Pay Off

As is the dream for most novelists, I had a desire to support myself by writing books alone. It didn’t take me long to realize how difficult this dream is to reach. You have to be incredibly well known to stand a chance in the writer’s market, if you’re hoping to have the craft feed you that is. Regardless, simply being published soon becomes the back-up dream that you turn to, and in my case, I took matters into my own hands. I self-published to the extreme, and have been in local bookstores for many months now. That is why today was something else.

You see, if a bookstore takes in your novels, they will give you a trial period. During this time, they will watch how well your books sell. If you sell enough in the allowed time, then they will take more books. If not, they will hand the books back. This isn’t the case in all bookstores. In some they will hold your books if they have enough shelf space to do so, but one store I was in had a trial period of six months. I haven’t counted to the day, but Solstice Books in Hanover has been shelving my books for about six months, and today I stopped by to see if he would take my latest book, ‘Survivor’. It was then I found out with relief, even astonishment, that my books have actually sold. He not only took the new book gladly, but asked me to ‘top off’ the rest of his stock. My favourite fact that hit me was that, without doubt, someone that I don’t know was a buyer of my novels. Everyone I know who came to this bookstore had already gotten a copy from me. I also found out that my books in Finchers have been selling as well. The said buyers came to my latest book launch seeking the new novel.

It is all very rewarding in its own way, but what did the trick was having the owner of Solstice Books hand me $34.90 for sales. It isn’t a lot of money, I know, but it was material proof that I had gotten somewhere. It was another step in a direction that suited me. By the looks of things, I only need to sell books in Millennia Books across the street from Solstice. They haven’t sold any of mine yet, and I’d like that to happen. I would feel a sense of security with them if that were to happen, so if you’re after a copy of any of my novels, just walk into Millennia and ask where Zack Metcalfe’s stuff is shelved. You’d make my day.

Foundations

It’s hard to believe really. Like all lasting projects or businesses, constructing a firm foundation to work on is essential. I have been working on MFP for eight months or so, and finally, I discovered yesterday how stable my foundation had finally become. With all my technology in place, all my contacts (most of them anyway) easily contacted and ordered from, and all supplies effectively figured, I am doing very well for myself. I am getting 5,000 sheets or paper for 35 dollars roughly. That’s enough for 100 books. My printer takes all the toner I damn well please, and toner itself can be gotten from anywhere and for any model, a reasonably easy find. My latest cover material, Bristol board from the bargain shop, gives me four covers for 77 cents. It’s wonderful stuff. I managed to download the test program for Microsoft word 2010. It’s called Microsoft Beta 2010, and it is a miracle worker for formatting. I can comfortably cram many more words per page, and my awesome Minolta is basically this program’s sole mate. This sting of facts came to mind yesterday, when I decided my latest book was ready to go.

This was an exciting time for me. This is, so critics say, my best novel yet, and I was looking forward to seeing it in print. I got myself ready for a fight, as is always the case when starting with a new book. I expected the dreaded ‘toner exhausted’ to somehow escape my SAMSUNG and crawl its way to my Minolta, dooming my efforts to failure. I was waiting to hear news of paper costs skyrocketing for no rational reason. I even daydreamed the police would come charging through my front door, shouting that printing cheap books on my own was illegal. With utter amazement, I formatted (20 min), I printed (5 min), I cut and pressed (30 min), then finally I bound and covered (20 min). Nothing failed on me. No supplies are even close to running low. Not a single piece of anything ignited out of spite or deactivated for the sake of money. Everything worked. I have a somewhat hard time believing how easy it happened to be, but I doubt that simplicity will continue. The fact remained that I have a foundation. I’m through the thick of it, and that’s priceless.

Common Knowledge

There are a fair few people you could learn from when doing what I’m doing. Every somewhat aware person you talk to at Basics about paper sizes could drop you come perspective changing information. I’ve had plenty of these little gems given to me. Yet there was a fatale flaw in the way I saw this knowledge. I always took it as fact, despite the source. I often assumed that someone in a Basics or Staples store must know everything about office supplies. That is just one example, but it applies abroad. I failed to take the information at face value, to understand that their words were not the ‘be all and end all’. For me, I was acting as someone would if they were informed lava was hot. I’ve never encountered the stuff, but I’ll take their work for it.

Still, my mechanic is far more experienced with people selling a product than myself. His one quotation sticks with me. “When talking to someone on any specific topic, assume you’re the smarter one until they prove you wrong.” This could have saved me a fair bit of money since I started this project in September.

I had a reminder of how this is true just today. You see, I had bought $300 worth of toner for my SAMSUNG printer. As I have mentioned time and time again, his printer is designed to keep me paying through the nose, and for the last month, I was terrified I had wasted $300 on toner I wouldn’t be able to use! It took me an eternity to get the proper pieces and cords to get my newest printer up and running. It’s a Minolta, one built in 2002, which is the Stone Age when considering printers. This was its blessing, believe it or not. It was build a while ago, meaning it isn’t as obsesser proof (me) as the SAMSUNG. It has no programming or chip that tells the printer to stop working after a specific number of pages. A cartridge can be refilled at will as many times as I damn well please with no resistance from the printer. In fact, there is a handy little cap on the top of each cartridge that is designed solely for someone so inclined. There was just one problem with this little wonder (really big wonder, actually).

Each printer is built to take a very personal mix of toner. When getting toner for a printer, you always get the personal mix the company insists it needs. Oh, and guess what else. Lava’s hot! My new printer was already low on toner, so it ran out rather quickly. So what did I do? I figured I would took up what mix it would need, and see if I could get a few bottles, practically tripping over the toner I already had on my way to the computer. I have only ever heard that you have to use the right mix of toner for your printer. I have never so much as heard someone suggest otherwise. It then occurred to me. What are the odds those people have tried? I emptied a bottle of SAMSUNG toner into my Minolta cartridge, clipped the thing in place, and ordered it to print. It worked wonderfully, and has continued to do so all day.

As always, assume you’re the smarter. This is only my experience with the lava known as toner. For all I know, my printer will explode the next time I try using it, but I doubt it. I think it’s more likely that my new desktop background it correct. “Toner is toner is toner is toner.” This is an exciting prospect for me, seeing as I know places where they have cartridges on sale for dirt cheap, simply because no one has the model the toner is meant for. I’ll buy as many as I need and cannibalize them for their toner. If you were thinking of doing the same, I would recommend a re-store like ‘Habitat for Humanity’. They have all kinds of stuff from what I hear. If you check one out and there’s nothing there, odds are I beat you to the punch.

Forgive the jest. At the moment, I’m at no shortage of toner, but I almost look forward to getting more. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally have the capacity to simply print without the hindrance of buying the proper brand or paying over $100 for a new cartridge every time. It’s so relieving. Turns out this lava is on par with an awesome back rub.

One's Reasoning

It is a painful statistic that 0.5% of people who actually write a novel get published. That is half of one percent. Something that becomes obvious to someone who has tried to get published is that everyone else is undergoing the same procedures as you in order to stand out. For example, they will follow the ‘when formula’ for query letters. They will try to rake up a list of publications or credentials. They may even spend the twenty or thirty dollars in order to have their manuscripts printed and sent to the companies themselves, where their work is added to the ‘slush pile’ and probably not even glanced at. Soon they will turn to literary agent to represent their work, only to find that these agents have a slush pile of their own. I am just such a person. I learned after four years of writing my first novel, that the publication process was difficult at best.

After querying every publishing company and literary agent in North America who claimed to accept fiction, I was bombarded with e-mail packed full of the horrific work unfortunately. It came to the point where I didn’t bother reading the whole e-mail, because they were all the same. Unfortunately was all I needed to see.
In response to these aggravating e-mails and lack of process, I looked into self-publication, a beautiful thing. The idea was simple. I could pay a printing company to produce my book instead of having a publishing company do it. In this case, I did the investing rather than a publishing company. I would be forced to do the selling as well, but I didn’t feel as though I had much choice anymore. As time went on, and I got closer and closer to sending in my novel and a check for $1499 to the printing company (this was for fifty copies of my novel), I was forced to question myself. Was this really self-investment?

I’ve grown to learn a great deal about true self-reliance. The quotation “invest in yourself” has become one of my family mottoes, something my father discovered in a fortune cookie during his teen years. Somehow I didn’t feel as if I was doing it justice, and I stood to lose a great deal of money if the printing company didn’t pull through. It was then I was given the idea for true self-investment. After having a long conversation with a professional novelist, he asked, “Why the hell do you want someone else to make your books for you? You seem like a determined guy. Do it yourself!” From that day on, I was unable to look at books the same way again. I analyzed their very structure and questioned their design. It occurred to me how simple their construction really was. In most cases, they were truly just paper and glue! It was then I decided it was time to get creative.

After the investment of exactly $962.41, I have created my own small-scale publishing company, and am sitting next to over sixty books that I have shaped with my own two hands (many others already sold). Keep in mind this was an extensive learning process, and much of that money went towards trial and error. I have no doubt that I could make these sixty books from scratch within two weeks for half the cost…now.
I have founded Metcalfe Family Publishing, and the experience has been so rewarding. I have made many useful friends and contacts. I have learned every step of creating my own homemade books. I’ve been able to maintain complete ownership of my written work, having rejected the idea of selling for royalties. With effort and creativity, anyone’s personal project came be in print for friend or family (perhaps even books stores depending on you intentions).

Do not get me wrong. I have no problem with publishing companies at all. They publish what they believe will make money, which they have to in order to compete. They most certainly can’t afford to publish too many books at a time. They play it safe and often work with successful and well-known authors instead of new comers. Just because one’s work wasn’t accepted by a company, does not mean that it wasn’t worthy. That is why self-publication is an asset. I will go over the dynamics of the printing and binding processes at a later date. In the mean time…edit! (Trust me, there is always something you can do to improve your own work.)