Traveling book man pushes park jobs

By THOMAS MURSE
Collegian Arts Writer

He walks in, book in hand and asks for the arts and entertainment reporter.

"Hi, my name is Clint Wilkes and I wrote this book," he says. This is Wilkes' routine, that he has repeated at more than 25 colleges and universities around the country.

He drives to a college campus, finds the student newspaper and asks if there is anyone who can interview him about his book, The Clint Wilkes Original College Guide to a Summer Job in Yellowstone.

After his first visit to the park during a 1987 vacation, Wilkes wanted to write a book about his experiences to urge college students to spend a summer there.

So during another summer vacation in the park in 1993, Wilkes began typing stories into his computer after long days of touring the park and talking to employers and college students. Wilkes sent the work to his goddaughter for proofreading and 11 months later, his first book was born.

Because the park is one of America's oldest and most popular vacation spots, Wilkes said there have always been summer job opportunities for college students. His book contains information about how to get a job in the park, and by including anecdotes and entertaining descriptions, the book is more than just a 181 page informational pamphlet.

"I also went to a great effort to try to write a very entertaining book," Wilkes said.

But the book itself is a relatively uneventful experience because there is no plot or story behind it. Rather it is a kind of mixture between documentary and cheap humor.

"I knew that if I just came out with a whole bunch of dull facts nobody would read it," Wilkes said. "I was actually laughing while I was writing some of the stories."

But the humor was not enough to carry the book. If nothing else, Wilkes has captured his fascination with the park in his book, although it does not inspire one to go out and get a job there.

Wilkes does provide good, detailed information (a little too detailed) about getting a job there. He describes the job opportunities and the benefits of spending a summer in the park.

"The reason I wrote the book is 100 percent to let the college students know about the opportunity to work in Yellowstone," Wilkes said.

Wilkes published the book himself and, after it came off the presses in mid-December 1994, he began his tour. He has also sent copies of his book to 2,500 colleges in the United States, but said he enjoys actually visiting the campuses instead.

Wilkes, who graduated from Jacksonville State University with a bachelor's degree in political science, worked in former President Bush's presidential campaign in 1988 and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1984.

He compares promoting his book to a political campaign.

"The only difference is," Wilkes said, "this is a campaign that you can only win, and you win by however many books you sell. It's a big marketing project."

Basically, Wilkes said the purpose of visiting college campuses and touring the country is to set up a sales territory. By getting publicity from interviews and book reviews, Wilkes said he thinks his book will be a success.

He is currently on his second touring promotion, going as far north as Boston but hopes to have mass distribution of his book next fall.

Right now Wilkes resides in Dallas and runs his business from his sister's house in Pinson, Ala. His goal is to eventually start his own publishing company.

"Because I'm the publisher and I'm the distributor, I'm selling the book now by mail order and I'm going to get distribution from the major companies later," Wilkes said. The books will be on sale in national parks across the country, he said.

Wilkes is also in the process of writing a second book about jobs people never think of, Clint Wilkes Guide to the Best Jobs in the U.S.A and Europe, and a third book about the experiences of college students working in the 1996 presidential campaign.