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March 14, 2009
Bookstorming with Rick
The Author As Artifact Tour:
Going on a regional bookstore road trip—Rick called it “bookstorming”—with the author of four remarkable novels about the humanizing power of story can teach an isolated independent publisher a great deal.
You learn that while there are bookstores in which the arrival of a graceful author (and his talky Sancho Panza editor) can be an imposition, there are others that celebrate authors with grace and good interest, great questions, exciting ideas, warm conversation, and best hopes.
You learn the differing effects of pizza, homemade cookies, and locally brewed beer on the bookselling conversation.
And you learn how rich and enjoyable such wide conversations can be.
If you didn’t already know it, you can learn that the relationships between characters are plot; and that a fellow can be proud of just being a passenger in the cab of a pickup on a high-country road while that authorial process is going on.
You learn that drop-in conversations with a bookseller can be long and that pre-scheduled meetings can be brief.
You learn that a dynamic, successful bookstore owner might even bring over customers to meet an author and go out of her way to put the new ARC into the hands of the local reading series director.
You learn that, over the course of a very few days, an author will see firsthand the independent importance of his books—and of reading itself—in the lives of people he’s never met before. And you can see on his face how important that is to him.
And, not least revealing, you can find out that a handheld video camera does strange things to the guy who’s holding it.
All of which is knowledge to carry forward.
Thanks to all who so graciously folded us into their day. Rick and I each ended up with a stack of recommended books to read and a pocketful of good memories.
And now we’re out of AaA t-shirts.
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