FSG Revs Up to Promote Racing Novel

By Sally Lodge, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 3/20/2008

Have Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NASCAR ever been mentioned in the same sentence? It’s “definitely a first”, according to Jeanne McDermott, director of marketing for FSG Books for Young Readers, referring to Will Weaver’s novel Saturday Night Dirt, set at a dirt track speedway where young NASCAR hopefuls hone their driving skills. This debut title in Weaver’s MOTOR series will be published next month with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Fittingly, car racing is the driving force behind the publisher’s promotional plans for the novel. FSG is co-sponsoring Weaver’s own stock racing car, dubbed The Bookmobile, during this summer’s racing season of the Upper Midwest’s WISSOTA stock car league. The author and Skyler Smith, the car’s 17-year-old driver, will get the book publicity rolling next Monday, when they—and the car—appear at the Mall of America outside Minneapolis to participate in CommonBond Communities’ Literacy Day, presented in conjunction with Barnes & Noble. In April, they will take the car, which is emblazoned with the title of the novel as well as the publisher’s name, on a tour of Minnesota schools.

It was Weaver’s interest in literacy, in fact, that drove him to create the MOTOR series. Calling these novels “stealth literature,” the author explains that his mission is to write fiction that hooks young “motorheads” on reading. “I had long been aware of the lack of books for kids who love cars but hate their English classes,” he says. “I wanted to write high-quality novels for these kids and also for teachers and librarians, who are out there on the front lines of literacy every day and constantly hear kids say there is nothing for them to read.” Weaver’s hope, he says, is to have these readers think, “Hey, there are books out there for me,” after finishing one of his MOTOR novels.

Saturday Night Dirt author Will
Weaver, with his racing car,
The Bookmobile, and driver
Skyler Smith, who are on the
road to promote Weaver's book,
and literacy.

Weaver was on familiar turf when he wrote Saturday Night Dirt, which takes place at Minnesota’s Headwaters Speedway over the course of a race day. “Having grown up on a Minnesota dairy farm, I come from a small-town background of tractors, trucks and street-fast Chevrolets,” he says. “After college I took a turn to the literary and taught writing and literature at Bemidji State University for 20-some years, but have always had that motorhead recessive gene. Now I feel as though I’ve reclaimed that part of my life.”

In preparation for writing the MOTOR series (which continues next spring with Super Stock Rookie), Weaver enrolled in classes focusing on high-performance engines at a local technical college. “I am a method researcher,” he explains. “These classes refreshed my knowledge of the technical side of car racing.” The experience also helped him build “Team Weaver”: the author enlisted a part-time instructor to be the crew chief of The Bookmobile and the teacher’s son to be its driver. Together, the team rebuilt the car, which had been wrecked while owned by another race team.

Team FSG is clearly pumped about its sponsorship of Weaver’s car. “The whole thing has a neat, kind of organic quality to it—having a car advertising a book about a car,” says Wes Adams, executive editor of FSG Books for Young Readers, who edits the MOTOR series. “It’s as though we have a rolling billboard.” And Jay Colvin, who designed Saturday Night Dirt’s jacket, was excited to see the cover’s lettering of the book title duplicated on the car.

Weaver plans to track The Bookmobile’s racing results in his blog on the series’ Web site. The publisher will advertise Saturday Night Dirt during April and May on DirtTrackDigest.com, which McDermott calls “the go-to place for fans of this sport.”

Adams notes that there are some 1,000 dirt track speedways in North America, and that in many locales the sport “has become an obsession for teenage car lovers.” He believes that the sport’s popularity and Weaver’s passion for dirt track racing give the MOTOR series an advantage. “Will is a great writer and is completely immersed in his subject,” Adams observes. “He goes to the dirt track every weekend, and on Monday mornings when I get to my office, I find e-mails summarizing his ideas for new scenarios. Visiting the track is obviously fun for him and it’s a great way to get his motor humming.”

Saturday Night Dirt by Will Weaver. FSG, $14.95 978-0-374-35060-4 ages 12-up

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