Bookstore in Red Lodge, Montana, Awards 'Lodgies' to Local Authors

Other groups present the Oscars, the Grammys, and the Pulitzers … now readers in Red Lodge, Montana, population 2,000, can boast their own awards, the Lodgies. The awards are the brainchild of author and bookstore owner Gary Robson. The "First Annual Top Authors of Red Lodge Awards Ceremony" was held in January at the Elks Club in downtown Red Lodge.

Robson, with his wife Kathy, purchased a 15-year-old bookstore in October 2001, changed the name to Red Lodge Books, revamped the inventory mix, and, then, moved it to its current location last May, tripling the store's original size. In the warm weather, tourists are plentiful in this town, near the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, 60 miles from both Billings, Montana, and Cody, Wyoming.

"We found the winter a very slow time in the mountains of Montana," Robson told BTW in a recent interview. "Our ad copy for this time of year is 'The Second Best Thing to Curl Up With on a Cold Winter Night.' We knew that many residents would show up for an event, looking to escape their houses in the frigid weather."

Lodgie award recipients (local authors) at Red Lodge Books winter event.

Last year, Robson discovered something interesting about the titles that his neighbors were curling up with. "When I was running the numbers to see what books we've sold, I saw in print something I've been feeling in my gut: local authors sell very well in this small-town bookstore," Robson said. "Local historian and author Shirley Zupan has been outselling J.K. Rowling at our store."

Not surprisingly, Zupan, author of History of Red Lodge and Red Lodge: Saga of a Western Area (both published by Carbon County Historical Society), was awarded a Lodgie in the History category. Awards were also presented in the categories of Nature and the Outdoors, Children and Young Adult, Poetry, Memoirs and the Biographies, and Books by Writers Who Also Happen to Own a Bookstore in Southern Montana.

"That last category," Robson said with a laugh, "was an award I presented to myself. I also grouped the remaining local fiction and nonfiction authors into two big categories and handed out honorable mention awards. All the authors present at the event got a chance to talk about what they were working on. In the press release, I announced that winners would receive a solid-gold trophy, but in the event of budgetary problems, we might have to change it to a frameable certificate printed on 100 percent genuine paper. Guess which we did?"

Robson explained that in arranging the event he calculated the top authors in each category and, then, "determined where the locals fit." The store invited all the authors within a comfortable driving distance, and Robson said that "the costs were minimal" in staging the event. "The local papers printed full stories for us, and I put up posters all over town," he noted. "We held the event at the Elks Club just down the street, which gave us use of their big sign in front. I emceed, and my wife took care of a couple of big tables of books for sale. We had a great time, generated some good publicity, and even sold a few books." Now that the winners have had time to hang their frameable certificates, Robson said, "Everyone's pushing me to make it an annual event." -- Nomi Schwartz