By Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Connie Bell, poet and host of 'Poetry Tuesdays' at Weekenz. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
WESTERN BUREAU:
ON SATURDAY, May 1, three seminars were held at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts as part of the Calabash International Literary Festival 2004. They were entitled 'Publishing: Do it Yourself or Don't', 'Can You Teach Creative Writing' and 'What Makes a Critic Good', running in that order. The Gleaner will begin with a report today and continue with other reports during the week. The seminars were hosted by Calabash founder and artistic director Colin Channer, with the first panel comprising Manie Barron (literary agent, the William Morris Agency), Connie Bell (poet, host of Poetry Tuesdays at Weekenz), Valerie Facey (publisher, The Mill Press), Johnny Temple (publisher, Akashic Books) and David Wong Ken (self-published author of 'The Runnings').
Self-publishing is not for the weak of resolve or pocket.
That much was clear from the opening seminar at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts on Saturday, as David Wong Ken disclosed that he had laid out $1 million on The Runnings.
Of this, $800,000 went to printing costs for 3,000 books, with the costs projected to be recovered after 1,200 copies are sold. Mr. Wong Ken is nearing that point, after which he will be in profit land.
"In the Jamaican context, that is a successful book," he said.
However, that success does not come easy. "I only recommend self-publishing to people who are self-motivated. I do not think self-publishing is for everyone. Without distribution it is very difficult. Stores are not going to buy it from you just like that. There is a lot of footwork," Temple said.
And a lot of phone work as well, a strategy that Wong Ken employed in moving his book. Then there was the publicity of television interviews, as well as placement in what would seem an unlikely place for books - beauty salons.
"One of the best outlets is a beauty salon, Wong Ken said. Incidentally, the first chapter of Channer's Waiting in Vain was also placed in beauty salons.
'SEXUALLY GRAPHIC'
That the book is 'sexually graphic' may have something to do with that success.
Manie Barron put the US self-publishing situation in the wider context of getting the book to the attention of an established publishing house. "It is becoming more and more of a proving ground," he said.
"Publishing is the only sort of mass media that does not do a focus group. They do not ask the end user what they want. The self-published author has a track record. You can see that it has been successful, so with wider distribution it should be more successful," he said.
When he was at Random House, Barron signed on about three self-published authors. "But that was five or six years ago when self-publishing was really stepping up in the African-American community," he said. When asked by Channer how much money the authors got, Barron sad between US$20,000 and US$30,000 a year.
Connie Bell pointed out that 'publishers do not take to poetry'. When asked if self-publishing is popular among Jamaican poets, she pointed out that two movements have taken to it.
"They do not know much about it," Connie Bell said, when asked why more poets did not take to publishing their work. She advised that poets think along the route of CDs.
Raymond Mair and Gina Rey Forrest are two Jamaican poets who did self-published books last year, while Cherry Natural's Earth Woman came out this year.
MORE IN THE PIPELINE
Valerie Facey said "I have a few nice books, with six more in the pipeline." As for her reason for starting and continuing with a press that 'has been losing money from day one', she said: "I think the history is so incredible. It is so important for us to document these things."
There is another aspect she would like to get deeper into. "That is what is sadly lacking, children's books. I have done two. A lot of people have children's books, but they seem determined to hold on to them," she said.
However, when she said that "they have to come to me with funding", Channer asked "then why not do it yourself?"
And later in the discussion Channer said "I have never met a poor publisher in Jamaica. Somebody is making money".
"It is all altruistic," Facey said.
Wong Ken's reasons for self-publishing were maintaining control over his work, not only on the creative but also on the financial side.
The biggest turn-off, though, seems to have been "the sort of nonchalant approach to my work. Hurry up and get the manuscript to us and we will get back to you."
With a December 1 deadline to meet in order to get the Christmas market, he had to make a decision and pressed on his own.
Barron pointed out that this sense of urgency is what the self-published author has, especially after the books are printed and they are taking up space in the house, "to go out and sell, even to get back the space in the garage."
And Temple, who has The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq as a 40,000 copy seller in his catalogue, pointed out that an independent press is somewhere between self-publishing and working with a large publishing house, saying that he would not put out a cover without the author's approval, or change even a comma, for that matter.
HUMOUR UNLEASHED
He gave the seminar one of its most humorous moments when he said; "I publish a lot of off-beat, eccentric people. If someone is crazy, I don't hold it against them."
With Invisible Life and Addicted being two very successful self-published books in the US and David Walker and Langston Hughes among the Black writers who have self-published, Barron pointed out that this was because 'the majority culture did not want to hear what we were talking about'.
"We have always had to publish on our own to get the word out," he said, pointing out that even now there are fewer that 10 Black editors in all of publishing - a fact that Channer asked him to say thrice.
Channer also got Wong Ken to read the first page of his book, asking the relevant publishers if they would buy the book (yes) and why (one reason being that it gets into the action right away, but still leaves elements open for development and questions the reader needs answered).
"Self-publishing for me is a very worthwhile activity. It is a great marketing tool. You cannot get a book in to a publisher if you do not have it in your hand," Wong Ken said.
"It is like a demo in the music industry," Channer said.
"Yeah!" Wong Ken replied.
