Small Houses Snag Big Authors
Hiaasen, Bragg publish their nonfiction work with university presses
Although popular Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen's books are usually published by Knopf in New York, Kick Ass, a collection of his columns and an attention-getter at the recent SEBA show, is being published this month by the University Press of Florida at Gainesville.
And in a further indication of increased trade aggressiveness at university presses in general, the University of Alabama Press spring list will be led by Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg . Yes, that's the Alabama-reared, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Rick Bragg, whose memoir, All Over but the Shoutin', was a national hit for Pantheon and for Vintage in paperback.
So given each writer's commercial track record, why did their journalism collections wind up at presses predominantly devoted to scholarship? When PW put that question to Meredith Morris-Babb and Curtis Clark, editors-in-chief at Florida and Alabama, respectively, their responses were similar: "We asked for it," answered Clark, followed by Morris-Babb's "Carl liked the proposal we submitted to him." And both presses signed contracts through ICM agents (Esther Newberg for Hiaasen, Amanda Urban for Bragg).
Indeed, Alabama not only asked Bragg, but competed with other southern university presses to land a collection of his newspaper pieces. And in the case of Hiaasen's Kick Ass, the acquisition stems from a 1997 conference titled "Defining the Genre of Florida Fiction" at the University of Florida that was organized by Diane Stevenson, associate director of writing programs there and the collection's editor. Hiaasen, a UF graduate, was among the participants, and Stevenson took the opportunity to ask if he had considered gathering his columns in book form. In the new book's acknowledgments, Hiaasen says, "For years, I resisted the idea of compiling my newspaper column into a book, because it required rereading each one myself--a columnist's worst nightmare."
Still, Hiaasen's initial reaction didn't deter Stevenson. She went to the Herald and downloaded the 1300 columns Hiaasen has written since 1985. Then from her own rereading, she developed a proposal the author finally agreed to. The 200 thematically arranged columns in Kick Ass were mutually chosen, Stevenson noted, as most representative "of what Carl wants for his reader: to care about Florida as deeply as he d s, to celebrate it, marvel at it, laugh about it, grieve for it, and even fight for it."
Her initiative was backed by Morris-Babb's enthusiasm. "At the time of the conference, we were having success with a book by another Herald columnist, Al Burt's Florida, so we were very interested in a book of Hiaasen's columns." She added, "Another Al Burt book, The Tropic of Cracker [Oct.], is on our fall list with Kick Ass."
The 10,000 opening print run for Hiaasen's book is already being supplemented by a second, 4000-copy printing, in response to pre-pub demand. All royalties, noted publicist Beth Kent, are being donated by Hiaasen to the UF College of Journalism and Communications. And on November 12 he'll be in Gainesville to help launch Kick Ass with a full day of student and public activities at the college, followed by a signing the next day off campus at the independent Omni bookstore. Slated, too, is a promotional spotlight later this month at the Miami Book Fair.
Bragg, formerly a NYT national correspondent based in Atlanta and now head of the paper's Miami bureau, will help promote Somebody Told Me when it comes out in May. He has already cooperated with Clark in determining his collection's content, also arranged thematically. "Rick began by selecting 128 pieces he's written over the curve of his career, and together we finally selected 65, presented in 14 sections. The vast majority are from the New York Times, but five are from the St. Petersburg Times and one is from the Birmingham News," Clark said.
But how about that intriguing title? "That's the answer he gave when someone asked how he came up with his remarkable newspaper stories," explained Clark. The print run will be remarkable, too, at least by Alabama's standards. "We're not quite at the point of setting that yet, but the largest the press has done since it began in 1945 is 7500 and we'll probably exceed that." Clark told PW.
No wonder. Bragg, Clark pointed out, is something of a folk hero in Alabama: he was "raised in a rural area named Possum Trot, never graduated from college, but made a national name for himself anyway."
IN THE NEWS
'Scare' Resurfaces
More than two years ago, Turner Publishing had on its spring list War Scare: Nuclear Countdown After the Soviet Fall by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA intelligence officer now serving as military adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives.
PW reviewed the book (Forecasts, April 17, 1997), calling it "hair raising" and "extreme," but also noted Pry's "conclusion that current U.S. approaches to Russia are based more on hope than reality nevertheless merits more serious consideration than the author feels it is likely to receive in Clinton's second administration."
Well, times have changed. Pry's book, which had been promised major ad/promo, was shelved when Turner went belly-up. Now, updated and with a new subtitle, Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink, it was released last month by Praeger Publishing's trade division.
And the Clinton administration has come around to considering Pry's conclusions. On October 26, the U.S. House held a "Hearing on Russian Threat Perceptions and Plans for Sabotage Against the United States." Given the current debate on the nuclear test ban treaty, the session was deemed newsworthy enough to air on C-Span and other outlets.
While Pry is involved in the subcommittee that held the hearing and could be suspected merely scheduling it just to promote his book, the House claimed its session was prompted by revelations of continuing Soviet nuclear threat paranoia in the current Basic Books bestseller The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Co-author Christopher Andrew was a speaker, as was Pry, at the hearing.
Even before the news of the hearing, the distributor had taken a healthy share of Praeger's 5000-copy first printing of War Scare. "It's the kind of topical book that works very well for us," explained marketing director Miriam Bass.
BACK TO PRESS
Georgetown's New Twist on the Oprah Effect
After Breena Clarke learned her novel, River, Cross My Heart, was the November pick of the Oprah Book Club, she mentioned to the show's producers that the Georgetown University Press title Black Georgetown Remembered had been a valuable resource while writing her book.
Since the producers were planning a background video segment on Clarke for the upcoming Book Club program, they contacted Georgetown, looking for a copy of the o.p. title, which had been published in 1991.
That call has created a new wrinkle in the Winfrey handselling phenomenon: a back to press and sales boost for a book that was merely a tool for the Book Club pick.
Georgetown marketing director Gail Grella told PW she jumped on the idea that if Oprah's producers thought the book would be a good adjunct companion to Clarke's, the huge Book Club audience might, too. "There were a few tense days," Grella said, before the book's original printer, Capital City Press, located the negatives of the o.p. edition and determined they were in good enough condition for a quick turnaround. A new edition of the book came off press November 5, just before Clarke's Book Club segment was scheduled to air.
Grella hopes that booksellers display the book alongside Clarke's, rather than in its typical position in African-American sections. Even when placed there, however, the book, edited by Kathleen Lesko, had performed nicely--selling some 1500 copies in its first edition. But now, with the Oprah spotlight--the Book Club show may feature historical photographs from Georgetown's book--sales might quadruple. At press time, based on some early reorder feedback, Georgetown was already contemplating an increase on its planned 5000-copy back-to-press printing.
