Rock musician moonlights as publisher; he’s always booked

Johnny Temple, co-founder, publisher and editor in chief of the small press Akashic Books, would love to be a full-time publisher, but as yet he can’t afford to quit his day job.

His day job, as it happens, is playing groove-based rock songs in a successful indie band.

As bass player for Girls Against Boys, Temple, 37, leads a life that many 9-to-5ers -- perhaps even some in publishing houses -- can only fantasize about. With his band, Temple has toured America, Europe, Australia, Japan and Mexico, cultivating a worldwide fan base and critical acclaim and selling hundreds of thousands of CDs.

The GVSB, as the band is known, has performed with Rage Against the Machine, Jesus Lizard and Garbage, and has toured with actress Gina Gershon in support of her film “Prey sfor Rock & Roll.” Temple has been living out the eternal dream of being a self-supporting musician for nearly a decade.

But making noise-rock wasn’t enough.

“I was always struggling with how to satisfy my passion for social justice and social issues, and I never intended to go into book publishing -- it was sort of a whim,” says Temple, who launched his Manhattan-based Akashic press with money earned after the band signed with Geffen Records in 1995. “I really feel that I’ve found something that satisfies my interest in politics and race and my various progressive passions.”

Temple set up shop originally as Akashic Records with two friends but soon found he had a flair with manuscripts. The company debuted with a 1997 novel from Arthur Nersesian, whose title can’t be printed here. Nersesian’s book -- about a New Yorker who loses his job, his chance for new love and his old girlfriend all in one day -- became a cult hit, went through three printings with Akashic and was eventually picked up by Simon & Schuster.

Akashic Books has gone on to produce well-received urban-fiction titles like Los Angeles author Nina Revoyr’s recent “Southland,” the Edgar Award-winning “Cold Havana Ground” by Cuban-noir author Arnaldo Correa, and “Kamikaze Lust” by Lauren Sanders. Temple has also published a series of political nonfiction titles with Artemis Records founder Danny Goldberg, including “The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq,” by Los Angeles Times contributor Robert Scheer, Christopher Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry (published in conjunction with Seven Stories Press and the website AlterNet.org), and “Artburn,” about the work of L.A. guerrilla poster-artist Robbie Conal.

The ability to nurture new political and literary voices -- something that rock ‘n’ roll can only go so far in doing -- fits right in not only with Akashic’s mission but also with Temple’s personal history.

He grew up in Washington, D.C., his mother a public defender and his father heading up the local chapter of the ACLU. Both parents were 1960s activists, though not “radicals,” Temple says. He attended private school but switched to public after 10th grade, a sort of self-enforced education in economic disparity that Temple says left a lasting impression. He went on to major in African American studies at Wesleyan University and later obtained a master’s in social work from Columbia University.

Now Temple runs one of some 70,000 small U.S. publishing companies seeking to give voice to authors in an arena outside of the larger houses, which are becoming increasingly consolidated. He believes that talented writers are attracted to his venture partly because they have a hard time breaking through what he calls the bottom-line agenda of the major houses.

“I just stepped in with no background,” says Temple, “and immediately I just started finding this phenomenal literature. So the fact that it’s so hard to get published works really well for independent publishers, because the field is wide open for you.”

Though Temple says Akashic broke even in 2003, he is still supplementing the venture with his music, including an upcoming March tour with Gershon.

“I’m trying to solve the riddle of how to make a living by doing this,” he says. “I think I’m on to something with Akashic Books, and I think I’m going to find a way to make it a sustainable company, because I think we play a role in the cultural landscape.... I just want to be a book publisher and not have to leave to go on the road.”

Kathryn Bough, vice president of the American Assn. of Publishers, believes there’s a definite role for the smaller houses. “All publishers, no matter what their size, are working to get people reading, but it’s also vibrant and exciting that we’re seeing a lot of new publishers finding success in their niche.”

And while distribution and point-of-sale challenges hinder many small houses from achieving commercial success, Karin Taylor of New York’s Small Press Center says that the independent publishers may be better able to focus on the authors themselves and their various viewpoints, rather than the bottom line.

“Authors will sometimes choose to go with Johnny Temple because that author knows that Johnny will put his heart, soul and whole effort into that book,” she says.

Kaylie Jones, author of “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries” and the new novel “Speak Now,” published by Akashic last fall, is one such writer. After learning about Akashic, she approached Temple about publishing a reissue of the work of her father, the late James Jones, author of “The Thin Red Line” and “From Here to Eternity.”

Akashic released “The Ice Cream Headache and Other Stories” in 2002 and will publish a reissue of Jones’ “The Merry Month of May” this May.

But when Kaylie Jones approached Temple about publishing “Speak Now,” he asked her to rethink her decision.

“You’re going to be sacrificing a fat advance and, secondly, our distribution is not nearly as advanced,” Temple recalls telling her. “I knew the sacrifices she’d be making. But she takes literature very seriously, as did her father.... I can’t say with conviction that it was the right thing for her to do. It’s scary to me to have that kind of responsibility.”

In addition to the personal attention, Taylor cites another reason for the explosion in small presses -- current events. “Independent presses really came into their own with their ability to produce a book quickly,” she says, “and I think that was happening in response to the war.... They were able to provide a perspective when it was needed.”

Temple says quick response has been a factor with “The Five Biggest Lies” and also with Akashic’s upcoming “The Path to Geneva” by Yossi Beilin, a title due out in May that has been updated to accommodate developing news.

But Akashic’s mission goes beyond social and political activism. L.A. writers Benjamin Weissman, whose “Headless” is due in February, and Dennis Cooper experiment with the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in themes and language -- something Temple believes simply isn’t going to occur in a market-driven publishing environment.

“We need language to open up and flourish, to discover the dark sides of the psyche,” says Temple, “because we obviously live in a really confused and [messed up] world, and literature should take close looks at why the world is the way it is. Literature needs to be very, very honest -- more honest perhaps than it’s been in recent years.”

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Book readings

Who: Kaylie Jones reads from her new novel, “Speak Now,” and Ron Kovic will read from “The Ice Cream Headache,” a collection of works by Jones’ late father, James Jones.

Where: Midnight Special Bookstore, 1450 2nd St., Santa Monica.

When: Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Contact: (310) 393-2923