On the (Complicated) Nature of POD
From: audrey@writerschatroom.com
To: ebenreilly@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: New Novel by Mom & Son Team
Hi,
Sheela Wolford had contacted me with info about your book too. Sorry for the delay, but I've been inundated with guest suggestions lately.
I'm a bit confused here. Sheela said you live in NY, but you're published in the UK? Is Braiswick a traditional publisher or subsidy? I can't seem to find anything about them listed anywhere, other than their own site. Are your books in book stores in the US?
I just need to know where you could fit into our group. :)
Good luck with your book! I wish I could write with my son. But we are like night and day. I don't understand the worlds he writes about, and he thinks mine are boring. Maybe someday.
Audrey
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Education and Support for Writers
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Audrey--
I must have gotten my chatrooms crossed. My editor at Braiswick, Trevor Lockwood, had put me in touch w. several-- but I do recall Sheela kindly making a connection, which must be you!
As for Braiswick, yes, in popular terminology it is an "independent", in fact very independent. This is the second novel of ours Braiswick has published, primarily out of the kindness of its founder/editor's heart.
Back in 2004 our first novel spent 7 months in the hands of the Executive Editor at Harper Collins, Rosemary Brosnan, who had actually requested the ms. based on her review of sample chapters. When after much
reassurance from a colleague who had successfully published several titles w. HC (Mel Glenn www.melglenn.com coauthor of my 3rd novel Zombie Girl & the Blue Tattoo), she declined, I was (as we all our initially) crushed.
That novel had been turned down previously due to its "Wiccan overtones," so I researched New Age & Wiccan publishers and met up with Trevor Lockwood of Braiswick, based in Felixstowe England. He loved the book and offered to publish it-- and then subsequently published WOLF.
In this day and age, what's an author to do? You flirt w. "traditional" publishers, get a wink or even a fast kiss, but when they're gone, do you sit around pining, hoping, pursuing?Or do you accept the attention
of an "independent publisher"?
I did-- and despite the shortcomings of the relationship: no distributor, no chain store, limited publicity and sales, I don't regret it. Ben and I have enjoyed book signings, workshops, interviews-- even a couple of good local reviews in Vermont (where we live some of the time.) Braiswick has also set up webpages, blogs, printed postcards-- and even run an ad in REVOLVER, the heavy metal magazine for Jan. & Feb.
And so there is no short answer when it comes to discussing POD-- it's a complicated, but in my case,
happy affair.
And, yes, collaborating w. Ben is tremendously fun. Before we began WOLF I didn't even know AC/DC let alone a single Heavy Metal song.
(BTW: PMA Lit& Film Agency in NYC offered to read WOLF-- a long shot, but the fact that it's a digitally published novel doesn't seem to be deterring at least this initial interest.)
So-- sorry for the longwinded email, but that really is the short version-- what do you write? Will have
to stop by your chatroom-- only recently met Sheela and am very much enjoying our literay dialoge.
all the best--
Eben
posted by Eben Reilly @ 5:41 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I'm not sure I'm any more clear on POD than before. On one hand from what I read it just is a reference to digital printing: Print on Demand.
But yet there seems to be a lof suspicion surrounding "independent" publishers. Did you pay for the service>
Alice--
Thanks for stopping by my blogspot and taking the time to read & post.
And, yes, I agree there is emerging a whole new confusing world of digital publishing, but the technology does allow some of us to slip past the commercial gatekeepers of "traditional publishing" and find our readership.
And, no, as I said in my email to
Audrey, Trevor Lockwood of Braiswick genuinely,generously, kindly published both our novels.
(The only payment that has passed between is gratitude.)
And for Ben and me: that has made all the difference!
I'm so excited at the thought of you discussing your writing with Audrey's chat room. She's just so reliable and supportive of the hard working fiction writer, maybe non fiction, too, I'm not sure.
POD is revolutionary! Thank you for introducing me to it. God bless Braiswick and any other publisher who understands the literary crushing mindset of this current monetary mad society.
Lastly, the reason I can zip right along with good dialogue is because it is such a pleasurable thing, similar to eating. If it doesn't purr along, I, who is usually eating or bored and on a train, or sitting in a waiting room, will shut the book or magazine so fast it will make my plate of food, commuter next to me or receptionist at the front desk's head jolt up!
Good writing is that - good - like a pleasing wine or plate of comfort food. The ingredients complement and delight, raise life - if only for a short time - to a new and endearing level.
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