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Tom Wolfe spoke at the Union Square B&N as part of the Upstairs on the Square series

Glenn Gazin took the train into New York from Stamford, CT and arrived at the Union Square Barnes and Noble at 3:30 p.m. The middle-aged man was dressed in a dashing navy blue suit with a matching, polka dot tie. Looking at him, one might think he was just stopping in the bookstore for a quick break between business meetings. The look in his eyes told a different story, however. Glenn’s giddy, child-like anticipation was clear from across the aisles as he switched his coat from his right arm to his left and checked his watch every few seconds, even though there were still four and a half hours to go.

That night, at 8 p.m., Glenn’s early arrival paid off as he watched (from the front row of folding chairs) legendary author Tom Wolfe walk across the stage and take a seat for the night’s performance.

“I worship Tom Wolfe,” Gazin said, minutes before “The Great One,” as he described him, walked onto the stage.

Gazin was just one of approximately 550 people who gathered on the night of March 13 for the bookstore’s monthly author/music event hosted by Katherine Lanpher, author (Leap Days: Chronicles of a Mid-Life Move; Springboard Press), radio host and journalist.

Lanpher leads the author through questions and readings from their work, between musical performances by an artist who also answers her questions about their background and compositions.

“I want people to leave with the sense that they’ve just seen an hour they couldn’t see anywhere else on the planet, whether it’s Tom Wolfe grinning with delight at the new tango of Fernando Otero or Duncan Sheik playing his own “Spring Awakening” score in conjunction with a scene from a play by Dennis Lehane,” Lanpher said.

Wolfe, the historic author of such classics as The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities, joined Argentinean composer Fernando Otero in this uniquely designed event that intrigued not just readers, but the author as well, a feat not as easy as it sounds.

“The challenge is always to do something original, to give an author’s fans something special in exchange for their taking the time to come out for the event… Tom Wolfe loves Argentinean music so to be paired with Fernando Otero made the evening unique for him,” says Picador Publicity Manager James Meade who set up the event.

In this case, that something original is called “Upstairs at the Square,” which has also hosted such artists as Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and composer/singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (“Spring Awakening”).

On March 4 Picador re-released The Right Stuff (1979) and Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) with new covers designed to reach a fresh audience. The challenge for Meader was in reaching the established audience of the renowned author such as Gazin, as well as a younger audience, who may not have heard much about Wolfe in the first place.

“With a new book we are faced with the challenge of explaining why people should care about something they’ve never heard of, but the very newness of the publication can help. With a reissue of a classic book it’s helpful that we already have review quotes and public recognition of the book, but there is an additional challenge that does not exist with a new book: explaining why something old deserves a fresh look,” says Meader.

One commonly used tactic across the publishing world, and in this case too, is repackaging—making the cover “younger” and “hipper” so that a new audience will never suspect they’re reading the same thing their parents did.

“Upstairs on the Square” however, went one step further and found a way to showcase the author’s older books, set the stage for his forthcoming release, reach audiences old and new, and even please the author while doing it.

Although the book sales for the days preceding and following the event were not available, over 100 Tom Wolfe books were sold during the roughly two-hour long performance.

For those publicists looking to find similar success in original author events, Meader suggests a very simple exercise that he uses with each new book:

“Try to look at it with a fresh set of eyes, and ask yourself a couple of very standard questions: Who would this book most appeal to? What new and meaningful thing can be said about this book? That’s no great unknown secret, but I find it helpful to ask these questions of myself before others do.”