Tom Wolfe spoke at the Union Square B&N as part of the Upstairs on the Square series

Glenn Gazin took the train into New York from Stamford, CT and arrived at the Union Square Barnes and Noble at 3:30 p.m. The middle-aged man was dressed in a dashing navy blue suit with a matching, polka dot tie. Looking at him, one might think he was just stopping in the bookstore for a quick break between business meetings. The look in his eyes told a different story, however. Glenn’s giddy, child-like anticipation was clear from across the aisles as he switched his coat from his right arm to his left and checked his watch every few seconds, even though there were still four and a half hours to go.

That night, at 8 p.m., Glenn’s early arrival paid off as he watched (from the front row of folding chairs) legendary author Tom Wolfe walk across the stage and take a seat for the night’s performance.

“I worship Tom Wolfe,” Gazin said, minutes before “The Great One,” as he described him, walked onto the stage.

Gazin was just one of approximately 550 people who gathered on the night of March 13 for the bookstore’s monthly author/music event hosted by Katherine Lanpher, author (Leap Days: Chronicles of a Mid-Life Move; Springboard Press), radio host and journalist.

Lanpher leads the author through questions and readings from their work, between musical performances by an artist who also answers her questions about their background and compositions.

“I want people to leave with the sense that they’ve just seen an hour they couldn’t see anywhere else on the planet, whether it’s Tom Wolfe grinning with delight at the new tango of Fernando Otero or Duncan Sheik playing his own “Spring Awakening” score in conjunction with a scene from a play by Dennis Lehane,” Lanpher said.

Wolfe, the historic author of such classics as The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities, joined Argentinean composer Fernando Otero in this uniquely designed event that intrigued not just readers, but the author as well, a feat not as easy as it sounds.

“The challenge is always to do something original, to give an author’s fans something special in exchange for their taking the time to come out for the event… Tom Wolfe loves Argentinean music so to be paired with Fernando Otero made the evening unique for him,” says Picador Publicity Manager James Meade who set up the event.

In this case, that something original is called “Upstairs at the Square,” which has also hosted such artists as Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and composer/singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (“Spring Awakening”).

On March 4 Picador re-released The Right Stuff (1979) and Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) with new covers designed to reach a fresh audience. The challenge for Meader was in reaching the established audience of the renowned author such as Gazin, as well as a younger audience, who may not have heard much about Wolfe in the first place.

“With a new book we are faced with the challenge of explaining why people should care about something they’ve never heard of, but the very newness of the publication can help. With a reissue of a classic book it’s helpful that we already have review quotes and public recognition of the book, but there is an additional challenge that does not exist with a new book: explaining why something old deserves a fresh look,” says Meader.

One commonly used tactic across the publishing world, and in this case too, is repackaging—making the cover “younger” and “hipper” so that a new audience will never suspect they’re reading the same thing their parents did.

“Upstairs on the Square” however, went one step further and found a way to showcase the author’s older books, set the stage for his forthcoming release, reach audiences old and new, and even please the author while doing it.

Although the book sales for the days preceding and following the event were not available, over 100 Tom Wolfe books were sold during the roughly two-hour long performance.

For those publicists looking to find similar success in original author events, Meader suggests a very simple exercise that he uses with each new book:

“Try to look at it with a fresh set of eyes, and ask yourself a couple of very standard questions: Who would this book most appeal to? What new and meaningful thing can be said about this book? That’s no great unknown secret, but I find it helpful to ask these questions of myself before others do.”

There are precious few better ways to learn so much about such a specific group than by working at a convention. Conventions are where enthusiasts come to sport their fanatic stripes, meet people as crazy about an interest as they are, and learn about the latest products made just for them. And few conventions exemplify those qualities as well as Comic Con New York, the annual gathering that draws more than 80,000 dedicated comic book, video game, and science fiction fans.

No matter which department you toil in at your publishing house, working at a conference can teach you a lot about finding and promoting books that connect with an audience. Here are a few simple guidelines that will help turn a working Saturday into a meaningful experience:

1. Pick up the literature: Conventions often release a show guide and a daily newsletter announcing book signings, special events, conferences, and promotions. The Comic Con show guide was about one part information, three parts advertisements; apparently, this ratio is not uncommon. These advertisements are a great way to compare the ways that publishers will be drawing people to their booth. You may see that some are giving away lots of books, while others have brought along authors. Take note of which booths draw the largest crowds. There may be some ideas worth emulating.

2. It’s all about the Chachka: The giveaway. The freebie. The chachka. Sometimes a special knick-knack becomes a must-have item of the conference. It might be a bag, a bracelet, or a squeezie ball. At Comic Con, cable channel A&E handed out hand sanitizer to promote The Andromeda Strain, an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s first novel. That hand sanitizer is still sitting on my desk weeks later—a pretty effective promotion piece. Be sure to identify the hot item and get your hands on it. You may be the one to give away the hot chachka at the next conference.

3. Make friends: Conferences provide tons of opportunities to work with your competitors to draw more attention to your books than you might be able to draw by yourself. United Features Syndicate and Universal Press Syndicate are rivals; they are constantly locked in a fierce battle to distribute comic strips with dedicated fans. But when representatives from both companies spoke on a panel about the future of comic strips at Comic Con, they filled a 200-seat room. Take the time to meet people working for other publishers; you may run into each other again, and you may be able to promote books together.

4. When you have nothing left to give, explore: Working at a conference means hours of standing, smiling, answering questions, and talking books. After a few hours, booth duty can take its toll on your legs and concentration. When you take your turn to eat and rest up, take the long route to the restroom, mosey to the lunch line, or do whatever you can to take a few spare minutes walking the exhibition floor. You may discover a group like the New York Jedis, a collection of a dozen New Yorkers who choreograph light saber fights to Linkin Park and AFI songs. Fans don’t just come to Comic Con to consume books and comics; some of them contribute as well. But if you stay in your booth, you may miss people like the New York Jedis.

5. Follow Up: By definition, enthusiasts care a lot about the object of their affection. You may not know how many words are in Neil Gaiman’s second book, or know about a nuance in the timeline between Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow. However esoteric the request, be sure to follow up when you receive requests from fans. If you follow up, these people might teach you why a character matters to them, how they began reading a series, or even how a book has changed their lives. While it may not be wise to edit a book or create a marketing plan around an enthusiast’s opinion, knowing what hooks your most dedicated readers is an invaluable asset.

-Michael Barry

Need advice? Email your question to ypg@gmail.com

So you’ve got a job in publishing. Suddenly your second cousin once-removed’s best friend has a book they’re sure you’d love. You never knew you had a great aunt Millie, but her proposal for a biography on Millard Fillmore is sitting in your inbox. Your mother’s friend’s eight-year-old niece has written just the most charming picture book. Don’t you want to take a look?

You don’t dare say no. Now what do you do?

There are a lot of aspiring writers, many of whom just like the idea of being a writer—and don’t actually want to write. So the first step is to see if they’ve actually written anything yet, or are still daydreaming about the advance. Any pitch that starts with “I have this great idea for a book” is easy to deflect. Start by saying that, except in very special circumstances, such as if your name is Madonna or Paris Hilton, an idea isn’t enough. They’d need to actually have a book, or at least a proposal, before a publisher will consider shelling out money. If they still want to tell you all about it, there’s no harm in listening. You can even offer to read it when they’ve finished, safe in the knowledge that 99% of the time, they never will.

If the book is a fait accompli, it gets a little stickier. Even if you have no authority to acquire a book, they might want you to “run a professional eye” over it to see if you can nudge them closer to publication. They may even beg you for criticism. If so, proceed with caution! A first novel is like a baby to its author. They do not want to actually hear what’s wrong with their creation, no matter how much they say to the contrary. The author is fervently hoping you’ll call their book a diamond in the rough—although chances are it’s just more rough in the rough. Unless you know this person very well and have a good idea of how well they take criticism, do not attempt to tell them anything bad about their book. Friendships have died that way. For this reason, many publishing professionals have a strict policy of never reading a submission from someone they know.

If you decide to go ahead and read the book, tact is the name of the game. Occasionally novels do get published out of the slush pile, but your uncle’s best friend’s misery memoir probably won’t be one of them. The best you can do is praise the heck out of it, no matter how you really feel, perhaps point out a minor flaw, such as the overabundance of semi-colons, so they feel bolstered by the criticism of a pro, then explain in vague terms something about the difficulty of publishing books such as this one in the current climate. There’s nothing wrong with the book, it’s the market that’s the problem.

You will probably wish you could pass the buck entirely by handing the book to another editor and letting them reject it. This may seem like a good idea—you did the best you could, so the author can’t blame you—but probably isn’t. You don’t want to be known as a purveyor of slush within your publishing house. Handing a senior editor a manuscript that will waste her time when she don’t even know your name yet does not make a good impression. Practically everyone in publishing gets submissions like these and most deal with them on their own. You have to weigh the potential damage to your career against the potentially chilly Thanksgiving dinner with the would-be author and decide how much it’s really worth it not to have to write the rejection letter yourself.

Do not sit on the submission indefinitely and hope it goes away. Authors do not forget where they’ve submitted their manuscript, especially if they know you. For an author, every day of waiting to hear if their book is any good is agony. If you know you’re going to reject the book, rip that band-aid off. Rejection does not age like fine wine. It ages more like milk left on the counter.

In all seriousness, the best advice you can give a striving author is to find an agent. In this arena, a little bit of guidance can go a long way. It is not your responsibility to see this person published; it is usually enough to point them on the right path and let them do the rest.

A great page to direct them to is this post in author Neil Gaiman’s blog by Tor editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden. It contains all the links an author needs to research agents and how to query them (including links to avoid). Many agents have their own blogs where they discuss the submission process, such as Jessica Faust of Bookends, LLC who recently finished a massive analysis of cover letters.

The most useful thing you can tell an author who approaches you with their book is to do their research about literary agents and publishers. This little bit of advice about how the publishing industry works can do a writer far more good than a ten-page critique of their book, and is less likely to get your number deleted from their cell phone.

In the end, the most important insider information you can give them is that there is no secret formula to getting published, and knowing someone in the business is not a shortcut to a contract. The next time someone approaches you with manuscript in hand at your nephew’s bar mitzvah, just point them in the right direction and tell them it’s time to do their homework.

-Jen Crawford

Kathy Griffin has been making the rounds for her memoir, OFFICIAL BOOK CLUB SELECTION, and while she hasn’t made it on to Oprah yet, she did have a solid showing of fans at Barnes & Noble last week.  With many YPG members in attendance, Kathy demonstrated her quick wit and hilarious style to a packed audience of bookbuyers.