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May 17, 2002/Sivan 6, 5762, Vol. 54, No.35
Author hits homerun with book for kids
JEFFREY STANLIS
Special to Jewish News
These days, Brett Hodus is more likely to listen to his mother.
Hodus, the 23-year-old author and co-founder of the children's sports book publishing company Scobre Press, thanks his mother for his biggest break.
"Like a true Jewish mother, she kept telling me to call Scholastic Press," Hodus says of the company that markets select books to children nationwide. "She was nagging me, really. I kept saying, 'Ma, you don't just call Scholastic Press. That's not how it works.' "
Finally, Hodus called Scholastic's toll-free number.
"Fifteen minutes later I'm talking to the right person," Hodus recalls. "She told me to mail my book in, but warned me that all the books Scholastic publishes come from major publishers. We basically had no chance."
Hodus' partner, Scott Blumenthal, was even more skeptical.
"They told us we had a better chance of being struck by lightning on a sunny day in San Diego," Blumenthal says. "But somehow, they picked up the book."
Hodus' mother, Harriet, was right, and Scholastic bought the book, paying Hodus and Blumenthal their first advance, albeit a small one, for "The Road to the Majors."
The two penned "The Road to the Majors" while they were finishing college. They then formed Scobre Press, combining Blumenthal's and Hodus' first names, and set up shop in an extra office in Blumenthal's father's San Diego law firm. Hodus, upon graduating from New York University, moved across the country to San Diego to start the grass-roots marketing effort for the first book.
Their marketing efforts involved touring elementary schools, including a visit this spring to the Phoenix and Tempe locations of the Thomas J. Pappas Schools for homeless children.
More recently, the two writers visited schools in California. They also sold 10,000 books to the San Diego Padres to give away to children at a baseball game later this season.
Harriet Hodus, a kindergarten teacher in New York, says her son's affinity for writing began at a very young age - he wrote his first novel when he was 7 years old.
But getting this novel widely published was not as simple. Scholastic accepts only about a dozen of the 50,000 submitted books each year for publishing.
The book was released March 1, and Scholastic has already sold 13,000 copies.
Hodus and Blumenthal met during the Semester at Sea program in college. Hodus, from New York, and Blumenthal, from California, ended up as roommates and quickly learned how much they had in common, including Judaism.
"We were both wannabe athletes," Blumenthal says.
Both Blumenthal and Hodus read sports books growing up. They both say that genre was instrumental in their reading development as children.
"For the most part, sports books (are) what kept me reading," Blumenthal says.
Beyond the new career as book publishers, both Hodus and Blumenthal say that reaching kids is the most important and gratifying aspect of their day-to-day lives.
"Reading isn't always the most hip thing to do, but when we get them reading our books, if they like sports they keep reading. We have a chance to affect kids, and that's great," says Blumen-thal.
After writing their first two books, the two have taken a step back from the writing to focus on the marketing and publishing.
"We've hired nine authors to write more books on more sports, so we can work on the sales and marketing aspects," says Blumenthal.
Hodus thinks Scobre can fill a niche, publishing sports-themed books that follow a simple formula: keep kids intrigued with athletic-related stories and teach them something about life along the way.
"There is a road to the majors in life, and a road to the majors in everything," Hodus says. "Using sports, we can help to teach kids, provide role models and inspiration."
Information on Scobre Press and its growing line of sports-themed books can be found at www.scobre.com. The book is also available through Barnes and Noble.
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