A Tale of Two Authors

I haven't blogged about my work much in this space—I usually reserve that for my business website, www.FullCirclePress.com—but there's a potential author on the scene who's doing a dandy job of reminding me of the importance of boundaries.

This cover (which I designed along with the inside of the book) is for a collection of short stories by an author who's one of my favorite dudes to work with. Bill understands enough of how the publishing business works to keep the rose color off his glasses. This is his second book of short stories (the first is a gem called The Lamoille Stories that I also worked on), and I find myself enjoying, once again, his pragmatic approach to the issues of creating a good-looking book to complement his writing efforts as well as his no-nonsense approach to marketing.

At this point, I'm helping him set up his own, independent publishing company. This means that I take care of the mechanics of publishing (designing his books and covers, making sure he has all of the tools he needs for marketing) and he garners all of the royalties from sales as well as keeping all of the rights to his own work. That's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

The flip side of this authorial coin is represented by another man whom I'll call  Marmaduke (Marm for short). Marm is in his seventies somewhere and has written a memoir about time he spent in Africa. I've met him twice and talked to him via email a few times.

Marm is a publisher's nightmare no matter what kind of publisher you are—traditional (as in Harper-Collins) or independent (as in Full Circle Press). He is, like Libby Hillman in yesterday's post, a legend in his own mind. When you ask him why he wants to publish his book (a question that can give me a bead on how to help an author), he wonks off on some tangent where he imagines he's being applauded at a conference on Africa or is getting a huge order for books from UNICEF.

He asks me questions about publishing then interrupts me when I answer. He asks the same question over and over. He wastes my time telling me what his book is about and how he wants to use it to get people's attention to some horrific events in Africa, information that has no bearing on the mechanics of publishing. Then he turns around and wants me to act as an agent for him to find him a publisher such as Random House or Beacon Press who will do the book exactly as he wants it on his timetable, a laughable idea at best.

All of this leads me to wonder whether I want to add Marm as an author for Full Circle. You see, publishing someone else's book is a lot like entering into a marriage because each party makes a longterm financial commitment to the other. Once I've published a book through Full Circle, I have to deal with the author for years afterward—printing books, paying royalties, answering questions.

So far, all of the authors at Full Circle Press have turned out to be variations on pleasant people. I enjoy them and their books. Marm has all the markings of a skunk at the picnic.

And I think I may have talked myself right out of taking him on.