Carla Emery: Author of the Old Fashioned Recipe Book
(Page 9 of 17)
May/June 1975
By the Mother Earth News editors
PLOWBOY: Did you call it quits then for the season?
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EMERY: No, I thought I'd go south because they have county fairs and arts and crafts shows in California and Arizona and New Mexico in November and December. So I started out with this little trailer loaded with books and brochures and California was nearly a complete disaster.
I drove in to a small arts and crafts fair and tried to get a spot and they told me to go away because my book was mass produced. This was the first time anyone had looked at my mimeographed book held together with colored wires and accused it of being manufactured.
That was a bad one, that day, because the woman managing the fair had already let me set up my tables and people were acting interested and then she came back and told me to leave. Well some of the people from the other stands came up and started to argue about it with her but I said it was OK and I left. I was really desperate, though, because I had all the kids with me and I was down to my last $5.00 and I had counted on that show to give us eating money. I was crying but I said "OK" and I left.
Then I tried to get into Embarcadero Plaza and the other places where they sell handcrafts in San Francisco but they said I'd have to put down a bond for $100 and get a license and visit the police station and that was just impossible. So I tried to get a spot to sell on the street—Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley—and they had a waiting list six months long for that.
Well I'm not one to break anybody's rules. You know . . . I "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" . . . but, in California, it seemed as if it was all Caesar's!
PLOWBOY: What did you do?
EMERY: You know, it's funny how everything can look so dark that you just don't know what's going to happen to you . . . but if you'll continue to operate on faith, suddenly something will come through that's far better than you'd ever hoped for.
What happened was I had sent a mailing out to bookstores in California earlier in the summer and I got a letter back from one woman who said she didn't want any mimeographed books in her shop. But I noticed that this gal's stationery—her name was Millicent—said that she owned both the bookstore and a public relations agency.
So I thought, "Public Relations. I've heard of that. Maybe Millicent can help me sell books." And I wrote back and I said, "Hey, could you help me?"
Well she answered on a postcard and said, "I don't think anybody who mimeographs a book in her living room can afford my services. Signed Millicent."
So I wrote back and said, "Dear Millicent. It would be a whole lot more useful if you'd tell me what you're good for and how much you cost. Besides, I'm selling $1,000 worth of my mimeographed books every week just over the tables and the mail-order business is picking up every day from all the brochures I'm passing out."
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