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Aug. 9--Blame the memoir craze of the 1990s. It's fairly astonishing how many ordinary people are convinced that they have a book in them, usually one about their own life.
As a sort of secondary fantasy, they're also convinced that their story will be so unusual and gripping that major publishing houses will rush to shower them with praise -- and cash. Typically, the best-seller list, a film deal and appearances on "Oprah" figure into the fantasy, as well.
Good luck with all that, people.
Alton Pryor didn't kid himself, back in 1991 when he was laid off from California Farmer magazine, where he'd worked as a reporter for 27 years.
He needed to make a living, so he started writing.
Now his 16th book is in manuscript form, waiting for his son to finish proofreading it. The California State Fair -- where Pryor and another self-published local author, Naida West, have run the California Authors Booth for the past nine years -- is just a few days away.
And Pryor, 79, is living the dream of self-publishing hopefuls everywhere, having gone on to success in his second career as Stagecoach Publishing's owner and sole author.
"I've had so many people ask me if I'd publish their books, too," he says. "I've got enough headaches publishing my own."
So he wrote a how-to book on self-publishing instead. (If you can't make it to the fair, all of Pryor's books are available at www.stagecoachpublishing. com.)
One of the secrets of his success, please note, is the fact that he doesn't write about himself. Pryor's first book also is his top seller: "Little Known Tales in California History" ($11.95, 204 pages), which he estimates has sold 70,000 copies.
Teachers love the book, which contains 41 quick and snappy stories -- "five- to 10-minute history lessons," as Pryor puts it. History buffs love the book, too, and so do the folks who flock to Pryor's booth at Apple Hill and various other fairs.
Most of the titles on his book list cover historical topics, mainly centered on California and the Old West.
In the Sun City Roseville home Pryor shares with his wife, Edie, this quiet summer morning amounts to the calm before the storm.
Pryor plans to be at the State Fair almost every day it's open, and he says he generally sells 700 books there each year. In total, 27 California authors are scheduled for shifts at the writers booth, which will be located in the Counties Building.
A farm boy from the Salinas Valley, Pryor was thinking of re-enlisting in the Navy when his commanding officer suggested that college held more opportunities than the military. At Cal Poly, he majored in agricultural journalism, and writing still wasn't out of his system three decades later. Good thing: After he was laid off, he pieced together a living by freelancing short stories on California history.
After the Pryors moved to Roseville from Santa Maria in 1996, he compiled his research into "Little Known Tales in California History." He found a printer in Kansas and a book distributor in Southern California. Slowly but surely, his initial printing of 3,000 books sold out.
And then he struck a deal with Costco.
"One day my distributor called me and said, 'I need 5,950 more books,'" Pryor says. "I thought it was a crank call. Before the week was out, they added another 1,800 books to the order."
His secret? He asked. Specifically, he sent a proposal to Costco's book buyer at the company's Washington headquarters.
Pryor says he doesn't know the total volume of his book list's sales.
"Oh, heavens," he says. "I should've kept track."
All in all, it's not a bad way to spend his retirement years -- telling other people's stories and meeting the readers while marketing his books.
"I'm having more fun than I ever had," he says. "Every time I mention I'm writing a new book, my wife just shakes her head."
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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