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Could you explain the project a little and how it came to be? Smart Cookie is my very small press and Saugus to the Sea is the first book I've published. It's a collaboration between Bill Brown, filmmaker and Dream Whip zine author and Brad Yung, author and illustrator of Stay As You Are zine. I met Bill when he was in Vancouver showing some of his films (which are amazing, even better than his writing maybe) and he and Brad mentioned they were working on a novel. It sounded neat and I recommended some Canadian presses that might be interested. None of them could take on the project because Bill is American and the small presses all operate through the grace of the Canada Council which wants them to publish Canadian works. So I said I'd publish the book, half hoping the guys would say no. How has your experience publishing books been different from publishing zines? Books have a wider appeal, everyone knows what they are. It's kind of nice to tell people you're publishing a book and not have to explain to them what it is. Despite the popularity of zines they're still the property of a real subculture and most people have no idea what zines are all about. So I know a book can reach a wider audience which is great. But a book is much more of an investment. When I first started publishing zines with a couple of my friends we wrote and designed and photocopied them at work and just generally got all kinds of free stuff. When I had to print my own and it cost like one or two hundred dollars I thought it was breaking the bank. Obviously a book costs way more and they have to be sold. I found it pretty easy to get the information I needed to do the book. Most people were pretty helpful although some other publishers feel the need to protect their inside information from others. But I haven't encountered much attitude, maybe because even in the big-time world of books most people don't make any money. Is publishing other people's work easier or harder than publishing your own? Yes and no. It's nice to remove the ego and be promoting a project mostly because you think it's really great, not because it's yours. But I felt awkward sometimes editing and making suggestions about Bill's work because he's got a lot of talent and in the end it has to be his vision creatively and not mine. I didn't edit or change as much as I would have if I was like the editor at Random House or something . How much did it cost? How did you raise the money to publish? It cost a whole lotta dough. Roughly $3000 for 1000 books. That's not so bad if you sell a lot. I have investors. Why aren't more women self-publishing books? There are lots of women self-publishing spirituality books which is not, um, my cup of tea. Maybe there's some self-esteem issues but I haven't noticed too much of a gender imbalance. Who inspires you? I think the notion of actually publishing came after I read Grosse Pointe Girl by Sarah Grace McCandless which was published by a girly imprint of Kevin Sampsell's future tense publishing from Portland. It's a fantastic book, it's looks great and it seemed like it was actually reaching its intended audience. Kevin and Sarah Grace both encouraged me and gave me some good advice. ---------- (Psst! We're continuing the discussion on women publishing books over here.) |
