishers decided that local authors were under-represented in New Mexico bookstores.
"We had about 20 people when we started," Rhetts says, referring to the Co-op's first book Marketplace at Cottonwood Mall during the 2004 holiday season. Its success surprised everyone involved, and Rhetts and Awalt began to consider other ways to help members promote their books.
"One of the first things we did was launch the Web site for the Co-op. We use the Internet, with all of its cost advantages, like e-newsletters, to communicate to our wide membership base," Rhetts says.
Now, local authors can register to sell their books on the Co-op's Web site. As the only two actual employees of the Co-op, Rhetts and Awalt rely on their pool of volunteers to organize and staff events. The group's only expenses are the Web site and a few specific events.
Rhetts and Awalt organize book fairs in Albuquerque and Chama for authors to sell books and promote their work. For two years, the Co-op has hosted Book Chat, unique small gatherings in which five or six authors come to give talks for audiences of up to 50.
In 2006, when the storefront costs at Cottonwood went higher than the Co-op's budget, the duo launched the New Mexico Book Awards instead.
"Nearly every state had a book award program," Rhetts says, "and we found that New Mexico was one of the exceptions."
Finalists in more than 30 categories are selected by jurors assigned by sponsor organizations. On Nov. 9, the Co-op will host an awards dinner featuring the 2007 winners, and will give Lifetime Achievement Awards to New Mexico authors Tony Hillerman and Rudolfo Anaya.
"The total expenses for 2007 ran around $14,000 to $15,000. The competition fees from the 350 people that entered generated all of the necessary revenue. Those were our two major expenses for 2007, and the fees [were] our primary source of income," Rhetts says, referring to the nonprofit only.
With their track record of sales and experience in the publishing business, Rhetts and Awalt have convinced national booksellers to recognize the value of local books.
"One of the biggest hurdles to more local books appearing in stores is authors don't know how to get their books sold," Rhetts says. "They don't know the person who does the buying decisions at a place like Bookworks, or the reviewers at The Alibi or IQ."
To teach marketing skills to local authors, the Co-op hosts lunch meetings with guest speakers.
"They get a chance to sit down and have lunch with Steven Robert Allen, formerly of The Alibi, or people who make the buying decisions for some dozen local library branches," Rhetts says.
"And in a lot of cases," Awalt adds, "Many authors need help understanding the finer points of self-promotion. With the New Mexico Book Awards, people actually asked us if they could go to the judging and talk to the judges about their books. You can't, and that's the whole point. Your book has to stand on its own."
There are no plans for the Co-op to start its own store, aside from the one on its Web site.
"We started the New Mexico Book Co-op to show retailers that local books can and will sell." Rhetts says. "I don't see us having a permanent store in the future but, if the right opportunity came along, we would consider doing another Marketplace [like the original Cottonwood Mall sale]. For now, our goal is to create good books. And then someone else can sell them. If we have to step in and show that these books can sell, then we'll do it."
By Dianne Edwards, PrimeTime
Being part of the New Mexico Book Co-op doesn’t cost its members anything, and that’s not the only reason why over 900 authors, publishers, and booksellers are happy to be members. The New Mexico Book Co-op was founded by Barbe Awalt and Paul Rhetts along with 200 local authors. “Traditional publishers don’t seem interested in selling books anymore; they have a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude,” says Rhetts. “We don’t want your money; that’s not what the Co-op is about. We want avenues to sell books,” adds Awalt. The energetic couple also runs an alternative publishing house called LPD Press which specializes in Hispanic art and culture of the southwest. Both entrepreneurs have also been on the organizing committee for the New Mexico State Library Lecture Series and Awalt is the moderator of the Series. “There is a myth that we don’t sleep,” jokes Rhetts. The next lecture in the State Library lecture series will be on September 19 at 4pm in Santa Fe and will feature LPD Press authors Father Thomas Steele, Charlie Carrillo, and Barbe Awalt.
Rhetts and Awalt have worked together in public relations and publishing for 35 years. When they moved to New Mexico 17 years ago from the Washington corridor, they decided to focus on the traditional and contemporary Hispanic art of santos (wood carvings of saints) and santeros (the carvers). Awalt explains, “There is very little on historic santeros and nothing on contemporary ones. We thought it would be one shot; we didn’t set out to do a lot.” However they found their niche in the Hispanic culture and have pursued it ever since.
The first book they wrote about contemporary New Mexico santeros is entitled Charlie Carrillo: Tradition & Soul/Tradicion y Alma. “Our first book is still getting almost as much attention as our new ones.” With the encouragement and literary support of LPD Press, Carrillo has authored three books himself. He received the 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship. As acknowledgment of their role in Carrillo’s success, Rhetts and Awalt will travel to Washington with him to accept the award in September.
Attentive care of the authors is vitally important to the success of the partners. “One of the things we do is keep a very close relationship with every one of our authors,” Rhetts says. “We have an intimate relationship with them so that we can mutually take advantage of marketing and selling opportunities. If we put two and two together, the author is happy and we are happy. I don’t know how we would engineer some of this stuff if we didn’t have a relationship with our authors. We have gotten the reputation that we are very aggressive at selling books. And very easy to get along with.”
For the forthcoming books in the Rio Grande Books imprint, Rhetts will run a vigorous public relations campaign that will include notices to over 18,000 customers and book sellers.
“A majority of our books are sold directly to the customer,” he says. “We go to trade shows, to events, to Spanish Market, Indian Market, gallery openings. We have a huge database we’ve created over the last 15 years of people who have come to our talks and lectures, and we use the Internet a lot. We are very happy to sell through stores but we know that to make this successful, we can’t pretend that that is the primary vehicle to sell books.”
Two years ago Rhetts and Awalt spearheaded a project to rent a space at Cottonwood Mall during the 2004 and 2005 holiday season as an alternative to the normal book selling experience. They were roundly discouraged by various publishers and that was enough to set Barbe on a determined path to prove the nay-sayers wrong. The endeavor flourished and the New Mexico Books & More store sold 5500 books during that brief period, donating all profits after expenses to libraries and schools and literacy programs.
Rather than trying to pass on all their knowledge and experience to in-house apprentices, Rhetts and Awalt feel passionate about sharing their wealth of knowledge through the Book Co-op. They arrange workshops and lunch meetings designed to share information about publishing, marketing, and selling books. Topics have included copyright issues, how to get books into the large chain book stores, and contacts with local printers.
Recognition has graced the efforts of these two hard-working book lovers throughout their career together. They, their authors, and their books have won countless awards. And now, just announced in late June, Rhetts and Awalt have been named as 2006 Laureates for the Mother Teresa Award, recognizing their contribution in bringing to the world the beauty of Hispanic New Mexican art through their books and their magazine Tradicion Revista; the awards ceremony will take place at the New Mexico State Fair on September 7 at 5pm.
NEW MEXICO BOOK CO-OP MAKES HISTORY
Local presses join forces to fight “widget” mentality
by Zelda Gatuskin
The statistics have
been well publicized by now. Open a mere 40 days
(Thanksgiving through New Year’s) the New Mexico Books
& More store at Cottonwood Mall sold more than 3,400
books by local authors and publishers, hosted more than 100
book signings and special events, and involved nearly 200
members of New Mexico’s literary community in a volunteer
effort which raised $5,500 for local literacy projects. The
publicity is a statistic in itself, with well over 100
mentions in the media (including Publisher’s Weekly) and
the store is still getting coverage even after it’s closed.
By what miracle did our eclectic and sometimes fractious
collection of “independents” come together to make book
selling history?
Start
with shared frustration, verging on
desperation, over the difficulty of getting bookstores to
carry our books. It seems like a winning combination,
doesn’t it—local book, corner bookstore? But when that
corner bookstore takes up the entire block, and purchasing
is handled by “headquarters” in a faraway city.... Let’s
just say that nothing dulls the glamour of being a
“published author” quite like carrying a case of books into
the bookstore yourself and then taking it home again
(hopefully a little lighter) when your stint at the signing
table is up.
Add
a glimpse of “what could be.” That came last June
during Albuquerque’s Small Press Week, which was organized
by Lynda Kenny, a Santa Fe publicist. Harmon Houghton and
his staff at Clearlight Distributors, also based in Santa
Fe, took on the monumental task of gathering, transporting
and displaying the books of every participating author and
publisher, at four Albuquerque locations. The first set-up
was at the Jewish Community Center, and there were a lot of
books. When they’d all been pulled from their cartons and
arranged on long, white-draped tables the result was a
delight to behold, reflecting the abundance, variety and
vitality of New Mexico’s homegrown book industry. The
public responded with enthusiasm. And everyone asked, “Why
don’t we see more of these books in bookstores?!”
Get
folks talking to each other. On the final day of
Small Press Week 2004, a dozen of us gathered for lunch in
the Board Room of the Albuquerque Press Club. Added to the
SPW agenda at the last minute, this informal meeting
offered a chance for writers and booksellers to “talk
amongst ourselves.” The small but diverse group aired
complaints, commiserated, found common ground, and brain
stormed. We might have spent the whole afternoon batting
around ideas, but when fellow authors started their
afternoon talks we adjourned to join them. The meeting had
yielded little in the way of concrete plans, but it
concluded on a note of mutual support, and with an exchange
of e-mail addresses.
Find
a Fearless Leader, or two. Enter the dynamic
duo of Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt. As owners of LPD Press,
which has been producing and marketing richly illustrated
books about Southwest art and culture since 1984, and
publishers of the quarterly Tradicion
Revista, this couple has
proven they know how to get a project off the ground, and
keep it aloft. “Can-do” spirit exudes from them, and if it
comes with an air of combativeness, that’s because they’ve
tried about every angle on book selling and lived to tell
about it. They’ve learned that locally produced books do
sell, if the public can only find them. Armed with that
conviction, abundant skills, and the wisdom of experience,
Barbe and Paul selected one of the ideas put forward at our
lunch, something that hadn’t been tried before, and set out
to make it a reality. But before they could create a
cooperative independent press bookstore, they would need to
pull together an independent press cooperative.
Shake
well. Voila! The New
Mexico Book Co-op coalesces in support of Paul and Barbe’s
effort. Ruth E. Francis calls it synergy. Ruthie has served
on the board of Directors for the New Mexico Book
Association (NMBA) for the past six years; and as a former
Director of Community Relations for Hastings (1996-2003)
and for Book Star on Louisiana prior to that (1991-95), she
knows what authors are up against.
“Most chain stores do support a regional section, but it’s
not emphasized.” Ruthie explained that bookstores want to
work with big distributors and have difficulty with single
presses. “It screws up the database.... The problem with
the chains is that they run the store as if books are
widgets.” Titles with no sales in a six-week cycle are
flagged for removal, and it’s simpler to trade books in and
out through a distributor; books, that aren’t in the
system, never make it to the shelves at all. However, a
track record is a track record. Ruthie thinks that the
success of NM Books & More will raise interest in local
titles.
Ruthie has a passion for books and for helping authors sell
their books. She volunteered her time four afternoons a
week at the NM Books & More store for the entire six
weeks of its run, and called the experience joyful.
“Everyone there had come together to help each other.
Joyful is the best way to put it, and I don’t use that word
lightly.”
Ruthie’s sentiments are echoed by other bookstore
participants. Whether they sold one book at the store or a
hundred, all of the authors I spoke with were enthusiastic
about the experience. Such a positive outcome was by no
means preordained. Experimental on many levels, the co-op
store as conceived by Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt, had two
simple goals: to showcase books and to sell books.
Participants were asked to chip in a $20 fee and work one
eight-hour shift per title placed in the store, and would
receive 60% of the jacket price of all books sold. To
encourage sales, every item was then marked at a minimum
15% off, with co-op participants and libraries receiving an
additional 10% discount. The slim margin remaining would
make up the balance of rental expenses, with any profits
going to charity and to create a small reserve for future
co-op activities. There was no money allocated to either
payroll expenses or advertising. No kidding.
The most dicey part of the plan involved a rotating staff
of volunteers—authors and publishers themselves ringing up
the sales. It did not go perfectly. Co-op participants were
peppered with e-mails from Paul reminding us to be on time
for our shifts, to print clearly on the checks and charge
slips, to make sure to mark the inventory sheet. Paul told
me that his work on the accounts “was more than it needed
to be because of the inconsistencies with the process.” He
added, “Ruthie Francis provided a professional presence and
desperately needed continuity.... I honestly wonder if we
could even have pulled it off without her.” Paul said that
if he had the opportunity to recreate the store next year,
he would change the model from all-volunteer to having two
or three paid staff to run the register and sales. “The
work requirement would still be there, but it would be
different.” Volunteers would be floor people instead of
cashiers.
We hear you, Paul! The majority of us had little if any
experience with retail sales. Fortunately, the customers
were patient, laughed along, and even helped us remember
little things like giving back credit cards and getting
signatures. (How many authors does it take to sell a book?
Seriously? About three.) When I asked Ruthie Francis to
give her professional assessment of how the crew of authors
had done as retail clerks, I got a big laugh. “They are
teachable. The are teachable. Some learn better than
others.”
Paul Rhetts found it surprising that some people “couldn’t
even sell their own book, or could not answer the question,
“What is this book about?’”
Authors who did know how to sell their books put extra time
into the store, dropping in a for a few minutes, a few
hours, or full shifts to get the most out of the
opportunity. They saw results, too, while other authors had
the chance to watch and learn. In fact, one of the things
participants most liked about the store was getting to meet
and mingle with each other. For six weeks, the NM Books
& More store served as an impromptu club house for
local bibliophiles.
“It was one of my favorite places to stop in and visit. You
never knew who’d you meet there,” said Cottonwood Mall
Manager Carol Wilbur. She shopped there herself, picking
out children’s books, mysteries and local titles. She said
she’d had numerous calls from people wanting to know where
the store was located. Someone even suggested she put a
banner on the outside of the mall to indicate the nearest
entrance to the bookstore.
My shifts at the bookstore came early in its run, but the
cooperative spirit was already taking root. I felt that as
each new author/publisher came in, and we introduced
ourselves and pointed out our books, our “investment” in
the store expanded to encompass not just our own books but
each others’. I decided to check back with some of my new
friends after the store closed to see how their books had
sold, and what else they had to say about the project.
Ruben Archuleta had three books in the store, I CAME FROM
EL VALLE, LAND OF THE PENITIENTES, LAND OF TRADITION and
Epie Archuleta and THE TALE OF JUAN DE LA BURRA, all
self-published under the El Jefe imprint. Penitentes did
the best, making the bookstore’s “top 50 bestsellers” list.
“I was okay with the sales,” Ruben told me. But we agreed
not to do a cost analysis on the overall effort, which
included four trips from Pueblo, Colorado with his wife
Joan—not the easiest trek in winter months. Nonetheless,
the intrepid former Chief of Police braved yet another
snowstorm to attend a wrap-up party for the bookstore at
the end of January. He said that he and Joan, “loved
working the store. The best part was the people we met,
especially the numerous authors and people involved in the
store.” “I learned that there is a lot of competition out
there and networking is an essential tool in marketing your
product. I was also humbled by the quality of authors and
their books.” Ruben intends to stay involved with the
co-op, and is content to keep self-publishing.
P.O.D., or “publish on demand” is another way authors get
their manuscripts in print when Simon & Schuster et al
have declined to snap them up. It’s a promising business
model—printing books as they’re ordered instead of sinking
a huge investment into producing and warehousing them by
the thousands. Unfortunately—you guessed it—big bookstores
are not dealing with P.O.D. presses, as Gail Ruben
discovered after she’d already released her book using a
P.O.D. publisher. As a public relations professional, she
didn’t feel she needed a big company behind her to market
her book, but she was kind of counting on it being in
stores. She eagerly signed on to the NM Book Co-op, which
she heard about through Southwest Writers Workshop.
A GIRL’S POCKET GUIDE TO TROUSER TROUT is primarily for
single women, Gail explains, hastening to add that anyone
might enjoy it. On a broader level the book is about
“pursuing a dream.” Like other “niche” titles, it saw
modest sales at NM Books & More, but Gail was
enthusiastic about the effort, calling it, “a lovely store,
a great idea.”
Barbarba Kline Hammond agrees. She and her husband Jim
Hammond each had a book in the store, and though they
didn’t sell a lot, they were both “really enthusiastic
about the opportunity,” and the cooperative effort of the
authors. “This co-op program really created a big stir and
I’m thrilled to be part of it.” Like many of us, Barbara
did some shopping at the store too. She picked out some
books she thought might sell alongside her own title,
CANCER’S GIFTS: MEDITATIONS ON BEING HEALING, AND
FORGIVING, and Jim’s novel, THE PHOENIX SOCIETY, at her
Serenity Gardens day spa and gallery in Corrales. Until the
co-op came along, she hadn’t considered selling books by
others.
Hubert Allen also came away from the bookstore with some
new ideas about book selling, but he’s holding them close
to his chest for now, calling them, “Corporate secrets!” It
was fun to meet up with Hubert again at the store, where we
congratulated ourselves for having been there when it all
began, at that lunch back in June. Hubert had come to that
meeting with a printed manifesto: “Fairness and Opportunity
in the Book Marketplace: Does the Small Guy Have A Chance?”
detailing his frustration at not being able to place his
book, PETROGLYPH CALENDAR: AN ARCHEOASTRONOMY ADVENTURE, at
the Petroglyph National Monument. I checked back with
Hubert to see if the book co-op had helped him advance this
particular cause. He reported that The Petroglyph Calendar
made it to No. 40 on the store’s bestsellers list.
“It gives me a bit of motivation, but it does not solve the
issues which make it unfairly excluded from the Monument.”
Sales for two other books, Hubert’s novel about Africa,
BREAKFAST WITH KAMUZU, and BEYOND STONEHENGE by Gerald S.
Hawkins did not meet Hubert’s expectations. And what did
Hubert, a Public Health Statistician, think about the
retail experience? “I had fun working [at the store], but
could not volunteer all year at that rate—it was intense.”
Okay, let’s talk about intense. Andrew Davis has got one of
those larger-than-life personalities that leaves you a
little breathless. Whatever he’s doing, he is doing it one
hundred percent—make that a hundred and ten—and that
includes making it clear that he’s no poster boy for
self-publishing. I had met Andrew at the store, and found
him to be a genuinely nice person, so I wasn’t too alarmed
when he just about jumped through the phone to tell me how
he felt about the book business: He hates it! Hates
marketing, hates retail and hates self-publishing. The
former television lighting director told me he had
self-published his novel, GOD BLESS MR. DEVIL only
intending to get it in front of a bigger publisher.
“Everybody that read it thought it was a killer story.” So
when “New York” wasn’t buying, Andrew decided to, “just put
the son-of-a-b in print.” Four years later, Andrew still
believes in his book, “a story about the power of love over
evil and how an eight-year-old child changes the world.” He
devoted a full-time effort to the store, averaging about
eight hours a day there for the entire run.
“I knew if I was up there I would sell books.”
And did he ever, catapulting GOD BLESS MR. DEVIL to No. 2
on the top seller list, with over a hundred copies sold. I
wondered if that would inspire him to redouble his
marketing effort.
“No! My efforts are redoubled already!” Despite his success
at NM Books & More, Andrew’s still not interested in
dribbling out books directly to the public. He’ll settle
for nothing less than “blockbuster bestseller” status.
Given all of that, I speculated that going to the store so
often must have been a drag for Andrew—but I was wrong
again!
“I looked forward to going up there every day, selling
books, making money, meeting really cool people.... I did
have a good time, yeah. It was a really fun thing.”
Is this unbelievable, or what? You’d think there’d be more
whining from folks who most likely prefer sitting at the
computer in their jammies to milling around a shopping
mall. Maybe it was a miracle. Andrew did admit that his
knees and feet were killing him.
Ruben and Joan complained about the temperamental credit
card machine.
Gail and others, including myself, didn’t have very
successful signings. Just like at the traditional
bookstores, it took a lot of name recognition to draw a
crowd for official appearances, and a lot of chutzpah to
flag down casual passers-by. So we had the curious
situation where time at the store was generally rewarding,
but for some the book signing itself fell flat.
Some authors had to purchase copies of their books from
publishers who were unable or unwilling to participate
directly, in order to place them in the co-op store. After
the fee, the work shift and the co-op cut, there was little
if any room for profit. Yet they eagerly signed on, seeing
the value in having their titles included, building that
“track record” for sales, and networking with other book
people. Many of us put in an effort that exceeded immediate
financial returns, but because that translated into a
direct contribution to literacy charities, and supported a
coalition with tremendous potential, the result was
surprisingly gratifying.
And what was Paul Rhetts’ biggest complaint about the NM
Books & More store? “I did not have a single meal with
my wife for 40 days!”
Paul estimated that while the store was in operation, he
and Barbe put in a combined 15 to18 hours on it every day.
One of them always opened the store and one of them always
closed, and when shifts weren’t filled, or fizzled (a few
recalcitrant volunteers actually got fired and sent home
with their books) you can guess who stepped in.
Was it worth it?
As a business endeavor, Paul said that their own press
certainly sold enough books to make it worthwhile. Their
Saints of the Pueblos made it to No. 18 on the top seller
list. Paul is pleased that the store met its goals of
showcasing and selling local books. In the process, he
achieved a personal goal as well: “To prove that it can be
done.” He said he has tried for years to get a book fair
off the ground in Albuquerque but there were, “Too many
people with too many different requirements.... Politics,
turf, massive expectations that came with lots of dollar
signs.... Small presses couldn’t afford it.” Paul thought
it should be easier for people to participate.
Now, with the bookstore success in his back pocket, the
media hooked, Cottonwood Mall delighted to host the NM Book
Co-op again, and Barbe at his side, Paul is ready to make
his dream come true. The New Mexico Book Fiesta will be
held Saturday, May 7 (the day before Mother’s Day) on the
lower level of the Cottonwood Mall, where vendor displays
are expected to stretch “from Dillard’s to Foley’s.” Once
again the plan is experimental, and Paul is opting for a
single-day event to test the waters. He’d rather leave ‘em
wanting more than overreach. Paul is tickled pink (really,
with a great big smile) that media outlets have been coming
to him to find out what’s next for the NM Book Co-op. And
it’s not only the media that’s getting on board. The New
Mexico Endowment for the Humanities will be one of the
sponsors for the Book Fiesta in May.
Meanwhile, what better way to insure success for future
ventures than to teach authors and publishers how to be
more effective at selling books? Paul and Barbe plan to
keep the co-op active with a series of monthly lunch
meetings and topical talks (“Better Booksignings” will be
the subject for the first session). The
second-Friday-of-the-month meetings in Albuquerque will be
co-sponsored by the NMBA and compliment their long-running
last-Friday-of-the-month lunches at Tiny’s in Santa Fe.
Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt have demonstrated what a good
job they can do organizing an unruly bunch of book
people—and we’re never going to let them forget it! I asked
Paul if he was comfortable continuing their level of
involvement the co-op, and if the effort was cutting into
time on LPD projects. He acknowledged that, “The time taken
to make a co-op and bookstore has taken away from the time
we can put into the press, but at the same time it’s
invigorated us to do more.” As long a the co-op is
fulfilling its goals, Paul continued, he and Barbe are
willing to keep at it. He noted that by using e-mail he can
manage a long mailing list (currently 580 names and
growing) with zero expense.
True, but e-mail doesn’t write itself. Paul and Barbe’s
willingness to keep co-op participants in the loop with
frequent and informative e-mails, sharing detailed
information about every aspect of the store’s operation and
performance, has certainly contributed to the positive
appraisal of their experiment. Paul eagerly puts store
participants in touch with each other, welcomes questions
and feedback, and appears undaunted at having a few hundred
new pen pals. He’d prefer for the co-op’s structure to stay
as informal as possible. So far, he said, each time they
have put out a call for help, co-op members have stepped up
to the plate.
* * *
Copyright ©
2005 Zelda
Gatuskin
Other
coverage
Local books,
authors taking center stage
"More
than a dozen booksigning events will be held ... at New
Mexico Books & More, billed as the largest book co-op
in the country." Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2004
Celebrating
the magic in books, New Mexico style
"In a
storefront, just steps from the JC Penney at Cottonwood
Mall, a revolution brews. New Mexico Books & More may
resemble a bookstore, but don't be deceived. It's a force
for change and its foot soldiers are New Mexican authors
and independent publishers." Crosswinds, November 24, 2004
Holiday Store
has local gifts covered
"New
Mexico has a lot more to offer than nice weather and green
chile. Its arts community has been recognized worldwide,
but usually the written words are not given the attention
they deserve. A cooperative of more than 150 small
publishers is trying to change that by offering local works
in one place." Albuquerque Journal, November 25, 2004
Co-op in mall
helps New Mexico authors market their books
"Part
holiday bookstore and part book fair, this grand experiment
will function as a co-op." Albuquerque Tribune, November
19, 2004
Land o' Books
"It
just goes to show you that the book business in New Mexico
is very strong, and the people involved are more than
willing to partner with each other to make it even
stronger." Alibi, November 18, 2004
Authors hope
co-op lifts sales
"No
one has ever done this before. This is the first book co-op
store of this magnitude anywhere in the country. . . .The
awareness raising of this event is important in itself. Our
indutry has been under-discussed." New Mexico Business
Weekly, November 12, 2004
Holiday
Retail Co-op For NM Books at Cottonwood Mall
"The
store will have books consigned by both authors and
publishers. This is the largest store of New Mexican books
in the state." Corrales Comment, November 20, 2004
New Concept
of a Co-op Bookstore in Cottonwood Mall for a Limited Time
"Albuquerque will be the site
of one of the biggest book shows in the country this
holiday season. This cooperative project, organized by
Barbe Awalt and Paul Rhetts of LPD Press, will showcase
more than 375 local books, from and about New Mexico, from
more than 100 authors and small publishers. New Mexico
Books & More will hold more than 90 book signings
during the 40 days of this book show." New Mexico Business
Journal, November 2004
Media
coverage
1/2005
– People of God
1/2005 – NMBA LIBRO
1/2005 – Los Ranchos Village Vision Newspaper
12/26 – Albuquerque Journal Book Section
12/24 – New Mexico Historical Notebook
12/23 – Crosswinds
12/21 – Albuquerque Journal West Side
12/21 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Charleen Touchette
12/19 – Albuquerque Journal Book Section
12/19 – KOB (770 AM) Book Show with Margaret Aragon de
Chavez and Jill Lane
12/19 – KKNS (1310 AM) Think with Barbe Awalt
12/18 – ad in Corrales Comment
12/18 – Albuquerque Journal North
12/18 – Albuquerque Journal Rio Rancho
12/18 – Albuquerque Journal West Side
12/17 – New Mexico Historical Notebook
12/17 – Albuquerque Journal
12/17 – Albuquerque Tribune
12/16 – Crosswinds
12/15 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Yolanda Nava
12/14 – Rio Rancho Journal
12/14 – Albuquerque Journal West Side
12/14 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Stan Lehmberg
12/12 – Albuquerque Journal Book Section
12/11 – New Mexico Business Weekly
12/10 – Albuquerque Tribune
12/10 – New Mexico Historical Notebook
12/10 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Hank Bruce
12/10 – Los Alamos Monitor
12/9 – Crosswinds
12/9 – Rio Rancho Journal
12/8 – Albuquerque Journal West Side
12/8 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Thomas Steele
12/7 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Tom Chavez
12/6 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Stan Hieronymus &
Daria Labinsky
12/4 – ABQ Arts
12/4 – ad in Corrales Comment
12/3 – New Mexico Business Weekly
12/3 – New Mexico Historical Notebook
12/2 – Rio Rancho Journal
12/2 – Crosswinds
12/2 – Alibi
12/2 – Albuquerque Journal
12/2004 – full page ad in Tradicion Revista
12/2004 – NMBA LIBRO
11/30 – KUNM (89.9 FM)
11/28 – KOAT-TV (7)
11/27 – KOAT-TV (7)
11/27 - Albuquerque Journal
11/27 – Santa Fe New Mexican
11/27 – Albuquerque Tribune
11/26 – KOB (770 AM)
11/26 –Albuquerque Journal West Side
11/26 –New Mexico Historical Notebook
11/25 – Albuquerque Journal West Side
11/24 –Crosswinds
11/23 – Rio Rancho Journal
11/22 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Marcia Keegan
11/21 – KKNS (1310 AM) Think with Barbe Awalt
11/21 – Albuquerque Journal Book Section
11/20 – KSFR (90.7 FM) Green Knees with Terry Avery
11/20 – article and ad in Corrales Comment
11/19 –New Mexico Historical Notebook
11/19 –Albuquerque Tribune
11/18 –Weekly Alibi Gift Guide
11/15 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Naomi Rose
11/12 –New Mexico Historical Notebook
11/12 –New Mexico Business Weekly
11/11 – KTRC (1260 AM) ArtTalk with Paul Rhetts and Barbe
Awalt
11/5 –New Mexico Historical Notebook
11/04 – New Mexico Business Journal
11/2004 – People Of God Newspaper
11/2004 – NMBA LIBRO
10/29 –New Mexico Historical Notebook
10/2004 – NMBA LIBRO
10/2004 –Los Ranchos Village newspaper
10/2004 and ongoing – PSAs on KSJE Public Radio
10/2004 – full page ad in Tradicion Revista
9/4 – Santa Fe New Mexican
9/2004 – NMBA LIBRO
7/22 – Albuquerque Journal, Business section