BY OSBORNE HART
SAN FRANCISCO - In a week-long effort Pathfinder representatives here continued their commercial sales work, expanded the reach of revolutionary books, and laid the ground for future purchases.

The week prior to the March 1-7 Bay Area sales tour, Pathfinder supporters set up appointments with independent retail bookstores, public libraries, and campus bookstores and libraries in some of the major universities in Berkeley, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and others. Nine local sales representatives carried out the visits with Luis Madrid, from Pathfinder's office in New York. This endeavor netted orders for over 400 books.

Some of these outlets already had Pathfinder accounts; others ordered for the first time. Many book buyers ordered some of the newly-released titles. This included a total of 31 copies of two new Pathfinder books by Frank Kofsky, John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s and Black Music, White Business. The buyer for a major Black bookstore in the Bay Area, which has stores in San Francisco and Oakland, ordered 78 books including multiple copies of Coltrane and Black Music, as well as titles by Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela, Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, and Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla.' Book buyers placed orders for 76 Malcolm X titles in the course of the sales visits. The following week, Pathfinder received an additional order for 87 copies of Malcolm X Speaks for classroom use at a major university in Palo Alto.

At a San Francisco university, Pathfinder reps met with librarians from the Black, Latin American, and labor studies areas, all of whom will consider ordering several books and pamphlets. The campus bookstore buyer restocked, ordering 57 titles.

A buyer at a Sacramento-based chain was very receptive to what Pathfinder offers - particularly books in Spanish and about struggles in Latin America. This buyer, who ordered 80 plus books, explained that within the chain buyers have license to order what will sell in their store. The buyer at a campus bookstore in Davis is expanding the foreign language section. He included titles in Spanish, French, Farsi, and Swedish in his order for 24 books.

Besides reviewing the Pathfinder catalog with most buyers, sales representatives referred to and gave copies of literary journal reviews of books by the New York-based publisher. A review of Ernesto Che Guevara's Bolivian Diary that appeared in the September/October '97 issue of Foreign Affairs proved particularly helpful in promoting titles on the Cuban revolution and by Cuban revolutionaries. The sales team sold 89 titles in this category, including 13 books and 14 booklets by Cuban Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas, who fought with Che Guevara in the Congo and Bolivia under the nomme de guerre "Pombo." Orders for issues of New International in English and Spanish totaled 22 copies.

The follow-up work by Bay Area local reps since the end of the tour has resulted in additional orders, which bring the total sold to some 600 Pathfinder titles.  
 
 
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