Some of you who know me may remember that Alex and I have been talking for a few years about a road trip to put his books into stores outside California. Without distribution an author has to work the consignment angle, which is time-consuming enough when you're doing it by mail. However, Alex has found more success working it face to face so we hit the road this week on a multi-state tour. This trip will cost us more than the books we sell will ever make, but that's not the point. The purpose of doing this is to simply generate some interest in the work. If the books sell out here, then hopefully the stores will order more and we can ship from home by mail.
Also, we needed a trip out of town.
We hit the web to find independent bookstores that looked like they might like Alex's work and generated an encouraging list. So, we loaded up on maps from AAA (worth the price of a years membership alone!) and boxed up books and caged the rats. This is the hardest part to juggle because rats get heatstroke like crazy easy and you need to be totally vigilant. We figured we'd be going to the nice cool hills of the Pacific Northwest, though. I was worried it would be too cold, in fact and considered bringing long johns.
Wrong. We hit Ashland at about 6 pm and it was brutal.
Vegas hot. Well, not that hot, but...
We covered the boys' cage with a pillowcase and carefully cracked the windows but we were against the clock. We were in luck in that all of the addresses we had were on the same block. Two of the stores were no longer. One was obviously New Age. Alex's work sometimes envices what I call "punitive Shintoism" but it's not New Age. More like "Dark Age". Another scratched off the list.
We found another was closed. Even though it looked like a cool store it looked really disorganized. We've found that store owners who have messy stores also hate consignment paperwork. No, really, it's true. So we weren't too sad about that. One other (More Fun) was strictly a comic and zine store. We've tried to crack the zine distro system, but we're not quite a zine. Not at 280 pages.
So one store was left on our list, Bloomsbury Books. They took consignment, but we had to talk to the owner who wasn't in until the next morning. We rushed back to the truck and hightailed it to Medford. We found a hotel and jacked up the airconditioning. Whew. They had a pool...but thinking I was going to the Snowy Northern Wastes I had of course neglected to pack a bathing suit.
The next morning we headed back to Bloomsbury Books and they took some books. Score! This was going to work after all!
Our next stop was Salem. It's very pretty and I'm sure there's lots of cool stuff to see. However, it was 88 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The air was dead still. We got to Jackson's books and they were willing to take books. But they wanted more of one of them, so Al had to hike back to the truck, poor lamb. I browsed Beth Lisick's book, which I will probably end up buying somewhere, but I'm trying to adhere to a rule on this trip that I don't spend as much on books in stores as we place.
We took off to Portland. Man, is that a hairy drive. It's like the grapevine on steroids. We checked into the Days Inn (swimming pool >:( ) and the rats even had their own bed. Al wanted to get started right away on his list but I convinced him that my terminal case of bitchiness could only be cured with beer. We strolled south in the direction of one of his stores, found it, and then found Paddy's Bar and Grill, just the ticket.
After dinner, Al called stores on his list. There he hit a snag. Regionalism. "Locals only" "Sorry, only for locals" "Err, Oakland isn't local" Ok, we got it. A couple of stores were closed (it was around 9 pm) but we had seen their websites and we thought we were a good fit, regardless. And of course there was Powell's which was Mecca. We called them. The clerk transferred Al to a recording which told that they require a 3 week review process, and if they aren't going to carry your book, you can infer it from their silence. And they keep your book. "Independent" does not always translate into "warm and friendly".
In the morning we walked down to Looking Glass books. The owner was very nice, but she only did consignment for locals. Her son was at CCAC though, so we chatted for awhile. (I was struck by how nice everyone was, starting in Medford. Strangers saying hi on the streets. Strangers striking up conversations. People who are far from California have this idea that California is hearts and flowers hippy dippy and it's really not true. It is corporations and agriculture and strangers.)
We got the truck and headed over the Harrison Bridge to Wallace books. Portland is a lovely town. I could really see living there. The neighborhoods have preserved so much of their heritage, but everything looks fresh and interesting. The Willamette Week had a article on the condo problem, but it's not as pervasive as the East Bay. Plus, no sales tax.
Stiv at Wallace books took three books, one of each and bought them straight out. We browsed his store. I found a collection of Meatcake by Dame Darcy that I wanted to get for RJ's daughter, but it was $22.95 which was just about what we'd gotten for Al's books and definitely violated my rule. Instead we got a vintage printing of Whisky Galore by Compton MacKenzie.
We went up the street to a gallery that had caught my eye. It was in the ballroom of a Masonic temple, very cool. We talked to the owner for a bit, who was intrigued with our quest and asked if we'd approached Powell's. Next we ate lunch at a great little restaurant called "Stickers" which was Asian fusion but funky and unpretentious. The walls were painted a dusky indigo with glossy red on the trim and details which is still sticking in my brain. On the way back to city center I snapped a picture of the Aladdin theater, which looks to have been converted to a live show space. It made me happy. So many Oakland movie palaces have been converted to abandoned buildings. I hope the Fox conversion reverses the trend.
We had some time to kill before talking to the people at Reading Frenzy and Counter Media, so we went uptown to check out a Chinese garden.
Then we headed over to park near Powell's. I abandoned Alex to his quest while I sunk my teeth into Powell's. Fact is I can just pure shop longer than Alex and he tends to breathe down my neck when he's done with looking. I only get to Powell's once a decade. I picked up a copy of Rats and Training Your Pet Rat and a book on sale about the Voynich Manuscript by a descendent of Mrs. Voynich.
I ran into Alex in Science Fiction. It turned out Reading Frenzy only took local authors. We were bummed, as we'd had high high hopes. But Counter Media took Metro, which was cool. They don't have a website, we just found their address on Google Maps and it was a total long shot. But they're only a door down from Reading Frenzy, so it was worth checking out!
After all the hard work we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then walked to Paddy's again. I had been reading Rats while we rested up in the room and Sullivan had discovered that his alley rats really prefered chicken pot pie from the Irish restaurant that bordered their home. I ordered the chicken pot pie from Paddy's to experiment with our fellows. They turned up their noses at my leftovers when we got back.
The next morning we bid a sad farewell to Portland and headed over the border to Vancouver and So Many Books. The nice owner there took a few books. This was a great store with a cat and a sign that said "Do more stupid things faster with coffee." inside. We got breakfast at Dulin's Village Cafe that has a menu that heavily features potatos. Not that I'm complaining.
Next on to Olympia, which I was curious to see, since Lynda Barry and Matt Groening went to Evergreen. Orca books didn't really give us a straight answer and wanted Alex to leave a free sample to review. He hates this so he was a little pissy on the way to Tacoma. Tacoma was also a bust. We went to King's Books which was awesome and talked to the owner. At first the owner seemed totally into it, and then he went into his office to "check on something first". It must have been a really pessimistic magic 8 ball because he came right back out and said "Sorry, I'm going to have to pass this time. We really only work with locals. Bye." We were a little stunned. Even the majesty of Mt. Rainier in a heartbreakingly beautiful view failed to console. Hopefully we're going back tomorrow to the Tacoma Glass Museum and I can take a picture of the mountain then.
Only the thought that our last stop that day was RJ's house in Seattle kept our spirits up. RJ's house and beer.
Next up: Seattle
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