Many supporters of the communist movement are already involved in the Pathfinder Reprint Project, whose goal is to put all of Pathfinder's books and pamphlets in electronic, print-ready form. Their advances on this front have encouraged them to join in the effort by SWP members and Young Socialists to increase the distribution and sales of revolutionary literature.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Peter Buch and Raúl González, two volunteer sales representatives, recently secured an order for nearly $600 from a local bookstore for multiple copies of 13 titles.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, Mark Weddleton obtained a $65 order placed by a local bookstore that includes titles by Malcolm X, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Evelyn Reed. "I had fun doing this," Weddleton reports. "The buyer was friendly and said that if these titles do well he might try some others." Weddleton later traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet with Pathfinder supporters there about his experiences.

Laura Estupinian, a supporter in Houston, gained a $175 order from a college bookstore and reports she has taken part in several visits to a major university library.

To aid in this effort, supporters of the communist movement in San Francisco have prepared a training class syllabus for themselves and SWP and YS members engaged in this work.

The syllabus goes step-by-step over how to plan and carry out a sales visit with a book buyer. It starts with the preparatory work, which includes putting together a professional carrying case with sample books, catalogs, and order forms, and visiting the bookstore before the appointment to see how it's organized and what titles it carries. It reviews how to make the appointments, take orders, and complete the job, and includes a sample form to organize information and follow-up after the sales visit.

Michele Smith, one of the organizers of this effort in the Bay Area, said, "We consider it a draft and are asking for suggestions to improve it" from those involved in the work around the world.  
 
Classroom orders increase
Pathfinder is winding up its best winter of sales for classroom use in at least four years. In December and the first three weeks of January, $26,500 worth of books were sold to college and university bookstores as course material. This is a 25 percent increase over last year and nearly $3,000 more than the 1997-98 season.

Many of these sales would not have been possible without the efforts of the volunteers digitizing Pathfinder books. The list of titles in use in classes across the United States reads like a partial list of the books prepared for reprint by the volunteers since they began almost three years ago.

Among the best-selling classroom titles this year were The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, with nearly 900 copies sold, and Engels's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific with 600 sold. Other recently digitized titles that have been adopted for classroom use include Malcolm X on Afro-American History; Art and Revolution, Their Morals and Ours, and The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky; The Politics of Chicano Liberation by Olga Rodríguez; Fidel Castro's Political Strategy by Marta Harneker; and Cosmetics, Fashion and the Exploitation of Women by Joseph Hansen, Evelyn Reed, and Mary-Alice Waters.

A university in Miami ordered 80 copies of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, and a school in Connecticut ordered 15 copies of The Jewish Question by Abram Leon.  
 
Orders of 'Capitalism's World Disorder'
Pathfinder also received its second classroom order for Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, with 32 copies ordered for a class on "Global Political Economy" at a university in Tucson, Arizona. Sixty copies were ordered in December for a class in Pennsylvania on "Values in Conflict in the 20th Century."

The training class syllabus prepared by supporters in the San Francisco Bay Area is included in a new Pathfinder Sales Newsletter, the first issue of which was recently produced.

It will be used by members and supporters of the communist movement as a tool to place Pathfinder titles in bookstores and other outlets.

Contents of future issues of the newsletter will be drawn primarily from the reports, suggestions, and correspondence of those around the world who are directly involved in the work.
 
 
Related articles:
Cuban general Harry Villegas salutes book by Bolivian revolutionary Rodolfo Saldaña
New Bay of Pigs books tell of first defeat for U.S. in the Americas
Pathfinder to launch new titles at Cuba fair
 
 
 
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