Books can enrich people’s lives in ways that are hard to measure. Beloved children’s tales can stay with adults into their senior years and lines read in a book can enlighten readers to see different perspectives. Entrepreneur Carol Hoenig fully understands just how powerful books can be. Carol is the President of Carol Hoenig, Publishing Consultant, Inc. and she is dedicated to helping authors and publishers in a number of ways. She has aided aspiring authors working through their first drafts, helped form Book proposals, and is an expert at publicity and marketing campaigns.
Books
Carol started her business in 2005 after working at Borders Group, Inc. as a National Event Specialist for several years. As part of her job, she booked musicians, authors and other speakers and had the opportunity to meet famous people including Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Frank McCourt, Kurt Vonnegut and Walter Cronkite.
Carol has served on the board of many writing and publishing committees and she has experience teaching writing workshops and confusing education classes at Hofstra University. A published author herself, Carol was honored with the title of "Best of Long Island Author" in 2012 and was named Outstanding Advocate for the Arts in 2013 by the Long Island Arts Council.
Over the course of her career, Carol has made many valuable connections in the publishing industry, writers communities and among the media.
In 2015, she opened the "Turn of the Corkscrew Books and Wine" independent bookstore which she named after the famous novel “Turn of the Screw." The bookstore has a mission to give visitors a place to find and buy books as well as exchange ideas about books and instill a love of literature in children.
Carol recently discussed her career and her plans for the evolution of her book shop.
Interview
Blasting News (BN): What initially inspired you to get into the publishing industry?
Carol Hoenig (CH): I found that being a writer wasn’t enough to find an audience, but that I needed to educate myself about how to get published and publishing in general, including acknowledging what was selling. Therefore, I began to do research and got myself a job working for Borders Books, which, sadly, no longer exists; however, that job helped me get into the world of publishing.
BN: You are a publicist, editor, and consultant. Which of these roles do you most enjoy?
CH: Each has its own rewards. It thrills me when I can get an author’s book some sort of attention. Being an editor is gratifying, too, if I can help a writer get their manuscript in shape so that it deserves publication. And, as a consultant, I feel that I help writers avoid some costly missteps before they go the way of self-publishing.
BN: You're also a writer so what books have you written?
CH: I have two published novels, “Without Grace” and “Of Little Faith” and a nonfiction work, “The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events.” I’m also in numerous anthologies and I blog for the Huffington Post.
BN: You now own the Turn of the Corkscrew Bookstore in Rockville Center, Long Island.
What made you decide to open this bookstore and what was the process of raising awareness of it like?
CH: My business partner and I often discussed wanting to open a bookstore, after Borders closed. At first, it seemed like a foolish dream, but then the more we heard about the success of independent bookstores and the more research we did, we realized that it was a good time to open our own independent bookstore. However, we wanted to offer something in addition to the bookstore, which is why we have the wine bar/café.
BN: You seem to host a lot of events in your store. What kinds of things can guests expect to find on your roster?
CH: We host author events, workshops, story time, etc. It’s rare when we aren’t having something at the bookstore.
BN: Seeking an agent is very difficult. What advice can you offer to emerging authors who are trying to connect to agents?
CH: There’s so much the author must do before trying to get an agent. First and foremost, make sure that they have something worth showing to the agent that is publishable and to make certain that the particular agents they are querying represent the type of book they have written.
BN: What have been the ultimate highlights and biggest rewards of your career thus far?
CH: Well, having my novel “Without Grace” compared to “To Kill a Mockingbird” was quite amazing. There have been so many other highlights. I have hosted numerous “names” in the business, but it is the mid-list author’s event that I enjoy since I like to think that we are helping them in their journey as a successful writer.
That is rewarding.
BN: How do you envision Turn of the Corkscrew evolving over the next decade? Essentially, what are your grandest goals for the store and its events?
CH: To continue growing and being a destination for both patrons and authors. Also, it would be nice to have a full-time staff so that I have more time to get back to my writing. I have an agent pitching my 3rd novel while I’m working on my 4th, which is a prequel to “Without Grace.”
