Strong Brew

Is it publishing's job to create a trend, or simply to make use of it? Sometimes, it seems that book publishers have been more skilled at the latter, producing insta-books, celebrity bios and me-too sequels that they hope will capitalize on previous success. Those titles, after all, are what often sell in the largest numbers, and you can't blame a business for trying: in this era of lightning-fast media, being timely, current, hip is a good thing.

It's just that being pioneering and visionary is even better. And maybe, all of a sudden, pioneering and visionary also is what sells. 

Starbuck's announcement last month that A Long Way Gone would be the second book in its new series of in-store titles was a surprise to many book watchers. "I never would have called that," said one editor who hasn't yet read the memoir by 26-year-old Ishmael Beah. Why? First of all, it's a debut by an unknown, not a pre-ordained goes-down-easy blockbuster by Mitch Albom. And it's about something serious, and disturbing, and foreign: the experiences of a pre-teen boy soldier in wartorn Sierra Leone. Clearly, the coffee-chain better known for its latte than its literature thinks Americans, in large numbers, are ready for a shot of something bracing: the stores have ordered nearly 100,000 copies, a good portion of them unreturnable. (Note:  Most traditional booksellers are permitted to buy titles basically on consignment; what they don't sell they can send back for full refund.  To say this creates havoc in the book business is an understatement; it makes publishers nuts because there's also no real time limit for returns.  This is why publishers often don't know the real final sales figure on a book for YEARS after its release.)

What makes Starbucks think this book is hot?   I personally loved it – but I must confess I had some advance word about it as I count both its agent and its editor among my closest friends.  And so did a lot of other people: PW gave it a rave, The New York Times excerpted it in the magazine, and Beah -- who is an extremely engaging speaker -- is making appearances, including one on Gather.Com.  Still, for all the book's importance and readability -- a combination not always found in literature -- it is not the stuff of which blockbusters are usually made. But then, neither is Dave Eggers' What is the What, which, according to Nielsen BookScan has sold over 45,000 copies since its late October publication (and, once the fortunes of its beleaguered distributor, PGW, are sorted out, will surely sell more.) Is it that thanks (thanks!) to the war in Iraq, we're suddenly more aware of and interested in wars on other continents? Is it that African relief efforts have recently been in the news? Is it that Madonna's and Angelina Jolie's African adoptions have been so well publicized? Who knows? That's why we call it zeitgeist.

The books' editors would surely tell you that they weren't necessarily thinking trendy - these books were conceived, written, bought and edited long before the recent war escalation and tabloid news. And while they're surely thrilled at the public response, they just as surely couldn't have predicted it. What they'd tell you is that they simply chose and edited books that they believed in, books whose voices they liked, books whose stories enthralled them. In other words, they were simply doing their jobs - and doing them well.

Sometimes, in other words, the system DOES work.  And what a nice bonus for publishing that a corporate entity like Starbucks - a company that is nothing if not trendy -- has agreed.

Sara Nelson is Editor in Chief of Publishers Weekly: The International Voice for Book Publishing and Bookselling. You can read all of Sara's weekly Gather columns at saranelson.gather.com. And for more of Sara's columns click here.