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literary fiction

Book Bound: A Celebration of Independent Bookstores—Microcosm Publishing

October 17, 2017 1 Comment

Microcosm Publishing
2752 North Williams Avenue
Portland, Oregon
97227
503-232-3666
https://microcosmpublishing.com
Visit: 23 May, 2017

Ruth’s Bookstore Safari Part III: Microcosm Publishing—Not Your Mainstream Bookstore

https://regalhousepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Microcosm-1.mp4

(Full videos will be available soon on our imminent Regal House YouTube Channel)

https://regalhousepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_0062.m4v

https://regalhousepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Warehouse-clip.mp4

Microcosm Links to Topics Mentioned Above:

“The Publishing House of My Dreams”

About Microcosm

BFF Subscriptions

Rad Dad Series

Business of Publishing

 

 

Filed Under: Book Bound, Regal House Titles Tagged With: Asperger's, Biel, Bookstore Bound, Bookstore Safari, Celebrating Independent Bookstores, Celebrating Independents, Diversity, Independent Bookstores, Joe, Joe Biel, literary fiction, Marginalized, Microcosm, Microcosm Books, Microcosm Publishing, Oregon, People of Color, Portland, Punk Rock, ruth feiertag, Women of Color

Book Bound: A Celebration of Independent Bookstores

September 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Ruth’s Bookstore Safari, Part I: An Indie in the Pacific Northwest

Third Place Books
Visited: 15 May, 2017

          I began my bookstore safari in Seattle, Washington, where I was visiting my particular friend Maren Donley. Before I arrived, I explained my quest to her, and she immediately recommended a visit to the Third Place Books. While there are three Third Places (I’m not sure how the math works on that, whether it requires simple addition or some kind of quantum exponential multiplication), Maren suggested we drop by the Lake Forest store. “I drive by it twice a week. I had never been in until I met my priest there for a meeting. Then I said, ‘Oh! I have really been missing out!'” she told me.

As always, Maren’s advice proved invaluable. I contacted the store and was put in touch with Zak Nelson, the Events and Marketing Manager. Mr. Nelson gave me some background, drawn from the website, on the store and its philosophy. He explained that “Third Place Books is the deliberate and intentional creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them” and that the name, Third Place Books, comes from sociologist Ray Oldenberg’s idea “that each of us needs three places: first is the home; second is the workplace or school,” and a third place “where people from all walks of life interact, experiencing and celebrating their commonality as well as their diversity.”

Maren, my trusty guide

Maren commented on this aspect of the store as well. After our visit, she remarked, “I appreciate that so much of that space is devoted to the community and I will go out my way to make purchases there because I value that space. I have never found anywhere else that can do that.” Before visiting the book store, Maren and I fortified ourselves with lunch at the Everest Kitchen, a few doors away from Third Place. We find Indian food tends to be the best way to prepare for about anything, and we wanted to ensure we would have sufficient stamina for an extended exploration.

When Maren and I walked into the Lake Forest Third Place, the atmosphere and layout were genuinely comfortable and intriguing. It felt almost as much like a library as a book store, a place where one could take the time to get to know a book before deciding whether to take it home.

Mr. Nelson had suggested that I speak with Robert Sindelar, the Managing Partner and now president of the American Booksellers Association. When Maren and I arrived, Mr. Sindelar was working in the back, but one of the clerks at the customer service desk cheerfully went off to find him. Mr. Sindelar came out and showed me around the store and talked about his store’s commitment to authors.

Third Place hosts authors—both new, local writers and established celebrities—fifteen times a month. The traditionally published authors have their publishers behind them to arrange readings and signings, while local authors must approach the store in person to arrange appearances and apply to have Third Place carry their books in the stores. When considering self-published works, the Third Place staff take into account not only the quality of the books, but also whether the authors are motivated self-promoters.

As an additional support to Seattle-area authors, the book store offers Third Place Press for those who want to self-publish. The Press designs books and publishes them using its Espresso Book Machine. The Third Place Press office is located not in the book store itself, but in the Commons, near the stage. Many of the books produced there are displayed in the window of the office. It should be noted that publishing with Third Place Press does not guarantee that the book store will carry the book produced. TPP authors must go through the same application process as other independent writers. Mr. Nelson wrote me that the stores carry local authors’ works on consignment.

          The selection of books, Mr. Sindelar told me, has a curatorial aspect. The staff have a lot of say in the choices, which are also guided by the interests of customers and the diverse ideas and opinions that represent the neighborhood. It seems that every aspect of Third Place is indeed geared toward fostering community and neighborhood. The Commons area not only has ample seating and a play area for small children, it has three restaurants as well: sustenance for both mind and body.

And then there’s the stage. The bookstore uses it for readings and signings, and shares it with schools, musicians, and theatre groups as another way to create inclusive and cohesive bonds between various individuals and groups in the area. Mr. Nelson, in one of his e-mails, had assured me that Third Place “depends on having a well-rounded and enticing events program.”

When Mr. Sindelar had to take his turn staffing the information counter, I explored the store some more on my own and eventually found Maren in the children’s section with Rene Holderman, one of the store clerks who had greeted us when we first arrived. Maren was looking for books for her children, both voracious consumers of literature. On the way home, Maren confided that “This is the second time that Rene has been able to help me select books for my daughter. She’s an avid reader with VERY specific tastes. It’s such a pleasure to have expert help.”

          As we wended our way toward the registers at the front of the store, Maren pointed out the cards that annotated the books on the tables and shelves. The cards offered reviews by the staff, noted awards won by the book and author, and even let browsers know that a less expensive edition of the book in question was available on a different shelf in the store. I had seen cards similarly deployed in other stores, but never to such good effect. Walking through the store while looking at the books and reading the cards was like enjoying a stimulating conversation with friends or taking part in a silent book club discussion.

Third Place is a community epicenter that extends opportunities for education and enjoyment. While Third Place strives to be a place apart from home and work or school, I think it might be something better: a place that embraces aspects of all our important environments and makes room for members of the community to nurture their separate selves within while forging connections with the world around them.

The umbrella that marks the children’s section.
A selection of Third Place Press publications
The Den sits in the heart of the store.
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A quick look at The Commons and Third Place Books.

          I want to thank Zak Nelson and Rene Holderman for their assistance; I am particularly grateful to Robert Sindelar for his time and kindness in showing me around. And especial gratitude to Maren Donley for leading me to Third Place Books, and for more than I can articulate here.

Filed Under: Book Bound Tagged With: Bookstore Bound, Bookstore Safari, Celebrating Independents, Espresso Book Machine, Independent Bookstores, literary fiction, Maren Donley, Rene Holderman, Robert Sindelar, ruth feiertag, Seattle, Third Place Books, Third Place Press, Washington, Zak Nelson

Dickens and Regal House Publishing

January 2, 2017 Leave a Comment

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens

While reading a biography of Charles Dickens, I came across this marvelous excerpt from a letter the author sent to his friend Forster describing the dispute with his publisher, Bentley. Specifically, Dickens was reluctant to undertake the writing of Barnaby Rudge due to being greatly depressed by the contractually fixed disproportion between his publisher’s earnings from his books and his own. In a letter of early 1839, he wrote the following:

“The immense profits which Oliver Twist has realised to its publisher, and is still realising; the paltry, wretched, miserable sum it has brought to me (not equal to what is every day paid for a novel that sells fifteen hundred copies at most); the recollection of this, and the consciousness that I have still the slavery and drudgery of another work on the same journeyman-terms; the consciousness that my books are enriching everybody concerned with them but myself, and that I, with such a popularity as I have acquired, am struggling in old toils, and wasting my energies in the very height and freshness of my fame, and the best part of my life, to fill the pockets of others, while for those who are nearest and dearest to me I can realise little more than a genteel subsistence: all this puts me out of heart and spirits…” Of course, the publishing world was an entirely different animal in the early nineteenth century; the proliferation of e-reading apparatus, the ready freedom to self-publish, the global readership to which writers currently market themselves – these would certainly have astonished Dickens if he was granted a glimpse of the publishing world today.

But I wonder whether the financial inequity in regards to royalty revenue (the slimmest of pie-slices that return to the author of the creative work) I wonder whether that would, to Dickens, remain recognizable. When one takes into account the wholesale discount, the cost of printing and distribution, the publisher’s slice, as well as that of the literary agent (assuming one goes the traditional route)…the writer is left with a rather piddling portion from the sale of their own literary work.

Regal House Publishing is, of course, subject to these costs as are other publishing houses. We must pay our copyeditors, our acquisition agents, our cover artists, our website designers. We must pay for printing, marketing, and advertising. Like any other business we must maintain a healthy accounting ledger, but our priority remains, now and as long as we are in business, with the writer. We are seeking writers of literary fiction – historical or contemporary – and it is for these individuals, these scribes of our age, that we maintain a profound respect. A respect that is manifested in maximizing the proceeds that accrue to them as a result of their long and dedicated endeavor. Throwing open the publishing doors, so to speak, and accepting submissions directly from writers is our way of achieving this. The Regal House Team supports and empowers our writers by encouraging and enabling a transparency to the publishing process, and involving them closely in the decision-making process.

A new way of doing business that has, perhaps, short-changed the writer for over one hundred and fifty years. Dickens would have loved Regal, and we, of course, would have simply adored him!

Filed Under: Regal House Titles Tagged With: dickens, literary fiction, submissions

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Regal House Publishing is the parent company to the following imprints:

Fitzroy Books publishing finely crafted MG, YA and NA fiction.

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From our Blog

BookBound: Children’s Book World

Jeanette Horn

After 42 Years, The Muse Bookshop Still Promotes Literacy and Community

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