The Overlook Press was excited to be a first-time exhibitor at this year's ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. 13,000 librarians in a huge conference center in our nation's capital--what's not to love?
We were excited to have Robert L. Forbes, author of Let's Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes there with us, signing copies of his new book for the show's resident rock stars--children's librarians. If you follow us on Twitter (@overlookpress!) you've already seen lots of our pictures from ALA, but here are a few for you to enjoy that are slightly higher quality than those taken on a BlackBerry.
Thanks again, ALA, for a fantastic event!
Our display of Beastly Feasts!, Let's Have a Bite!, and a menagerie of classic and modern animal crackers.
The other side of the booth. Animal crackers welcome, but not required.
Some of Robert Forbes' librarian friends from Palm Beach, FL--they were instrumental in getting us to the conference and helping us prepare for it.
Signing a copy of Let's Have a Bite! for an elementary school teacher from Maryland.
R.J. Ellory will be in New York next week for the launch of his new novel The Anniversary Man at Partners & Crime Mystery Booksellers in Greenwich Village. All are welcome to join the celebration! Tuesday, July 6, at 7pm, 44 Greenwich Avenue (corner of Charles).
Ellory will also be at Thrillerfest, the annual celebration of the thriller world, July 9-10 at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. On Saturday, July 10 at 3pm, Ellory will be on a panel discussing thrillers in the international market ("How Do You Cross Continents"), moderated by David Hewson.
The Anniversary Man, in bookstores now, is the second novel by R. J. Ellory to be published in the United States, following the acclaimed A Quiet Belief in Angels. The Overlook Press will publish the paperpack edition ofA Quiet Belief in Angels in August 2010, and a new hardcover, Saints of New York, in early 2011.
Listen to Peter Stothard, author of Spartacus Road, on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered.
"In 73 B.C., the slave Spartacus escaped from the gladiator school where he was trained and went on to lead an army of former slaves from town to town, crushing the Roman leaders and stirring fear along the way. Author Peter Stothard followed the path that Spartacus took in Italy and writes about it in his new book, Spartacus Road: A Journey Through Ancient Italy. Host Guy Raz talks to Peter Stothard about his journey."
GUY RAZ, host:
As regular listeners will know, we usually talk about books and music towards the end of the program, and the book we're about to feature shouldn't exist. Its author, Peter Stothard, was supposed to die of terminal cancer 10 years ago.
Stothard is a well-known editor in London. He now heads up the Times Literary Supplement. But after he miraculously survived, he wanted nothing more than to forget about his struggle with cancer. But he couldn't.
And while traveling in Italy, he began to compare his own battle with cancer to a war that took place over 2,000 years ago, a slave uprising that shook the Roman Empire to its core.
Peter Stothard's new book is called "Spartacus Road," and it mixes his personal battle with the battle led by the slave Spartacus.
Mr. PETER STOTHARD (Author, "Spartacus Road: A Journey Through Ancient Italy"): I started writing it like a historical diary, but what I was actually writing on the "Spartacus Road" was my story of Spartacus, which I knew very well, but it was seen through this extraordinary filter of pain and chemical from about a decade before. And that's the unusual nature of this book, and that's the strangeness that many people have seen and appreciated in it.
RAZ: In 73 B.C., Spartacus and a small band of warriors take on a much larger contingent of Roman forces at Mount Vesuvius against impossible odds. You took that battle and relived it in your mind when you were being treated for cancer, almost as if that battle was happening inside of you.
Mr. STOTHARD: Yes. Somehow, that story, which is a powerful, emotional, evocative story in itself, it was almost as though I was seeing it in a kind of distorted bubble screen around me. It was very strange. And I can see why I wanted to forget about all that as soon as I went back to my proper job. But obviously, I couldn't forget about it, and when I was on Mount Vesuvius, it came roaring back.
RAZ: I just want to read a bit from that. You can almost picture those Roman soldiers and those slaves with their swords and shields. You write, inside of you, there was an assault of iron on the upholstery of my stomach, ribs grasped like ladders, alien objects left behind, broken glass, blunt knives, wave upon wave of pain.
And you can see that wave upon wave of soldiers attacking, and it's such an evocative image.
Mr. STOTHARD: Yes. In this particular case, I was writing about Roman history and telling the story of Spartacus in this way that I had really never expected to do.
Today Intern Michael returns with an update on what he has been working on this summer as a member of Overlook’s publicity team.
Overlook author Robert Forbes poses with a friend at ALA '10 in Washington DC
Last week marked the completion of my first full month as an intern at Overlook, and in the short amount of time that I've spent working here I've learned some valuable lessons about the ins-and-outs of book publishing. Let me share some with you.
1.) When it comes to visiting authors, interns are to be seen and not heard.
Just kidding. Before starting at Overlook I couldn’t have guessed the number of visits that a publishing house receives from visiting authors. Between meetings with editors and layovers on book tours, Overlook has a steady stream of writers coming and going on a weekly basis. Since the beginning of June I’ve met a handful of Overlook authors including Peter Quinn, the author of THE MAN WHO NEVER RETURNED, and next week I eagerly expect an introduction to R.J. Ellory during the launch party for his latest novel, THE ANNIVERSARY MAN on July 7th at Partners & Crime in the west village. Everyone that I’ve met so far has been incredibly friendly and if I have any bitterness it’s only because I wasn’t invited to lunch when Katie Arnoldi (POINT DUME) came to visit last week.
2.) Everybody gets free books.
You would be amazed by the number of requests for review and desk copies Overlook receives on a daily basis. On any given day I can expect to collect, package, and ship anywhere between five and fifty titles for reviewers, bloggers, journalists, and teachers. If I wasn’t working so hard as an intern (and if I wasn’t able to pilfer materials from the library for myself from time to time) I would definitely get into the business of book media. These people must have more books in their collections than the New York public library. Jokes aside, I’ve also learned how important this relationship is in book publishing, between publishers and media. Without reviewers (that is, the people who really really love to read) there wouldn’t be any way for us to sustain this industry.
3.) Write Write Write Write Write
If you thought that authors pen a lot of words, you would be surprised by the amount of material that publicists write during a normal work day. Between press releases, promos, pitches, galley letters, and media correspondence, my bosses type away at their computers for what seems like hours on end. Recently they’ve entrusted me with the responsibility of writing some original copy and I think I’m getting the hang of it! Today I will be reading galley copies of Susan Hill’s upcoming release SHADOWS IN THE STREET and a new nonfiction title SOUTH AFRICA'S BRAVE NEW WORLD and then taking a stab at writing up some press materials to send out later this week.
While it may not appear that the life of a publishing intern is all fun and games (especially since the US got eliminated from the World Cup and no one will be sneaking off to watch games during lunch breaks) there is certainly more excitement to be found at Overlook beyond book mailings and media outlet research. As I write this post my bosses are out of office on assignment at ALA in Washington DC, and I can only imagine the fun they must be having hob-knobbing with fellow book nerds. If the stresses and rigors of travelling become too much for them to handle, I’d be more than happy to cover the next out of state convention (Frankfurt in October anyone?).
Robert Forbes with copies of his Overlook books BEASTLY FEASTS and LET'S HAVE A BITE
