Publisher’s Minute: April 13, 2018

As I said last week, midwifing Norse Witch and its author has been an interesting challenge, as its publisher. I have lived and worked with Connla Freyjason for twenty-four years, but for most of those years, he has been “in the shadows”; a closely guarded “secret” that I was forced to “keep under wraps”. Now we suddenly find ourselves facing the world, as publisher and author, instead of only as medium and spirit, and trust me when I say that facing the latter would have been difficult enough on its own, without adding a press and a book into the mix!

Connla and I have very well-defined roles in this book-birthing process: he is the author; I am the publisher. But those roles don’t seem quite as apparent to the general public. People seem to have a hard time wrapping their brains around the fact that, sure, he and I share a physical form (my body, as the medium), but that we are two completely separate individuals, with our own distinct identities. Connla wrote this book, I didn’t! I’m only the vehicle that provided him with physical fingers to type the damn thing, and beyond that, his publisher. He is the parent of this book-baby; I’m merely the midwife.

As publisher, it is my job to monitor the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the author of this book-baby: Connla Freyjason. As the author, he should not be having to enter bookstore after bookstore, and deal with marketing opportunity after marketing opportunity all by himself, nor should he be expected to be required to explain over and over again that he is, in fact, the author of this book, and, “oh, by the way, I’m a dead guy.” First of all, he isn’t “a dead guy” foremost; no, he is a human being, and a worthy man. The focus should be on him as an author, and a damn good one, at that, and on his book-baby, Norse Witch: Reclaiming the Heidhrinn Heart. And he should be permitted to enjoy being the author of that book-baby, which is where I come in, as his publisher. It is my job, not his, to make sure he is not mentally and physically exhausted; to make sure that he is happy; and to defend both him and his work.

This entire publishing process has been an exercise in the education of Connla Freyjason. As an educated professional in the field of publishing, I’m the one with the knowledge of industry publishing standards (such as editing, layout, and selection of cover art) and the subsequent marketing of books, not Connla. I know this industry, he doesn’t. Or, at least, he didn’t, at the onset of our journey together. As his publisher, it has become my job to make sure he learns those things, at the level an author needs to know them. And I have done, no matter how much midnight yelling over font choices and point size it has required!

This isn’t a self-published work: I am the publisher, Connla is the author, and we are two separate people. That means it is my job to get out there, “beat the pavements”, and find marketing opportunities for this book. That means it is my job to defend Connla when he needs defending. For twenty-four years, it has been his job, often, to defend me; now, with the publishing of his book, it’s officially my turn to defend him for a change! That also means that, when it came to the packaging of this book (editing, cover art, layout), yes, Connla had a serious amount of input throughout the process–far more than he would have had with one of The Big Five, or even one of the “Little Two” (Llewellyn, Weiser)–but in the end, as publisher, I had final say. It was then my job to oversee subsequent printing and distribution, and to find, utilize, and subsequently monitor those channels. Meanwhile, as the author, Connla gets to bask in the afterglow of his book-baby, while I do my job, as his publisher. That means that suddenly Connla has a lot of free time on his hands for things on the astral, while his Beloved suddenly finds herself “stuck with me”, doing publisher things. Luckily, she really loves me, so that’s not an issue! Yes, Connla is called upon to participate in the marketing of his book-baby: I need him out there, doing Facebook live broadcasts, and possible speaking engagements and book signings. People need to see him, as an author and as an individual, so that they can actively see that he and I are two completely separate people, and that he rocks out loud as a human being and an author. But it is my job to organize and facilitate those live broadcasts, speaking engagements, and book signings.

Connla has already poured his blood, sweat, and tears into the writing of this book; it’s my turn to bleed, sweat, and cry. It is my job to keep this press, this book, and this author out of panic mode, and make sure that this very deserving author and book-baby achieve the success they so richly deserve. As the publisher of this book, I know that if sales fall, or this book otherwise fails, it’s on me, not on the author. Simply put: if I didn’t know, going in, that the contents of this book were quality, I wouldn’t have chosen to publish it in the first place, no matter how much Connla begged, pleaded, whined, or staged a full-scale haunt! 

As a publisher, I do not publish every single book that comes across my desk. I don’t care who the author is: if neither the author nor the accompanying book-baby matches the Iaconagraphy Press mission statement, and if the work is not of the highest quality, such a book will not be released into the wild bearing my imprint. I demand these same criteria even of any of my own work, which might be published in future on that imprint.

I’ll be talking more about that next week, as we take a sneak peek at the first fiction release from Iaconagraphy Press: Carnavale.