SHOWMANSHIP

What Would P.T. Barnum Do to Sell a Book?

I don’t know what salesmanship tools are in the kits of my fellow agents, but some projects call for an unconventional approach. If a traditional text pitch doesn’t work, I discard it and opt for something lively and entertaining. Admittedly these performances are more vaudeville than haute culture but they usually get the job done. From time to time I’ll tell you about them. Here’s one:

I can’t remember who introduced me to Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster and Vice President of Production of the Brooklyn Brewery. He is acclaimed by many experts to be the world’s foremost authority on beer. He reached out to me after returning from a Europe-spanning journey where he had met with brewers and chefs, gathering information and recipes for a book demonstrating how the proper pairing of food and beer can enhance dining. It was to be lavishly illustrated with photographs.

I’m not sure why he selected me to represent him, as my knowledge of beer was limited to a cold bottle of Bud at Super Bowl parties. “That’s all right,” Garrett said, “We’ll expand your palate.”

He invited me to lunch at the Gramercy Tavern on 20^th Street in Manhattan, which boasts one of the most extensive and exotic selections of beers in the city, labels like Kent Falls Buckwheat Grisette, Allagash Tripel, and Evil Twin Yin Imperial Stout. He ordered a different beer for each course of our meal, charmingly expatiating on its color, flavor, aroma, and terroir. Our meal was capped by Framboise, a raspberry-flavored dessert beer – I never knew such a thing existed! – served in a hand-painted flute. It was better than any Champagne I had ever tasted. I became an instant proselyte.

I helped Garrett design an excellent proposal and we submitted it to several publishers. Unfortunately, they all turned it down. They just didn’t get it! Where had we gone wrong?

After analyzing their responses I realized that a printed description could not duplicate what I had experienced at that restaurant. We needed publishers to taste what I had tasted and hear what I had heard. Show, don’t tell, right? I picked up the phone and called Garrett. “How would you like to do a beer-tasting for publishers?”

“I’m game if you are,” he declared.

My first – and, as it turned out, only – call was to Jane Friedman, the flamboyant CEO of HarperCollins (not to be confused, as everyone seems to do, with the publishing influencer and Substack blogger of the same name). Jane was intrigued by our scheme and agreed to host the event in the conference room of her company, where some two dozen executives sat facing Garrett at a podium. His assistants distributed cheeses, chocolates and brownies and poured a variety of beers about whose pedigrees and flavors Garrett rhapsodized from a podium. His presentation was riveting. A really, really good time was had by all with many refills and - in those precincts where enthusiasm seldom exceeds a whisper - raucous toasts.

The next morning Jane bought the book.

The Ecco imprint of HarperCollins published it in 2005 under the title The Brewmaster’s Table. Among many honors, it won the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Award for Best Cookbook in the Wine, Beer or Spirits category.

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This article is excerpted from my book Digital Inc., Inside the Transformation of Publishing from Print to E-Books, now on sale.

“In Digital Inc., Richard Curtis has penned the Rosetta Stone for anyone interested in the tectonic shift in book publishing from print to digital. Curtis not only tells a fascinating and extraordinarily well written business story but also shows how the dramatic changes in publishing impact our daily digital lives. I learned more from Digital Inc. than from any other book about the digital revolution.”-Roger Cooper, former Senior VP and Publisher, the Berkley Publishing Group