Here’s the big news from around here. A whole new ball game. These are wonderful people we have teamed up with.

I’ll be covering this change and my future mode(s) of communication in one of my Gimme Shelter newsletters soon.

If you want to receive these (infrequent) newsletters about what’s going on here, send your email address to lloyd@shelterpub.com.

AdventureKEEN is excited to share the news that Shelter Publications has become the publishing group’s seventh imprint, effective January 1, 2024. Shelter Publications was founded by Lloyd Kahn and based in Bolinas, California.

“We are honored and appreciative to be able to shepherd the Shelter list going forward. Lloyd’s books have always been distinctive and smart. We’re pleased that we can continue his legacy of creating first-rate books that inspire and benefit readers around the world,” says Richard Hunt, president of AdventureKEEN.

Shelter Publications is a 50-year-old independent publisher known for its high-quality books about home building and personal fitness. With Lloyd’s start in the Whole Earth Catalog, Shelter’s building books (many written by Kahn), detail topics including small houses, campers, road rigs, houseboats, and much more. The long-selling fitness titles include Bob Anderson’s Stretching and (Jeff) Galloway’s Book on Running.

Publisher Molly Merkle adds, “Lloyd (aka “The King of D.I.Y. Dwellings”) has a voice and perspective that continues to resonate with readers. We are thrilled to carry forward his work and influence for future generations.”

“I’m more than excited to be working with AdventureKEEN in this next phase of my career. Our goals and aspirations are in sync, and I’m looking forward to this new relationship that will give me time to communicate via Instagram, Substack (to be created soon), and YouTube (and with an occasional book). We also look forward to having AdventureKEEN’s expertise and skills in marketing our Shelter Library of Building Books,” says Lloyd Kahn, Shelter founder.

Shelter’s administrative functions will transfer to AdventureKEEN’s Birmingham, Alabama headquarters. Lloyd will continue to author and promote the Shelter list.

“PGW has had a wonderful history with both publishers, and their shared sensibilities will allow Lloyd to continue to explore his many publishing ideas with an ideal and supportive partner,” says Kevin Votel, vice president of business development at Publishers Group West.

Publishers Group West (PGW) will remain the trade distributor of Shelter Publications. Established in 1976, PGW, an Ingram distribution company, is one of the top book vendors in the country, representing about 100 independent publishers, who together are publishing some of the most topical, innovative, literary, and award-winning books available today. PGW has been AdventureKEEN’s sales and distribution partner since 2007.

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AdventureKEEN, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cambridge, Minnesota, publishes 50–60 new titles annually, primarily on the subjects of nature, outdoor recreation, regional interest, and travel. The company has a backlist of 1000+ titles.

• Link to this press release on AdventureKEEN’s blog
• Link to Shelter Publications’ store at AdventureKEEN

Last week, Kyle Theirmann, surfer, skater, journalist, and pal of Chris Ryan’s came here to do a podcast of me talking about the ’60s, about which he is doing a book based on the fact that a lot of millennials (he’s 32) are aware that something happened then, but don’t know exactly what.

To start out, I gave him a thumbnail description of our first books, and I got him to shoot this video on my camera.

• From @lloyd.kahn’s Instagram

Lloyd, hello. I’m Tomas Lipps, used to live in Bolinas late ’70s, early ’80s… I was pleased to stumble upon your blog today and have enjoyed browsing through it. One line in particular struck me [referring to the book Shelter]: “We were both fans of Life Magazine, and felt that each two-page spread should stand alone and be visually balanced.” That’s because I’ve gotten into publishing myself. I edit a glossy print publication called STONEXUS Magazine and a digital counterpart to it called the STONEZINE, and in the print mag I’m particularly sensitive to how the two-page spreads are laid out. (The ‘zine is single-page, 8.5″ × 14″.)

Good to see you’re still at it, and out and about. I’ve been confined here in Santa Fe due to the damn pandemic, but as soon as I get issue #XX printed and mailed out (April), I’ll go off on the trip I had planned in 2020 — to Sardinia. Will be photographing stonework there, the Bronze Age Nuraghi in particular fascinate me. You seem to be familiar with Italy, anything you can tell me about Sardinia?

I wish I had time to do more blogging. But the combination of trying to keep this publishing operation afloat, doing books, marketing (how I wish we could, as author Bill Pearl said to me once, “…just do a book and it would fly out and sell like crazy.” Well it don’t happen that way. Once you publish a book nowadays, you then get into a snarl of technical requirements. The almighty metadata. At times I wish I was an author and my publisher would take care of all the marketing and endless digital requirements.

Photo by Aubrey Trinnaman

I do a lot of Instagramming, because I’m most interested these days in the 20-40 year-olds. They’re a new ball game from their padres; they are picking up on our 47-year-old book Shelter, and saying this is what I want to do. Plus Instagram is ideal for photographers, just unfortunate that Zuck wormed into it (and piles on the ads). I do like posting photos, but with blogs, you can write.

Does anyone read blogs these days?

We applied for and got approval for a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration that (if we do indeed get the funds) will pay for 2½ months of payroll. But things are still mighty thin. Bookstores are closed, and we’re trying to sell as many books mail-order as we can. We have a 30% discount for 2 or more books, with free shipping in the USA: www.shelterpub.com

I just ran across the below a few minutes ago. I had written something about our “tribe,” people who liked our hands-on approach to food and shelter, and who liked our cozy home, and the gardening, quilting, cooking part of our lives, and I had said how different our tribe was from the people who read Dwell, who I surmised to be in much greater numbers. I wrote that our people were like the book lovers in Fahrenheit 451, on the outskirts of the city, a small group of like-minded doers, but the masses were into another aesthetic. Minimal. Sleek. Expensive. And I got this comment on my blog:

This was before I started work on The Half-Acre Homestead (which is a few days away from being back in stock).

Anonymous
February 11, 2018 at 9:31 pm

Lloyd, I wouldn’t be so sure your tribe is smaller than Dwell’s … for a start, I’m pretty sure everyone on board at Dwell has read your books. More are probably following you. Your photos are abundant on Pinterest and Tumblr, and more have escaped into the wild, where they reproduce themselves in the form of strange little abodes in unlikely places.

And of course, all your photos have been seeds growing since the ’60s, every structure planting itself into a little crevice of a baby-boomer/genX/milennial/postmilennial brain … it might sit dormant for awhile, years of “normal jobs” and “nice apartments” and “valuable real estate,” until one day it sprouts through the rubble and we think, “Why not? Why not build it myself? Why not now?”

Please keep casting them far & wide … like most farmers, the principal reward for making the world a better place … is living in it.

–zolie

(Actually, it’s kind of zolie to say so, but I don’t think Dwell readers have our books or follow me.)

I’m going to The Winter Institute, hosted by The American Booksellers Association, which runs from January 22-25, at the Albuquerque Convention Center. I’ll be attending some seminars, and giving out and autographing copies of our (just printed) book, Driftwood Shacks to buyers at the Author Reception, Thursday Jan 24, 5pm to 6:30.

Per my usual M.O., I’m taking off a few days early for some exploring. I’m getting there Sunday, Jan. 20th, thinking of heading south to Truth or Consequences, a town with many hot springs, and exploring small towns like Hillsboro and Kingston and searching the countryside for barns and interesting buildings to photograph.

Anyone have any tips on stuff to do in that part of the world?

Bugs Bunny compilation sent by Doug Armstrong. I’d forgotten about Sounds like the same guy that said:

“There was thoity boids sittin’ on the coib, choipin’ and boipin’ and eatin’ doity woims…”