Those of you who follow my Patreon know that I recently hit the road and drove to Vermont to attend a party celebrating Inner Traditions 50th Anniversary.
Words cannot express how touched I was to be invited to the event, considering what a miniscule role I play in the life of Inner Traditions. Although I don’t have a guest list, I think I may have been the only “press” invited to the event. However, it was wonderful to see the diverse group that was gathered for the occasion: publicists, attorneys, authors, editors, owners of assorted other publishers, family, friends, local business owners, office staff, and more. Attendees came from as close as 30 minutes away from the event site, and as far as Venezuela and India.
The event was held at the Inner Traditions Solar Farm, which provides the power to run their Vermont operations. The tables were filled with Inner Traditions titles for guests to take home as souvenirs! Believe it or not, I did not bring home any books! Inner Traditions is so generous with their review copies that any book I spotted that I was interested in, I already had! What did happen was I spent a lot of time walking up to random people looking at the books and unprompted would go on a ramble about how good the book is and that they should take it home.
I learned a lot about Inner Traditions that I was not aware of before. They had no layoffs due to covid, and not only that, they expanded their business during that time to bring in the imprint Sacred Planet Books. One of their books was mentioned in “The DaVinci Code” and the burst of sales allowed them to build their audiobook wing. And on that subject, when audiobooks started growing in popularity, they never licensed their books out to become audiobooks, but immediately invested in the equipment and education to produce their own. Currently, they are focusing on Spanish language growth, in not only translating their titles to Spanish, but publishing original works in Spanish. I suspect the strong Latin vibe of the evening was to celebrate their new publishing partnerships that were going to help with distributing Inner Traditions’ books throughout the Spanish speaking world.
We were welcomed by Jeanie Levitan, Inner Traditions current Editor in Chief, and Leslie Colket Blair, their first Editor in Chief. I got to briefly meet both of these women, and they were just so very nice.
Next was a toast celebrating 50 years with Inner Traditions founder Ehud C. Sperling. What a character! He was a charming speaker, one part proud father, one part sheepish acknowledger of his luck.
Following, there was a Latin-themed dinner catered by the farm-to-table organization Moon and Stars that was delicious. We were entertained by a fantastic mariachi band, Mariachi Hidalgo.
After dinner, publicity manager Ashley Kolesnik and director of sales Maria Loftus gave a speech about Inner Traditions today. Ashley was kind enough to name check The Magical Buffet when speaking about media, and Maria told me how when she was an intern she would copy and paste The Magical Buffet banner for their press.
The last speaker for the evening was Mahar Sperling, the head of Spanish language and audiobook director. Also, the son of founder Ehud Sperling. He gave an inspiring talk about the future of Inner Traditions, as well as paying tribute to the previous 50 years.
Sadly, I left shortly after the impressive cake was served, but I got to meet a lot of amazing people and learn more about not only Inner Traditions, but the publishing world in general.
You can learn more Inner Traditions here.
Interested in some behind the scenes stories from this event? My Patrons at the $5 or higher tiers are getting to read all about my Vermont hijinks, including the person I embarrassed myself in front of, the sights unrelated to the event that caught my eye, my failed attempts to find a drink, and more! Join at https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet now so you don’t miss out!