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Independent Book Store Elliott Bay Book Company Navigates the New World of Publishing

Rick SimonsonEbooks. Kindles. Nooks. Ipads. Wave after wave of change rocks the publishing industry as tech titans Apple, Google, and Amazon carve lucrative new businesses from the digital world.

Amid the turmoil, many traditional book stores are closing or declining (witness the recent implosion of Borders), while others like Seattle’s celebrated Elliott Bay Book Company find ways to survive and thrive. How has Seattle’s iconic independent book store succeeded where others have failed?

It did not come easily. Despite its iconic status as one of the best independent book stores in the country, Elliott Bay was losing money in its former location in Pioneer Square, forcing a move in 2010 to try to revive it. Finding a new location in the bustling Capitol Hill neighborhood and using new media like Facebook and Twitter proved critical to turning things around.

“The new move has felt good,” says head book buyer Rick Simonson, who spoke to The Writer’s Workshop writing class. “But we’re still learning our way. It’s a volatile climate with ebooks and everything else. Will people read both ebooks and paper books? What will they read as ebooks? What as traditional books? We still don’t know what people are going to do.”

As the store finds its way in the new publishing world, they draw even larger audiences to the store’s signature reading series. Formerly, they would draw five to six people; now they draw 15 to 20. Well-known authors pack the store to standing room only. With some 500 author readings a year, the store continues to bring in customers.

Independent book stories like Elliott Bay are critical to the literary and intellectual life of the Seattle as well as that of the nation. David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars, for example, gained national traction in part from the early boost the book received from Elliott Bay. Similarly, first-time authors often develop their audiences through independent bookstores, even if they later gain national attention.

For all these reasons, it’s heartening to see Elliott Bay thriving amid all the transformations in the publishing industry. their reading series continues to be one of the best in the country, a great, free introduction to the riches of the literary world.

For more on Elliott Bay Book Company and other great stories, please look for the next issue of www.thewritersworklshopreview.net, which will be out shortly.

Planning or Spilling?

Are you a planner or a spiller? Do you like to think ahead about your writing or do you simply like to get black on white and let the Muse take you where she will? Though there is much to recommend in both approaches, it really pays to be something of a planner when it comes to writing. You don’t need to know everything in advance about your story or book, but it’s good to know the broad outlines of it; this will allow you to focus on characterization, details and dramatic scenes.

Structure is the biggest challenge for most writers. While most have mastered sentence structure and paragraphing, they have trouble organizing individual paragraphs into a larger coherent story.

Writing for StoryOne of the best ways of structuring a story is to begin with an outline. This needn’t run pages and pages: sometimes even a simple three or four sentence outline can do the trick, such as the one I’ll explain below.

By using this outline, whether for a story or book, you’ll have a good chance of figuring out the larger shape of the story in advance. If you fail to do this, it’s like building a house without a strong foundation; it can easily collapse.

The dramatic outline allows you to chart the emotional peaks and valleys of the story so that you’ll know where you’re heading when you sit down to write.

The five short statements below describe the major actions in the story. There is one statement for each major focus.

This is not like the outline you wrote in English composition class; these statements highlight on the dramatic actions in story. They help you focus on what’s essential to the story.

This is a conflict-resolution outline, with the conflict introduced in the first statement, developed in the next three statements, and resolved in the last statement.

  1. Complication – Make it simple and active. Have you chosen active verbs to show action? Is the main character included statement? How will you illustrate the main action? Do you have the source material for this? Is the action dramatic enough?
  2. Development Action – Clear, cogent, related to complication.
  3. Development Action – Clear, cogent related to complication, tied to previous development, tied to main character.
  4. Development Action — Clear, cogent related to complication, tied to previous development, tied to main character.
  5. Resolution – Must fit the complication.

Writing this outline will save you a lot of time. You’ll be able to figure out in advance where the story is going. You can still change it as you go, but at least you’ll have a clear direction when you write the first draft of your story or book chapter.

For a more in-depth look at storytelling, please consider signing up for ones of my summer Seattle writing class, Writing for Story, or one of our online classes.

Writing for Story: The Secret Sauce of Compelling Narratives

Entrance to Robert Mondavi WineryWhen I conduct an interview, I never know exactly what I’ll find. Yes, I may have researched the person’s life in detail, perhaps even read their books, but I won’t know exactly what I’m looking for until I conduct the interview itself.

When I sat down with the winemaker Robert Mondavi, I sought to steer the conversation towards good stories. Mondavi, a saavy marketing man, sought to give me the standard PR pitch about his winery, which was interesting, but lacked the drama of a true story. By focusing on the moments of his life that made for good stories–his differences with his brother Peter, early problems with money, and the challenge of taking his business public-I made the profile of him much more intriguing than the PR version of his life.

But to do this, I had to know what I was looking for. Stalking the true short story requires that you understand the patterns of a story and then seek to find them in your subject. In Writing for Story, Jon Franklin defines story as the following:

A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves.
Franklin’s definition sounds simple, but it contains the essence of a memorable nonfiction story. Writing is an art, and to succeed at it, you to need to use the artifice and elements of storytelling to enhance your work.

Let’s break down the definition. A sequence of actions. Stories are based on chronology, one of the oldest and most effective ways of organizing a narrative. They are part of a sequence; they are related to each other, not strung together willy-nilly.

Action brings readers into a story more quickly than any other technique. Vivid actions get things moving quickly. Hook the reader with your opening action and then save most of the background and description for when the story is underway.

These actions should lead to reactions, reflections on the action by the main character in the story. This focus on action will provide pulse and momentum. By including both exterior action and interior reflection on it, you’ll have a story that will succeed on two levels. Not only will readers be impelled by the action, they’ll learn something from the person’s reflections and be changed by them.

In every good story, a reader starts in one place and ends up in another place, changed and enlightened in some way.

For a more in-depth look at storytelling, Seattle writing classes and online classes that will help you acheive this in your own work, please take a look at my website, www.thewritersworkshop.net.

What Makes Washington Wine Unique?

Washington State’s star is rising. Awards flood in from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, the Wine Spectator and many other publications. But what’s distinctive about the region’s wine? Is there a style or flavor profile that sets it apart? Is there a standout varietal? And is it riesling, merlot, cabernet, syrah or something else?

Sandy Block, Master of Wine
Sandy Block, Master of Wine, and Drew Hendricks, Master Sommelier, discuss the unique qualities of Washington wine.

These were the questions raised during a lively seminar at the 2011 Taste Washington on March 26 in Seattle. The panel included winemakers, journalists like yours truly and retailers who debated these questions.

“What the hell is Washington?” asked moderator Bruce Schoenfeld, the wine editor at Travel & Leisure magazine. “Do you define yourself by a grape or a style?

Schoenfeld compared Washington’s diversity with the more unified image of Chile and South Africa, whose regions are making very different wines, but have been forced to work together for marketing.

“Any viticulture district has to be defined by its physical characteristics,” replied Bob Betz, of Betz Family Winery and a Master of Wine (MW). “It’s climate and topography. I’m a terroiriste; the conditions where you grow the grapes lead to sensory expression.”

This begged the question: what are Washington’s distinct sensory impressions? Is there a commonality between Chelan, Red Mountain and Walla Walla?

“We have the ripeness of the new world, and the earth and the elegance of old world regions like Bordeaux and Barolo,” said Shayn Bjornholm, Master Sommelier (MS) of the Washington State Wine Commission. “But we don’t have a sound bite. It’s difficult to give people an elevator pitch.”

Some of the panelists disputed the need for such a pitch, saying all consumers really want is a great bottle, no matter where it comes from.

“Consumers want something delicious,” said Sandy Block (MW) of Legal Seafoods. “If it has a story, a clear identity, the staff will form a picture of how it will work with food. If it’s hazy, with a vague story, it’s a harder sell. What is the story? People don’t have all day to pick out a wine. What causes people to look at the Washington section?”

Part of the reason the story may be hazy is that it’s still unfolding. The region is still in its infancy. Much of its growth and development still lies ahead. After years of leading Travel, Food and Wine Writing Classes to established wine regions like Bordeaux, Provence and Montalcino, Italy (https://www.thewritersworkshop.net/travel.htm, I’ve come to understand just how long it takes regions to develop such distinctive styles and traditions. It will be a while before Washington gets there, no matter how high its quality.

“Old world structure with new world fruit,” said Betz, summing up what he finds distinctive about the state’s wine. “But sometimes the best gauge is the two-point scale—yum or yuck.”

The panelists may not have been able to define exactly what makes Washington wines unique, but they all agreed on its quality. Yum!
Are you a fan of Washington wine? What do you like or dislike about it? What is your favorite house or varietal? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The Art of Wine Writing and Blending Wine

I enjoy writing about wine in part because I get to participate in the wine making process. I always find elements of beauty, discovery and ancient ritual in wine making. My story about Napa Valley wine touring appears in the March issue of Alaska Airlines Magazine, and includes a section on visiting Conn Creek Winery’s blending facility, which allows visitors to participate in the art of making wine. For those who haven’t already seen it I’ll include below:

WINEMAKER FOR A DAY

The last morning of my Napa visit, I stop in at Conn Creek Winery. After the advice I’ve heard from wine makers, I’m eager to craft my own blend, especially with cabernet, Napa Valley’s most highly regarded varietal. The winery’s AVA Room Barrel Blending Experience provides a rare opportunity to taste and blend wines from the many regions of Napa. Conn Creek’s winemaker Mike McGrath does the hard work of fermenting cabernet from all the regions of Napa including Oakville, Rutherford, Spring Mountain, St. Helena, Stag’s Leap, Yountville and Carneros. Now I get to try my hand at blending them into a perfect bottle, a critical step in the wine-making process . I’ll play winemaker for a day and take home my own blend of cabernet.

“Today, we get to play with wine,” says Karen Trippe, the cheerful hostess at Conn Creek. “We’ll learn the blender’s craft.”

Trippe discusses the uniqueness of the Napa Valley: elevation, temperature variations, variety of soils, which together yield extremely balanced fruit. The blending room houses dozens of 60-gallon French oak barrels, each with a 2008 cabernet wine from a different district of the valley.

It’s simply too much to resist. I systematically sample every wine, from the softer, red berry fruited wines of Oakville, to the bold, ripe, tannic wines of Calistoga. The problem is I like all of them. Where to start?

“Some people want to use all of them,” advises Trippe. “But it’s like using all the crayons to draw a picture; it turns out brown.”

She advises choosing one and building from there. I love the Rutherford wine’s spicy nose, and deep, rich complex fruit, but the wine is very tannic. Trippe advises adding the Oakville sample to round out the blend.

I take out the 100 milliliter graduated cylinder and pour in half Rutherford and half Oakville. I smell and taste it. Rather than enhancing the Rutherford, the Oakville has obscured it.

I change the proportion to 80 percent Rutherford, 15 percent Oakville. Now, the Oakville sample enhances the blend. I taste and sniff. Almost there. I add a dash cabernet franc for aromatics. The blend comes alive as if someone has passed a wand over it.

“A good blend is greater than the sum of its parts,” she says. “That’s the magical part of wine making.”

I sniff the blend, savoring its intoxicating perfume. As much as I enjoy the castles, cathedrals and traditions of Europe, I’ve come under the spell of Napa. I love its friendliness and informality and the conviction that there are new wines to make and new ways to make them. After bottling my blend, I store it carefully in my luggage. I’m already thinking about when to open it and what to serve with it so I might recapture the magic of Napa I’ve enjoyed on this trip.

Fifth Issue of Writer’s Workshop Review is live!

The fifth issue of The Writer’s Workshop Review is now live! Please take a look: www.thewritersworkshopreview.net.Proulx Annie

The issue features an excerpt from Bird Cloud, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Annie Proulx’s new memoir and other literary riches: “Stuck in the Sacristy,” Dave Buchanan’s hilarious account of serving as an altar boy at a historic turning point in the Catholic Church; “Last Days: The Bitter and the Sweet,” Alexandra Garfield’s moving memoir of helping loved ones prepare for death with dignity; “Glencolumcille,” Robin Curtiss’s dark tale of retribution among the troubles of Ireland; “True Power,” Paul Lewellan’s highly original story of prisoner rehabilitation through the Great Books and exotic dancing; and, finally, “The Heart of Hospitality,” my Dispatches column on Domaine Tempier, the Provençal winery that served as inspiration for Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Restaurant and much of the American organic cuisine movement.

We hope you enjoy the fifth issue of The Writer’s Workshop Review. Please let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing from you!

All best,

Nick O’Connell
Publisher/ Editor
The Writer’s Workshop Review
www.thewritersworkshopreview.net

Amazon: Friend or Foe of Book Publishers?

Jon Fine of Amazon
Jon Fine of Amazon talks about book publishing to The Writer’s Workshop writing class.

Everyone knows that Amazon.com sells lots of books. In fact, a recent Los Angeles Times article reports the Seattle-based company now accounts for 22 percent of the total U.S. book sales for key stores, thumping rivals Barnes & Noble and Borders. And that’s just print books; Amazon’s share of the fast-growing e-book market jumped to a whopping 90 percent as of last year, according to the Author’s Guild.
The Author’s Guild and others have sounded the alarm over Amazon’s dominance of book sales, arguing the company has become a near monopolist. This controversy over its retailing practices has often obscured its forays into the publishing world, which are of particular interest for authors, aspiring and otherwise. To learn more about these programs, I invited Jon Fine, director of author & publisher relations for Amazon, to speak to my winter Seattle writing class. Fine provided a fascinating overview of Amazon’s publishing programs.

“We saw this ability for people to write and make their voice heard,” says Fine. “I embrace the idea that everyone should have the ability to express themselves. We have a wealth of tools and services for authors at any point in the career, or any point in the life cycle of a book. Whether you’re an aspiring author, or you’ve published in digital or in print, at any point in that spectrum we hope to have something to help you with.”

Fine discussed Amazon’s three publishing programs in detail. For more, see the forthcoming issue of The Writer’s Workshop Review, www.thewritersworkshopreview.net.

Publishing Opportunities

Pont des ArtsPublishers occasionally contact me looking for writers to contribute to their publications. Here are two that you might consider as homes for your stories:

The editors at City Arts Magazine are now accepting submissions for Ampersand, City Arts print and online showcase for original work by emerging Northwest artists and writers. We want to see fiction, poetry, essays, film, painting, music, lyrics, scripts and whatever else you can think of. In particular, we are looking for under-celebrated work that demonstrates innovation, superior craftsmanship and, as much as possible, a healthy sense of humor.Explore Ampersands new home on our Web site at cityartsonline.com/ampersand.

Pink Pangea, the first online community for women travelers, is seeking travel writers! Pink Pangea is the place where women travelers share their experiences abroad, connect to fellow travelers, and inspire other women to explore the world. Pink Pangea’s goal is to make travel easier, safer, and more fulfilling for women of all ages. We are looking for adventurous and eloquent students who have traveled abroad and want to document their experiences while discussing issues that are relevant to women travelers.

Contact Jaclyn@pinkpangea.com for more information, and visit www.PinkPangea.com to read current articles.

Quest Narratives

The quest narrative is one of the oldest and surest ways of telling a story. The Odyssey is essentially a quest narrative, with Odyssey’s journey back to his wife and son serving as the basis for the quest.

Head OdysseusSince then, there have been thousands of quest narratives written, including King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, detective stories, Moby Dick, and many others.

The form of a quest narrative is simple. Basically, the author descibes his or her desire to do something, see something, experience something, discover something.

In describing the object of the quest, whether a grail, or castle or insight or pot of gold, it’s helpful to “sell” the quest, emphasizing why it’s important either to the writer or the reader. Since the writer is the reader’s surrogate, describing why you want to go to Rome is often enough, especially if you can make it seem an especially appealing destination.

Some quests are so compelling they don’t need to be sold: the quest to find the Green River Killer or a cure for cancer.

The description of the goal for the quest encourages a sense of seeking, questioning and curiosity, propelling readers forward into the narrative. It gives a structure and suspense to a piece that might otherwise be flat and static.

This is a very adaptable form, appropriate to all kinds of subjects, whether personal essays, travel pieces, investigative journalism, memoir.

You can write a quest narrative about seeking to find the perfect peach, or the perfect glass of Pinot Noir wine, or about coming to terms with your parents. The quest narrative can be used effectively in many different contexts.

The form fits very well with James Stewart’s emphasis on curiosity as the basis of fine nonfiction writing in Follow the Story. The description of the quest immediately poses a quest in the reader’s mind: will the author or narrator achieve the quest?

Quest narratives can be written in a number of points of view. First person is probably most common in nonfiction, but third person can also be used, as in the description of a scientist searching for a cure for the common cold.

HOW TO WRITE A QUEST NARRATIVE:
  1. Describe the object of the quest and why it’s important. You don’t have to start the story with this statement, but it should come near the beginning, explaining why you’ve arrived in New Guinea, for example.
  2. Set out on the quest. What do you bring? How do you prepare?
  3. Describe the journey and the difficulties of achieving it.
  4. Describe whether you achieve the goal or not.
The winter class, Follow the Story, will provide a full treatment of how to write quest narrative. For more: http://thewritersworkshop.net/classes_seattle.htm.

All best,
Nick O’Connell
The Writer’s Workshop

Tell Your Story: How to Write a Memoir

Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes, a classic contemporary memoir.
Frank McCourt, the author of Angela’s Ashes, a classic contemporary memoir.

Memoir remains one of the most popular and compelling categories of writing today.  Darkness Visible by William Styron, No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston, This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff’s, The Liar’s Club by  Mary Karr and Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt’s-these are just a few of the many outstanding recent memoirs.

Unlike autobiography, memoir doesn’t have to include every part of one’s life, only the moments that are most significant. A great memoir highlights the key moments in a person’s life, using scene, characterization, dialogue, point of view to bring them to life on the page.

Memoir is especially useful in treating questions of identity, a particularly American dilemma, as this is a country without strong classes and social norms. Identity often has to be negotiated, explored as a mix of ethnic, social, economic, psychological, and other dimensions. The fluid nature of American society leads many writers to pose questions such as, Who am I?  Where do I belong? What does it mean to be American?

One of the crucial tests for a memoir is finding this larger issue. What does this life illustrate? What has  the narrator learned from his or her life? Without a larger point, a personal memoir can easily lapse into boring, repetitive, poor-me stories. Humor is an especially effective antidote to this, showing that a writer has a perspective on his or her life. This sense of perspective helps give the memoir a point, avoiding the trap of what Joyce Carol Oates called “pathograpy”, memoirs that uncover disease, disaster, and sickness and revel in it, without trying to give a sense of how such a condition can be transformed.

For many Americans, discovering their identity comes from travel. Over the years Europe has been one of the most popular destinations in this regard. In Map of Another Town by M.F.K. Fisher, she discovers a sense of herself when enduring trying circumstances while living in Aix en Provence. Fisher went on to become the dean of American food writers and much of what she learned came from her experiences, both good and bad, while living in France. Fisher has to struggle to discover who she is within or outside French society. Struggle is essential to a good memoir. Without it, there’s little suspense and little sympathy generated for the writer.

In writing a memoir, it’s important to focus on key events in your life. Highlight these events. Explore them in rich detail. This will bring readers into your world. As you furnish the sights, sounds, sensations, smells and feelings that you experienced in your life, the reader will identify with you.
The techniques of narrative or creative nonfiction are especially helpful in accomplishing this.

My winter Seattle writing class will address these techniques as well as discuss how use genre to add style and structure to your stories. See the course descriptionfor more: http://thewritersworkshop.net/classes_seattle.htm.

All best,
Nicholas O’Connell
The Writer’s Workshop