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BACK COVER
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by Marc Calvary
Published in 2002
76 pages
8" x8"
Contact
Date
of birth?
March 30th, 1975 @ 8:13pm
Is there
a difference in reader response to books as opposed to zines?
I've noticed that I have been getting fewer responses for the carbon
based mistake #9 from people who read my zines, and a greater response
from people who have ignored my zines in the past. This may have
something to do with the price increase. The ones who like my zines
are ok with paying a few bucks, but issue nine costs 8 dollars and
this I think throws off typical zinesters. It shouldn¹t however,
8 dollars is actually priced low.
People have an easier time spending 2 dollars for something they
might not like, as opposed to a higher priced book. The people who
ignore zines may be under the misconception that if it costs as
little as two dollars that it's disposable or frivolous so they
are more comfortable with an 8 dollar price tag. And I think some
distributors who wouldn't carry issue 1 thru 8 only carried issue
nine because it was presented as a book. But I don't think the ISBN
number and barcode has helped at all yet.
How
do you decide the price of your books?
I have to price my stuff to what I think people will see as fair,
rather than what is actually fair. Pricing issue 9 at 10 dollars
would have been better, considering I put it all together by hand,
but I felt no one would buy it for ten.
My costs don¹t factor in all the extras like the screw and
the easel. I got a good deal on all the extra bits from searching
around the internet and buying in bulk, so I figure those extras
are little gifts to the readers, and mostly I don¹t charge
them for that stuff. Although I do see a time when I will have to.
McSweeney's for example had to increase their subscription rates
recently because it was costing too much to send out their books
to subscribers. I am not anywhere near that kind of circulation,
so for now I don¹t have to worry.
What
goes into choosing a cover? Back cover blurb?
I wish I did back cover blurbs, lately I have gotten a few really
good reviews that should to be on the back of a magazine or book.
But I don¹t do blurbs because I think they take away from the
design. It always looks forced. The cover is one of the most important
elements, because even thought you shouldn¹t choose a book
by it¹s cover, everyone does. I often do. There was an edition
of Louis Nordan¹s "The Sharpshooter Blues" that was
beautiful and even though I had never heard of him before, I bought
it. Since then he¹s become one of my favorite writers. There¹s
this great design focused magazine called +rosebud that had a paper
band that encircled one of their issues with blurbs on it. I liked
that concept because it could be taken off and disposed of. I plan
to rip that idea off.
What's
your editing/refining process?
I used to do all my editing myself, which lead to misspellings and
embarrassments. My early zines are littered with them. I misspelled
one single word in issue 7. I should feel good that I only misspelled
one word, but there were only about a dozen words in the entire
issue, so I felt like an idiot. Now I print off a few test copies
at every stage of the design and have friends edit it. I took some
of their suggestions and ignore most, and now it's the first time
I have been completely happy with the finished product. The refining
process took the entire 8 months that I worked on issue 9. You have
to continually refine it at every stage. The piece called "lastnight"
(which were fake photographs of murders) is only 9 pages. It was
originally twice that, but the pacing was off, so I cut it in half,
and added "signposts" (photographs of signs I put all
around town) towards the end as a humorous break in all the depressing
stuff. I wanted each section to be designed differently but to flow
together. And there's a certificate that¹s on the inside back
cover which I came up with at the last possible moment because I
didn¹t think the book was personal enough. I kept having to
reorder pages until it had the pace I wanted.
How
did you raise the money to publish?
The money was raised by the kind folks at VISA.
In the last 2 years I have put over $7,000 on my card.
It hurts to even say that.
I send them about 100 dollars a month and 40 dollars of that goes
to the interest.
It's sick.
But I really don't have a choice.
Are you going to bankroll me?
I have no sick rich uncles that will leave me money when they die.
What
have you done to promote it?
Practically nothing at all. I send out free copies to people I admire
and to reviewers, I did this interview and the one on bookmouth.com.
My problem seems to be that I am trying to be a book publisher with
a zine publishing mindset. I plan to be more active with promotion,
there¹s a lot of websites that have good tips on book promotion.
The info is out there, I just don't like being out there.
I have to get over that if I want people to read what I write, and
I do.
I was supposed to do a book reading, but I had to back out, I hate
public speaking.
Instead I plan on doing a zine workshop, I will feel more comfortable
talking about my work if I can show people how to do these things
themselves.
How
can people get your book now?
People can order everything I¹ve done through my main web site
thecarbonbasedmistake.com
but I don't do credit card orders yet, so you¹ll have to print
out the order form and mail it to me. You can also visit Powell¹s
books in Portland, Oregon (powells.com) and last gasp (lastgasp.com)
distributes projects I do, there¹s also Quimby's bookstore
in Chicago and Comic Relief in California. A few zine libraries
and a handful of independent shops around the Pacific Northwest
also carry my stuff.
What
will you do differently next time, if anything?
I am working on that "next time" right now. I like the
way I am currently working, the way I put issue 9 was very different
from my earlier projects. The only things I would change are the
"behind the scenes" stuff. For example, I should have
priced color printing better before I spent so much time assuming
I would be able to afford it. It was a big let down when I discovered
the truth. I also wouldn't have set up my book as an 8.5X8.5 file.
The machine I print on does bleeds, but not consistently, so now
I have to set up my file 2-up on a 11X17 sheet to get a proper bleed,
which meant going back after the book was completely done and adding
a white border. It was very annoying.
Why
are so few women self-publishing books?
I personally think it has a strange connection to comic books. But
then you have to ask why so few women self publish comics, or even
read them for that matter. the self-published stuff I read by women
are fantastic. A woman friend of mine, who does not self-publish
says " I think it's because women tend to keep their emotions
more private" She says self-publishing is too exposing but
still hopes to do it someday.
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(Psst! We're continuing
the discussion on women publishing books over here.)
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