Like most humans, I sometimes step up onto a soap box on Facebook to rant a little and get opinions from my friends....
254 on my personal list as of the writing of this post (May 14, 2016)....
And about 150 of them are related.....
Of the rest, they are fairly equally divided between current and former co-workers, people I've known since Jesus was a child, and folks whom I met in various places who are none of the above...
But before I reveal what happened with this little verbal diarrhea post from last week, let me step back about 18 years ago.
*cues the organ music and the smoke machine used in old movies to indicate a time shift*
I had been struggling to find the time to finish my first full length novel for a couple of years, and then I did some damage to my lower spine. Under doctor's orders of "no bending, no lifting, no twisting" for two months in the fall/winter of 1997, I finally completed the book. Over the next year, I did the laborious work of editing, then sent "sample pages" to various publishers who said in the Writer's Market (because I had that in my home in book form, having only just been introduced to the internet) that they accepted queries from unagented, new authors...
I got turned down repeatedly - usually with the excuse "It promotes violence against women."
(Interior thought, which even now interrupts, is always "My little heroine, at the age of 16, decides the best way to escape from a man who wants to kill her is to disappear into the night, explaining who she is and why, when we see her again, she's using a different name. It promotes what?")
I sent out a "spam" email to everyone I had on my list, asking if anyone had any idea where I could find an agent who'd work on commission....
and a friend suggested someone who was doing a new kind of publishing called "ebooks", but since she couldn't get any of the big authors, she was looking for unknowns who would accept a portion of royalties on each sale instead of an advance. This was before Kindle and Nook, so she actually sold a file that one could read right on the computer..She was having as hard a time getting books to offer as I was having getting someone to read my book all the way through instead of judging on the first few paragraphs...
So "Night of the Tiger" was first published because a friend made a suggestion.
Jump forward to two years ago, when I did a verbal diarrhea post about paying a friend to photoshop a cover for my second book, but some strange things happened when the publisher printed the first book (different colors, spots in the model's hair, things that got corrected, but were quite annoying...)
and someone said "Have you ever thought of becoming an independent publisher?"
And I had already been looking at the printing company they suggested....and then, as I was putting up a fan page and got in touch with a model to request permission to print some of their photos to represent the face and form of my character.....
and he offered to do the cover.....
and the rest, as they say, is history, with Northern Bard Publications producing "A Wild Tiger's Heart" with a little help from my friends.
Shortly after NBP's first foray onto Amazon, someone suggested redoing the others in a matching size...and friends volunteered to become "partners in crime" at my independent company because they want to help me out. So I have someone who truly LOVES to play with photoshop and take photographs that mean something to my words (or to another author's words, should we ever have a client).
Friends helped me get "The Tiger's Cub" and "Night of the Tiger - The Author's Cut" (because I corrected a couple of things that had been bugging me all this time) up for publication within a year of our first book.....
Anf last week, when I was grumpy because here I am, a Maine author being published in Maine and with characters FROM Maine, but I can't seem to get any bookstores to put me on their Maine Authors shelves in their bookstores, many because I'm not with that big publishing house that they have special deals with, a friend made a suggestion that I speak to a friend of hers in one of the cities near me....
As I keep seeing a meme on Facebook say, "It was deja vu all over again"....
A small Maine bookstore wanting to have Maine Authors on her shelves, but can't afford to do the deals with the big publishers because she has a very small budget meets a Maine Author tying to get her indie publishing company books onto bookstore shelves. A consignment deal is struck, the details are ironed out, and I'm still in shock....
This is her business card
but if someone sees it on her shelf and tries to pick in up someplace else for a friend and it's a bookstore I've tried to cut a deal with in recent history.....
*cue Pink Floyd's "Money" as I fade back with a smile*
Addendum 5/18: When I arrived home from work yesterday evening and checked my emails, I was in for another surprise. Having contacted Bull Moose Music & Books, another Maine-based company who had turned me down when I was publishing through Write Words Inc because she wasn't offering enough of a discount for them to be able to offer the books at the price they prefer, I suggested that, at least for the stores closest to me, I would love to be able to do a consignment deal with them as well. They turned me down for the consignment, but because my contract with my printing company allows for the books to be offered through the catalog they send to bookstores and libraries....
I HAVE A SECOND BOOKSTORE!
I'm not sure when they'll appear, but the buyer for Bull Moose was thrilled to be able to order some books to go on their shelves the next time she's placing an order! I may walk into one of my favorite places to shop and find myself there very soon!
And here is the logo for the SECOND bookstore:
I'm hoping that, if I go into a few more of the local bookstores while I'm out and about on Saturday, I can have a few more pick up the books for their Maine Author shelves....and then, perhaps, some of the larger chains will pick the books up when people are coming in to try to get them after seeing them in the local shops.....
As my husband has been joking, the starving artist part has been well played for the past 19 years. It might be nice to have me be able to take us out to dinner before the end of the year....*grin*
254 on my personal list as of the writing of this post (May 14, 2016)....
And about 150 of them are related.....
Of the rest, they are fairly equally divided between current and former co-workers, people I've known since Jesus was a child, and folks whom I met in various places who are none of the above...
But before I reveal what happened with this little verbal diarrhea post from last week, let me step back about 18 years ago.
*cues the organ music and the smoke machine used in old movies to indicate a time shift*
I had been struggling to find the time to finish my first full length novel for a couple of years, and then I did some damage to my lower spine. Under doctor's orders of "no bending, no lifting, no twisting" for two months in the fall/winter of 1997, I finally completed the book. Over the next year, I did the laborious work of editing, then sent "sample pages" to various publishers who said in the Writer's Market (because I had that in my home in book form, having only just been introduced to the internet) that they accepted queries from unagented, new authors...
I got turned down repeatedly - usually with the excuse "It promotes violence against women."
(Interior thought, which even now interrupts, is always "My little heroine, at the age of 16, decides the best way to escape from a man who wants to kill her is to disappear into the night, explaining who she is and why, when we see her again, she's using a different name. It promotes what?")
I sent out a "spam" email to everyone I had on my list, asking if anyone had any idea where I could find an agent who'd work on commission....
and a friend suggested someone who was doing a new kind of publishing called "ebooks", but since she couldn't get any of the big authors, she was looking for unknowns who would accept a portion of royalties on each sale instead of an advance. This was before Kindle and Nook, so she actually sold a file that one could read right on the computer..She was having as hard a time getting books to offer as I was having getting someone to read my book all the way through instead of judging on the first few paragraphs...
So "Night of the Tiger" was first published because a friend made a suggestion.
Jump forward to two years ago, when I did a verbal diarrhea post about paying a friend to photoshop a cover for my second book, but some strange things happened when the publisher printed the first book (different colors, spots in the model's hair, things that got corrected, but were quite annoying...)
and someone said "Have you ever thought of becoming an independent publisher?"
And I had already been looking at the printing company they suggested....and then, as I was putting up a fan page and got in touch with a model to request permission to print some of their photos to represent the face and form of my character.....
and he offered to do the cover.....
and the rest, as they say, is history, with Northern Bard Publications producing "A Wild Tiger's Heart" with a little help from my friends.
Shortly after NBP's first foray onto Amazon, someone suggested redoing the others in a matching size...and friends volunteered to become "partners in crime" at my independent company because they want to help me out. So I have someone who truly LOVES to play with photoshop and take photographs that mean something to my words (or to another author's words, should we ever have a client).
Friends helped me get "The Tiger's Cub" and "Night of the Tiger - The Author's Cut" (because I corrected a couple of things that had been bugging me all this time) up for publication within a year of our first book.....
Anf last week, when I was grumpy because here I am, a Maine author being published in Maine and with characters FROM Maine, but I can't seem to get any bookstores to put me on their Maine Authors shelves in their bookstores, many because I'm not with that big publishing house that they have special deals with, a friend made a suggestion that I speak to a friend of hers in one of the cities near me....
As I keep seeing a meme on Facebook say, "It was deja vu all over again"....
A small Maine bookstore wanting to have Maine Authors on her shelves, but can't afford to do the deals with the big publishers because she has a very small budget meets a Maine Author tying to get her indie publishing company books onto bookstore shelves. A consignment deal is struck, the details are ironed out, and I'm still in shock....
This is her business card
but if someone sees it on her shelf and tries to pick in up someplace else for a friend and it's a bookstore I've tried to cut a deal with in recent history.....
*cue Pink Floyd's "Money" as I fade back with a smile*
Addendum 5/18: When I arrived home from work yesterday evening and checked my emails, I was in for another surprise. Having contacted Bull Moose Music & Books, another Maine-based company who had turned me down when I was publishing through Write Words Inc because she wasn't offering enough of a discount for them to be able to offer the books at the price they prefer, I suggested that, at least for the stores closest to me, I would love to be able to do a consignment deal with them as well. They turned me down for the consignment, but because my contract with my printing company allows for the books to be offered through the catalog they send to bookstores and libraries....
I HAVE A SECOND BOOKSTORE!
I'm not sure when they'll appear, but the buyer for Bull Moose was thrilled to be able to order some books to go on their shelves the next time she's placing an order! I may walk into one of my favorite places to shop and find myself there very soon!
And here is the logo for the SECOND bookstore:
I'm hoping that, if I go into a few more of the local bookstores while I'm out and about on Saturday, I can have a few more pick up the books for their Maine Author shelves....and then, perhaps, some of the larger chains will pick the books up when people are coming in to try to get them after seeing them in the local shops.....
As my husband has been joking, the starving artist part has been well played for the past 19 years. It might be nice to have me be able to take us out to dinner before the end of the year....*grin*
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