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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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Books Matter at Bookmatters
David Peattie '84 fills a key niche in the
publishing business
By Lea Aschkenas '95
My first clue that BookMatters, an editorial and production publishing
service owned by David Peattie ’84, is not your traditional
high-pressure publishing enterprise comes via a pre-interview e-mail.
“Do I need to clean up the fragments of dog toys scattered around the
office?” Peattie asks, unsure whether I’ll be bringing a photographer.
When I arrive (sans photographer, to Peattie’s relief) the following day
at the Berkeley warehouse that is BookMatters, Peattie introduces me to
designer Bea Hartman and editor Anne Rock, but I also meet a boxer named
Zorro, who presses his head against me in greeting. Tucker, Peattie’s
sleek black lab mix, curls up next to him on one of the couches where we
sit in the office library. Another editor is working at home, and a
subcontracting designer has not shown up yet.
“I’m surprised that he’s not here by now,” Peattie says. We both look up
at an overhead clock whose hour hand edges its way past 11. “Actually,”
Peattie confides, “I’m not really that surprised.”
 With a smile that quickly turns into a laugh, Peattie doesn’t appear
that upset either. When he founded BookMatters 11 years ago, after
having worked for several publishing companies doing both editing and
book production, one thing Peattie knew for sure was that he wanted to
create a relaxed and flexible work space. And one in which he would be
able to dabble in all aspects of the book-publishing process.
“I love wordsmithing, but I also love the physicality of book
production,” Peattie says. “With design, every dot means something,
which is both wonderful and awful. Always, I find myself wanting to make
sure that every little thing is perfect.”
In a publishing world that often seems not just to get smaller but also
sloppier with each new merger and buy-out and editorial staff
downsizing, Peattie’s perfectionism has paid off, earning BookMatters a
niche spot in a lesser-known side of the book world.
Peattie and his team step in when any one of the 11 small press or
scholarly publishers they work with – including University of California
Press, Northwestern University Press, Islands Press, and Ten Speed Press
– is unable to complete the publishing process for a title.
“Maybe they’re overloaded with books, or they’re having staff
fluctuation, or the book is timely and needs to come out as soon as
possible,’’ Peattie explains. “Currently, we’re working on a UC Press
book due out this fall, The Road to 9/11 by Peter Dale Scott, which fits
into this category. It indicts Bush in a lot of what happened, so
there’s that urgency to it.”
Another reason publishers contact BookMatters is because they have a
difficult relationship with an author. “But I’ve rarely had a problem
with this,” Peattie says. “The thing is, when the authors call, I pick
up the phone. Usually all they need is that sort of attention that their
publishers are too busy to provide.”
In addition to communicating with authors, a typical day for Peattie
involves proofing pages and reviewing books that are going off to press.
During BookMatters’ six-to-nine-month publication cycle, the team
typically works on 25 to 35 books. Although they fully design many of
the books they work on, BookMatters rarely gets credit in the published
work. And, again here, Peattie appears unfazed.
“We’re not big on self-promotion,” he says simply.
On a coffee table in the library, Peattie has displayed several of his
favorite recent titles for which BookMatters has handled copyediting,
typesetting and template development. There is Storming the Gates of
Paradise by Rebecca Solnit, Safe Food by Marion Nestle and The
California Landscape Garden by Mark Francis and Andreas Reimann.
Peattie picks up this last one, an illustrated large-format book: “It
feels good to have been part of producing something beautiful and
interesting and unique.”
Other times, though, when Peattie senses that no amount of redesign or
rewriting is going to turn a book into a project he can believe in, he
will refuse it altogether.
“Sometimes I even have to do this with clients I really like,” he says.
“A while ago, I had to turn down a UC Press book on thoughtful voices on
why to go to war in Iraq. It was well-done, but I just couldn’t work on
it. If we work on books we feel bad about, it begins to affect the mood
of our office. I want to be picky with the books we work on, and I want
people to be happy here.”
To this end, there are not just the office dogs, but BookMatters also
has Thursday afternoon yoga classes and, every other Friday, post-work
cocktail parties with a “bar that’s so well-stocked it’s embarrassing.”
For further tension relief, there’s a Pin-the-Scandal-on-the-Politician
spinning wheel featuring, among others, the faces of Tom DeLay and
Scooter Libby. “We have these end-of-the-year theme parties,” Peattie
explains. “Last year’s theme was ‘Retirement for Politicians.’”
Recently, the topic of Peattie’s own retirement was broached by his
financial planner. “He wanted to know when I thought I would do it, and
it was a really difficult question because I love my job. When I gave
him an answer, I felt like I was just making it up,” Peattie says,
shaking his head at the thought. “It just wasn’t something I wanted to
think about.”
Tucker, who’s still curled up next to him on the couch, thumps his tail
sympathetically. |
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