Edmonton airport

Sunday, March 30, 2014

My First Experiences in Self-Publishing

In 2007 the University of Alberta Bookstore installed an Espresso Book Machine® (EBM). This is a Print on Demand (POD) machine that can print a small book in minutes. I read about the Venture in a newspaper a few years later, and wondered if it might be worth a try.

I’d had short fiction and nonfiction published in magazines and a couple of anthologies, as well as broadcast on radio. I had enough stories for at least two collections, I thought, but had little luck in getting a publisher interested beyond a willingness to read the manuscript and comment that they liked some of the stories. Short stories are not the easiest form to market at the best of times, and it didn’t seem to me the best of times in the Canadian publishing industry. I tried, at the suggestion of one writer/publisher to turn some of my stories into a novel, but this just wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life or even several more years on one book, when I had other books in my head and on the page in various drafts.
So when my son and his partner moved to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta, I thought the time was right for me to try POD for my first book. On one of my visits, I talked to staff who ran the Espresso Machine at the Bookstore, and found them friendly and willing. Once home again, I organized my book according to the on-line guidelines and e-mailed off a PDF. They offered extra services such as editing and cover design. Because my stories had gone through various readings in workshops by other writers as well as being published in other formats, I didn’t use the editing services. However, I did ask for help with the cover design and they came up with a graphic that suited me. The process took several weeks (I’d had visions of walking in with my content and walking out the same day with a book in my hands, but that wasn’t realistic). I was able to pick up a hard cover proof the next time I visited Edmonton, and then sent in my changes. Because this was my first time, I ended up getting a total of 100 copies (paid for by me, of course) printed at two different times.
The first printing resulted in the books done in good time and shipped to me. The second printing was delayed several months because the Espresso Machine developed problems and they had to wait for parts. This was not so pleasant. However, in the end I was happy with my book and, of course, I had to do promotion, marketing and selling on my own. I didn’t expect to make pots of money on this and didn’t. I still have copies of that book available, and it is in a couple of local stores as well as the local library. I recently found out that the U of A Bookstore shut down its Espresso Machine in late 2013, though I don’t know the reasons.
My second venture into self-publishing was a fantasy novel. I decided I wanted to try a bigger publisher for print copies, as well as publishing an e-book. By this time, I’d heard about other opportunities, and decided to try Create Space, which is an Amazon company. They are very large, have done this a lot and have the process down, with many services offered (e.g. editing, interior and cover design, etc.) at various prices. I’m not a graphic artist, so had thought I might use several of their services. Parts of my manuscript had gone through critiques by my writing group. The whole thing was read also by a writer/editor through the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Manuscript Reading Service, and a close to final draft went through another editing by my son, who is studying for his doctorate in English. My son also has expertise, experience and software for graphic design and offered to do the interior design of the book as well as the cover (with a photograph I had taken). This worked out extremely well and probably saved me a lot of headaches.
 
The process with Create Space was relatively pain free, all done on-line. A couple of times when I had problems, I contacted their help staff and received a reply within 24 hours. I chose to have a hard copy proof mailed to me (at a price) rather than proof on line, and I’m glad I did. Potentially (if I had chosen to proof on line) this would have cost me nothing up to the point of actually ordering hard copies of my books to sell. Because Create Space is affiliated with Amazon, I could have chosen not to order hard copies at all, and let all sales go through them (Amazon companies all over the world). The process of getting the book onto Kindle (e-book) was actually easier than I’d expected, and I can see why some authors have chosen to publish this way only.
I like the control that a writer has through self-publishing. You decide exactly how your book is going to look. This is not usually the case when your book is accepted by a mainstream publisher. Of course, you have to do any marketing and promotion yourself, but with smaller publishers this is often the case anyway.

I do think it’s important to use editorial services of some kind; having your book read by professional writer or editor is important to creating a quality product.
If anyone has questions about the process I used to publish two books now (I plan to use self-publishing again), I’d be happy to answer them.




Sunday, March 23, 2014

Inspiration

As I mentioned in other blogs, I’ve been writing since elementary school, but there are events that I specifically remember as turning points in my writing.

It’s hard to remember the order of things when you’ve lived a long time, and also when official dates don’t seem to agree with each other. Maybe the dates don’t matter, just the fact that the events happened and that they changed my life.
Andreas Schroeder’s novella or micro-novel, Toccata in “D” was, according to the front of my copy of the book, published by Oolichan Books in 1985. According to Wikipedia it was published in 1984. However, Andreas must have been reading from it quite a while before that, because I attended a reading he did at the AKA Gallery or Artist Run Centre (formerly the Shoe String Gallery). I don’t know the date, but I think it had to have been before or during 1980. At that time AKA was in a basement on 20th Street in Saskatoon. I know they moved to the Fairbanks Morse Building in 1985. I don’t remember how I heard about the reading, but it knocked my socks off. Not only was it beautifully written and read, the book was by a young man who had immigrated to Canada from Germany in the 1950’s – as my family had. Andreas wrote about people in Germany dealing with war, love and music (and much more of course). I was hit that evening with a sudden flash: I could write about my family’s experiences as immigrants to Canada. I bought the book at some time, and still have it, signed by Andreas.
I must have started writing my own German stories soon after that because when I attended The Summer School of the Arts at the old Fort San in the Qu’appelle Valley for the first time in 1980, I was working on a story called “The Umbrella” as well as one called “Pine Trees and Snow.” The latter was not a German story, but it was subsequently published (February 1981) in Grain Magazine, I’m certain as a direct result of the critiques and work done on it in Lorna Crozier’s and Lois Simmie’s class “Introduction to Creative Writing.” It was amazing to meet other writers, to be called a writer. Then in 1981 I received the W. O. Mitchell Bursary Award to attend The School again, this time for the whole summer. I acted as a gopher (e.g. photo copying, running errands etc.) for teachers and administrators, and attended a creative writing course taught by Andreas Schroeder. I wrote a whole bunch of German immigrant stories that summer.

As a result of attending The Summer School of the Arts, I started calling myself a writer, rather than saying I was trying to write.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

First Writings

I wrote my first short story in grade four. I no longer have a copy and don’t remember the title, but it was about a child of giants. The child was playing with a golden ball, throwing it up and catching it, when once it went so high that it stuck in the sky, and that’s how the moon came to be.

My school held public speaking events, and if you won in your class you went on to compete with others in the school and then in the district. For grade six and seven you were supposed to pick a story you liked and retell it in your own words. I made up my story. The teacher asked me about a particular expression I’d used (can’t remember what it was) and suggested I might have copied it verbatim from the original story. I said that no, I hadn’t – didn’t mention that I’d created the whole story myself.
In grade seven I organized a poetry club. Two or three other girls and I wrote and shared poetry at recess and noon hour. I think that all of the poetry rhymed. We hadn’t yet learned about free verse.

In high school we had a couple of good English teachers, one particularly who encouraged creative writing. I did a lot of writing then, though I haven’t kept any of it. I also had my first publication of a short piece about why I liked books published in a national church magazine for teens.
I thought that I would go to university and study to be a journalist. Since there was no journalism school in Saskatchewan at that time, I planned to get a degree in English and then go to Carleton University in Ottawa (though I would have loved to attend Columbia, in New York City). For various reasons, none of that happened, but I kept writing, mostly in journals. I ended up teaching school for several years.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Self Publishing or Vanity Press?

When I came of age as a writer in the 1980’s, attended the Summer School of the Arts at Fort San, Saskatchewan, met other writers, took more workshops, and met a publisher or two, I and other beginning writers were told, “Don’t send your manuscript to a Vanity Press.” These were the people who would take any manuscript and publish it as long as you paid all the costs (sometimes exorbitant and inflated). They were not considered “legitimate” publishers, because they didn’t have the peer review (writers and editors who looked over and chose manuscripts) that legitimate publishers did, and they usually charged a lot of money to publish your book, did little or no marketing, selling or distribution. So, for a long time, I followed that advice (more in an upcoming blog about why I decided to try self-publishing).

Benjamin Franklin and William Blake set up presses to publish their own work. Jane Austen paid a publisher to privately print Sense and Sensibility. Virgina Woolf and her husband Leonard founded the Hogarth Press (1917) to publish her books and those of others such as T.S. Eliot and Christopher Isherwood. Anais Nin established her own press in 1942, after she had moved back to New York from Paris, and found her work not accepted in America.

Small presses appeared in Canada in the 1930’s and 1940’s to publish literary magazines and small chapbooks. The formation of the Canada Council in 1957 was beneficial because of their program of support for Canadian publishers.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia on line, “And so, a whole generation of writers, university professors, journalists, former employees of major houses, members of the CBC and Radio-Canada, and neophyte book designers set up as small publishers. Many of these aspiring publishers began their operations in a home or basement or garage, and turned their kitchen tables into editorial offices. They were assisted by part-timers and volunteers, and sometimes even their authors helped with the printing and binding.” Writers such as Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Attwood, and Michael Ondaatje were first published by small presses and went on to international acclaim.

In Saskatchewan, two small presses were founded in the 1970’s. Coteau Books, based in Regina, was formed by four writers from Moose Jaw – Robert Currie, Gary Hyland, Geoffrey Ursell, and Barbara Sapergia. Thistledown Press was founded by poet, teacher and editor, Glen Sorestad, and Neil Wagner, a teacher and artist. It is based in Saskatoon. More small presses sprang up afterwards.

The internet, the World Wide Web, and related technologies, profoundly changed the face of publishing. In the 1997, Lightening Source, one of the largest print-on-demand (POD) companies was founded. (Many exist now). In 2000 Stephen King became the first major author to self-publish a book.
 
In 2008 more books were self-published than published by traditional presses – for the first time in history (source Wikepedia).

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Beginnings of a Writer - Libraries

My father made up short bedtime stories for me before I went to school or could read. I’d resist going to sleep, and in order to be allowed to stay awake longer, I’d ask him a question, such as, “How did people learn to swim?” And he’d oblige and create a scenario to answer me.

He also took me to the library with him, though the German library in Kiel, where we lived was different from the libraries I use now. It was more the way I remember requesting books at university from the reserved book section. You went to a desk and asked for the book, and the librarian would bring it to you. There were no aisles or shelves to browse. And though I had a few books of my own that one or another relative or friend had bought me, I don’t remember that we ever got a children’s book from that library. I don’t know whether they didn’t stock them or my father simply didn’t think of it. We also had an “American” Library in Kiel, which looked more like the libraries I’m used to today. (I believe that after World War II, the United States set up some libraries throughout Germany, but I haven’t been able to find information about this). Again, we never got any children’s books from there. For me, the most interesting thing about this library was that the woman at the check-out counter had long red fingernails! I’d never seen that before (I was about 5 at the time).
When my family came to Canada in the 1950’s my father worked on farms and the only libraries I had access to where school libraries, but I loved using them. Then, a woman in the town of Elrose (my CGIT group had a sort of “Secret Santa” program, though I don’t think we called it that) who I was a “Secret Santa” to introduced me to the Saskatchewan Regional Library system, which at that time would mail books out to you and provide a label so that you could mail the book back free of charge. I also discovered the Elrose Community Library, which had been established in 1947 by the Elrose Homemakers Club. Later, I volunteered to work there. That was wonderful, to be in a room with the smell of old books. I first read Ben Hur (which is much better than the movie) there.

I’ve used many libraries since, at universities, and in various cities across Canada, and in a few other parts of the world. I love libraries and the Saskatoon Public Library in particular – the staff there are great!
How does all this relate to becoming a writer? Read, read, read!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Self-Publishing


In 2012 I undertook my first self-publishing venture with my book, The Other Place. I’ve just published my second book – Queen of Fire – the same way (though with a different company).
In the next few blogs, I intent to write about my self-publishing experience: why I did it, why I like it, advantages and disadvantages.

I’ll also write about my process as a writer: how I began, my influences, my supports, how I get started on a new work, how and why I write.
For more information about the two books, to ‘Follow’ me or to ‘Like’ my page, go to Regine Haensel writer on Facebook (or if you’re not on Facebook, just put the works into your search engine (e.g. Google), and you’ll find the page.

https://www.facebook.com/RegineHaenselwriter?ref=hl

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Change

I intended to spend all of 2014 writing about the ABC’s of Saskatoon, but I’ve gotten involved in a project (publishing my second book) that interests me more, so I’m going to change my focus for this blog. If you are still interested in the ABC’s of Saskatoon, some suggestions to search out follow. Obviously these are only a few of the (mostly) wonderful things about Saskatoon.
Doors Open Saskatoon – An event to showcase a number of interesting and heritage buildings in the city. The event is free (tours are available) and they have a web site.

Emma Lake – Not specifically in or near Saskatoon, but many artists from Saskatoon (Kenderdine, Lindner, Rogers, Mulcaster, Forsyth) and all over the world have worked here over the years, and many workshops have been given. Began in 1936, and has been put on hold for now by the University of Saskatchewan.
Folkfest – A fabulous event with great food, entertainment and exhibits. Held in August each year.

Fringe Festival – Indoor theatre, buskers, street vendors, and more held in the Broadway District end of July into August.
Gustin House – A heritage house commemorating musician Lyell Gustin. They hold music and art events and have a web site.

Huskie Athletics – The University of Saskatchewan athletic teams (15) that compete in Canada West Universities Athletic Association.
Indoor pools – Leisure Centres that have indoor pools are Harry Bailey Aquatic Centre, Lakewood Civic Centre, Lawson Civic Centre, and the Shaw Centre.

Jazz – Has been popular in Saskatoon for a long time, and various organizations (The Jazz Society), venues (The Bassment), and events (The Jazz Festival) provide opportunities to enjoy it.
Knox United Church – Only one of many architecturally interesting churches in Saskatoon. Check out http://www.saskatoonheritage.ca/protect/churches.html

Kinsmen Park and Play Village – A great place for kids, birthday parties, picnics, gatherings, with a carousel, miniature train to ride, play area, paddling pool and large grassy areas.
Library – Established in 1913 in the basement of the Independent Order of Oddfellows Hall, the library has grown to one main building and seven branches. Great staff, lots of books, movies, tv shows, musical CDs, and much more.

Marr Residence – The oldest house in Saskatoon still standing on its original site (built in 1884). The house has exhibits, and it and the garden are open for tours, workshops and other programs throughout the year. It supposedly has a resident ghost.
Nutana neighbourhood – Established in 1883 as the first permanent settlement of the Temperance Colonization Society. Encompasses the Broadway shopping area, as well as a large residential area.

Open Door Society – Has welcomed, and provided services to refugees and immigrants since 1981.
Persephone Theatre – Founded in 1974, and providing a rich and varied theatre experience. Now located at a beautiful site at River Landing (though parking in the area leaves something to be desired, not Persephone’s fault.)

Quilters Guild – They meet regularly, have a newsletter, and every two years they put on an amazing quilting show, well worth seeing. Check their web site.
Restaurants – As in every city, restaurants come and go. A few of my favourites are Szechuan Kitchen, The Rook and Raven, Las Palapas, Amigos Cantina, Broadway Cafe, D’lish, Calories.

Symphony – Founded in 1927, gives a variety of different concerts each year (e.g. main series, Music for a Sunday Afternoon, Great Music for Kids, etc.)
Trounce House – Built in 1883, the city’s oldest building, but no longer on its original site. And very small.

Ukrainian Museum – Overlooking the South Saskatchewan River, founded in 1936, Canada’s first Ukrainian Museum. Displays of clothing, tools, books, photographs, etc. With a gift shop, and a variety of programs.
Victoria Park – One of Saskatoon’s wonderful riverbank parks, in one of the oldest neighbourhoods. Has an outdoor skateboard facility, walking paths, an outdoor swimming pool, playground, and lots of grass.

Western Development Museum – So much to see and do, from Boom Town to tractors and farm machinery, and of course the gift shop, and Boom Town Cafe.
Xerosis – Is a medical term for abnormally dry skin (which is what we get on the prairies in the winter time). I mean, what word can you find that starts with ‘X’?

Yevshan Ukrainian Folk Ballet Ensemble  - Started in 1960, has performed throughout the world.
Zoo – Located at the Forestry Farm. Animals from the Saskatchewan area, and other places. Lots of programs for all ages, places to picnic.