Stories and sayings from days long past are often the stuff of family biographies, but such books often compete with more timely topics and garner less attention from mainstream media. One author recently proved there is a market for the genre, however. Excerpts from Ed McManus’ book, The Nana in the Chair, and the Tales She Told: An Anecdotal Biography of Mary Dunne Ware (1860-1956) are currently being serialized in the Boston Herald, and the book’s success is due in large part to its author’s creative and persistent marketing efforts.
When 80-year-old Mary Dunne Ware went to live with family in 1939, her physical infirmities were all but lost on the brood of wide-eyed grandchildren who regaled daily in her tales of growing up in Ireland. Sprinkled among the anecdotes were many priceless pieces of wisdom that never left the heart or mind of Ed, who at 2 years old was the youngest member of his Nana Ware’s rambunctious captive audience.
“She was blind, crippled with arthritis and confined to her chair, but her mind was clear and her spirit was strong. She felt like she had to contribute to the household in some way, and she became our sitter, confidante and friend,” says McManus.
In the days before television, Nana Ware became the main source of entertainment for Ed and his siblings, who would eagerly gather around her and listen as she shared folk tales, fairy tales and stories about her Irish heritage her early years in America during the 1800s. The tales and her sayings had a profound impact on Ed and his siblings.
“All her stories had a point that was somehow relevant to whatever was happening in our lives,” he says. “It was the same way with her sayings. If she would ask us how something got broken and one of us piped up with, ‘I didn’t do it,’ she would always say, ‘The guilty flee-eth where no one doth pursue.’ Even years later, when we were all grown, we would often recall her sayings like that,” says McManus. “She was one of those extraordinary people you meet once or twice in a lifetime, a very strong and loving person, and the memories of all that she shared with us stayed with me all these years. As I get older, I didn’t want to lose those stories that have remained so precious to me.”
When he retired in 2000, he began to write down Nana Ware’s anecdotes and sayings, and the idea of creating a book to give his own grandchildren was born. McManus was no stranger to the publishing world. In 1984 he co-authored We’re Roasting Harry Tuesday Night: How to Plan, Write and Conduct the Business-Social Roast (Prentice Hall). Although the book was successful–it went through four printings–McManus was ready for a change when The Nana in the Chair was ready for publication.
“I found that traditional publishing had changed. Calls and e-mails went unanswered and there was no personal touch to the business anymore at all,” he says. “I looked into getting an agent, but that was tough to do, too.”
Not being one to take no for an answer, McManus pressed on despite the fact that his book’s subject did not seem to take the traditional publishing industry by storm.
“This book was something I wanted to do,” he says.
In AuthorHouse, he found the publisher he was looking for. As someone who spent much of his career around marketing and sales, the notion of promoting his book was always on McManus’ mind. He is in demand as a luncheon speaker, and would often find himself imparting some of Nana Ware’s wisdom on his audiences. The next logical step was to tell them about the book itself, and the strategy continues to be successful. Nowadays, McManus often takes his 13-year-old granddaughter to his engagements; she sits in the back of the room with a stack of books and acts as his on-site “business manager.”
“Someone once said to me that books aren’t sold, you have to sell them,” he says. “I’ve found that to be very true. It takes commitment.”
Such a mindset is how he landed serialization for his book in the Boston Herald. In what is often an effective marketing tactic, he honed in on the book’s local ties when he approached the well-known daily newspaper that sports a circulation of 250,000.
“I grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in Fitchburg, Mass., and I told [the Herald] that there was bound to be interest in this sort of thing, because the place [Boston] is full of people from similar backgrounds,” McManus recalls.
It took a few repeat performances, but McManus persisted. He was hoping for a review. He got a seven-week serialization that began Nov. 8 and will appear each Tuesday through Dec. 8. “They have been incredible as part of this [book promotion],” says McManus.
The paper is also including his book as part of its Newspapers in Education (NIE) program. Information about The Nana in the Chair and the Tales She Told was distributed to teachers all over Massachusetts via the NIE newsletter, and the Herald is donating 10,000 issues in which the serial appears to schools around the state. As well, an essay contest has been designed in which area schoolchildren, using McManus’ book as their guide, will pen stories about a grandparent or other older relative who has had a positive impact on their lives. Appropriately, McManus has been asked to serve as judge for the contest.
“I didn’t base [the reason for writing this book] on the idea that it was going to make money,” he explains. “The satisfaction comes from the book finally being in print and the fact that my family now has something they can admire and cherish.”
Nana Ware would be proud.
