Mark Gates, Book Whisperer

by Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 4/17/2006

Who would have thought that a salesman could be a societal force: "He satisfies people's longing for connection and community. You feel part of something bigger; you feel part of a culture, of an industry that matters." That's Dean Bakopoulos, executive director of the Wisconsin Humanities Council, on Mark Gates, our Sales Rep of the Year.

"I've toiled in obscurity until now—so there's hope for everybody," the solidly built Gates declares with his trademark humor and gravelly voice over lunch at his home just outside of Madison, Wis., with PW and Bakopoulos. "Publishing could use an army of him right now," Bakopoulos chimes in.

It's not surprising that Bakopoulous would emphasize personal relationships when talking about Gates, who reps FSG and Holt titles (as well as all the lines those two houses distribute) for Holtzbrinck. While Gates's accounts are primarily in the Chicago area, he works with Partners Book Distributors and Emory Pratt in Michigan; BWI, the library wholesaler in Lexington, Ky.; and a few bookstore accounts in Milwaukee, Madison and St. Paul, Minn. Everybody in the industry knows Gates, and vice versa. He's been around. And he's got the stories to prove it.

Right Place, Right Time

Gates, 53, launched his career in sales in Manhattan in the late '70s, selling advertising for the Village Voice. "I hated it," he confides, recalling laying in wait for restaurateurs on Saturday nights, when they were most likely to have enough cash on hand to pay for ads they'd placed.

Gates's boss in the Voice's advertising department, Sally Cohen, noting Gates's love for books, suggested that he start cold-calling publishers to sell book ads. But, she warned him, "You can't spend more than one day on it, it doesn't bring in enough business."

When publishers told Gates that small ads scattered throughout the Voice were not the most effective use of their advertising dollars, he asked Cohen and the Voice arts editor, M. Mark, "What about doing a section of book reviews once a month?" The first issue of the Voice Literary Supplement was published in October 1981. "As soon as the VLS started, I didn't have to sell anything but books," he recalls, his joy still evident, even after 25 years.

In 1988, Gates used the publisher contacts he'd made selling ads for the VLS to strike out on his own as a commission rep, covering the Mid-Atlantic region, from Pittsburgh to Long Island, selling small press and university titles—including FSG.

"I got into it, because I'd met all these people and I really liked them," Gates emphasizes. "It didn't feel like I was starting something new. The only new piece of the equation was the bookstores."

Gates moved to Chicago in 1993 as a house rep for FSG and, three years later, for Holt as well, while his partner of 24 years, Steve Myck, went to work for LPC, the Chicago-based book distributor. After LPC folded five years ago, the couple moved to Verona, a village on the outskirts of Madison, Wis., where Gates continued to rep for FSG and Holt even after both houses were acquired by Holtzbrinck in 1999.

Old-fashioned Rep

Talking with the three booksellers, library wholesaler and former bookseller who nominated Gates for PW Rep of the Year, one thing immediately becomes obvious: they all consider him one of those old-fashioned reps who, sadly, is a dying breed in this age of publishers cutting field positions and replacing them with telemarketing reps. He's passionate about books, knows his lists, cultivates close relationships with his customers and thrives on serving as an intermediary between publisher and bookseller.

Daniel Goldin, the buyer for the five Milwaukee-area Harry Schwartz bookstores, reveals that he circles appointments with Gates in red on his calendar. "Mark takes the FSG and Holt lists and brings them to life," Goldin says. "He's one of the few reps whose recommendations you can trust—he'll have read the whole book and won't offer you bull."

Laura Prail, adult book buyer at 57th Street Books in Chicago, close to the University of Chicago campus, echoes Goldin's words, telling PW that she trusts Gates's recommendations because "he's quite honest, he knows the store well enough after all these years to know what's a good fit."

Prail recalls how Gates highly recommended A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City (Metropolitan): "He was very much behind the book, he really liked it. This helped us sell [it]. I wouldn't have figured it out from the catalogue."

Lorayne Burns, the assistant manager for collection development at BWI, also praises Gates for his knowledge of both his lists and the library market, as well as his ability to "dish on some human interest angle or another about the authors."

Sue Boucher, the owner of Lake Forest Bookstore, in an affluent Chicago suburb, appreciates that Gates has interceded with publishers to bring big-name authors like Scott Turow and Jacqueline Winspear to her small store, and when she bought the store 10 years ago, he declared himself an "information conduit" for the newbie bookseller and helped her learn the ropes.

"He'd even tell us what to wear at a dinner party a publisher in New York gave," she says, laughing at the memory.

Gates helped Bakopoulos find a publisher for his debut novel, Please Don't Come Back from the Moon, by introducing him to Becky Saletan, then an editor at FSG and now editor-in-chief at Harcourt.

"It probably wouldn't have happened without Mark," says Bakopoulos, recalling how Gates first aggressively advocated Bakopoulos to Saletan, and subsequently talked up Please Don't Come Back from the Moonwith booksellers—even though the novel was a Harcourt release.

"It's a testament to the respect that Mark's held in," Bakopoulos declares. "He's got such good personal relationships with the stores that when he says, 'This is a good book, I want you to sell it,' they did it."

Spenser Lee, FSG's director of sales, sums up the secret of Gates's success most succinctly: "Mark is an avid reader, champion of the smaller books, master storyteller and great advocate for his accounts and publishers. But these qualities aren't uncommon in the bookselling industry. What makes Mark special is his ability to put people at ease and build an instant rapport with them. I've seen him with authors, booksellers and editors. He is a Book Whisperer."