Mary Ellen Marus wrote to the Militant to describe how Pathfinder supporters in Vancouver promoted the new title Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas, making the most of heightened interest in the history of the Cuban Revolution generated by publicity and discussion about the 40th anniversary of that battle.

"At a monthly meeting of Pathfinder supporters the need for a timely, concerted effort to sell the new book was discussed, and within days a work party was organized," she wrote. "Fifty kits containing advance information about the book, and media reports of the March 22-24 Havana conference on the Bay of Pigs invasion titled 'Girón: 40 Years After' were mailed to a number of bookstores in British Columbia and the nearby provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. Follow-up phone calls led to some books being placed immediately."

This special effort "advanced the promotional work overall," wrote Marus. "We organized a two-day tour to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia and a city of around 300,000 people. We met buyers at two large stores there. One looked closely at Pathfinder's range of titles addressing questions of women's liberation and explained she planned to make a Mother's Day display featuring feminist titles!"

Adding to their tally, a buyer at a city library ordered six titles. "These are the kind of results we need to reach the goal of $23,000 in Pathfinder sales in Canada this year," wrote Marus, "That requires an average monthly sale of $1,900 per month. In the first quarter we have sold a monthly average of $2,360."

Katy Lerougetel, a Pathfinder supporter in Toronto, recently discovered one yardstick by which librarians judge a book's quality and popularity.

On May 7, Lerougetel told the Militant how she prepared for her April 25 visit to a major library in the city by calling the heads of committees for "research and reference books, and for adult and teen nonfiction." The work bore fruit when the head of the nonfiction committee asked her to drop off a catalog.  
 
'Sign of a good book'
Lerougetel arrived early to check the library's computerized index.

"When we met, I pointed out that multiple copies of several titles by Malcolm X were listed as 'missing' or 'lost.' The librarian smiled and said that Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara was always going missing, too: 'It's the sign of a good book.'"

"She assured me she would recommend a number of titles for the library's shelves," reported Lerougetel. "'It's good to have views from the left wing,' she said. 'It balances out the selection, which is more weighted to the other side.'"

From Greece, Georges Mehrabian reported a similar reaction by the buyer for a large bookstore in Athens. "We have recently made a decision to have a broad spectrum of publishers with a broad spectrum of ideas. Your books definitely have a place in that spectrum," he told Mehrabian and another sales representative as he ordered 30 books and pamphlets.

The volunteers in Greece supplemented the Pathfinder catalog with a list of 7 Pathfinder titles in Greek, published by Diethnes Vima. "Of the 70 bookstores we called," reported Mehrabian, "around 30 said they would welcome a visit. Twelve of them placed orders. In a number of cases, discussing and confirming the order involved up to three visits."

One bookstore placed an order for 20 books and pamphlets, including the Second Declaration of Havana, and Communism and the Fight for a Popular Revolutionary Government: 1848 to Today by Mary-Alice Waters--excerpted from the third issue of New International, magazine of Marxist politics and theory.

These Greek-language titles proved popular among bookstore buyers overall. Dozens of copies of Diethnes Vima's Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War by Jack Barnes, Farmers Face the Crisis of the 1990s by Doug Jenness, and Yugoslavia, the Roots of the Conflict by George Fyson and others were also placed.

Elizabeth Lariscy in Los Angeles reported sales of $1,800 of Pathfinder books at the April 28-29 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of California. "More than 100,000 people have attended the fair each year since it began 5 years ago," she wrote.

Participants purchased 71 of Pathfinder's books on the Cuban Revolution, wrote Lariscy, including 16 copies of Playa Girón and 13 of Making History: Interviews with Four Generals of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

"We also sold more than 100 Pathfinder catalogues, and signed up nine new subscribers to the Militant and one to Perspectiva Mundial," said Lariscy, a volunteer at the Pathfinder booth.

The sales flowed from the political to and fro involving the volunteers and the many people who stopped by the booth. Lariscy reported that "discussions on Cuba, socialism, and the world political and economic crisis went on nonstop for the two whole days.
 
 
Related articles:
Communist movement organizes to win members to Young Socialists
Build the communist movement
YS in Tucson sets pace for subscription drive
 
 
 
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