At-a-Glance
Latest book: An Alphabetical Life
Lives in: Los Angeles
Used to be: A peddler of books
Favorite restaurant: Musso and Frank's Grill
Website: www.wendywerris.com
Wendy Werris was born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles. She has worked in the book and publishing industries since the age of nineteen, when she went to work as a bookseller at the legendary Pickwick Bookshop in Hollywood. In 1976 she started her career as a publishers’ sales rep, selling in Southern California for over one hundred book publishers over the next thirty years.
Wendy’s first book, An Alphabetical Life: Living it Up in the World of Books (Carroll & Graf/Perseus) was published in 2006. The book was named Best Non-Fiction Book by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association the following year.
Today Wendy is the West Coast Correspondent for Publishers Weekly, a freelance book editor, the events director at Samuel French Bookshop in Hollywood, and a media escort for authors that come to Los Angeles on book tours. She is currently avoiding the writing of her next book, and is looking for a fifth job.
SoCal Book Scene Exclusive (Mini) Interview:
SCBS: What did you do before you “officially” became an author?
WW: Before my book came out I drove up and down and back and forth on the L.A. freeways calling on indie bookstores and peddling books for my publishers.
SCBS: How do you spend your weekends?
WW: I frequently work on the weekends, but when I'm free I enjoy having dinner parties for my friends and engaging in violent discussions about politics, life and the arts. I'm a Netflix junkie as well.
SCBS: What’s your favorite restaurant in Southern California?
WW: Who can afford to eat in restaurants anymore? If I'm flush, though, I'll go to Musso and Frank's Grill in Hollywood. They make the best vodka martinis in town.
Available now at your favorite local Southern California independent bookstore:
