noedit / 1.24.24 / publisher

Over the holidays I met David Bolduc, owner of Boulder Book Store, who happens to be a super nice guy and also an old friend of my in-laws. I met him and I was petrified when my mother-in-law said this is Will his book is coming out later this year. And without skipping a beat he asked, Do you have a publisher? I laughed nervously and said, Not yet.

Boulder Book Store. A beautiful book store.

In truth I queried about 60 agents and they all passed. A few actually requested a full but only one ever really got back to me and she said it didn't have enough twists and turns, which felt like some pretty generic feedback, but she did also point out some legitimate weaknesses that I have since tried to address.

Having rewritten The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived since then I decided to avoid the trad route. Obviously because they didn't want me the first time so it is unlikely they will want me the second time, but also because I've learned more about the publishing industry and going trad is brutal from a monetary perspective for all but a rare few. Now I'm not expecting to make millions but a $5000 advance (maybe) plus 15% on sales ain't a lot. Especially if a book sells well. I would prefer to spend $5000 and have full control than guarantee $5000 to give up control. And, again, they didn't want me.

Unfortunately this presents a problem because booksellers like the owner of Boulder Book Store pick some of their books according to publishing house, and I don't have one. Going the self-publishing route stinks of amateurism because everyone gets lumped into the not-good-enough pile even if they truly are. I believe Second-Smartest is an excellent book that defies convention and that is why it has been largely passed over. If that's delusional then hey I guess we will see.

Wow that's a long intro just to say I'm getting a Kirkus Review. Basically you pay $600 to get a "real review" of your book by someone in the industry like an English professor or a journalist or another author or a smart guy under a bridge. I'm hoping this will give me some credibility, since I'm falling short from the publishing house perspective.

If your book is really good they give you a blue star. Good boy! Have a cookie!

I've also considered saying that I'm being published by Thiessen Press, which is true. I will say it is a very small press based in Colorado, which is true. And if I want to disclose the whole truth I will say I also happen to be the owner of Thiessen Press.

Because really, these days, what is a publisher?

Once upon a time a publisher was literally a company that had printing presses and printed books. These days the big publishing houses don't have their own equipment and subcontract much of the work, including printing, editing, cover design, and marketing (or they just don't market at all...a post for another day).

In some cases the big 5 even use the same print-on-demand companies as Amazon. And through Reedsy anyone can hire a big five editor for their own book (which I did) along with a big five cover designer (which I also did). So now anyone can access the exact same tools, and therefore produce a book of equal (or greater) quality.

Maybe I'm biased but that's a sweet cover.

With these new tools and collaborative opportunities, we are starting to see big-name authors like Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us) and Andy Weir (The Martian) who self-published first and achieved commercial success before getting picked up by a publisher.

This path actually seems smarter from a business perspective since a successful self-published author, unlike a debut novelist in the trad sense, can show their sales. And that means leverage. I'm guessing traditional publishing houses don't love that word, since there is a long tradition of taking advantage of new authors who are, frankly, desperate to get published. Stories abound of best-selling authors who make pennies because, once upon a time, they signed on the dotted line.

I will not be one of those authors, for better or worse.

PS: Here are some self-published authors off the top of my head: Walt Whitman, Marcel Proust, Beatrix Potter, ee cummings, Margaret Atwood, William Carlos Williams, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen. Sheesh if I ever see my name in a sentence with any of theirs I will faint.

PPS: Apparently I'm supposed to write noedit in the body text for the SEO. So noedit. Noedit noedit noedit.