My Publishing Experience

While I've never had any internal drive to be published, I've always been strongly encouraged to submit my work. I think the idea was to build up my tolerance for rejection-- somebody must have sensed a weak point here. As a tot, I submitted my drawings, poems, and the very occasional short story to the usual school outlets (yearly literary collection, newspaper, yearbook, etc.). In my teens, I submitted some poems to those suspect anthologies that take just about any poet and make you pay for your own copy.  I had two poems selected, for two different anthologies, both of which I posted in Prose as part of some retrospective "early works" challenge (several years ago).

In college years, I had a few articles published in the Newspaper, but generally speaking I "failed" Journalism with a 4.0-- my mentor said I would simply never make it as a journalist, as my writing was, I quote "not sensational." (I've been working on fixing that deficit ever since, though I did give up on the media.)

I learned some code and various means to create websites through WYSIWIG programs. I then published online through my own sites, using freebie servers that eventually went bust--- along with my hard wrought designs and thoughts. In the digital world things go poof very quickly, so tolerance is again fortified. Eventually, I stumbled across Prose and began to make some thoughts public through this venue. The site drew me so much because of its noncommercial atmosphere. People were writing freely, and I felt we were all battling against the dreaded brain-drain.

As time passed I heard of direct publishing and did some research. You use a website such as Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Press, or others, to help format a manuscript to printable specifications, then upload pdf or doc files for interior and exterior of the book, obtain a barcode either through these sites randomly or by purchasing online from ISBN.org, and then viola! your book in any format (hardcover or paperback) is available for sale online directly to the purchaser without you having to storage any books, and you can even have ebook options. It is important to know that electronic versions of a book will look quite different than physical copies. Illustrations tend to be separated from text.

I believe that Prose is working on offering some direct market publishing, and perhaps already does?

Currently I have a registered publishing business, Bunny Village Press. Private initiative has been deeply rooted in my psyche and is very much a dream for my husband, so we began a venture that seemed to fit most favorably with my past experience. One that would allow us both to exercise our writing and editorial skills and would allow me to put to use my art and design abilities. The idea of publishing seemed natural, and it is perfect philosophically, though for the time being our operation is very small. Micro scale. We do direct marketing that is fundamentally the equivalent of self-publishing except that we work with the author to bring their work to life, from typing out the manuscript/ editing/ creating layout/ illustrations/ and the cover design. In this way the author oversees the process but doesn't actually do, nor have to source individually, the various tasks that need to be done to make a book real. Once outsourced to us, the entire process is kept in house.

The independence that gives is very rewarding from an artistic standpoint. There is no office to negate an idea or suggest that it is not marketable. There are very few people involved in decision making. We aim to be as true to the vision of the author as possible, just as much as if it were our own book. Indeed, when it is our own manuscript, the process is exactly the same.

If you have no interest in making money from your writing, I highly recommend self-publishing. It is important to know that as an individual it is difficult to create a marketing campaign to push your work and monetize it, profittably. However, on the plus side, overhead is minimal--- dependent only on the cost of materials to create the artwork and the investment of manhours.

If it is a labor of Love, then it is always Time well spent.