Fiction writer Jason Brown recounts his experience publishing his new book Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work with the New York based independent publisher Open City.
I knew I didn’t have the force of a major publishing house spending the money to market the book, so at first I despaired. I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do it on my own. My first book, also a collection of short stories, was published by Norton eight years ago and although they did not market it aggressively, they did a few things. Despite this, I knew I wouldn’t be better off with a bigger publisher for this book. Short story collections are not sought after in the industry and, even if I got incredibly lucky and sold the book, marketing would surely neglect it. Publishers, which are owned by large media companies, are increasingly hit driven. It’s a situation that is bad for fiction writers. So, with a certain amount of anxiety and relief I tried to figure out what I could do to promote the book on my own.
[Read more →]
