Interview

Taking It to the Street (Corner): Self Publishing

by Steven Laird

Some turn to it out of frustration with publishers’ rejections, some for reasons of vanity, and some for the sheer love of the process. Self-publishing, often mistaken for vanity publishing (where a writer pays someone to publish his or her book), has its drawbacks but also some very tangible rewards — a physical, tangible book. Steven Laird spoke to Toronto writer Stuart Ross via e-mail about his experience publishing his own work.

SL: One of the most compelling reasons for publishing a book of poems is to gain a readership. Has self-publishing been an effective way to do that for you?

SR: It’s been a very gradual trajectory for me; I’ve been at it for about 25 years. I think the audience has to be built one person at a time. So yes, self-publishing really got me started, and got some people to read my work, and then publishing with a “trade” house took that to another level. However, poetry audiences are so small, anyway, that “another level” isn’t really that great an increase. I’ve had other reasons for self-publishing, though, aside from gaining an audience. I enjoy it; I find it useful for my writing to put something in print, and then move on. It helps me to look at my poetry as something other than manuscript, to see it typeset, bound, etc.

SL: Publishing is more than just printing, but printing is a major part of the process. How long does it take, once you have a collection of work ready, to produce a book? What is a realistic print run for a self-published collection of poems?

SR: Depending on how ambitious you are, it could take anywhere from a day to a month. If you’re photocopying a 16-page chapbook and folding and binding it yourself, you can do it overnight. If you’re taking an 80-page book to a printer, it could take a month. As to print run, you have to realistically think about how many copies you could sell/distribute. I’ve done print runs as small as 50 copies and as large as 1,500 (the latter for a novella). Obviously, the more copies you do, the lower your unit cost … but you’re never going to sell 3,000 copies of a poetry book. I’d start with a couple hundred copies, tops, if you can sell it for a reasonable price.

SL: If you go the self-publishing route, is it wise to get an ISBN number? Are there any special considerations the author should take for copyrighting the material?

SR: ISBN is worthwhile and easy. [As for] [c]opyright — just put the copyright notice in the book.

SL: One of the reasons given for going through an independent publisher is that self-published books not only don’t get picked up by booksellers, but also don’t get reviewed. Have you found ways to get self-published books noticed?

SR: I stood on the street for a decade and sold my self-published books in person. That got me some attention. But really, my first three books from ECW Press each got only two reviews ([one] in Quill & Quire and [one] in a small literary journal, different for each book). I know other ECW authors whose books were never reviewed. So going through a lit publisher doesn’t guarantee attention.

SL: Is self-publishing a way to interest a publisher later down the road?

SR: You’d think so. I think it helped me. I’d already built a small audience before I was published by ECW and Mercury [The Mercury Press]. The publishers also know that I [am] the kind of writer who pushes my own work. I think it helped in getting me published later.

SL: Self-publishing is often stigmatized as vanity publishing, even though they’re not the same. Have you ever been affected by this?

SR: Yes. I had to fight to get into the Writers’ Union of Canada and to get Canada Council readings. I doubt that fight could be won these days, but I managed it. And I’m sure many publications will automatically refuse to review a self-published book.

SL: Do you think there are genres of writing that self-publishing is not suited to?

SR: A 300-page literary novel, for example. Though even that has been done successfully. Basically, anything that needs wide distribution to earn its cost will probably lose the self-publisher heaps of money.

SL: What is the single most important thing someone considering self-publishing should know or be prepared to do?

SR: The same thing every poet should know — you’re not going to get rich or famous. You’re doing it because you want to see your work in print, and make it possible for friends, relatives, and the reading audience to get permanent copies of your poems.

Stuart Ross is a Toronto fiction writer, poet, editor, and creative-writing instructor. He has been active in the Toronto literary scene since the mid-1970s. Stuart is co-founder, with Nicholas Power, of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair, an underground literary institution since 1987. He sold 7,000 copies of his self-published poetry and fiction chapbooks in the streets of Toronto during the ’80s.

Steven Laird is a writer and editor for lichen literary journal, and a reviewer for Books in Canada. His first collection of poems, Con’s Hill, is forthcoming from Ronsdale Press.