How can a small independent bookstore continue to grow after it’s already opened several outlets in surrounding areas and partnered at the local airport and art museum, to the north, and outside the country in the Cayman Islands? For Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fl., who also produces movies of indie favorites and cofounded the Miami International Book Fair, the next step was to create his own publishing program, B&B Press.
Kaplan began dabbling in publishing just over a year ago when he was approached by Charles Kropke and Eleanor Goldstein about helping them publish a book on South Beach. He put the pair in touch with Ausbert de Arce, founder of Assouline Publications and Taschen America, and his wife, photographer and designer Petra Mason. Together the three helped Kropke and Goldstein create a coffee table book with photos by Mason. South Beach: Stories of a Renaissance was released in February and has since become a staple in Kaplan’s South Florida stores.
But Kaplan also wanted to be able to publish books in a more traditional way with his own colophon when he heard about interesting projects. So he formed B&B Press with de Arce and Mason’s involvement, he says, “[so that] as good ideas come up, I have the ability to pursue them.” The first two titles that fit the description were announced late last month at the Miami Book Festival and officially launched this week: a limited edition of Les Standiford’s Last Train to Paradise, which commemorates the completion of the Over-Sea Rail Road, January 22, 1912, and a collection of what Kaplan regards as “very, very great stories” by Steve Almond, Ann Hood, and more than a dozen other writers, edited by John Dufresne, Blue Christmas: The Holidays for the Rest of Us.
Writer Dennis Lehane calls the anthology “the best gift you could give this season.” And Kaplan says, “I have a feeling we’re going to sell out.” Blue Christmas had a very respectable 5,000- copy first printing and got Kaplan’s full DIY distribution: he handsold it to to his bookselling friends. It is also available for sale on the Books & Books Web site (www.booksandbooks.com). As for Last Train, Kaplan is good friends with Standiford, whose last book Bringing Adam Home (Ecco), written with Joe Matthews, he co-agented, and was eager to work with him again.The $60 B&B collector’s edition, which includes 150 images from the Flagler Museum’s archives and a tipped in map, had a 10,000 copy first printing. The Flagler purchased half, even though the plain text 2003 paperback edition from Broadway Books is still in print.
One of the things that distinguishes B&B Books from many other start-up presses are the production and design elements, overseen by de Arce. From Kaplan’s perspective, “Why do something if it can’t be beautiful?” Although he declined to say what he plans to publish next, Kaplan noted that on the film production end Kenneth Branagh signed to direct The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, which will begin shooting in late spring. Mazur/Kaplan’s most recent purchase is Kris D’Agostino’s The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac due out from Algonquin in March.
