Tomorrow one of the highlights of the Midwest Booksellers
Association/ABA Spring Meeting in Omaha, Neb., is the appearance of
four authors, all participants in MBA's Midwest Connections program,
which aims to promote and sell adult fiction and nonfiction,
particularly memoirs and history, children's books, and cookbooks. Most
titles have some Midwest connection, whether the author lives or lived
there or the book is set there, but the program is not limited to
regional titles, association executive director Susan Walker
emphasized. While the program focuses on new titles, it includes
backlist.
The authors appearing tomorrow are representative of the 11 authors lined up for the spring Midwest Connections list:
- Andrea Portes, whose Hick (Unbridled Books) is a first novel. Portes lives in Los Angeles but is originally from Nebraska, where part of the book is set.
- Mark Levine, author of F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century (Miramax Books). A teacher at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Levine has also three books of poetry. As for the subject, it's a Midwest natural.
- Laura Moriarty, author of The Rest of Her Life (Hyperion), lives in Lawrence, Kan., and the book is set in Kansas. She has also written The Center of Everything.
- Timothy Schaffert, author of Devils in the Sugar Shop (Unbridled Books), who lives in Omaha, where his book is set. He has two backlist titles.
MBA's website has some information and examples of how Midwest Connection titles are being promoted.
Two authors involved in the Midwest Connections test last fall appeared to
connect in the Midwest. Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
(HarperCollins) parked on the Heartland regional list for 11 weeks,
and the program, Walker said, "brought a whole new audience to the
author's backlist," particularly Population 485, which has been out for
several years. Population 485 was on the Heartland list for four
weeks--and would have been on longer had the book not gone out of stock
temporarily.
As an example of stores' Midwest Connection activities and results, the Book Vault,
Oskaloosa, Iowa, ran an ad, featured Truck and an event on its website
and newsletter, displayed Perry's titles throughout the store, helped
get it written up in the local paper and encouraged the library book
group to read it. The store has sold more than 40 copies of Truck and
26 Perry backlist books.
For Tom Drury, whose The Driftless Area (Grove/Atlantic) was promoted,
the program "gave him name recognition for both frontlist and
backlist," Walker continued. Drury lives in California, but he's from
Iowa and his books are set in the Midwest.
Participation in Midwest Connections by publishers is free, but
publishers are expected to
nominate authors for the program; work with the association and
booksellers to schedule author appearances; provide promotional
materials to stores such as press kits, bookmarks, shelf talkers and
posters; provide graphic files for stores to use for signs, flyers,
their websites; offer applicable coop; advertise in MBA's catalogue;
provide ARCs through MBA's Advance Access program; and more. The aim,
as the program put it, is to use "the marketing tools and funds which
[publishers], we and our bookstores can make available, rather than
requiring
significant additional expense."
For booksellers, there are three levels of participation, depending on
the store's size and depth of commitment. Many of the stores don't do
author events in connection with the program, and they generally
determine how involved they will be. "We give the stores guidelines,"
Walker said. "But we haven't said you have to do this or that."
Authors are encouraged to do store events as well as meet booksellers
without necessarily doing a public event, but titles by authors who
don't do events may still be part of the program. Midwest Connections
is designed to be very flexible, and Walker emphasized that the
programs for specific titles are "not identical. It's not automatic."
Besides coordinating the program, MBA provides rebates of as much as
$100 to stores for ads and displays of Midwest Connection books. The
association also provides ad formats and shelf talkers and additional
money for author and special events, promotional material, etc.
The idea for the program came last year during the annual trip to New
York City to visit publishers made by Walker and the heads of the
association. "We refined the story as we went around," Walker said.
"The flows of conversation turned into something wonderful," Lisa
Baudoin of the Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa, and president of the MBA,
added.--John Mutter