Stone In The Surf Press

With the Chronicles of Adrian Smith, I approached the market in the traditional way, I submitted the book to a good thirty plus publishers and agents.  I received exactly that many reject letters.  I don’t blame them.  I tend to write stories that don’t fit neatly into a slot on the shelf.  Is it romance, historic fiction, science fiction, or what?  The same was true for Charlie’s Treasures. I started by submitting the story to thirty publishers and agents, and although I got some very wonderful responses, from Little Brown and Hampton Roads, at the end of the day, I still received thirty rejections.  I was not going to give up, Charlie’s Treasures is a story that needs to be shared.  I decided I would head for New York.  I scrapped up enough money by sell hand bound copies of the book.  These weren’t stapled copies, but full fledged hard bound books.  I made the cover boards, covered them in fabric, printed the pages and bound them.  Each book took hours to make.  I spent two weeks during the coldest winter in a decade doing exactly what every “How To Get Published” book tells you not to, I knocked on the door of 110 agents and publishers.  I did manage to land Frank Weiman of the Literary Group as our agent.  Unfortunately he found selling Charlie’s Treasures as difficult as I had.  It is a story written for adults that takes the form of a children’s book.  The industry calls it a “read-to” book not a “read-along” book.  Like the Chronicles of Adrian Smith, it doesn’t fit neatly into a spot on the bookstore shelf.  I had ventured into POD – Publish On Demand with The Chronicles of Adrian Smith and achieved my goal of writing a story and getting it into print.  But as I tried to push that system beyond its formula I encountered a lot of resistance.  I was determined to get Charlie’s Treasures into print.  I took destiny into my own hands.  I called upon my years of business experience and launched my own “Indie” independent press.  I made a bunch of mistakes and had some very good successes.  Now with the launch of When The Force Isn’t With You, I will have streamlined my process.

If your goal is to make your story available to the world and you do not want to risk the time, money and emotional reserve on submitting your manuscript to publishers and agents, then you should consider becoming and “Indie” publisher.  For the same amount of time and cost as submitting manuscripts, you can be published.              

The printing industry is over 500 years old.  In an industry that has existed for half a millennium, change moves slowly.  There are still agents, publishers and bookstores who believe that “Indie” is nothing more than a fancy twist on “Vanity” press.  Granted in today’s world anyone can slap words on paper and if you’re even less able than that, you can buy software that will write a book for you.  I will agree that there is a glut of schlock out there, but there is also a wonderful change in the wind.  I don’t believe that the printed book will disappear in the foreseeable future.  There is something inherent in all of us that is magically drawn to the feel, the smell and the weight of a book that can’t be replaced by the antiseptic plasma glow of a computer screen.  But I will also stand tall upon my soap box and proclaim to the world those famous words by Bob Dylan, “Times they are a changing.”  How we get the books into our hands is changing radically.  I’ll be willing to bet that in the not too distant future you’ll walk into a Barnes and Nobel, select a book from one on display or maybe an on-line catalog, grab your latte and your freshly printed book is waiting for you at the check out.  Far fetched?  Wait and see.

What this means to people like you and me is that there is an opportunity to publish independent of the process that has existed for five centuries.  It means that we can put our stories out there to share with the world without seeking the approval of “mega-publishing-corp.” 

Is it easy?   No. 

Does it take time and effort?   Yes. 

Is it fraught with pitfalls, used insurance salesmen, and more dead ends and one way streets than San Francisco?    You bet.

Is it worth it?   Without a doubt, it will be the most rewarding adventure of your life.

There are a number of companies out there who would like you to believe that all you have to do is write a book, give them a substantial chunk of your hard earned money and sit back and collect the royalty checks.  If only it was that easy.  I’ve tried that and more.  I hope that by sharing many of my mistakes and failures and blunders and most of all my wonderful successes, it will help you to follow a dream you share with many people, to write and to publish.  Along my journey I have met some amazing people who also share this dream and have been quiet successful at it.  Each of us come from very different backgrounds and probably would never have met if not for the fact that we share a common dream.  We have all found success by following different paths and by making different mistakes and good decisions. We hope by sharing in our adventures, it will help you when you embark on yours.  Check out the links to Franchee Harmon, Jim Walkow and Susanne Severeid.  As this site grows, I hope to add many more “idie” authors to the list.

You will see the phrase on every page, “So what have you done about it today?”  It is a motto that was passed down to me by my father, and honest to God, slide rule toting rocket scientist.  In short, it is a constant reminder to me, if a dream means enough to you, you will find a way to get one step closer every day.

I hope that the following pages are helpful.  Please feel free to write and ask questions.  I will share those that are relevant in hopes that a forum will give additional insight into making your dream a reality.