At the workshop I attended in June with Lauren Winner, I had a breakthrough of sorts about publishing. I’ve been wrestling with it ever since, not wanting to commit to a position, not wanting to publicly say what it is I think about the topic. You could say I’ve “lived” with the insight even before the conference, but it was articulated in a different way there by Lauren.
I self-published my book of poems, The Way of All the Earth, but not until 10 years had passed in which I’d submitted it faithfully to dozens of book contests a year. It had been a finalist and received notice from the top poetry contests in the country, including the National Poetry Series. But it had never been the winner, never the one, and so there I was, with a second book of poems half-written, feeling stymied and also the necessity to sit down each year and rearrange the poems in the manuscript, take out some that might be weak and replace them with new poems that might be stronger… I was becoming increasingly sad and anxious as I sat and wrote the checks for the entry fees, paid for the photocopies and postage, and sent off my little book of poems.
In 2001 I tried a different approach, sending out queries to about 40 small publishers in addition to the contest route. I saw it as the last chance for that book. Then in 2003, I gave a reading of my poems at the community college where I taught. The reading was attended by about 400 people and from that reading I also received an invitation to read at a local fundraising event. Not having a book to offer for sale after the reading really broke my heart.
What was I waiting for? Before the fundraising event, I made sure I got the book of poems published. At that time, I paid for the print-on-demand service and bought the books and marketing package that included listing on Amazon and postcards and bookmarks. The whole thing was paid off by the time I’d sold 100 books, which happened to friends and family pretty quickly. Since then I’ve ordered small quantities and had them available when I read or where I work. It is available here on my website. And I’m glad it has a life out there.
When I wrote my memoir, I got lucky. An agent took the project on right away. She was wonderfully commited to it, working with me through three drafts and then representing it well, getting it into many publishers’ hands. However, the chief strike against it with publishers was that I have no platform. Who is Susan Sink? Why would people want to read her book? It takes more than having a good story and a well-written book. You have to have a ready-made audience or be writing on a topic that is unusual and yet also strikes a chord.
I sent my second poetry manuscript around for two years, and then I lost interest. I hate writing those checks when I don’t have faith. And it isn’t that I don’t have faith in my poems, just that the person judging the contest will see the value of this book of poems above other books of poems and choose it. I don’t have faith in the publishing process for poetry.
But also, I have less and less interest even in the idea of publishing on a grand scale. When it comes to poetry, I don’t really see the point of going through that to be “legitimate.” To win a prize is nice, but I am not sure even that will get you a readership, and I know from friends who have been very successful that it won’t get you your second book contract. Not in poetry and not really in other fields as well.
Then Lauren Winner said something that put this in a new light. What she said to our group of writers was, “Hey, all the questions you asked were about publishing. All of you are concerned about how to get published. But what I want to ask you is, do you read? And do you not just read, but do you buy books?” In other words, do we participate in the world in which we hope to be a player? If we don’t buy books, why should anyone buy ours?
The truth is, I do actually buy books, but not many. I buy books that are in the subject area where I’m writing, and I buy books by poets I know, and these days I buy books about gardening and cooking and sometimes religion. I buy them new, sometimes from Amazon, sometimes from the local Barnes & Noble, and sometimes from the website where the author/poet has directed me. Lauren asked us to assess what we spend on books compared to video, phone, computer access, movie tickets, etc. In that assessment, I come out pretty good.
But really, I am not a huge fan of printed books. I want them to be in libraries, and that’s where I get most of my books. I don’t feel the need to own books, and have in fact at times in my life felt oppressed by owning a lot of books. I have given and give a lot of books away.
What is more surprising to me is that I don’t feel the desire or need for a large audience. I don’t need a 20,000 copy press run to make me feel like my book is out there. I really would be fine with selling 200-500 copies over the life of the book. I just want to be able to keep writing them.
So now I’m going a different route. I will still try, with longer books, to offer them to the larger world of publishers and readers. But if there’s no interest, I can still make the work available. These are great times for “indie writers.” And there are some projects where I can just go directly to self-publishing. This week I published the first: Habits, a collection of 100-word stories. You can go like it on its very own facebook page: http://facebook.com/100wordhabits. You can buy it from lulu or from me directly on the Books page of this website. Or you can just read the excerpts available on the Poetry page of this website or at cowbird.com. Enjoy. And thank you.
I will have to take a look.