Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Yep.  For a handy link, go to <theat.>  Adam's tales there are fun.
  

    

Adam and/or Donna:  So tell us about your process of creation.  FOr
instance, now did you decide on what each letter would represent?  B could
have been Brown (for that little school on the hill in Providence), "I"
could have stood for I-95, P could have been Pawsox....
  

    
Some letters/subjects were extremely easy to decide because there
aren't enough choices to bother debating. Like Quahogs in Rhode Island.
The letter "Q" is never really ubiquitous. For example, in the
Massachusetts title, is has to be the Quabbin Reservoir. 

As far as the letter "B", Block Island is a noteworthy and significant
aspect of Rhode Island as well as the home of the state's tallest
lighthouse. We knew we had to include it, but it wasn't going to fall
under the letter "L" for lighthouse because lobsters are equally
important (not to mention arty). Additionally, we could mention Brown
along with the John Brown House under historic preservation. It's
always give and take deciding the subjects. Some elements are
inherently more visual and interesting as coloring books subjects for
children.
  

    
One of the things that we agreed to early on is that the book would be a 
split of natural and cultural history.  We tried for 13-13, but I think we 
ended up with something along the lines of 14-12 (or even 15-11 (depending 
on how you count the Zoo)

It's definitely a give and take, and not only about what the letter stands 
for, but what the focus of the letter was going to be about.  We chose P 
to stand for Providence Plantations, rather than Providence, and really 
focused not on the building of the city (which is somewhat covered in the 
introduction and some of the other letters) but on farming, and the 
dwindling agriculture base here.  

Why?  Because it was something important and fun and educational, and we 
wanted to make sure to cover it.  Our book is not a guide book or travel 
book or puff tourism book.  (Although it can be used in certain ways for 
all those activities.)  Our book is educational, and it is important to us 
to cover a wide gamut of the state, not just popular things.

We definitely had some moments of disagreement about what should be what, 
and we worked them out through reasoning, compromise, and forbearance.  
(WEll, and some stomping of the feet and bull-headedness too!  

After all Q could be for Quincy too! :o)

I'm teasing-- we are both pretty clear on Q for Quabbin Reservoir-- did 
you know the Reservoir was manmade, and had to wipe out 5 towns in order 
to build it? Dana, North Dana, Greenwich, Enfield, and Prescott. It's one 
of the largest manmade reservoirs in the country!

But we are going to figure out a way to get John Adams and John Quincy 
Adams and Abigail Adams into the book!
  

    

Ummmm Maybe you could put them on the letter "A"....
  

    
I just shipped a bass out to Poughquag, NY.   I have no idea how you say
that.
  

    
The real challenge is going to be settling on the "C" for the
Massachusetts book. There's cod for the state fish, chickadee for the
state bird, cranberry for a noteworthy crop, and Cape Cod itself. We'll
be doing a lot of wangling on that. Sometimes, letters get pushed
around at the very end of the writing and illustrating. It's all pretty
liquid until we are 95% ready to print.
  

    

Divide the page into quadrants!
  

    
That's a good idea in theory-- but then that means that Donna has to do 4 
drawings instead of one-- and instead of 250 words to talk about the 
subject, I've got 60 words per subject.

One of the things that was a little hard to resign myself  at first is the 
fact that the book will never be "complete."  Our format and style of book 
are such that we are not going to be able to do EVERY SUBJECT IN THE 
STATE.  It's not a dictionary or an encyclopedia.  It's a learning book.


I tried to cover a little bit of everything, and mention as much as 
possible in the introduction and the timeline, but it just is not going to 
be complete.  In the Rhode Island book, I really wanted to talk about the 
King Phillip War, the destruction of the Indians in 1676, The Dorr 
Rebellion (An 1842 Rebellion that resulted in the imprisonment of Thomas 
Dorr, but also resulted in a radical revamping of the Rhode Island 
Constitution, which hadn't been changed since the charter of 1663.)

D ended up being for Diners (which were invented in Rhode Island) and 
Thomas Dorr and his rebellion got cut.
  

    
Another thing that factors in to picking a subject is drawability.  
Rebellion is a harder thing to draw than Rhode Island Red.  What will be 
fun to color?  What will be exciting to look at (both as a colored in 
picture and as a line drawing.)

Abstract ideas don't draw well-- it's concrete images that do best.  Donna 
is pretty much a genius at seeing and figuring out what is the perfect 
thing to draw.

fg
  

    

Donna, I know you're embarking on a new chapter in your life.  Where do you
see yourself going next?
  

    
At the moment, I'm in a fog bank and plan on staying there as long as
possible. 

Seriously, I'm currently back in school to study find art printmaking.
I've had numerous requests for prints of my work and haven't yet
decided how I want to create the pieces. After 20+ years of working for
myself, I'm wondering about getting a university job. I'm not sure if
I could withstand the loss in freedom. A few months back, there was
some talk about working with the University of Arizona Press. Then the
poor economy precipitated a hiring freeze. I'm going to continue
pursuing printmaking and my books and see where it takes me. Regardless
of my personal goals, the world at large appears to be in such a great
state of flux that hanging in the fog bank seems real right now.
  

    
I just returned from delivering books to a Walden's in South County.

They are one of our best-selling stores (during Christmas they sold 100 
copies of the book all by themselves!, and if they had ordered more they 
would have sold more!)

Three of the clerks told me that their kids loved the book, and started 
coloring them the moment they got them on Christmas day.  The store had 
already pre-sold 8 of the books that I brought them!  (Including one that 
was being shipped to Johnstown PA.

It's really pretty satisfying to receive those kind of kudos.
  

    

I guess!  Congratulations.  Is this a direct result of your own 
self-marketing?
  

    
Donna & Adam, do you see your collaboration extending to other types
of books?

(I think "A is for _ _ _" books for adults might be a very hot market.
 Think of the wine industry, for example!)
  

    
Hi Patrizia!
The wine industry would be wonderful. I already have a rep that works
the California wine country market and has mentioned the subject for
product development. The entire genre makes for excellent still lifes:
wine bottle shapes, vines, glasses, accompaniments. Also, old world
fruits -- grapes, figs, pomegranates -- are inherently appealing.
Though I think I need to get out and see what sorts of materials
already exist before getting carried away. This popular subject is
bound to have been addressed by some serious publishers, no?
  

    

And then there's the labels themselves.
  

    
I think we should make up some of our own vineyards and name a few new
grapes. Primo Angeli style label designs with a touch of Mad Magazine!
  

    
I must say "wow", the samples on the web page are wonderful! 
Congratulations to you both, Adam and donna, on such a splendid
collaboration.  Speaking as one in California, i can't wait for you to
address the West Coast.  And I also think you could do well with major
city A to Z books, maybe Boston to complement you Mass. book.  And I'm
glad it's reasonably priced.

Hope you sell a zillion, more or less.
  

    <scribbled by bratwood Sun 13 Jan 02 19:18>
  

    
Thanks for the compliments and the good wishes. In reality, we are
most likely to sell about 20,000 books. If this title had a market of
50,000 or better, a bigger publisher would have already latched on to
the idea. But since we're small, we can live on the crumbs where the
giants might starve.
  

    
Way back when, castle asked whether or not the sales to Walden's were the 
result of self-marketing.  Sorta-kinda.

My responsibilities for the Rhode Island book (and more than likely for 
the Mass book) is writing the book, and then marketing the book.  I came 
up with and implemented a basic marketing plan.

RI A to Z came out in November of 2001.  I started marketing it 
to stores, in middle late October.  One of the marketing things that I did 
was go to NEBA (which is the New England Booksellers Association Trade 
Show) in early October.  we created a dummy sample book for people to 
peruse.  I was able to sell 4 stores at the show, to give us a try. 

We are now in 65 stores around the state.  How did we go from 4-65 in 6 
weeks? That was through my pounding the pavement. I went from store to 
store with a sample copy of the book and a little shpiel.  And people 
bought the book...  

I wish I could say that it was because I am some kind of genius sales 
person.  (And the truth is, I am not a slouch in the sales department.)  
But truly, why the book has been so accepted is that the book is a great 
product, reasonably priced. Store owners can see quite clearly the 
quality of the product, and  why their customers would want to buy it.

  Of  course, I did put in the time, pounding the pavement, 
and I had lots of rejections from stores (even some surprising stores, 
that you would think would definitely carry the book.)

But I also wasn't selling this book about Rhode Island in Oregon.  Every 
store in RI has a potential to sell this book, because nearly every store 
in RI sells to people who might be interested.  Rhode Islanders.

When Donna and I were formulating the book, we did a lot of research, 
talked to librarians, saw what kind of books were out there, and talked to 
bookstore owners.  I could see that there was nothing like what we were 
thinking about on the market.


Another thing-- The Walden's store that I delivered the book to, the 
clerks and the manager there are really  committed to local authors and 
to this book in particular.  When I arrive, they rub their hands with 
glee.  They are really into it.  They love showing it to customers. And 
their enthusiasm helps sell the book!

In the book biz, this practice is known as hand-selling (one on one) and 
that's really a major secret to good sales in the store.

If you guys have any questions about how I went about the marketing, I'd 
be happy to answer them!
  

    
I could imagine doing an A is for _____ for the wine industry (By the way, 
Rhode Island has its own little vineyard industry in Sakonnet!)

I've also thought about doing something like that about Clowning or the 
Circus.  But it's already been done (albeit, not as well as Donna and I 
would do it (knock wood) )

The real question is marketing-- If you don't have somebody out there 
plugging your books, getting them into stores, doing the leg work, calling 
people up, it gets really hard no matter how wonderful your product is.

Rather than seeing the "limited" Rhode Island market as a downside, I 
actually see it as an opportunity to be a big fish in a small (okay, very 
small) pond.

A circus book could be sold in all 50 states, but it would be harder to 
sell it specifically...  
  

    
Don't let his rare bout of humility fool you, Adam is a GENIUS seller!
Starting from zero, he rounded up more accounts in shorter time than
any of the reps and distributors I've dealt with here in the Southwest
(and they are pros with an existing account base). Now he may want to
attribute that sales success to the book itself, but I've seen good
books go unsold and know better. Adam is a natural born promoter with a
big smile, an irresistible delivery, and a loads of charm. I think his
entertainment background fully supports this strength.
  

    
Oh Pshaw!  (But don't stop!)