Publishing: the next adventure

It’s official! Isotopia Publishing is open for business.

Definitively answering that oft-asked question — “Do you have a publisher?” The answer is YES. And at the very same moment, Isotopia Publishing gained its very first client!

What’s in a name?

The name “Isotopia Publishing” invokes the spirit of a fictional city created by my son, Jeffrey Greenberg, in his dystopian novel, Isotopia (published posthumously in 2018). The world of Isotopia centers around a thriving marketplace of artisans and merchants, hunters and healers, where the best of the best trade their products and their expertise for the benefit of their society as a whole.

That sounds an awful lot like a really good publishing company.

The Path to Publishing

The journey of a story from completed manuscript to the form we know as a “book” — whether that be hardcover, paperback, eBook, or audible — is fraught with obstacles and challenges. Traditionally, an author would need to attract the attention (then devotion) of an agent, whose goal would then be to shepherd that story into the hands of a publisher (i.e. one of the “big five”). A deal would be struck, and then the gears, both tiny and great, would start grinding away with all kinds of professionals assigned by the publishing house: editing, cover design, interior formatting, proofing, marketing, distribution, more marketing, printing, even more marketing, and RELEASE! (Was it good for you?)

What the heck is a publisher anyway? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition: “Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free.” Technically, every time I post an update to my website, I’m publishing. Every time you tweet or post on Facebook, guess what? Publishing a book gets a little more complicated…

But sometimes those magical gates don’t open for an author for a wide variety of reasons that all boil down to one thing: the agent and/or publisher simply don’t believe they can sell your story. Hence, the author ends up with a big pile of rejections — or yuckier, rejection’s ugly stepbrother, radio silence.

I totally get it. Thankfully, in this age of the internet, that doesn’t have to be the end of the story’s story. The modern, independent (“indie”) author has options, one of which is to turn herself into a publisher. You pick a fictitious name (no biggie for a fiction writer), file some paperwork, pay a small fee, and poof! You’re a publishing company.

So, how do you publish a book anyway?

Now there’s a great question! *Spoiler alert* – I haven’t entirely figured that out yet. So far, this publishing enterprise feels like a three-track process: 1) produce the actual book, whatever form that takes; 2) distribute the product to the readers, whether that’s direct sales or through a third party; and 3) let everyone know they really REALLY need to read this book. Production, Distribution, Marketing. Three simple parts right? Um, not exactly. Each of those deceptively basic categories hosts a decision tree of decision trees. A person could get good and lost in the forest.

Take production, for example. Want to publish a paperback? Where are you going to get your awesome cover by which people will judge your book? What size? What color paper? Who is going to print your book babies? Trust me, this is the tip of the iceberg. The distribution channels are dizzying, and we haven’t even talked about pricing. Marketing? I have two words for you: Author Platform. Got a headache yet?

How does one untangle the daunting gnarl of decisions?

This is where the author-publisher needs to get real with herself and ask, What is my goal here? The answer to that question drives every decision that follows. Who’s your ultimate reader, and how do you get your story into their hands? If you want to print ten copies of your family history to pass down to the grandkids, your publishing plan is going to look a whole lot different than the mystery writer trying to get into a chain of bookstores across the country.

As for me, I’ve given this question a lot of thought since I started writing the Cupid’s Fall series ten years ago. Yep, ten. Why am I bothering with this publishing nonsense at all?

Well, I want my friends and family and people I don’t even know to read my stories and enjoy the heck out of them, and I’d really love the chance to talk with them about it afterwards. When I started writing fiction, I was posting online in a community where stories were shared one chapter at a time and readers interacted with writers every step along the way. I love that, and I hope that will happen with my Cupid books. I’d love for my characters to get out there, stretch their legs, and travel the world, to speak a few languages, to make a lot of people smile and want to hear the next part of their story. Those wishes will drive my decisions.

And here I thought writing a book was the hard part!

Curious to see how this whole publishing business comes out?

Follow my “adventures in publishing” tags and join me on this wild ride! I can’t promise I’ll make all the right decisions, but I can almost guarantee it’ll be a good story.

Comments, questions, concerns?

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