With children’s books stocked at bookstores and retailers around the world and the recent launch of Hudson and the Puppy: Lost in Paris, the founders of small press publisher La Librairie Parisienne have exceeded their early expectations. A Hollywood producer and a Los Angeles artist built the press to publish the children’s book adventures of an ex-patriate terrier named Hudson. Now they have thousands of books in print—a testament to good old-fashioned handselling.
About eight years ago, artist Jackie Clark Mancuso dreamed of collecting her artwork in a book. She paints with gouache, which creates more solid, vivid colors compared to the transparent medium of traditional watercolors.
Mancuso shared her publishing ambition with her friend, Stephen Ujlaki, the producer of 30 feature films, made-for-TV movies and documentaries. His credits include the 2008 documentary Cachao: Uno Mas that premiered on PBS’s American Masters and a 2009 film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Cry of the Owl. “You know what?” Ujlaki said. “You need story.”
Mancuso began working on her first book while living in Paris. She had taken leave from her job as an art director in San Francisco to spend three months in Paris. Through her paintings, she adapted her experience into a picture book about coping with overwhelming new situations, telling the story of an American terrier who learns how to make friends with French-speaking dogs.
The pair began to shop the manuscript with mainstream publishers. After a few rejections, they founded La Librairie Parisienne in 2013 to publish Paris-Chien: Adventures of an Ex-Pat Dog. Promoting the book became a part-time gig for Ujlaki, who has served as the dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television since 2010. “In my experience pitching films to the studios—if they don't want to do it, then you can't do it,” Ujlaki said, noting the vast difference between financing a film and a picture book. “But with the book, the great thing was that it was possible to actually publish it.”
Mancuso began carrying copies of the newly published Paris-Chien everywhere. She took a copy to Diesel Books in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Diesel started stocking the book, inspiring the team to visit more bookstores. “Steve and I started going out together, because I needed the moral support,” she said. “It’s difficult to promote yourself as an artist.”
“You feel like a door-to-door salesman,” said Ujlaki. He estimated that the pair had emailed or visited about 200 bookstores around the world with the book, along with more than 150 libraries. Soon, the pair had sold out the first 1,000-copy printing of the book, and ordered three more printings—putting 10,000 copies of the book in circulation.
As the first book began to succeed, La Librairie Parisienne signed with Independent Publishers Group for distribution.
Mancuso published Hudson in Provence in 2015, a sequel that took her titular terrier to the French countryside where he struggled to keep up with hardy country animals. The series began to spread to museum gift shops and other retail locations, including the Norton Simon Museum, Barneys New York, and the Parisian-inspired home decor and gift boutique Le Village Marche. The retailer Anthropologie initially ordered 100 copies, but then re-upped the order to 1,200 copies. “I would venture that the Anthropologie client is very much drawn to all things French, the creative and artistic world, and the lifestyle they represent,” said Mancuso. “I think a lot of their customers love animals, particularly dogs.”
In their latest picture book, Hudson and the Puppy, Hudson helps a homeless dog find a home, in a subtle homage to Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid.
Throughout her handselling adventures, Mancuso has found “great pleasure” in social media outreach, interacting with readers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Instagram is her favorite platform, where her paintings and sketches have earned numerous likes from fans. She sees some possibilities for the press in this “creative circle” she’s built online. “I’m thinking about books we might do with other people,” she said.
“We are learning as we go along,” said Ujlaki. “We’ve had more success than we originally thought [the books] would have when we started.” But his goals have grown along with the series. “My dream as a publisher would be to have Hudson become as much of a name as Madeline was in my generation,” he said.
Hudson and the Puppy: Lost in Paris by Jackie Clark Mancuso. La Librarie Parisienne, $17.99 Apr. ISBN 978-0-9886058-5-5
