MOSS BEACH, Calif. -- Little did Karen Brown know that a trip to
Europe on a whim 22 years ago would launch a career and associate
her name with European inns and small hotels.
Today, Brown's name, like that of her friend Rick Steves, of PBS
travel series fame, is instantly recognizable in the travel
sections of bookstores.
The folksy style and charming illustrations of the guidebook
series that bears her name stand out among the slicker titles on
the travel bookshelves.
It started in 1977 when Brown, after a year of college, took off
for Europe on her own for nine months. She wasn't the typical
American college student backpacker looking for a good time with
some cultural experiences along the way: Brown decided if she was
going to explore Europe it would be with a project in mind.
She was encouraged by her mother, Clare Brown, owner of Town
& Country Travel in San Mateo, Calif., to consider writing a
guidebook. "My mother said agents found it difficult to get good
information about small inns in the countryside," she said. "At
that time the only way to get information was through the Michelin
books."
Brown already had travel experience under her belt. The daughter
of a long-time agent, she had traveled widely with her family,
spent a summer in Germany and worked during high school at Town
& Country Travel. "We couldn't use the family car unless we
delivered tickets," she said.
So, she felt she knew what to look for as she began combing
France looking at small inns, finding the quaint, family-owned ones
her favorites. "I wasn't interested in being like a Mobil Guide
inspector looking at plumbing fixtures," she said.
"I was looking for personality so that when a traveler walked
into an inn they would feel charmed and welcomed."
When she returned, Brown started putting together material and
enlisted a fellow classmate at the University of California at
Berkeley to draw pictures from photographs of the inns she had
taken.
But the informal style of the material turned off publishers.
Undeterred, Brown managed to get a loan from a local bank and had
her first book self-published:
"French Country Inns and Chateaus." She ordered 10,000
copies.
Another obstacle confronted her: Bookstores were not interested.
Travel titles at the time were not booming, and few would consider
a self-published book.
Brown took a different tack, sending copies to newspaper travel
editors with press releases describing how, as a 19-year-old, she
had written the book.
Many were impressed and wrote about the France guide, adding the
mailing address to which interested readers could send checks to
buy copies. Brown answered from her dorm room at UC-Berkeley,
mailing hundreds of books.
Before she knew it, she had sold out the copies and paid her
loan back to the bank. She did not return to college to finish her
degree as her publishing career blossomed.
"I realized at that point that I had a nucleus for a series of
books," she said. The series began to grow as Brown made more and
more trips to Europe. Her parents' garage was turned into the
storage and mail-order center for the fledgling publishing
house.
Her mother, Clare, began helping in the researching and the
writing of the books, spending less time in the agency. Another
Town & Country agent, June Brown, no relation to the mother and
daughter, joined the duo as a third writer as the series
expanded.
On a promotional trip to New York, Karen Brown landed a coup,
signing with Scribner's, a major publishing house, for
distribution. Through a series of publishing mergers and
acquisitions, the Karen Brown series is now distributed through
Fodor's, a division of Random House.
However, Brown retains control as publisher through her firm,
San Mateo-based Karen Brown's Guides. The series contains 13
titles, including most of the Western European countries and
California and has been split into two categories: one for upscale
small hotels and the other for less expensive bed-and-breakfast
inns. Overall sales average 150,000 copies a year.
Clare Brown, who is now a full-time writer of the guides, said
she is still surprised by the huge following her daughter's books
have attracted. "People call her the Martha Stewart of travel," she
said.
On a recent trip to research inns in northern Italy, Clare Brown
checked into a 12-room inn that has been listed in previous guides
and found that half of the rooms were occupied by travelers
carrying the Karen Brown Italy guide.
"Like a lot of things that are successful, the fact that our
guides are highly personal and that we do almost everything
ourselves has contributed," said Clare Brown.
The guides are not the end of Karen Brown's entrepreneurial
ventures. A few years ago, she and her husband, Rick Herbert,
bought land on the scenic coastline south of San Francisco and
built their own bed-and-breakfast inn -- reminiscent of French and
English country hotels that she visited over the years.
The Seal Cove Inn in Moss Beach, Calif., with gardens and guest
rooms with antique beds and chintz and floral fabrics, attracts
some guests who come expecting to meet the author of the famous
guidebook series -- and often they do.
When Brown is not spending two to three days a week at her
publishing company's offices next door to Town & Country Travel
she often can be found at the inn.
There are even more travel ventures ahead for Brown. Several
years ago, Town & Country Travel started a separate division
called KB Travel to handle specific Europe FITs based on the Karen
Brown guidebook series' recommended itineraries and property
recommendations.
A wholesaler, Jet Vacations, is selling European packages based
on itineraries and properties from the Karen Brown books.
And she is in discussion with a television production company
for a travel show on small inns and romantic hotels, with herself
as the host.
But as with everything Brown has done, she wants to make sure it
is done right. "Our marketing strategy has been to have a good
product," she said.
"That fact that we've managed to keep the guidebooks' high
quality after more than 20 years is important. People ask for a
Karen Brown book, but it's not me they want, it's a certain quality
they're looking for."
Agency experience a plus for guides
SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Of all the travel guides on the bookstore
shelves, few except Karen Brown's Guides can claim to have been
written by people who have worked or are working as travel
agents.
Clare Brown, Karen's mother and owner of 30-year-old Town &
Country Travel, San Mateo, Calif., said the agency experience plays
a strong part in the researching and writing of the books.
"The fact that we used to talk to people on a daily basis about
travel gave us a lot of insight into what people want and need,"
she said.
Clare Brown is aware that many of the small inns recommended in
the guides do not pay commission. But, even before commission caps,
she imposed service fees at the agency for the elaborate FITs to
Europe constructed around the countryside inns.
Today, it is standard practice, and she recommends it to other
agencies. "People seem to appreciate the professional advice and
level of service and don't mind paying a fee for it," she said.
"There's not much service left in the world."
Meanwhile, the Browns are happy to report that travel agents
make up a large percentage of their readers.
Many agencies buy the entire set of the guides each year, taking
advantage of the publishing company's standard discount to travel
agents on all of its titles. Agents can buy the $18.95 titles for
$11 and the $17.95 titles for $10.50.
However, Karen Brown's Guides is offering agents a special price
of $7 per title, including postage and tax, on 1999 editions of all
its books, limited to stock on hand. To order, contact Karen
Brown's Guides, P.O. Box 70, San Mateo, Calif. 94401. Phone (650)
342-9117 or fax (650) 342-9153.