The folks at Milwaukee's Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop were determined to land an in-store appearance by cutting-edge graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (David Boring; Ghost World). Very determined. The marketing team at Schwartz had done traditional proposals for author events on scads of occasions, but when they learned that Pantheon Books had scheduled a fall Chicago appearance for Clowes, marketing director Nancy Quinn and marketing associates Dan Blask and Brian Peterka crafted an overture designed to catch the eye of the publicists in New York.
"Nancy and Dan usually put together the author requests," Peterka told PW, "and when they saw that Daniel was touring, they thought it would be fun to do a proposal that was unique to try to get the attention of the people at Pantheon. Dan wrote the thing up, and asked if I could put it in a graphic form. Since I stumbled across some copies of Clowes's Eight Ball in college, I've been a fan and have been following his career. We figured that we needed to so something special to get him to come that additional stretch."
The proposal features self-described "marketing lackey" Peterka making a wild-eyed yet sound case to Quinn touting the many advantages of an in-store appearance by Clowes. In the strip, Peterka emphasizes the popularity of Clowes's work and its hip demographics; points out the success Schwartz had selling 30 hardcover copies of Chris Ware's graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan (Pantheon); and outlines a publicity campaign.
When the inventive proposal landed on the desk of Pantheon associate director of publicity Kimberly Burns, she told PW, "I immediately realized that we'd all go to hell if we didn't send Daniel Clowes to Milwaukee. The comic was so thoughtful, so creative, and it answered all the right questions. We added an entire Midwest tour, thanks to that Schwartz proposal."
In addition to Clowes's October 2 appearance at the Schwartz store in Milwaukee, Pantheon has also scheduled the author for in-store events at Shaman Drum Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Canterbury Books in Madison, Wis.
"When we got the word that we would be getting the event, there was some cheering around the office," Peterka said. "It was really a great experience. We've usually taken a little more of a standard approach, and it's nice when you do try to go the extra mile and it actually works out."
"It was terrific to see something so different and original," Burns told PW. "I've been a bookseller myself, and I know that sometimes it only takes one bookseller's enthusiasm for a particular title to make a world of difference."
