Solana Beach publisher turns to cycling

By: RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 19, 2007 6:47 PM PDT ∞

Hot off the success of his first book, "Surfing's Greatest Misadventures," Solana Beach publisher Paul Diamond has turned to the sport of cycling in his second book for more tales of disaster, heartbreak and romance.

"Cycling's Greatest Misadventures" (Casagrande Press, $16.95) features stories by professional cyclists such as Austin King and fanatical triathletes like Bob Mina, as well as plenty of recreational cyclists, most of whom are successful people in their own right. In one essay, Greg Taylor, an attorney, takes time from his law firm to pedal in the Tour de France, and in another, Aaron Teasdale, editor of Adventure Cyclist Magazine, cycles through the mountains and jungles of Bolivia.

And although the stories are not all about crashes, there are plenty of those, including Michael Fee's story about his fractured jaw.

But mostly, these are stories about overcoming obstacles. Case in point: Randall Stafford, a professor of medicine at Stanford University who couldn't resist cycling the French Alps before his impending kidney transplant.

Diamond, 36, said his new collection of cycling essays is already off to a good start. "We've got about 15 magazines and 20 newspapers who are going to review it," he said. "And REI will stock it and Borders and Barnes are all in."

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Diamond moved to Solana Beach last year from Seattle so he could surf more often. "In my ideal world, I would like to surf and get paid for it," he said, acknowledging that since he lacks the skill to be a professional surfer, he started collecting stories about surfing instead. That led him to put out a call for submissions in surfing magazines and Web sites until he finally accumulated enough to fill a book.

Then after borrowing $35,000 from his mother, a financial publisher, Diamond started his own publishing house ---- Casagrande Press ---- and printed "Surfing's Greatest Misadventures," whose first-print run sold out almost immediately after a review ran in the book section of the Los Angeles Times. A second run of 8,000 copies followed. "It is still selling well," Diamond said. He is still working full time producing niche directories of employee benefit companies.

His book on cycling is in the same vein as his first. "They're amped on misadventures," he said of his co-publisher, Wilderness Press, which distributes for Casagrande Press as well as 10 other small publishers.

An avid surfer, Diamond also cycles. "I rode more before I discovered surfing," he confessed.

But "the two sports are similar because you're always competing against yourself and that makes for good stories," said Diamond, adding he knows exactly what he wants in a story. "I look for something that keeps the reader's interest, where there is something large at stake, there is a tight narrative tension, the pacing is surefooted and there is a reward at the end. That's the model. I like the psychology of the character ---- why is he doing this? Did they have something to prove?"

An ex-writing teacher at Tulane University in New Orleans and a fiction writer, Diamond said he learned to work with the large, fragile egos of writers with his first book. With this one, he decided to hire an editor, Erick Schweikher, to help him with the revisions. This time, he paid the writers a flat fee rather than an hourly rate.

He also had a bike crash photo contest for art for the cover and center of the book, and hired page designers, cover and interior designers, a photographer and a copy editor. "They all worked freelance," said Diamond. "I have a virtual staff."

But, he said, despite his enthusiasm for his latest project, he wants it to be about the authors rather than about him. "For now, I'm working more behind the scenes," he said. "But when my collection of short stories comes out, it will be all about me, then."

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

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