III
new book alert
Third time lucky, they say, and I hope they’re right.
The economics of publishing poetry books has been discussed enough. The quiet joy (or is it karma) of writing a poem has been celebrated enough. The merits of waiting for the blessings of mainstream publishing houses have been debated enough.
So, it follows that you have to be foolish or stubborn or impossibly optimistic (same thing?) to put your book out into the world, on your own. That’s if you do it once. By the third time, it makes very little sense, whichever way you look at it. Believe me, I’ve tried.
And yet, here is ‘No way home’ – a book I am self-publishing using a hybrid publishing model, which, if you aren’t familiar with the business, is where you hand over a completed manuscript to someone on the other side of the internet and they take care of three things: cover, typesetting and distribution. A one-stop shop for the grunt work. Instead of working through each stage yourself. There are costs. And there’s royalty. It works out. Not the money, just the effort. In a few weeks, ‘your book’ is on Amazon and Google and Kobo and every other platform you can afford to pay for. Enough has been said about this ‘vanity publishing’ too – usually in sharp, condescending tones.
Which brings me to NWH a.k.a. Book III. I wrote a huge chunk of it between 2022 and ’23. I was inspired by the memoir that my friend, Rosemary Nissen-Wade was writing. Inspired enough to think I could write a poetic memoir. Her book turned out to be a real stormer. I wrote a poem almost every week that I posted on WordPress, without much thought to storyline or chronology or conclusion. I was just writing about things that had been swirling inside me, stories of family, of estrangement, of pain, of travel, of learning, of coping, of getting on with life - ending up with a stack of 80-odd poems.
Almost three (there’s that number again) years later, I picked up the pieces again and scrubbed them clean, sawed off the excesses, sanded the edges, added some paint and glitter and here we are.
Or almost are! NWH will be out shortly. Whether it will matter to the people in it, to the reader(s) or to the writer, remains to be seen.
P.S. Nothing above takes away from the fact that seeing your book in print is the ultimate dopamine high. And nothing and no one and especially no “acceptable standard of publishing” should stop anyone from going ahead with their dream.
You know I have always been a huge admirer of your poetry, and have your earlier books. I couldn't be happier to think I have inspired you to produce a third! (Also I remember seeing many of the poems on your blog as you were creating them.)
I was once, long ago, an independent publisher of Australian poetry, and some of those books won or were placed in major national awards. I seldom had trouble selling 500 copies of a title (in paperback, the only choice back then). Since then I have observed what happens with poets who publish mainstream and others who self-publish. Surveying it all from the position of my octogenarian age, I think it's still true that poetry is very hard to sell, no matter which route one takes to publish it. It's a great shame that most of us won't be as widely read as we deserve. That's no judgment of our value; I know some truly fabulous, brilliant, moving poets whose reputations will probably not last very long after their lifetimes. I don't expect that mine will last, either. But I do think it's great that more people will get the chance to read my, our, YOUR books NOW!
And even though I have read many or perhaps all of the poems already, it will still be a treat to experience them as a whole.
Congratulations, Rajani!
There is no easy way to publish, and I love your work, so I look forward to buying a copy when the order details are available. Please let us know!
Best Wishes - Dave :)