Published in 2000
100 pages
5.25x8.5"

What was the quantity of your print run(s) + how much did it work out per book?
1000 copies. It cost about $2 per book.

What did you sell your book for?
$8.95

How can people get your book now?
Through Powells.com, Amazon.com, about 10 independent bookstores, and directly from me -- workingfortheman.com.

What inspired you to make a book?
I have been doing zines since 1997, and before that I had done literary journals and also worked on newspapers and magazines. Through all that, I had always wanted to do a book, and with the Working For The Man stories (from five issues of the zine, plus the workingfortheman.com website) I finally had enough material to publish a book. I knew I wanted to do it independently. I was curious about figuring out both the production process and the marketing possibilities, but I mainly just wanted to see that I could do it. I had been talking and talking about how important independent book publishing is, yet I had never actually done it myself. So that was a big part of it -- I wanted less talk and more action.

What did you do to promote it?
First of all, the book is a collection of stories from the Working For The Man print zine and the workingfortheman.com website. Both the zine and the website have their audiences, so I made sure to make them aware of the book. The website was an especially important element in the marketing effort. Anytime I talked about the book, I made sure to say, "check out the workingfortheman.com website." I also made postcards (through modernpostcard.com, who I recommend), and sent them to anyone and everyone I know, and also included them in all my correspondence. I also gave stacks of postcards to friends and family, and had them pass the postcards out to their friends, family and co-workers. And while I sent out a great many review copies of the book, I sent out even more postcards, to journalists, radio show hosts, work columnists - basically anyone I thought might be interested in either writing about or simply buying a copy of my book. I also sent out a very creative e-mail to friends and family, and asked them, in a humorous way, to not only buy a copy of my book, but to forward my note to all their friends and family. The goal there wasn't just to sell books, but to get people to my website. In terms of getting the book written up, my strategy didn't focus on getting reviews. Indeed, it's very hard to get book reviewers to review an independently published book. Many of the how-to self-publishing books will list all the major newspapers' book review sections, and encourage you to send your book to the editors of those book review sections. Unfortunately, your chances of getting reviewed by those publications are not good. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it probably won't. Not just because your book is independently published, but because those publications receive hundreds of books each week. So I focused more on working the angle of my book -- the world of work -- and went after the editors, columnists and reporters who cover employment, the workplace, career, that kind of thing. This strategy helped me get things like a full page in the New York Post (the careers page), and an excerpt from the book in Fortune Magazine's On The Job section. Neither of those publications would have reviewed the book, but still, I got coverage. One thing any self-publisher should do first is send a review copy of their book to their hometown newspaper, as well as to the newspaper in the town in which they currently reside. The fact that you are local (or were local) gets your book prioritized higher, and your chances of getting coverage or a review goes up considerably. If you're persistent, you'll probably get a write-up. Then as you send out more review copies, you can include those write-ups in the mailings, which will improve your chances of getting more write-ups. Even though reporters and reviewers like to break a story first, they also seem to respond to something better when they see someone else has already written it up. It basically lends some credibility to a project. Another thing that I made sure to do was send handwritten notes with my press mailings. I was able to do this because my press strategy was planned out well in advance, and it was very focused. That was the overall key to my promotional effort. The whole time I was doing my book, I kept a notebook with promotional strategies, ideas, contacts, lists of people that could help me get to an editor or writer at various publications, that kind of thing. Then, once my book was sent off to the printer, I spent that time really figuring out the step-by-step process of how I was going to get the word out about my book. The day my books arrived, I knew exactly what I had to do. And I went to work.