Michigan Movie Theatres
A Pictorial History
by Michael V. Doyle
ISBN 0967757029
144 pages
11 x 8.5 paperback
$9.95 USD (free shipping in USA only)

The old movie theaters in Michigan are the stars of this book on Michigan movie theater history. Some of them are still standing, while others are long gone. Each Michigan movie theater is commemorated with a full page of facts and Michigan movie theater photos.

An entire section of the book is devoted to the founding fathers of Michigan’s theater industry, including W.S. Butterfield, William Emmett Goodrich, Jack Loeks, Joseph Poisson, Howard Reynolds (husband of Marie Poisson), Oscar Varneau, and Allen Johnson. A chapter on movie theater architecture includes the work of Thomas Lamb, John Eberson, Howard Crane, and others.

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Theaters featured include:

• Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
• State Theater, Ann Arbor
• Campus Theater, Ann Arbor
• Hamblin Opea House, Battle Creek
• Bijou Theater, Battle Creek
• State Theater (Bay Theater, Orpheum Theater), Bay City
• Empire Theater, Bay City
• Colonial Theater, Bay City
• Fox Theater, Detroit
• State Theater (Palms Theater), Detroit
• Madison Theater, Detroit
• Gem Theater, Detroit
• Capital Theater (Grand Circuit Theater), Detroit
• Wilson Theater (Cinerama Theater, Music Hall Theater, Detroit
• United Artists Theater, Detroit
• Michigan Theater, Detroit
• Adams Theater, Detroit
• Redford Theater, Detroit
• Harper Theater, Detroit
• Hollywood Theater, Detroit
• Duke Theater, Detroit
• Capitol Theater, Flint
• Regent Theater, Flint
• Palace Theater, Flint
• Rialto Theater (Savoy Theater, Royal Theater), Flint
• Della Theater, Flint
• Michigan Theater, Flint
• Garden Theater, Flint
• Regent Theater, Grand Rapids
• Keith’s Theater (RKO Theater, Empress Theater), Grand Rapids
• Majestic Theater, Grand Rapids
• Midtown Theater (Fotonews Theater, Powers Theater), Grand Rapids
• Center Theater (Isis Theater), Grand Rapids
• Kent Theater (Orpheum Theater), Grand Rapids
• Savoy Theater (Temple Theater, Columbus Theater), Grand Rapids
• Easttown Theater, Grand Rapids
• Our Theater, Grand Rapids
• Four Star Theater, Grand Rapids
• Wealthy Theater, Grand Rapids
• Michigan Theater, Jackson
• Regent Theater, Jackson
• State Theater, Kalamazoo
• Michigan Theater, Kalamazoo
• Fuller Theater, Kalamazoo
• Uptown Theater, Kalamazoo
• Strand Theater (Michigan Theater), Lansing
• Gladmer Theater, Lansing
• Capitol Theater, Lansing
• Lansing Theater (Colonial Theater, Esquire Theater), Lansing
• Orpheum Theater, Lansing
• Plaza Theater, Lansing
• Northtown Theater, Lansing
• Lucon Theater (Campus Theater), East Lansing
• State Theater, East Lansing
• Strand Theater (Campus Theater), Pontiac
• Temple Theater, Saginaw
• Franklin Theater, Saginaw
• Michigan Theater, Escanaba
• Butler Theater, Ispheming
• Nordic Theater, Marquette
• Delft Theater, Marquette
• Soo Theater, Sault Ste. Marie

The author is a professor at Michigan State University and a collector of movie memorabilia. Brimming with nostalgia and a love of the cinema, Michigan Movie Theaters brings the glory of these old buildings to life once again.

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Echoes of Detroit
A 300 Year History
by Irwin J. Cohen
ISBN 0967757002
140 pages
8.5 x 11 paperback
$12.95 USD (free shipping in USA only)
This history of Detroit tells the story of the Motor City in engaging prose and over 150 vintage photos of Detroit. From the early Detroit history of its birth as a trading post for the French in 1701, through the Roaring Twenties, the industrial boom during and following World War II, the decline in the 1970s, the book ends with gradual birth of a new era of hope in the twenty-first century. Over 100 Detroit historic photos tell the story in pictures.

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Along with plenty of Detroit historical facts, the book is full of delightful anecdotes and fascinating statistics:

• the naming of Woodward Avenue
• the roots of the Lone Ranger
• Detroit’s meanest man
• the Detroit building that was named after a river in Maine
• the architecture of Albert Kahn
• the “Real McCoy”

The author is a Detroit native, baseball historian, and avid collector of Detroit memorabilia and Detroit memories.

Echoes of Detroit’s Jewish Communities
by Irwin J. Cohen
ISBN 0967757010
346 pages
8.5 x 11 paperback
$19.95 USD (free shipping in USA only)

This history of the Detroit Jewish community begins with the first Jewish immigrants to the Motor City, Detroit’s amazing growth during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the war years, and finally the Jewish movement to the Detroit’s northern suburbs in the late twentieth century. Over 400 photographs are found in these pages, many of them one-of-a-kind.

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The book features the Detroit Jewish schools, synagogues, neighborhoods, charities, and businesses that grew along with the city. But the Jewish people of Detroit are the true characters of this story with their vibrance and spirit. The Jewish Detroit book is a labor of love by the author, who has lived and worked in Detroit all his life.

A detailed guidebook for whitewater rafting and whitewater kayaking on the magnificent rivers in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and a one-of-a-kind resource for travelers to Europe and Asia.

The book opens with whitewater rafting in Siberia, including Altai (Altay) and Sayany. The middle of the book is devoted to whitewater paddling in the Lake Baikal region, East Siberia, and the Far East. The final chapters cover Central Asia, including Pamir, Pamiro-Alai; and Tian Shan; and European whitewater in the Caucasus, the Carpathians, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula.

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Each chapter features:

• a detailed description of the region where the river is found
• complete rapid by rapid trip logs from the author’s whitewater expeditions
• detailed river maps
• entertaining river stories that give the reader a rare glimpse into the culture of Soviet style rafting
• Over 60 photos, including 8 pages of color photos

Thirty-five whitewater rivers are covered in detail, with 20 more touched on in brief.

• Katun River
• Chuya River
• Argut River
• Bashkaus River
• Chulyshman River
• Kitoy River
• Sayanskaya Oka River
• Kaa-Khem River
• Uda River
• Khara-Murin River
• Snezhnaya River
• Chaya River
• Rivers of the Putoran Plateau
• Rivers of Northeastern Siberia
• Kema River
• Akishma River
• Niman River
• Matcha River
• Zeravshan River
• Yagnob River
• Fandarya River
• Obikhingou River
• Shakhdara River
• Chilik River
• Sandalash River
• Chatkal River
• Susamyr River
• Kekemeren River
• Naryn River
• Alai-Kuu-Oy-Tal-Tar River
• Dzhurmut River
• Avarskoye Koysu
• Andiyskoye Koysu River
• Kuban River
• Big Zelenchuk River
• Big Laba River
• Kura River
• Black Cheremosh River
• White Chermemosh River
• Prut River
• Black Tisa River
• Okhta River
• Chirka-Kem River
• Kem River
• Umba River

Rivers of an Unknown Land is a paddlers’ guidebook for whitewater rafting and much more: it’s an outdoor adventure to a region that until recently was unknown to Westerners, and to the home of some of the last great wilderness on earth. Join master whitewater guide Vladimir Gavrilov on a trip through his homeland and experience the adventure of a lifetime.

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Learn more about Vladimir Gavrilov at Raft Siberia

The Agawa region of Ontario is a place of high drama and grand scale. Located only an hour north of Sault Ste. Marie along the eastern shore of Lake Superior, it makes people from Michigan feel as if we’ve journeyed to the land of the giants. Instead of deer and coyotes, it has moose and wolves. In place of hills, it has rugged mountains with elevations near 1,000 feet. Mature white pines, maples, and yellow birch take the place of the red pine and scrub oak woods of Michigan’s north country. Over it all arches the enormous Canadian sky that brings constantly changing weather, from high, dark-bottomed clouds to eerily shifting fogs after torrential rains to clear nights with the Milky Way so sharp you can feel the stars like pinpricks on your skin.

The area is seldom visited by backpackers. This is surprising, because hiking there can be as challenging or as easy as you want to make it. The tracks of the Algoma Central Railway (known in Michigan as the Snow Train) head north from the Soo, descend into the canyon, and snake along the bottom beside the Agawa River. For $21 Canadian you can flag down the train anywhere along the tracks and ride to your next campsite. Two of our party did this and still had a great wilderness adventure while the rest of us took the roundabout route.

All seven of us started out from Frater Station, up Frater Road which turns eastward off Highway 17. This is a great chance for suburbanites to test the seldom-used four wheel drive feature on their SUVs. For five miles the road twist and grinds uphill and finally ends up on the railroad tracks. There’s a definite frontier atmosphere to this place, an atmosphere we’d experience many times over the next five days. Across the tracks, the road continues as an old logging track, suitable only for heavy-duty bush ATVs or heavy-duty backpackers. It’s rocky, steep, and wet, with slick mud and huge puddles spanning the full width of the trail that have to be walked around through the brush or waded through. A trekking pole (or two) is a big help here. We camped at the end of our first day on a big outcropping of rock next to a beaver pond that split in two around us with a rickety wooden bridge on each end. Sound effects included peepers, sandhill cranes, loons, mosquitoes, and the occasional “plonk” of beavers smacking their tails on the water. Sue, the biologist in our group, pointed out the sound of a “trilling toad” coming from the pond. I didn’t know that toads trilled.

The second day brought the threat of rain but no rain. We continued on the logging track until late in the morning when our guide announced that the bushwhacking part of the trip would commence shortly. Michael Neiger’s bushwhack routes have become famous (some would say infamous) among those brave enough to backpack with him, so we were expecting the worst, but the one-kilometer cross-country route proved surprisingly gentle: up a steep hill with plenty of footholds and handholds, around a swamp, across a soggy beaver dam exactly one hiking boot wide, a long lunch break in a stand of enormous cedars that filtered the afternoon sun, and finally down an equally steep hill to the Little Agawa River where the trees opened up along a power line with easy walking along a two-track. It had been an adventure but not an ordeal.

By now it was late afternoon as we dug out our sandals and waded across the Little Agawa, where Sue and John stopped for a swim. We went up another hill to the top of a ridge. Below us the canyon opened up with the Agawa River winding along the bottom like a ribbon and the railroad tracks looking small beside it. Michael told us how the river had flooded up over the tracks one spring and the railroad company had to bring in carloads of iron ore to anchor the bridges so they wouldn’t wash away. Here nature still has the upper hand.

We tried to camp with the canyon view in sight, but level ground was in short supply, and the sky was growing ominous. It rained that evening shortly after dinner so we retired to our tents, tired anyway. Outdoors at 2:30 a.m., I saw a sky full of stars; by 3:00 it was raining again and it continued through the night and into Friday morning. By the time we had hiked down the south canyon wall along the power lines and stood on the railroad tracks, the rain had stopped and we had a dry hike along the rails, watchful for trains ahead of us and behind. A service truck equipped with train wheels came blasting around a bend and we dove for the sides of the tracks in unison with little room to spare.

Camp that night was on a small site between the tracks and the Agawa River just north of Agawa Canyon Park where two waterfalls – one on each side of the tracks – cascade down the canyon walls. The park, located on railroad land grant propery, is the terminus of the tourist train route and frequently handles 1,500 tourists a day in the summertime. The place is absolutely pristine, with no litter anywhere, and is a textbook study in soft energy: water from a spring up on the canyon rim is self-pressurized and also provides a small amount of hydroelectric power for the buildings; propane powers a series of mantle lights and the water heater; and toilets for the tourists are the waterless “clivus multrum” composting type frequently found in remote Canadian tourist attractions.

Saturday morning we went up the west canyon wall on the Black Beaver Trail at the south end of the park, which is nearly vertical in places. The ropes and precarious footing raised our adrenalin levels and made us pay close attention, but were a cakewalk compared to the old route – a rickety handmade ladder made of two-by-fours. As we climbed higher, the vegetation changed, and the air grew cooler. Thick moss and tall fiddlehead ferns sprouted from cracks in the rocky cliff, and clusters of the biggest violets I have ever seen grew everywhere. The lushness and variety reminded me of the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest and the west coast of New Zealand.

Lunch stop was at Black Beaver Lake, the first and largest of many jewel-like lakes we would see over the next two days on the west rim of the canyon. We hiked on the network of two-tracks that covers this area, mainly used by sportsmen to reach their camps and lodges. There are big fish in these lakes; later in the trip a fisherman would show us a nine-pound brook trout he had caught, nearly two feet long, red-and-yellow speckles still shining. We were a curiosity to the fishermen. “Where’d you come from?” one asked us? When we replied “Frater Station,” he said, “Ohhhh, so you took the roundabout route.”

Throughout the trip we had been seeing numerous moose tracks and occasionally the faint print of a wolf. We weren’t lucky enough to see either animal face to face, but near Black Beaver Lake we spotted a fresh, perfect wolf track in the mud, following the tracks of a moose. The print is unmistakable – no dog has feet that big.

By now we were down to a core group of seasoned packers and were covering the miles. We crossed four small streams that afternoon, three of them without taking off our boots, and finally made camp in a small gravel pit late in the day, bone tired. It rained briefly at dinnertime, as it would for the remainder of the trip, and the black flies had their normal happy hour. The beauty of the Canadian spring is not without its price. The bugs weren’t constantly active; they tended to swarm more during the warmest parts of the day, and the nights were still too cool for them. Reactions from our group varied, from stoic refusal to wear a headnet to those who never took theirs off except to eat. All of us used bug repellent; John preferred citronella, adding “Citro-Boy” to his long list of nicknames, while the rest of us slathered ourselves in Deet. For me the blackflies and mosquitoes (yes, they were there too) were more a nuisance than a plague, but I could have done without them. It’s not a perfect world.

Sunday was cool and very humid as we hiked an overgrown two-track back in the direction of the canyon and the tracks. This road was only shown on a very old map, and Michael pulled out his compass and counted paces to make sure it was taking us where we wanted to go. It did, and we were happy to be spared a long bushwhack. Stopping next to a beaver pond to filter water, I found a single deep red ladyslipper, much darker than the pink ones I’m used to seeing in the Upper Peninsula.

Lunch stop was in the front yard of an unused camp on Hotshot Lake. We stopped and stared when we saw what the owners had done to keep the bears from breaking in: below each window and door they had fastened a board full of evil-looking nail points to keep the animals from standing or leaning too close. Ingenious, also brutal. Also necessary.

We lounged on the dock in the sun and refilled our water bottles. Three fishermen – two men and a boy – rowed in closer to take a look at us. They were firmly wrapped up in headnets and didn’t seem to be enjoying the blackflies much. “Where’d you come in from?” one of them asked.

By now we knew the drill. “Frater Station.”

“By golly, you been all over da place, eh?”

Without missing a beat, Sue spoke up: “Yeah. Like shit on a wagon wheel.”

Inside the headnets, three jaws dropped. The boy looked like he had finally met some of the people his parents had been warning him about all his life. The remark did break the ice, though, and they ended up rowing in closer and talking with us for a long time. After that it was on down the trail past several more lakes, each of them beautiful. The afternoon grew hot. We were hoping for a campsite in this area, but what little high ground there was had camps on it. Finally we resigned ourselves to another long day of hiking and ending up back at the tracks in the evening. That’s part of the adventure, too – you can’t always know what lies up the trail.

Just before the trail descended back down to the canyon, we came upon a cottage on the prettiest lake yet with a small island in the middle. The cottage had tiny windows and white shutters, something straight out of Hansel and Gretel, and like Hansel and Gretel, we wandered closer. In the yard a canoe had been sawed off short and turned on end to make a shrine, and inside the shrine lounged a statue of a pink pig with a pink bouquet above it. Of course we had to take pictures of this, and meanwhile the owners came out on the porch. They were French Canadian, from the Soo, and very friendly – they even invited us to hike back up the hill for coffee in the morning. We exchanged pleasantries and went on. Five minutes later, bringing up the rear, I heard a motor behind me. The man from the cottage had followed me on his ATV.

“I take you rest of way,” he said in his heavily accented voice. It wasn’t a question.

I debated. He was so nice – it would be rude to say no – and I wasn’t really looking forward to stumbling down the steep road on a lot of loose rock so late in the day. But it wasn’t going to look good, riding the last quarter mile of the trip on a four-wheeler.

“My friends will make fun of me if I ride,” I told him.

“Ach, no problem. We take shortcut,” he said, jumping off the machine. The man was at least 70 and agile as a cat. In short order he had strapped my pack to the frame of the ATV. “Get on,” he ordered.

I got on. The thought crossed my mind that I had survived five days of heat, bugs, a pack full of pig iron, and a vertical climb up a cliff, only to be killed by a senior citizen driving a four-wheeler, but the guy turned out to be a superb driver. The machine was fully equipped for the bush – hefty four-wheel-drive thing with steel racks overhead for carrying gear and possibly to serve as a roll cage; winch; axe fastened to the front. He turned off the trail and onto a muddy track through the woods that went straight up. The machine stalled out on the hill in the mud. “I back up,” he said, threw it in reverse, and took another run at the hill. This time we made it and went careening down the other side.

The shortcut turned out to be a ploy – it did not bypass my friends. We burst out of the woods straight into the middle of my fellow trekkers, who wisely chose to scatter. “I come back for them after I take you down,” my escort said. I was trying to picture this as we roared past Michael, who stared at me. Obviously he did not approve of his trekkers cadging ATV rides from the locals.

The guy probably would have taken all five of us down, one at a time, if dinner hour hadn’t intervened. At 5:00 it was like someone (namely his wife) had thrown a switch and off he went, promising to return in the morning. Before he left he showed us a sandbar on the Agawa River where he said there were trout. Most of us swam there, one at a time. The water was cold but absolutely pure; I let out a whoop as I plunged in and afterward I felt baptized.

Dinner brought the usual rain and bugs as we camped next to the tracks at Mile 118-1/2. After it cleared up we emerged from our tents and stayed up to talk and make the final night of the trip last. The last thing I heard as I fell asleep was the hooting of a barred owl (“whoo-cooks-for-yoooo”), probably chasing a certain member of our group who felt the sudden urge to step out into the dark and howl and hoot before bedtime.

Monday morning it was hurry up and wait for the train. Mary and Mara, who had been walking the tracks all weekend, rejoined us. We swatted bugs, chatted with the half dozen or so fishermen who emerged from the woods on ATVs, and tried to make Gail reveal the contents of her trip journal, to no avail. The train came at 2:30, only an hour late. We boarded and wandered back to the rear car to look out from the platform at the places we had walked as the engine curved and climbed the sixteen miles back to Frater. From the top of the canyon wall we looked down through a notch in the hills to Lake Superior and Montreal Island laid out before us in the distance while the Agawa River glistened in the canyon below. I vowed to come back in the fall.

There are trips, and then there is travel. Trips are always a pleasure, but they don’t take me far away enough. Travel is magical – it lasts long enough to make the world I came from seem unreal, and it’s the result of forces beyond my control coming together. Everything came together for this trip – the places, the people we met along the way, the moments of silence interspersed with times of raucous laughter. There was a little danger for spice, a touch of drudgery so I’d appreciate the high points, and a constant sense of adventure around the next bend in the trail. Agawa is that kind of place.

Story and photos copyright 2001-2009 by Boreal Press. All rights reserved. No material on this page may be copied or published electronically or in print without written permission of Boreal Press Inc.

Rationale of wholesaling your books: single-source ordering and payment system for bookstores, who otherwise would have to deal with thousands of publishers

Wholesaler vs. distributor:
Distribution—includes marketing services. Net purchasing at 35% of retail (average)
Distributor contracts with you for exclusive right to order books from you and sell them to its customers (usually wholesalers).
Sales rep is retained by distributor to present its title list in person to key accounts
Distributor will place your book in databases of its customers
Other marketing services may be available, gratis or for a fee
Regional titles generally are not accepted because the sales volume is too low
Examples: Independent Publishers Group, Consortium, Partners Publishers Group
Wholesaler—only stocks and sells your books, no marketing. Net purchase 45% ret.
Buys books from you (the publisher) and from distributors
Sells books to bookstores (not consumers)
Agreement is nonexclusive but industry etiquette frowns on mixing territories
Examples: Ingram Book Co. (U.S.-wide chain), Baker & Taylor (schools & libraries), Partners (Midwest regional wholesaler), Koen (East Coast regional wholesaler), Alpenbooks (specialty outdoor title wholesaler), New Leaf (New Age specialty title wholesaler)
Your wholesaler mix should include Ingram, B&T, one regional wholesaler close to home, and specialty wholesalers as applicable to your titles

Returns and VOR agreements
Bookstores reserve the right to buy books from wholesalers on a returnable basis—if the book sits on the shelf too long, the store can ship it back to the wholesaler for credit on its next purchase (not cash refund) at the store’s expense
Wholesalers and distributors buy from you the publisher on a returnable basis also
A few scattered returns are generally put back into stock in the warehouse
Heavy returns are shipped back to the publisher at the wholesaler or distributor’s expense
Net purchase price of returns is deducted from money owed to publisher
If a large shipment of your books has been trashed by the bookstore, wholesaler should refuse to accept the return (ask them about their policy on this)
Vendor of Record agreements—policy invented by large chain bookstores to simplify the returns process
No matter which wholesaler the chain store purchased your book from, all returns go to your declared vendor of record.
Example: Ingram is your VOR; a book purchased from Partners is returned to Ingram and deducted from the money Ingram owes you.
VOR status should be declared to Barnes & Noble/B. Dalton (same company), and to Borders/Waldenbooks (same company) by memo. Your wholesaler will provide contact information.
Be careful to select your VOR based on the wholesaler you think will sell the most of your books. Avoid a debit balance with your VOR. If you are very small (one title), stick with one wholesaler.

Consignment sales
All wholesalers and distributors work with small publishers on a consignment basis: They order your book, stock it in their warehouse, take orders, and ship them, but the book is not considered sold until a bookstore buys it—subject to returns.
All wholesalers and distributors pay their consignment publishers on a delayed time scale (usually 90 days end-of-month) to allow for returns to come back
After the initial three-month delay you’ll get paid monthly but always for books sold three months ago
Some wholesalers and distributors reserve the right to withhold a percentage of the money they owe you—to cover expected returns

Ordering procedure
Contact the acquisitions department of the distributor or wholesaler, submit sample book or a mockup (with color sample of cover art) and pertinent information (author, title, ISBN, price, publication date, number of pages, size, case quantity, category, synopsis or table of contents, and your contact information)
Once your book is accepted, it will be registered in their database so they can order from you
Wholesaler/distributor writes a purchase order for each shipment it orders from you, usually sends it by fax. Order quantity should be a multiple of case quantity so you don’t have to repack boxes.
Ship promptly—bookstores often refuse to backorder books
Make sure book title and ISBN appear on outside of each box before you ship (your printer should do this for you), also write PO Number on outside of each box and include a copy of the PO inside one of the boxes.
Ship boxes via UPS Ground or Fedex Ground at your expense
Send an invoice to wholesaler/distributor’s accounting department. Reference the PO number, quantity ordered, your net purchase rate (% of retail), and total net purchase amount. Without an invoice, you won’t get paid.

Consignment report
Your wholesaler or distributor should send you a consignment report within a month of first selling your books and every month thereafter
The report lists sales and returns. Check it carefully against your records.

What can go wrong and how to deal with it
Your wholesaler/distributor needs you, but essentially they are still your customer and therefore hold more than 50% of the power in your relationship with them.
Most of your inquiries will go to the accounting department. Get to know them and be nice to them no matter how much the situation taxes your patience. Most wholesalers are understaffed.
Returned books are trashed and unsaleable—be ready to let small quantities of these go by. Large quantities should be returned to the store by the wholesaler.
Discrepancies between your numbers and theirs—be ready to provide paperwork to back up your side. Keep meticulous records.
In-store book signings—if your book is selling well, the store will order copies from a wholesaler for you to sign. If your wholesaler perceives that your signing will be sparsely attended, it may tell the store to tell you to bring your own copies of the book to the signing and take them away when it’s over—so they don’t become returns.
Abuse of returns policy—your wholesaler/distributor should not ship you a large box of returns on one day and fax you a large PO the next day. Complain as high up in the organization as you can get. (This does not apply to small quantities.)

The future of the industry
Books are physical, not virtual, merchandise, so the system will continue to be a dinosaur. Abolishing the returns policy would open up many options for direct shipment but would also keep lesser-known titles out of bookstores.
Competition from the chain stores has reduced the number of independent bookstores by approximately 50% in the past ten years. The West Coast has held out against the chains most effectively.
amazon.com sought to bypass the distributor/wholesaler system by taking orders and passing them along to the publisher, who would then direct-ship to the customer. Now they own several warehouses and use Ingram as their supplier for titles they don’t stock themselves. “4-6 weeks” from Amazon means they order direct from the publisher.
Single copy sales cost you time and money (postage on one book will be at least $3.00) plus you have to pack it and ship it
e-books are cheaper than print to produce and will take off when reader software problems are resolved. Reader will end up being a multi-use palmtop rather than current specialized e-book reader hardware.
Print on demand: library of CDs and laser technology printing/binding machine. Production costs run $4 to $7 per book but best way to keep low-demand specialty titles in print.
Electronic media will soon outpace print solely for economic reasons but consumer will continue to prefer to read paper—we just might not be able to afford it.

Contacts
Baker & Taylor: http://www.btol.com/supplierfaqs.cfm?faq=7
Partners Book Distributing: 517-694-3205
Boreal Press: http://www.borealpress.com

Copyright 2001-2009. All rights reserved. No material on this site may be copied or published electronically or in print
without written permission of Boreal Press Inc.

The Women’s Great Lakes Reader
by Victoria Brehm
(Ladyslipper Press, 1999)
A one-of-a-kind historical view of the Great Lakes, written by the women who came to the region when it was still a wilderness. The heroines of this book tell tales of high adventure, cultural adaptation, raucous humor, and searing loneliness. With summaries and commentary by the author-editor.

Copyright 2000-2009 by Ladyslipper Press and Boreal Press. All rights reserved. No material on this site may be copied or published electronically or in print without written permission.

In 1920, J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael, F.H. Varley and Frank Johnston officially formed this now famous group. These were painters bitten by the Canadian north who, for the first time, took on the task of painting the great power, scenery and spirit of their land. This truly Canadian art movement was started, not by professional painters, but by a loose association of acquaintances who travelled north from Toronto on their vacations to paint and relax. The modern Canadian so called ‘school’, was inspired as the result of a direct contact with nature itself.

Back in Toronto after the war, the artists made several sketching trips to the vast Algoma region of northern Ontario. It was there that Harris, MacDonald and Jackson in particular found inspiration for some of their greatest paintings. Algoma was still a wilderness where travelling was difficult. On their earlier excursions the artists moved around by canoe. Harris had the idea of renting a boxcar from the Algoma Central Railway and had it shunted on to sidings near choice sketching locations and this became their new method of transportation, not to mention temporary home.

“The nights were frosty but in the boxcar with the fire in the stove we were snug and warm. Discussions and arguments would last until late in the night…”

A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country

“It is a tireless country… always inviting you to climb the next peak, enticing you away, farther away from the problems which were born in the valley… one returns with a clearer vision and many of the fool worries have been sweated out of you.”

F.H. Varley, letter to Dr. Mason, April 15 1929

“The waves have been magnificant the last days, such a thundering crash and roll–the rattle of the pebbles in the backwash of the waves. And the whole place is so solitary, like Crusoe’s coast, so that you almost resent a footprint in the sand…”

J.E.H. MacDonald, quoted in Paul Duval, The Tangled Garden: The Art of J.E.H. MacDonald

Breaking into print:
Publishers want a book they can sell—hot topic, ready-made audience, or one-of-a-kind. They look for experience as a professional (paid) writer and writing of professional quality. Small and medium size publishers also look at your contacts who could help market your book.
Nonfiction: Become an expert in your field with name recognition and publication in periodicals
Fiction: Seek publication in smaller but respected venues (writing contests, scholarships to literary conferences, literary magazines for art fiction, short pieces in regional periodicals or specialty magazines for genre fiction)

Finding the right publisher
Unsolicited manuscripts and first-time authors do get picked up, but only a small percentage. It takes a very long time and your work must be very good.
If you have any contacts in the publishing industry, use them
Writers’ conferences are great networking opportunities
Professional and trade organizations, either for writers or for your specialty, also provide a network
If you must send an unsolicited manuscript, research that publisher thoroughly to learn whether your book is appropriate for their list and how to present it to them. Make a list of their titles, go to the bookstore, and look at them—subject matter and how they’re packaged.

Retaining an agent
Agents seldom accept first-time authors, and they normally won’t take an author whose book they expect to sell fewer than 10,000 copies.
Having an agent is no guarantee of selling your first book, but if you have an offer from a medium to large publisher and you expect your book to sell well, retaining an agent will help you negotiate a better deal and build your career over the long term.
Having a deal with a medium to large publisher will make getting an agent easy, but get one as soon as you get a verbal offer and notify the publisher immediately that you’ll be bringing in an agent
Your publisher will contract directly with the agent and pay him/her. The agent then pays you after deducting his or her percentage (15% standard).

Submission procedure
Nonfiction
If publisher says query first, do; otherwise send proposal
Nonfiction books are often completed after acceptance, with creative input from publisher
Industry prefers to receive a proposal, consisting of a short introductory cover letter describing the book and your qualifications to write it, synopsis of book, table of contents, and sample chapter (usually the first).
Photos may be sent on 1.5mb floppy in jpg format, or good laser print
Include an SASE if you want your materials returned
Allow 2 months for unsolicited manuscripts—can send via receipt verified mail or enclose a postpaid postcard acknolwedging MS reached right person
Follow publisher’s specs for electronic submissions
Fiction
Send query letter describing book and your credentials as a writer
Publisher will probably ask for full MS if query is accepted
Include an SASE if you want your materials returned
Allow 2 months for unsolicited manuscripts—can send via receipt verified mail or enclose a postpaid postcard acknolwedging MS reached right person
Follow publisher’s specs for electronic submissions
Simultaneous submissions are generally OK for unsolicited MS since turnaround time is so long, but indicate in cover letter that it’s being submitted to other publishers

If your book is accepted
You’ll receive a contract within a month.
Most items on the contract are boilerplate (nonnegotiable) for first-time authors, particularly royalty percentage and purchase of all rights
Royalty percentage is calculated on net price (percentage of retail that publisher sells the book for), not retail price
Hold out for a specific, not indefinite, publication date if you can
Except for very small publishers, a small advance against royalties is standard even for first-time authors
For nonfiction writers, your contract should spell out what research and travel expenses are to be borne by you. This is usually negotiable.
Examine the indemnity clause carefully and consult an attorney if you’re unsure. Even though it’s boilerplate, you don’t want to sign on for legal responsibility that’s unfair to you
Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract is an excellent resource for understanding your contract
Keep negotiations in good will and don’t let them drag on too long
Once the contract is signed, you’re legally obligated to produce the book or return the advance if you can’t
If the publisher breaks contract, you get to keep the advance.
The publisher is leasing the rights to your book for a set period of time. You the author automatically own copyright unless the project is a work-for-hire.

Working with your editor
Nonfiction writers can expect major input from the publisher regarding the content of the book. Fiction writers may be asked to make a round of minor revisions during the production phase.
When asked to review galleys etc., try to turn them around in 1-2 weeks
Be pleasant even during disagreements—your editor is your best ally
Most publishers will show you a copy of your book cover upon request, but don’t expect to have any input on it

Publicity
Expect to make some publicity appearances such as local bookstore signing events. You can be proactive in generating your own publicity but be sure to let your publisher know what you’re doing before you do it
The first month a book is released is its prime time. Try to cram your schedule full of signings and interviews.
If your publisher schedules an event, they pay. If you schedule it, you can be reimbursed if it’s in your contract. Keep receipts of travel expenses.

Getting paid
Royalty checks are issued twice a year at set dates in your contract. Normally you’ll receive a statement followed by a check 1 to 3 months later.
Books returned to the publisher will be deducted from sales. A few publishers will withhold a portion of royalties to cover expected returns.
Unless you’re incorporated, your income from your publisher will be 1099, including royalties, travel expenses, and any free copies of the book you receive. Keep receipts for your reimbursed expenses so you don’t have to pay taxes on any money reimbursed to you by your publisher. Certain office equipment may also be deductible.

The long term
If your book does well, your publisher will usually want you to write another one like it.
You’re not obligated to stay with a publisher unless your contract includes first right of refusal on your next book.
Build a working relationship with your publisher, particularly your editor.

Copyright 2001-2009 by Boreal Press. All rights reserved. No material on this site may be copied or published electronically or in print
without written permission of Boreal Press Inc.

Handouts from UPPAA Workshops, April 21, 2001

* Working with a Book Wholesaler
* Working with a Publisher

Copyright 2003-2009 by Boreal Press. All rights reserved. No material on this site may be copied or published electronically or in print
without written permission of Boreal Press Inc.