Getting on the Book Shelves
Sam Weller -- 4/24/00
First-time author/publisher woos bookstore attention
through "interactive bookselling events"
Like a lot of savvy small press publishers, Nelvia M. Brady understands the importance of a strong grass-roots campaign. And since, like a lot of her publishing peers, Brady has everything riding on her first book, she's focusing her attention on wooing bookstore owners and readers.
Brady is the author and publisher of This Mother's Daughter (Nelvia M. Brady, 47 W. Polk St., PMB 100-141, Chicago, Ill. 60605; 800-626-4330), a collection of 20 real-life stories that explore the complexity of the African-American mother-daughter relationship.
All along, Brady knew that she wanted to push the book hard toward Mother's Day (May 14). The book and the holiday are natural partners. Her marketing campaign has been a playbook of creativity and elbow grease. Just take a look at her Web site (www.thismothersdaughter. com) to see her dizzying itinerary. Along with a slew of traditional bookstore signings, Brady has been speaking at churches across the country about mother-daughter relationships. On many occasions, she has entirely sold out of books, quickly discovering that a case of 40 books is not enough.
She talks regularly at college conferences concerning women's issues. She has also held several Tupperware-style house parties where groups gather to vent, recall, bemoan and discuss their own deep maternal bonds. Participants often bring photographs of their mothers and the gatherings turn into, as Brady calls it, an "interactive bookselling event." At the end of each of these appearances, Brady's book has been flying out the door. Participants are telling their friends and Brady has found her telephone ringing like mad--so far she's done more than a dozen house parties, with many more slated.
"In independent publishing," said Susan Shaw, sales manager for book distributor LPC Group, "you see this kind of grass-roots marketing a lot. Nelvia is doing a great job."
LPC agreed to distribute Brady's book early on. "There have been many successful books on mothers and their daughters," Shaw told PW. "But this book seemed much more well-rounded. There are parts of the book that are very sweet and parts that are very angry. I liked all these viewpoints."
"I realized that as a self-published author, I would have to create an awareness in bookstores," said Brady. "And one of the most powerful ways to prove my book's worth was to organize signings at community centers, libraries, business clubs and private homes. In some cases, I bring my own books and in others I've talked bookstores into purchasing through Ingram or their local suppliers and accompanying me to these signings."
After creating word-of-mouth interest, Brady was able to arrange signings at bookstores. Among her early bookings were a Barnes & Noble in Memphis and Black Images, the African-American bookstore in Dallas, Texas. She hopes to soon be holding her interactive sessions at more bookstores. Not only d s a bookstore location offer extra marketing push, but it also helps her in other ways. "When I sell from my own stock, sales don't accrue. I'm not going to get on bestseller lists because bookstores are not able to report the sales. Thankfully, LPC Group has been doing a great job at spreading my book to lots of different outlets."
This Mother's Daughter is not simply a paean to mom. In fact, the book is dramatically different from the idea Brady had in mind when she first sat down to write it. In the beginning, Brady, who was working as the vice-president of a search firm specializing in the executive placement of African-American and Hispanic executives, envisioned a book filled with motherly wisdom. She started by canvassing women's organizations and churches and by asking friends what they had learned from their own mothers. She interviewed hundreds of women of all ages and came away surprised.
"I saw very quickly," Brady said, "that I could not do justice to the complex mother/daughter relationship with a book of simple quotes." Brady also learned that not every woman she spoke with had had the same positive relationship she shared with her own mother. "In some way," she said, "I was expecting to hear goody-two-sh s stories that were the same as mine."
Instead, Brady, who grew up in the public housing projects on Chicago's Westside, found many of the memoirs to be rough and tumble and, at times, painful. "I began to uncover, quite unknowingly, very real stories about just about every issue that a woman might face in life," she told PW.
Themes interwoven within This Mother's Daughter, include, obviously, maternal bonding, but also adoption, interracial relationships, lesbianism, domestic violence, elder care and death.
"What I learned in writing this book," Brady said, "is that we don't really know our mothers that well. We don't always know them for the women that they are and the daughters that they were."
For this very reason, Brady included her own mother's story as a daughter within the book. When Brady was finished with her book, she realized that writing and, subsequently, self-publishing, were her true callings. She promptly resigned from her job. Brady, who holds a Ph.D. in education, now finds herself flying without a net and loving every bit of it.
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