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July 13, 2004

AMONG WOLVES ...

awI spent some time this weekend talking with Scott O’Connor about his debut effort Among Wolves. In addition to our usual obsession with unknown and upcoming authors, Scott’s tale merits our attention because his book is the first published by a new L.A. area outfit Swannigan and Wright.

Scott’s novella is a darkly imagined tale about childhood paranoia. It’s about what happens when a commonly realized childhood fear – the fear that your parents are imposters – is pushed to frightening and absurd lengths. (Scott reports that he gets along famously with his own parents. “Or the people who’ve said they’re my parents for the last 30 years,” he adds.) Skylight Books called it a "masterpiece", and the Los Angeles CityBeat newspaper selected it as their "Critic's Choice" in April.

The book was published in January 2004 and, like many small press titles, was marketed on a small scale, largely by the author. “It was literally a door to door affair. My girlfriend and I drove up to San Francisco and pounded the pavement to get it into shops. Same thing in L.A.” Until recently, the title was carried in fifteen stores across the country, placed in each through some personal contact.

Characterizing himself as uncomfortable with self-promotion, initial efforts were largely limited to dropping copies of the book with phone number on a post-it at bookstores, and disappearing. Calls requesting the book did begin to follow, and confidence developed. “The big confidence builder was what Skylight books did with it – from the first day they had it, was an employee pick, and they reviewed it favorably in their newsletter.”

Adding to his confidence is the news that as of three weeks ago, the book was picked up by the supplier Baker and Taylor, and is now set to become available at chain bookstores all across the country, in addition to continued independent support.

“The more I e-mail with small presses, I come to the conclusion that distribution is the number one hurdle out there. Not even getting it on the shelf – but getting it to the point where the bookstore can order to get it on the shelf,” Scott said.

But the problems don’t end there – “How do you market to a Borders?” Scott wonders. Having it in Baker & Taylor’s catalog is sure to help, but there are more eyes to get the book in front of, including trade publications, book store buyers, librarians, and so on.

Scott tells us it’s been a real learning experience, watching “how your book goes from your laptop into the bookstores, and how much of that is the author’s responsibility, regardless of who publishes you.”

To that end, Scott is also excited about is the beginnings of the emergence of a coherent L.A. literary scene. (This chat was conducted hours before heavy drinking ensued at the Swink party.) “We can get quality work from all sorts of voices into bookstores,” Scott says. “You don’t necessarily have to sleep with somebody. Not that I’m above that.”

Posted by TEV at 12:30 AM |

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I concur with the folks at Skylight: Among Wolves is fast, fierce read.

Posted by: ARC | July 13, 2004 at 09:43 AM

Congratulations to Mr. O'Connor. His book has now found its way to the east coast, where its now being studied in an Advanced Contemporary Lit class at Temple University. Here's to self promotion.

Posted by: -j | September 04, 2004 at 11:14 AM

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