The Aphasia Cafe by Dawn McGuire--a publisher's report

The Aphasia Cafe by Dawn McGuire was the Number One bestselling poetry book in the month of July, according to Small Press Distribution (SPD) of Berkeley, national distributors of IF SF books.

http://www.spdbooks.org/pages/bestsellers/poetry/poetry-bestsellers-July-2012.aspx 

IF SF is preparing a second edition of Dr.McGuire's book, available later this month, the first time a IF SF book has gone to a 2nd printing.

A small press publisher certainly isn't in it for the money--it's not a business per se--but there's no harm in being successful and a great deal of joy in publishing a book as good as The Aphasia Cafe. Even if I hadn't published it I'd say it's a really fine book, the kind of book that even Ezra Pound, who said of George Oppen's first book that he (Oppen) wrote "what couldn't be found in other men's books," might be happy with.

The Aphasia Cafe consists of very, very well written and extraordinarily personal poems written around one major theme that work together to provide a valuable public service. Offhand, I can't think of a book out there that compresses thought & feeling so well into one thing. Dawn's a neuroscientist--she knows how the brain does and doesn't work--but somehow she's able to think with her heart and put that into her writing. The IF SF website has posted some of the reviews of the book along with a listing of Dr. McGuire's upcoming readings.

Everything about the project has been positive--working with Dawn on the ms. & seeing how readers respond to her work, watching the book design by Kseniya Makarova and Tom Ingalls take shape, standing on the sidelines as the outreach program by Mike Hoye started to come to life, and now knowing the book's finding its audience. And whether or not it's a business, how many businessmen can truthfully say they enjoy what they're doing? 

Next Publisher's Report: The beginnings of IF--a modest history (September, 2012)