Yesterday I did a blog post about my idea for a creative publishing cooperative. I got pretty excited, so did many people who generously left comments. (They’re definitely worth reading through.) But, you know, talk is cheap. Ideas are cheap. It’s the work that costs. Having said that, I think, in a small way, this could fly.
We need a proof-of-concept project. Does anyone have any ideas? Is anyone willing to just…begin? I think we would need 3 books from 3 different people/creative teams to test the cooperative aspect. Anyone have a book they want to experiment with?
I have ideas for three different books I could throw in the pot. I could probably make two of them happen pretty quickly. (The third would take longer and would require a lot of faith–a lot–on the part of a lot of people.) I hesitate to suggest them because I don’t really want this to be a vanity publishing project; I don’t want it to even smack of same. I’d rather others came up with other ideas but, in the spirit of adventure, my options are:
1. A collection of my short stories. (I’ve never published a full collection, just a Conversation Pieces volume from Aqueduct consisting of 2 stories and 1 novella.) Including one or two new ones (so it would take til, say, spring to produce).
2. A collection of my essays. (Never published a book of these, either–mainly because I can’t imagine anyone but a completist, of whom there are probably only a 100 on the planet, being interested.)
3. An anthology. (Yes, I’ve been pondering this antho. for years. Yes, I’ve done it before. Yes, it would be awesome. Yes–oh yes–it would far, far more work than I really want to commit to right now but, hey, if it would get this thing off the ground then hell, maybe…)
How about you?
We would need to sort out half a hundred things, like operating funds, percentages, selection procedure (I’m so not interested in publishing, or being part of publishing, crap), organisational structure, distribution, blah blah blah, but it’s not impossible. Probably very, very difficult though. As I say, talk is cheap; work costs a lot.
But it’s also play, a game, a delight, an experiment. The worst thing that would happen is we’d all lost a bit of time, energy, money, sanity, trust in the world… But only a bit. And we might gain a lot, too.
So, bearing all that in mind, who wants to talk more, or donate (expertise, contacts, skills, time, money), or be part of the cooperative, or on the Advisory Board (we’re going to need one)? Who wants to play?
Nicola Griffith 
Why not see if Bob Stein/Future of eh Book is interested? He’s got the best set of multimedia e-publishing tools out there, if you want to do something more than text, and Bob gets books, text, and multimedia better than anyone. Really.
A collection of your stories sounds viable as an option. How do collections sell? Anyone know the stats?I have no idea how a collection of essays sells.I love anthologies, but I also believe they tend to have low sales numbers. That doesn’t mean *all* of them do, of course. And this option does allow the inclusion of many voices/authors to call attention to the project.You can see my first thought is on predicting sales, and I guess that’s the marketing geek in me that would like to see this succeed. I think the first thing published will be judged fairly critically, so it’s an important consideration.As for my own writing, I’m just now looking for a publisher for my first collection, though I’m not convinced my name is well-known enough to warrant its inclusion in this project.All that said, I’m interested in being involved in whatever capacity I’m useful. -Ken Brady
I want to play, Nicola. Time to start brainstorming! Like Ken, there’s a lot of marketing geek(ess?) in me that wants to see a project like this fly, and fly far. SO, count me in. Now, where to begin?
<>nicola<>, we could do all three of your ideas, each of them differently: the collection of your short stories can go out in both print and digital media; hard copies of the essay collection would be more difficult to sell, but we could make them available for download, both individually and as a package; the anthology… well, you have tons of experience with those beasts. I say we put some cash together (what should we offer to pay per story/word?) and send out a call for submissions—it’s also an excellent way to make more people aware of our creative publishing co-op project. <>Lisa,<> could you be the liaison between this project and Mr. Stein once we have something more tangible happening? <>Ken,<> can we read your collection? This, I guess, also raises the question of the selection process and criteria for the works that will eventually become part of our catalog. <>Kat & Everyone,<> we need to sort out many things, but I guess we can start by mentioning our interests/skills and our dreads. Then, we could throw some teams together and delegate. I can: help with graphic & web design (I'm glad we have a fair share of visual artists, tech and marketing geeks; we can share the workload and be less sleep-deprived), read submissions, do promo/distribution work around Vancouver and some English-speaking communities in Mexico, blog about the awesomeness of our co-op, try to raise money. I hate: financial planning, bookkeeping, being boss. Should we brainstorm names for the project, or is it too early? Talk is cheap, I agree. I've done some more thinking on my stake in this, and here's how I've decided to look at it: I could go and spend $7,000-$12,000 on an MA in Publishing, and expect to be schooled in the current (and perishing) model; or I could invest that much money, time, and energy on this creative co-op. I like hands-on learning and experimentation more than I like academia or the current state of publishing. So I'm willing to take on a student loan (while I'm still at UBC and qualify for financial aid) and invest as much on this co-op as I would in furthering my education in the area of publishing through traditional means. I really want to play. :-)
Nicola, every publishing company NEEDs operations and systems in order to turn content into commerce. Firebrand (my company) is willing to offer its systems expertise to your experiment. let me know if you want to move forward.
Count me in if you need help on distribution.
I’m interested in all of the talk that’s going on, and most definitely interested in the final product. I don’t currently see how I could fit in to this model, not being a writer/publisher/person -with-money-or-a-lot-of-time. But I’d be happy to contribute what time and expertise I have if it does prove specifically useful at some point — so holla if you need a professional scientist Nicola et al. Best wishes.
Do you need readers with a lot of word of mouth experience?
<>lisa<>, good idea. Is he someone you know well enough to chat with–in a hey, heads-up, take a look at this kind of way? I have a passing acquaintance but that’s it.<>ken<>, I’m not convinced that a book of short stories is the most exciting project (mine or yours) to have first–but I’ll offer it if we can’t figure anything else. And how lovely of you to offer your first collection up to this mad idea. At some point we’ll work out how to decide what does where and when, but for now: thank you.<>kat<>, cool, tick: one marketing geek.<>karina<>, I have no problem being boss :) Or at least one of them. At least until things get rocking and rolling and we see who would be best at what. But we don’t have much to boss at this stage. I’m going to think hard tonight and try to come up with some next steps tomorrow.<>fran<>, I think the notion of NetGalley is awesome. Firebrand is exceedingly cool. And I’m delighted you’re part of this. We’re going to need cool heads as well as wild dreamers.<>chadao<>, excellent. I know you know the biz inside and out. If you have thoughts on what kind of project stands the best chance of whipping up excitement Out There (short stories? novels? pop-up books? an anthology of graphic novellas starring the teen versions of older fictional characters–a young Aud? [just an e.g. because I know the owner of her copyright would say yes *g*]?), please share them. That goes for everyone else, too.<>jane<>, I bet if we think hard enough we can come up with some creative way to use a professional scientist.<>everyone<>, this is *exciting*. And, I won’t lie, just a tad disconcerting. But I don’t want it to fizzle to nothing. So between now and tomorrow, let’s think really hard about ways to get focused and bring this energy to bear in a way that uses everyone’s talents wisely.What are my talents? Making shit up, mostly *g*. And getting people pumped about impossible things. I’ve helped form several improbable organisations in my time, but it was always among and with people I had, or would, meet face-to-face. This will be a steep learning curve for me. So if we have experienced e-community and e-consensus makers and facilitators among us, please step forward.
barbara, yes! We do, we need all the readers. Jane, we need you, too! Active, ever-present readers are especially important for projects like this. And if they have word-of-mouth experience, all the better. If not, well… I’m sure there are some people here who can share their knowledge and prepare you for the job. :-)
<>[…] an anthology of graphic novellas starring the teen versions of older fictional characters–a young Aud?<> I *heart* this idea. Do we have any illustrators/graphic artists among us?
Ok, well. If you can make time for this Nicola (and everyone else) then I guess I can too. I’d love to be a part of it. But not sure how much I can commit to right now.I’m thinking you’ll need some kind of photography at some point, so I’m available for that at the very least.As the conversation progresses, maybe other things will come up that I can help with.And maybe I have a photo book or two in me. :)
<>barbara<>, yes, ditto Karina. We will need word-of-mouthers with mad skills.<>karina<>, I don’t know. Hello? Any cartoonists/graphic artists reading this who want to play?<>jennifer<>, yay, I was secretly counting on you.
As a writer, I suppose my best skill on offer is to talk up the project like mad. I’m willing to do that.
Yes, I can talk to Bob, and would be glad to.
RE: a print version–lulu.com is the way to go, hands down. If we present a professionally made quality .pdf, we’ll get a high quality book. We then direct purchasers who want the codex printed book to Lulu, who order it there, and have it shipped to them. RE: an “education in publishing,” that’s a large part of why MacAllister Stone started Coyote Wild; she wanted to know what editing, slushing, etc. would be like.
Count away.I’m thinking that everyone and anyone who wants to can contribute something to this. Whether it’s through direct participation, helping brainstorm, spreading the word, buying the stuff, or just knowing someone who knows someone. So much of getting things done is hooking up with the right people. Connections. Most people have more connections than they realize. It’s already happening just from the little bit of talking done here already.And as for connecting online, I don’t know all that much about it, but I do know that there are pretty amazing web conference room things out there where people go on and can talk and write messages and see a communal whiteboard, etc. Or there’s video conferencing too.
<>lisa<>, thanks.<>jennifer<>, yes. Word of mouth is king in the book biz. Given that book coverage has collapsed recently (newspapers folding, NPR cutting some of its main book-covering programmes), w-o-m is even more important.
ssas, oops, missed your comment there. Absolutely, talk talk talk is what we’ll need most once we’ve figured out the beginning.
I'd like to throw in my two cents. And by cents I mean cartoons, if my style would fit in. http://www.nobrowcartoons is where you can see my work. I love science and science fiction. I've sold to F&SF, Asimov's, and way back when, to Omni and Amazing. My science cartoons appear in American Scientist. For the last five years I drew a comic strip for United Media; now that I'm freelancing again, I'm eager to find new ways to promote myself. En masse seems like a good idea.I'll throw out this thought: a collection of cartoons, themed to science or genre, of my work and/or others. By way of compensation, all I'd require is a correct spelling of my name and url. Each cartoon could be offered with a CC license, available for non-commercial use. Rather than lock the images into a pdf, make them available as gifs, for posting on personal sites/blogs.Sell the book as cheaply as possible. Give it away for a few dollars, or free when it's bought with another book. You could run the individual cartoons as a weekly updating feature of your site. A little humor for visitors.
Excellent. Welcome aboard. I’ll be doing another blog post tomorrow, setting a deadline for suggestions. But, woo hoo, cartoons too! This will be cool. Thank you.
Eraserhead Press had a similar coop publishing idea in the early days, but focussed solely on prose novels.I’m game to help out. I have typesetting experience, as I lay out all issues of Polluto and the books at Dog Horn Publishing. I can readily produce DOC and PDF files that are easy on the eye.Lulu.com aren’t bad, per se, but you’ll get a cheaper per unit price with Create Space and/or BookSurge (which also gives you automatic distribution via Amazon). This is important if you want stores to carry titles. I can also lay out covers if you supply artwork.An even better option is to consider small run digital printers. Green Button (in the US) and Biddles MPG (in the UK) produce extremely high, litho-quality books in print runs of as low as 20 or 100, respectively. Green Button also offer drop shipping and warehousing, and Biddles will work with York Publishing to offer the same sort of deal.
adam, this is all good info, thank you. I’m sadly lacking in the nuts-and-bolts knowledge of publishing.
No problem. Typesetting is a skilled job, but can be taught. And it depends how flashy you need it to be. Programs like OpenOffice and Word will let you justify, set columns, insert flashy new fonts you’ve downloaded from the net, set your own custom line spacing, so what else do you need? Knowing what fonts look good in print and are conducive to long periods of reading can be learnt with experience (and I have a friend who knows everything there is to know about fonts and layouts!).