A new job description

As of today I am more than an author.

I am a publisher.

Not exactly what I wanted to be.  But then, life is nothing if it is totally predictable.

My debut novel, PULL, a young adult novel geared toward attracting reluctant readers, was published in 2010 by Westside books.  Unfortunatly, Westside ceased publishing new books or reprinting existing books in 2011.  Because my book was not officially out of print, they retained rights. Because there was no promotion, sales plummeted. Even when people tried to order the book they were told none were available. I  know, because two booksellers and a school told me they had been unable to get books, and a second school told me the repeated trials they had to go through before finally getting  a supply for their students. 

Once the last copies were sold, and another school had to go without books, my agent was able to get my rights returned.  Great, I thought. I\’ll go the Indie route. I joined RWA\’s Self Publishing Forum so I could learn more about this and decide on my next steps. Only to discover I needed to move faster than I first intended.

Last week I was approached, first by a school, then by a distributor. They wanted to order and Westside sent them to me. I realized I needed to move fast or get replaced by a different selection.  That meant signing forms and making decisions much  more rapidly than normal for me.  And so, All The Colors Of Love was born, my own publishing company.  I looked at Amazon\’s Creatspace, and decided to use them as my printer/distributor. Even though I knew there would be more hassle involved, I chose to be my own publisher. I have a set of ISBN\’s and a Bowker account. I learned how to format documents for publication. I\’ve signed legal papers and am in the process of establishing an account with a wholesaler.  I even bought my own copy of my cover-model (this was much more expensive that other stock photo shops, but in the end I paid because I just can\’t imagine anyone else as David) and learned how to use Photoshop to create a new cover.   I even kept the old motif of the hero being chained in by life, although I nixed the high-tension wires.

And somehow, I also found time to finish teaching an on-line writing class, get a new job, and keep on writing.  As I told my students in the Man-Talk class, women are excellent multi-taskers.