Published in 1999
150 pages
5x7"
Date of birth? What was the quantity of your print run(s) + how much did it work out per book? If it doesn't say on the book, what did you sell your book for? How can people get your book now? Why aren't there any women self-publishing books? What inspired you to make a book? What did you do to promote it? What would you do differently, and why?
10.20.1974.
100 printed and hand bound / hand numbered (all gone)
2000 printed and bound by machine (still available)
$8.00 US direct from TNI Books and in lots of little book / record shops.
Somtimes at shows if the bands are being very helpful and taking them on
tour. In that cause, sometimes they're cheaper than eight bucks.
Any bookstore should be able to special order the book if it's not stocked
in the store. It can be ordered direct from TNI books for $8.00 by ordering
on the website www.tnibooks.com. If can be found in the Annex at
www.insound.com and at other online book sellers such as www.amazon.com. Or
maybe, one of those bands playing in your town...
I wonder this myself. I get very few submissions from women at TNI Books.
We've started the magazine now and I would love to receive more submissions
from women, but it just doesn't happen. It bothers me at times to think the
mirror image that might be possible between indie records and indie books
could also carry that piece which has bands made up primarily of boys.
Paul Auster's book The New York Triliogy made we want to write novels.
Before trying a full on novel I wanted to do a book that hinted around at
ideas and tried out different types of stories. This wasn't a book big
publishers would even look at, so the option to put it out myself seemed
like the best option. Thinking back, I was pretty optimistic. Maybe too much
so, but I never once doubted that it could be done. That is, write some
things and get them printed. There is so much more involved, which I learn
more and more of each day in doing books on my own. I'm not sure I would
have learned all that with a contract from an established house.
It was promoted in print heavily in the independent music scene. I took the
book on tour with a friend's band and sold them from the merch table. I did
little giveaways and such with places like www.insound.com. I put a few ads
in rock magazines. I sent out a lot of copies to people who write for
magazines. All in all, I was pleased with all the options there were and I'm
stoked to try more. The real challenge isn't just getting people to know the
book is out there... it's getting people to know it's out and finding places
that will push it in a way other than putting it spine out on a shelf with a
million other titles.
I'd work out distribution earlier. I'd spend more time proofing. I'd have
more people tell me what's wrong with the manuscript before it was printed.
I'd go with a full color cover. I'd send it to more media sources that cover
more than music. I'd do a release party and reading. There's so much to do
differently. The great part is the limitations I had were mine. The mistakes
were mine. The wrong turns I took, or turns I neglected to take... all mine.
And I still count the ordeal a great success. That's the greatest motivator
to self-publish again; to do it again. To take what I've learned and push it
that much further the second time around.
