Nagging Questions for...
Johnny Temple
by Jeff Lyons

PROFESSION: Publisher, Writer, Musician

WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HIM:
He's editor-in-chief and publisher of Akashic Books. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Publishers Weekly, Punk Planet, and Bust. He plays bass in the rock bands Girls Against Boys and New Wet Kojak and was a founding member of seminal DC punk band Soulside.

FIND OUT MORE:
www.akashicbooks.com
www.gvsb.com



Johnny Temple sure knows how to keep busy. During the day, he publishes a wide range of stimulating books — Cuban noir, political commentary, art and music to name a few genres — by emerging international authors and pens his own pieces about culture and politics for various magazines. At night you might catch him rocking out live — most recently touring with actress-turned-rocker Gina Gershon. Even with all this activity swirling about, this DIY maven sounded strangely relaxed when I spoke with him recently.

What was the impetus to go from music to publishing?

There was no real impetus. Basically, I had always wanted to start a record label, and when my band signed to Geffen in 1995, for the first time in my life I had a little bit of disposable income. I decided to start the record label that I had always wanted to start, but I found that I was basically burnt out on the music business at that point. Having worked with both independent labels and major labels, I kind of had had enough. I was satisfied just playing music, and the business of music, to my surprise, just didn't appeal to me. On a whim, I decided to try publishing a book because it seemed like a fresher thing to do. So I published a book without knowing anything about book publishing — I just sort of jumped right in.

What was that book?

The Fuck Up, by Arthur Nersesian, which we did reprintings of before it got picked up by Simon & Schuster MTV Books and has pretty much become a cult classic. It's been through 16 printings. And so I got off on the right foot.

How did you discover him?

The author had originally published the book himself in the early '90s, a very crude version of the book. A friend of mine had picked it up in the East Village. He had met Arthur Nersesian, the author, at a used-furniture store where the author was working. And he had copies of The Fuck Up at the counter. So my friend read it and loved it and gave it to me. I read it and I loved it. A bunch of my friends read this early, crude, crude version of the book, and we all loved it.

A couple of years later I got the idea of trying to publish a book, so I tracked down that Arthur Nersesian.

Did you rely on friends to help you with the publishing, like, the design and production?

Yeah. To this day, everything hinges on my friends. My friends have really come through for me. I couldn't do what I'm doing without them. So it's worked out really well.

So it's a small staff at Akashic?

Yeah. It's me and Johanna who are full time, and then we have a couple of part-time people and a couple of interns and lots of freelance designers and editors.

You state "we publish writers either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within corporate publishers." Are there any well-known authors, like Oprah's Book Club-type writers, that you'd like to publish?

Actually, yeah, there's a lot. I have pretty eclectic taste and there's lots of mainstream literature that I like. In fact, some of our books are on the mainstream side of our catalog. Not only do I not reject the notion of Oprah's Book Club, I actually think that it's a wonderful thing. There are plenty of books that have been on Oprah's Book Club that I would have been proud to have published. Toni Morrison, who's one of the best-selling literary novelists alive, is one of my favorite writers, and I would have loved to publish her. I'm not going get to do that, but I'd love to.

Never say never. Is it difficult to get your books distributed into Barnes & Noble or Borders, or is that not important to you?

Oh, it's very important. You know, the chain stores have been surprisingly good to us. When I started out, I did a lot of the distribution by patching together a distribution network across the country. Then in the year 2000, an independent distributor named Consortium based in St. Paul, Minnesota, picked us up, and that made everything a lot easier. They're great to work with.

Is distribution similar for records and books?

There's a lot of overlap. There are some key differences, but there's overlap.

How about selling books over the website? Has that been successful?

Yeah, we're starting to get more and more over the website. It's a great way to sell books. It's a cheap way to get the message across. The Internet's been important for us.

I noticed that the prices of your books are very reasonable. I found that unusual for an independent publisher — normally prices are high.

I appreciate your saying that. I wish our books were even cheaper than they are. I feel that it's hard for independent bookstores to price our books as low as the big publishers, so we do what we can.

For example, I picked up Five Biggest Lies at our local Borders.

That one's very cheap.

Yeah, it was just nice because I'm not used to that.

That was sort of an experiment for us. We had never priced a book like that. It's been a big success. It's an important book, and it's been great to give to family members and friends who need a little convincing. We have author events, and people buy five copies, and the price is a crucial part of that.

You published that with Seven Stories Press, correct?

Yeah.

Now why did you go in with another publisher for something like that?

We both kind of found out about the book at the same time. I found out about it first, and then Seven Stories found out about it shortly after. I was already friends with Dan Simon, the Seven Stories publisher, who's a great publisher, and we were talking: "What are we going to do? We're both approaching the same book." We just decided to experiment and enter into a creative collaboration. You know, the AlterNet website, the progressive news website, was sort of the instigator of the book, so it was just a really nice way to work it out. It's been a big success.

It sounds as if a lot of indie publishers were supportive. It's not like when big houses go after one author in a bidding war.

There's some competition among indies, but there's a lot more flexibility as well. I don't consider any of the independents my competition. I consider us to be in competition with a society that doesn't really value literature, particularly literary fiction. I'm very inspired by other independent publishers.

Please name a book, it could be Akashic or not, that you always find yourself recommending?

Sure. I can't help but recommend an Akashic book. There are two Akashic books that are really safe bets. Because you know, some of the books that we publish some people love, some people hate, but there are books that we publish that get a positive response across the board. One is Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarría. He's an author who lives in Cuba, and a couple of years ago, he won an Edgar Award, which is the biggest mystery award in the world. This is a very unconventional mystery — it's a literary mystery, it has some humor, it some erotic elements — it really gives a nice glimpse at a side of Cuba that most people don't get to see.

Another book is Heart of the Old Country by Tim McLoughlin, which is a novel set in Brooklyn. It was selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers program, and it just had a fantastic reception.

Speaking of Brooklyn and where you are, I noticed that you're very involved with your neighborhood. I've read interviews where you've said that you're trying to help kids read. I know that McSweeney's in San Fran has 826 Valencia, an after-school reading program. Do you have anything like that?

I've done collaborations with people in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which is where I live, and put together a series of events around the work of Richard Wright, who wrote some of Native Son in our neighborhood back in the 1930s. I'm involved in a lot of different community groups, but there's no formal structure yet. I really admire what McSweeney's does, and I hear that they're trying to do something similar in New York, which I would try to get involved with.

Let's talk a little music here if you don't mind. What are your two all-time favorite bands who you'd love to perform with on the same bill?

There was an obscure band, sort of a precursor to Fugazi, called Happy Go Licky. They were an amazing band — one of the greatest bands ever to come out of DC, but they didn't really last for too long. There's a band that I would have loved to play with. Another band, Two Boy Army, that produced Gary Numan, the New Wave artist, is another favorite.

What are you listening to now?

I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop lately, but I listen to the kind of the same CDs in rotation lately. Wu Tang Clan is one of my favorites.

If you had a gig on the radio, would you rather have a talk show or play records?

I personally would rather play records, though I do like radio talk shows.

Do you consider what you do a job? Is it primarily a business, or something that you just love to do?

Well, it's both. It's a job because I'm sitting here in an office with staff people and I work 10 hours a day, but I feel lucky to be able to have a job like this. To be my own boss is a privilege, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And I like to work — some people don't like to work. I do, so the idea of having a job isn't a big drag, but if I was working for some one else, it might be.

What's next for Girls Against Boys or New Wet Kojak?

New Wet Kojak has a song coming out on an album inspired by the author Dennis Cooper. The Versus Press, San Francisco, is putting out this album. That's the main thing that's happening. Both bands are fairly inactive right now.

But they will rise again?

We'll see. It's kind of hard to say, but I wouldn't rule it out.

What's a good day for Johnny Temple?

A good day is one in which I have time to actually read a book. I love reading, but with publishing, I read a lot but I spend a lot of time doing other stuff that isn't reading. So being able to kick back with a book and spend time with my wife, who I love, and have kind of a nice relaxing day. I've had a lot of exciting days, but I value the ones where I can chill out.