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Western Book Roundup

Authors Hustle to Promote Books & Oregon Seeks New Poet Laureate

By Jenny Shank, 1-27-10

Colleen Smith, photographed by James Baca, courtesy of www.fridayjonespublishing.com.

In her article ”Authors go it alone in new literary landscape” for the Denver Post Sunday book section, Colleen Smith wrote about Tama Kieves and John Thorndike, two authors “with Denver ties” who have thrown themselves into promotion for their books.  (Smith doesn’t mention what those ties are for Thorndike; Kieves lives in Denver, and Thorndike lives in Athens, Ohio).

Tama Kieves originally self-published her self-help book, This Time I Dance!: Creating the Work You Love: How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All To Have It All, and Smith writes: “Kieves keeps up constant efforts, including speaking at conferences and to congregations. ‘I travel like crazy on my own dime because speaking in front of people has been the best exposure for the book,’ she said. ‘I’m the face of that book and the voice of that book. I will usually make money through workshops and book sales, but I’m always taking that risk.’” Smith continues, “four months after self-publishing her book, Penguin Tarcher signed her with a $75,000 advance.”

John Thorndike demonstrated equal hustle, traveling across the country for his last book and contacting hundreds of people he thought might be interested in the topic of his latest book, The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s.

• Smith’s contributor’s note at the end of the article reveals that she’s not a disinterested party to the topic she discussed.  She will self-publish her first novel, Glass Halo, this spring. 

What interested me about her story is that according to a Q&A on her website, Smith attended the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, which seems like it must be the magic ticket to traditional publication.  But not for everyone, apparently.  Smith writes, “I’ve been a flack, a hack, a bluestocking, a blogger, and have done just about every other writerly job in between.” She writes that she decided to self-publish after she began blogging:

“Something started to shift.  I realized I could walk through these doors rather than playing ‘Captain May I?’ with the typical gatekeepers.  There was no word count.  No editing—which is good and bad.  It felt like working without a net, but I found it liberating.” Smith will publish Glass Halo this year after having worked on it for 26 years.

• Oregon Cultural Trust is currently seeking nominations for the state’s next poet laureate.  And the Oregon Poetry in Motion program, which “brings poetry into the everyday lives of commuters by placing artfully designed poem cards on public buses and trains,” is hosting an online vote to determine which poems will be featured next.

• The Whitefish Review will host a reading and slideshow presentation with Jon Turk at Crush Wine Bar in Whitefish on Tuesday, January 26 (7 p.m., slideshow begins at 8 p.m.).  Turk has lived for many years in Darby, Montana, and his third book, The Raven’s Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness, was just released by St. Martin’s Press.

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