Efforts by Pathfinder supporters in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal to begin systematic sales work are responsible for this trend.

In February, a Montreal university bookstore placed an order for 15 books in French following the visit of a volunteer salesperson. In addition, a university bookstore in Trois Rivières, Quebec, recently ordered a total of seven copies of the French-language edition of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes.

Stores in Toronto have opened six new accounts with Pathfinder since December. One, specializing in African and Afro-American books, ordered 12 titles, including some on the Cuban revolution.

Using as a reference tool, The Book Trade in Canada, Toronto volunteers selected 20 stores in the area, some of which they had never visited before. Each were sent a Black History Month Quick Order fax form, with a listing of books and prices that buyers could check off and send to the distribution center. The list presented everything from titles by Malcolm X to Capitalism's World Disorder and The Truth About Yugoslavia.

As volunteers phoned to check that the fax had been received they were often able to set up appointments to see the buyers and show them the books and catalogues in person.

"Oh, this is perfect," exclaimed the buyer of one of Toronto's major independent bookstores, as she saw the books in the sales rep's briefcase gleaming out at her. She went through all the books in the case as well as the catalogue, ordering Art and Revolution, What Is Surrealism? and 11 others, saying that titles on Cuba sell well.

Although the store stocked the Pimlico edition of Che Guevara's Bolivian Diary, she also took a copy of Pathfinder's. In making this sale the Pathfinder supporter found it useful to show the buyer a photocopy of a Times Literary Supplement review pointing out the advantages of Pathfinder's annotation, introduction, and other aspects of the book that make it more accessible to today's reader.

In response to the interest generated by a recent PBS television series on the history of jazz, many bookstores have organized book displays on this subject. Seeing this, Pathfinder supporters in Toronto sent a Quick Order form for Pathfinder's two jazz titles to a number of music stores. On the strength of this and a few phone conversations, a major music bookstore in town ordered two copies each of John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s and Black Music, White Business.

Plans are now underway for some telemarketing to the east coast Maritime provinces. Across the country, volunteers are figuring out how to specially promote Pathfinder's newest titles on Cuban and Latin American revolutionary struggles, including Fertile Ground: Che Guevara and Bolivia; Making History, and the Spanish edition, Haciendo historia; and The Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas. In addition to other bookstores, there is likely to be interest by owners of stores that cater to the tens of thousands of Spanish-speaking workers in the city.

Katy LeRougetel is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 5338.
 
 
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