Saturday, October 8, 2016

What Happens After 'The End'

I now work for WFIU, the NPR-affiliate station at Indiana University-Bloomington. I was hired for front-desk and admin work, with an eye towards helping with production tasks on a couple of weekly programs.

Well, when a new half-hour arts magazine started up, I revved my production engine and said, "Er, I have an idea for a show."

That idea was aired this morning at 7 am, as the October 8, 2016 episode of Cafe Indiana.

"What Happens After 'The End'" came as my response to hearing so many talented writers in my area express bewilderment about what to do with their finished manuscripts. I had gotten Yu: A Ross Lamos Mystery published after six years of queries and submissions, and during that time came to the realization that that publishing a book in the 21st century was very, very different from what it had been before 1990 -- for writers, publishers, distributors and sellers, everyone involved anywhere in the industry.

For this radio story, I had the great good fortune to have as friends several writers with a  broad range of experiences in publishing: Claire Arbogast had gotten in with an academic publisher, IU Press. Annette Oppenlander had a bad experience with one "partnership" publisher - and she had to invest nearly $1,000 for the privilege. Terry Pinaud has worked with self-publishing service companies from AuthorHouse to CreateSpace over 20 years, as he cranked out six novels and a story collection. And K. H. Brower went whole-hog do-it-yourself by creating her own imprint.

And best of all, I knew Paul Burt - the fellow who published  Yu: A Ross Lamos Mystery in 2010, through his company, Open Books Press. Paul had a special story to tell: how Author House got started in a basement in Bloomington, Indiana.

You see, Paul worked in sales for the small business that eventually became Author House. It was called First Books when he was hired. With an infusion of venture capital, it became Author House -- leveraging bleeding-edge publishing technology to tap the market for what used to be called "vanity press."

And what did Paul do, seeing that he was in on the ground floor of what was about to become a global business phenomenon?

Click on What Happens After 'The End' and find out.