Falling for a bookstore

I consider myself an independent bookstore devotee, which means I wander into bookstores any chance I get and take a look at which books are on display.

Earlier this week, I feel in love. Again. I gave a reading at The Green Arcade on Market Street and Gough, a store founded by Patrick Marks, who used to be a book buyer at the now-defunct Cody’s.

Green Arcade is a community bookstore, which may not seem so obvious since it is located on a busy intersection. But it sits on the edge of Hayes Valley with its hundreds of apartments and restored Victorians.

The Green Arcade feels welcoming from the moment you walk in. The walls are painted a bright red and music comes from a vintage jukebox rescued from an old San Francisco bar, The Golden Spike. There are upholstered armchairs scattered around and the store’s employees have put up tags signaling particular types of books. There are separate sections for the books of Michael Pollan and Rebecca Solnit, for example.

The Green Arcade specializes in “green” books on climate change, gardening, and sustainable agriculture. (Hence it’s name) Why was I reading from Towers of Gold, a book about 19^th century California, then? Well, Patrick Marks also loves history and makes it a subspecialty of the store. (There is also a great kids section)

The vintage juke box

Finally, some good booksore news

Berkeley is about to get a new general interest bookstore.

Books, Inc announced Aug. 5 that it will open its twelfth branch on Fourth Street in Berkeley in mid-October. The new 4,000 square foot store will carry lots of fiction, children's titles, and cookbooks for all the foodies wandering the street. (Unfortunately the news came at the same time that chef Christopher Lee announced he would be closing Eccolo, the Fourth Street restaurant that was so instrumental in helping Novella Carpenter, the author of Farm City, feed her pigs)

Michael Tucker, the CEO, said the new store is at “right location, the right lease and the right landlord for allowing expansion in this challenging economic climate.”

It will be interesting to see if Books, Inc can be successful on a street that was not profitable for the venerable Cody’s Books, which shuttered its Fourth Street outlet in early 2008.

The independent bookstore chain has roots reaching back to the Gold Rush.

Andy Ross: How the former owner of Cody's has found a new life as a literary agent

Andy Ross at Cody's Books in the 1970s



Andy Ross is well-known in the publishing industry through his former ownership of Cody’s Books, one of the country’s most renowned independent bookstores. For 45 years, Cody’s flagship store on Telegraph Avenue hosted the world’s most accomplished writers and carried books written by well-known and obscure authors. It had a large selection of poetry, local history, literary fiction, history, and computer books. Its magazine section was enormous. When Ross shuttered Cody’s on Telegraph in 2006, book-lovers and publishing insiders shuddered; the closure turned out to be a precursor to a wave of closures of independent bookstores around the country. The last branch of Cody’s closed down in June 2008.

Ross leveraged his knowledge of authors and writing to become a literary agent. As he explains on his website, his involvement with Cody’s gave him “a unique understanding of the retail book market, of publishing trends and, most importantly and uniquely, the hand selling of books to book buyers.”

Ross opened Andy Ross Literary Agency in Oakland in 2008. His clients include many iconic figures from the 1960s and Vietnam War era, including Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, Paul Krassner, the editor of The Realist, the 1960s political and satirical magazine, and Michael Parenti, the radical political scientist and historian. Ghost Word recently spoke with Ross to hear his thoughts on being a literary agent.

Why did you decide to become a literary agent?

When I left Cody's in December, 2007, I wasn't sure what I could do. I had been a bookseller for 35 years, all my adult life. I was thinking that my future might lie in sacking groceries at Safeway. I woke up one night in January. I decided that this would be a good job for me. It was a good decision. I love this job.

What is the best thing about being an agent? Hardest thing?

Everything about being an agent is great. I wish I had started 10 years ago. I love working with writers. I love being a part of the creative process. I suppose some agents just flip contracts. But most of the agents I know and respect do much more. Sometimes authors have something important to say, but they need to be told exactly what it is. That is my job, too.

Every day I seem to meet someone new and interesting from all over the world. I have worked with authors in New Zealand, Israel, England, and India. As well as my friends in the East Bay. I cannot tell you how fulfilling it is to find a good home for a great book. Whenever it happens, it brings tears to my eyes.

The hardest thing is actually getting an offer. Publishing is in the pits right now just like everything else. Publishers are extremely risk averse. They still seem to be paying big money for celebrity books. Word on the street is that Sarah Palin got a $7,000,000 advance. But most of the books I am working with are what they call "the midlist". Every book I have worked on would have found a major publisher several years ago and sold quite well (at least at Cody's). It is hard to get them published at all right now. The corollary to this is that an agent gets a lot of rejections. It is very painful for me and, of course, for my authors. Telling a writer that there is no interest for a book that the author has poured his heart into for several years is heartbreaking for me as well as for the author.

When someone sends you a query, what is the first thing you look for?

I need to find out in a very factual manner what the book really is. If I can't figure this out on the first paragraph, the chances of me taking it seriously go way down. Next I will look to see if the author has qualifications to write about the subject.

I can't tell you how many queries I have gotten where I have had to read 4 paragraphs before I could figure out if it was fiction or non-fiction. This is a very bad sign.

When the first line of the query is that the author has written "a non-fiction novel", this is also a very bad sign.

If the author tells me that millions of people will want to read this and that the author will be good on Oprah, I begin to see that the author has some very unrealistic expectations.


How possible is it for someone to get an agent through the slush pile? How many clients have you gotten through blind submissions compared to referrals from friends, clients, or writers?

Most of the time I work with people who have been referred to me by someone I respect, or who I have contacted. I receive about 20 queries a week over the transom. But I am proud of the fact that I have gotten contracts for 2 books by unknown first time writers who sent me unsolicited queries. Neither of them have impressive "platforms". One is a graduate student at Oxford, who wrote a memoir of his year in the Marshall Islands. Another was living in his brother's attic in Maine. He wrote about his experiences in the standardized testing industry. I'm very proud of these guys. When this happens, I feel like my work is making a difference.

When I think of agent-editor relationships, I always imagine them going out to lunch. Being based on the west coast, how do you permeate the east coast literary world? Do you fly back frequently? Can you establish a relationship by e-mail?

There seems to be a common misconception amongst writers that having a New York agent gives you an inside track with getting published. This isn't true. If anything, NY editors are interested in agents outside of New York who have access to different groups of people and bring different sensibilities. In New York, they have lunch with the same agents. It gets a little stale.
I have gone to NY a few times and visited lots of editors. I realized while I ran bookstores, I never really understood the life and work of editors. But I did understand (better than many agents) what imprints were publishing what books. Fortunately, most of the editors knew who I was because of the high regard for Cody's in publishing. And, if you look at my projects, you will see that they tend to be very "Cody's" sorts of books.

I don't believe that doing business through the old friend's networks is particularly effective any more. Publishing is big business. Editors are pretty gimlet eyed and selective. Friendships don't play much of a part. Although given the many books I have worked with that are political or scholarly, the editors who have an interest in these areas know what I'm doing.

I do most of my business through email. It is efficient and it is friendly. I think I have mastered the art of the charming email. When it comes to selecting the right editor, I am a fundamentalist. I have access to all the major deals that have come down in the last 5 years. I study them carefully. And I determine, based on this, what the editors are looking for. This works pretty well for me.


Andy Ross with Salman Rushdie. In 1989, someone threw a firebomb inside Cody's to protest the prominent display of The Satanic Verses.

Is there an East Coast bias against West Coast writers?

Quite the contrary. California is the largest market in the US. The Bay Area is a bellwether of future trends. Publishers are nothing but encouraging. (Even when they rejecting your proposal).

Which is easier to sell, fiction or nonfiction? Why?

Uhh—well---non-fiction is easier by a mile. Look, I don't want to rain on the parade, but look at the numbers. Publishers will only look at fiction that has been submitted by an agent. These submissions have been heavily vetted. I would imagine that out of 100 queries received by agents for novels, they might select 1 for submission (probably less). I have spoken with a number of fiction editors. They inform me that of the submissions they receive, they may decide to publish (again) 1 in 100. Just looking at the numbers, selling a novel is like winning the lottery. Of course, if you are a published author with a good track record, you are in pretty good shape. It isn't very hard to sell a new novel by Philip Roth. But if you are a published novelist whose last book bombed, it is extremely difficult. Publishers are making decisions by the numbers now. They have a data base that tells them the sales of every book on the market. Refined taste in literature plays a very small role.

What’s the most recent thing you’ve sold?

I got an offer today from a major university press for a book by a renowned Orthodox Jewish scholar. It is not an academic book. It is a memoir of his relationship with his neighborhood synagogue. It is really a one of a kind book.

Considering the economic times, what is the mood of publishers? Are they offering smaller advances? Are there still auctions for books? Or are publishers being more particular about what they buy?

Things are pretty grim in publishing. A lot of the best editors in New York got laid off. Yes, they are giving smaller advances. Yes, they have become much more selective. Yes, they are becoming much more commercial. There are still big advances for celebrities. Millions of dollars. There are still auctions for these kinds of books.

Let me give you an example of the problem. Last month I was in New York. I visited with one of the most highly regarded editors of a highly regarded imprint. He specializes in books of history and current events by distinguished authors. He told me that books that might have sold 20,000 copies several years ago now might be selling 3000 copies. These numbers make me very apprehensive.

What do you miss most about owning Cody’s Books? What do you miss least? What skills did you learn as a bookstore owner that have been useful as an agent?

I spent my whole adult life as a bookseller. I owned Cody's for 30 years. The last 10 years were very difficult. The growth of the chains and Internet bookselling has been devastating for independent stores. In a sense, we were the victims of history.

I have spent a lot of time soul-searching and wondering what I could have done differently. I haven't found a satisfying answer to this. When I think about those 30 years, I still believe that we did some pretty good things. Cody's meant a lot to a lot of people. Sometimes it makes me sad that we couldn't keep Cody's going for another 50 years. Wasn't it Camus who said: "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart"? I'm just going to have to accept that and move on.



For a list of Ross' clients and recent sales, click here.

Cody's hosted more than 5,000 author events over the years, and Ross took photos of many writers and taped their lectures. Ross donated the author photos that used to decorate the stores to the Berkeley Public Library. He donated more than 760 audiocassetes of author talks and other materials to the Bancroft Library.

This Time for Good: Cody's Books Shuts Its Doors

I have spent parts of the last few days happily checking out some of London’s bookstores. Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street has an amazing library-like feeling with dark wood, numerous skylights and racks and racks of books stacked on oak bookshelves. (see photo) It’s located on one of London’s snazziest shopping streets, an avenue where hip women are so loaded up with shopping bags from Selfridges and other stores that they have to dodge other pedestrians.

Foyer Books, on the other hand, is on busy Charing Cross Road in an area dotted with other bookstores and music shops. There was street construction everywhere and a hurried, urban feel. When I walked in to Foyer, it had a modern in feel with light maple shelves and bold colors. At first, I didn’t think it was that big. I was deceived. It has small rooms but many of them. It also has the largest fiction collection I have ever seen.

All my excitement finding new stores was completely crushed this morning when I woke up to find an e-mail from Meg Waite Clayton (her new novel, The Wednesday Sisters has just been released) that Cody’s Books in Berkeley has closed. Permanently.

I am surprised. And devastated. I went to my first reading there one week ago today and the place was packed. It was for Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, edited by Ellen Sussman. The book is a collection of essays that explore different words relating to sex, most of which I shall not name here. Some of the contributors read their pieces, including Meredith Maran, Thaisa Frank, and Cornelia Read. They were at turns heartbreaking and hilarious.

The store was packed for the reading. There were about 35 people there and many bought books. I asked a clerk how the place was doing and she said the foot traffic was good. (It is just a block from the UC campus)

I did my bit. I must have purchased more than $100 in books from Cody’s on Shattuck since it opened in March.

Cody’s has tried so many different ways and locations to stay afloat. I naively assumed that this latest, smaller store would be the magic bullet.

Hiroshi Kagawa, who owns bookstores in Japan, bought Cody’s about a year ago. Here is what he said in a press release:

"The Board of Directors of Cody's Books made this difficult decision after years of financial distress and declining sales.

"According to Cody's president, Hiroshi Kagawa, '[It] is a heartbreaking moment…in the spring of 2005 when I learned about the financial crisis facing Cody's, I was excited to save the store from bankruptcy. Unfortunately, my current business is not strong enough or rich enough to support Cody's. Of course, the store has been suffering from low sales and the deficit exceeds our ability to service it.'

"'When I met Cody's 25 years ago, I was a freelance journalist, enraptured by its books and atmosphere. It means so much to me and I apologize to the people who have supported Cody's for not being able to keep this landmark independent bookstore open. Cody's is my treasure and more than that, Cody's is a real friend of Berkeley community and will be missed.'

"Cody's would like to thank all of our loyal customers for their years of patronage."

This is the store that has hosted many of the world's most beloved authors, who continued to sell the Satanic Verses even after it had been firebombed, who patched up protesters who had been beaten by police in the protests at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, and much more.

Sitting in London, 5,000 miles away from Cody’s, I will observe my own minute of silence for this bookstore that has played such an important role in the literary world.

Paperback Dreams and Local Bookstores

Left to Right: Alex Beckstead, the director of Paperback Dreams, Leslie Berkler of Cody's Books, Clark Kepler of Kepler's Books, and Andy Ross of Cody's Books.

BEA is one big blur of conversation, interspersed with long walks carrying extremely heavy bags bulging with books.

Of course there are lots of wonderful moments. I enjoyed meeting the book bloggers Ron Hogan from Galley Cat and Carolyn Kellog from Pinky’s Paperhaus and hearing The Elegant Variation’s Mark Sarvas talk. I hung out with Kemble Scott, the author of the best-selling novel Soma and the editor of one of my

I was also delighted to finally meet Daniel Olivas, who is both Jewish and Latino. Although he is an attorney, he is a prolific fiction writer and book reviewer and just edited a wonderful collection of southern California stories called Latinos in Lotusland. His booth was next to the booth of Angel City Press, which publishes delightful local histories of Los Angeles. I have used their books in my research, particularly Kevin Roderick’s Wilshire Boulevard, a book chock full of pictures and musings about the famous boulevard. I was intrigued to hear about a biography of the Los Angeles pioneer Benjamin Wilson by Nat B. Read.

Of course, I was elated to discover the true identity of Miss Snark, who pines for her blog a year after it folded (mums the word.) The gin hadn't made her love George Clooney any less.

But there was only one moment I cried at BEA. (and it wasn’t when I rubbed my aching feet.)

I attended a screening of Paperback Dreams, a documentary by Alex Beckstead, on the recent struggles of Cody’s Books in Berkeley and Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. Andy Ross and Lesley Berkler, the former owners of Cody’s were there, as was Clark Kepler, the owner of Kepler's.

The screening turned into a time for those who own independent bookstores and those who love them to talk about their strengths and challenges. The film will be shown on public television stations in November and Beckstead is hoping store owners will show it to their customers and use it as a way to strike up dialogue about the future of independents.

The film is quite good as it traces the history of these two iconic West Coast bookstores. It also establishes the importance of independents in the struggle for free speech. I had forgotten that the chain bookstores pulled Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses after Iran declared a fatwah against the writer. Andy Ross of Cody’s kept the book on the store’s shelves even after someone threw a Molotov cocktail inside the store. The Grateful Dead often played at Kepler's in the 1960s, where they stole ashtrays and played the same songs over and over.

The film also shows Kepler’s engaging in a direct dialogue with its customers to make the store more appealing. In response to customer requests to make the story more light and airy, Clark Kepler lowered the height of many of the bookshelves. He also reorganized the various sections and started to carry more non-book items. Kepler’s now is also a major sponsor of events in the community.

Both stores are still around, but the struggles continue. Ross and Berkler sold their store to Hiroshi Kagawa, a Japanese bookstore owner and distributor; Ross now operates a literary agency. Kepler is still involved with his store, but sees very slim profit margins.

The new owner of the Booksmith on Haight Street in San Francisco, Praveen Madan, attended the screening and talked optimistically about the future of independents, Madan has seen sales go up by double digits in the past year. Before he acquired the store, sales had dropped the previous five years.

Madan believes that a bookstore has to work extra hard to build a relationship with its customers and that survival depends on that special relationship. In the last few months he has taped all the author events at his store and put them on You Tube. He hopes that his videos build brand awareness and make people think Booksmith is a cool place to hang out. The push to put things on the Internet is also an acknowledgement that customers don’t always have the time to come in for a store reading, even though they want to hear what authors have to say, said Madan.

Paperback Dreams ends on a melancholy note, although Beckstead, the director, said he tried to make the ending upbeat. While many communities say they want their independent bookstores to remain viable, many people still look for the bargain, buying books at Costco and Barnes and Noble.

(One thing that makes BEA so interesting is the juxtaposition of different parts of the publishing industry. After seeing this film and telling myself I should never buy a book at Costco, I met the women from the company BTMS, or Baker & Taylor Marketing Services, which holds the contract to do all the book buying for Costco and Sam’s Clubs. They were great, and I really enjoyed talking to them at the Harlequin Party.)

Paperback Dreams -- a film about Cody's and Kepler's

Paperback Dreams Trailer from abeckstead on Vimeo.


This one looks interesting: a documentary about the struggles of Cody's and Kepler's, two of the Bay Area's leading independent bookstores.

San Francisco-based filmmaker Alex Bedstead is making the documentary in conjuction with KQED. It's set to air on PBS stations in the fall of 2008, but there will be a preview of the film at this year's Book Expo America in Los Angeles in late May.

Literary Tidbits for a Rainy Day

Cody’s Books is packing up its Fourth Street store and moving to Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley. Not a bad move, me thinks.

Stephen Elliot of the Grotto makes a sale.

The latest on Laura Albert, aka JT Leroy, as revealed in the LA Weekly.

Lindsey Crittenden, author of the memoir, The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray, connects with prisoners in San Quentin.

Daniel Handler and Andrew Sean Greer dressed up in tuxedos and served martinis and cheese balls to Amy Sedaris at a recent talk at City Arts and Lectures.

A Cautionary Tale

California Authors caught this strange and troubling juxtaposition: the former owner of Cody’s Books, Andy Ross, is selling his home because of the losses he sustained in opening a San Francisco branch. That Cody’s on Stockton Street will close this week.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos has just purchased a $30 million estate in Beverly Hills. His new home is 12,000 square feet and has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

Fred and Pat Cody started their store in 1956. Bezos started Amazon in 1994.