Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

The best linkage news of the day is that Prairie Mary has just published her collection of Blackfeet stories with the first-rate POD outfit Lulu.com. As visitors to 2Blowhards (or to her own blog) know, Mary Scriver is an unruly fireball of writing talent -- full of horsepower, information, soul, brains, and juice. I just ordered a copy of the book, and am expecting an involving and exciting read. You can order a hard copy or download a PDF version of the book from this page.

Best,

Michael

UPDATE: I'm hoping to see many writers sidestep traditional commercial publishers and go the self-publishing route. It's a lot less trouble, far less wearing on the soul, and (potentially, at least) a much more direct way of connecting with audiences and readers. Why re-enact all the old battles? Why not sidestep them, and then get on with life instead?

Are you, as your own publisher, stuck doing all your own promotion? Sure. But -- sad fact but true -- so are 9 out of 10 commercially-published authors. Most commercial houses put their marketing muscle behind very few of the books they publish.

Taking charge of your own fate can be a real high. Dave Lull spotted a Times of London article by a downright exultant Martin Wroe celebrating his experience with Lulu.com. Wroe writes:

"Holding the finished product -- a proper, perfect-bound book, gleaming colour cover hugging 76 crisp white pages of text -- it was obvious that a revolution is under way for prospective authors everywhere ... The maths of publishing is changing. Profitability has been factored around millions of sales by hundreds of authors; in future it may be based around hundreds of sales by millions of authors."

Mary's first reflections about self-publishing with Lulu can be read here.

Wow, Michael! I'm dazzled by your remarks! I almost ordered a book before I remembered that it was me who wrote it!

I think this strategy works best for a defined audience that is inclined to Google for a known word, like "Blackfeet." Stephen Bodio has a book review for a Lulu book about terriers on his blog (stephenbodio.blogspot.com) -- not just about terriers but about people who have made a sport of taking a terrier out into the fields to chase an animal down a hole, so they can dig the animal and the terrier back out. It doesn't sound like fun to me, but if they think so, who's to object? Neither would I guess there was enough to say to make a book, but I gather that there are classics in the field and so on.

I predict the day when people will look for a subject on Lulu FIRST and only then look at Amazon.

What I'm working on now is a "Guide to the Blackfeet Reservation," not about where to eat and sleep, but about the terrain and history.

Prairie Mary

Posted by: Mary Scriver on August 17, 2006 6:19 PM

I'm going right over to check that Prairie Mary link. I met the Lulu folk at BlogHer this year and they were awesome and their product was uber-awesome. I don't know why, but I assumed it would be crappy.

I know, I know--never ASSUME, because you make an ASS...etc.

Posted by: communicatrix on August 17, 2006 6:27 PM






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