Merlin Star Press, Marketers, Feeding Ghosts, and the Distributor Asterism
The Subtitle is Domesticated but not Tamed
Being the 16th edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.
Merlin Star Press
On CBC Radio One Moncton Thursday morning they featured a story about a “new” New Brunswick publisher. I thought, did they interview me about that and I forgot? Nope! Turns out in my survey of Atlantic Canadian publishers (see previous newsletters) I missed Merlin Star Press. They had flown under the radar, not mentioned in any of the sources I’d reviewed to see who’s out there.
I like their logo. Guessing the cat’s name is Merlin?
Like my own fledgling company, Merlin Star Press incorporated last year, in 2023. They’re based in New Brunswick and they plan to operate as a traditional publishing company. They are actually a bit of a collective, several authors having banded together to form the company (eight, going by the pictures on their About Us page, including local author Allan Hudson, whom I interviewed for this newsletter a few editions ago.)
CBC Moncton’s Jonna Brewer interviewed Rachel Baxter, former lawyer turned co-director of Marketing and Events Planning for Merlin Star Press. Rachel made it clear that Merlin Star is not a vanity press, though presumably they will publish some of their own work from time to time (there is nothing wrong with that… why wouldn’t you trust your own publishing outfit to publish your own work?)
Merlin Star Press looks to be self-funded, the members of their collective having invested in the company themselves. Like DSP Inc., I expect they are too new and have too few books out to qualify for public funds. There is no indication on their website of any distribution arrangements.
They have just published their first book, The Widow & the Will, by Rhonda Bulmer, the cover of which you can see below, and which you can purchase from Chapters and directly from their website (um, except that the link to purchase it doesn’t seem to work). They’ve managed to drum up a bit of press coverage for Rhonda (or perhaps she herself has); I see interviews with the CBC and the Telegraph-Journal. Nicely done!
They do seem to have eschewed Amazon. I infer this because I cannot find Bulmer’s book there (though her other books are there). This may be (and I’m just guessing here) because they want to do business with local indie bookstore Tidewater Books & Browsery in Sackville. Tidewater Books will not take your books if you have them on Amazon. This I know having been told so personally.
I understand and respect this position. I know there is a lot of anti-Amazon sentiment out there. Indie authors and publishers sometimes refuse to deal with Amazon on principle. I think this is a great idea from an ethical standpoint. However, from a business perspective I believe it to be a bad idea. It’s kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face for the simple reason that Amazon is the first place that most people will go to buy your books, and if they don’t find them there, they won’t buy them.
I think there is a smarter strategy: Do your best to cut Amazon out of the picture by promoting sales elsewhere but do not pooh pooh those Amazon sales. You need every sale you can get. More on the Amazon conundrum in another newsletter someday.
Merlin Star Press is open to submissions.
I wish them the best of luck!
Marketers
I keep getting approached by people wanting my money. Oh, they don’t come right out and say they want my money, but I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re after, confident that a Joe and his money are soon parted.
Before I go on, let me just say that I know there are good, honorable book marketers out there, those who do the proper ground work and mean well. N. N. Light’s Book Heaven, for example, who earned my goodwill by first reading one of my books and writing an honest, mostly positive review of it.
But there are so many others that I find suspect.
One approached me recently with the following invitation:
We specialize in getting authors booked as podcast guests on top-tier shows worldwide. (Blah blah blah.) Would it be useful if I connect you with our interview expert?
(The “Blah blah blah” is me cutting out the pitch.)
I responded, sure, connect me, as long as it doesn’t cost me anything.
Never heard back. I have no issue with being approached. But if I respond to you with a comment, concern or question, why not continue the conversation? Engage me. Maybe you can talk me into it. Do the groundwork, build the relationship. Don’t just ignore me. I didn’t ignore you.
Here’s another (abridged):
Hi Joe: Writing and attempting to promote a book is no small feat. There is so much time and preparation leading up to the event (in this case, the book launch), and unfortunately results can be disappointing. (Snip). If you'd like to hear our take on a post-launch strategy, then let's sit down for a few minutes.
I ignored his first email. (The onus is not on me to respond to him. I don’t want his business, he wants mine.) So he sent me another one. Good for him. Tenacity, that’s what we like to see.
To which I replied:
Thanks for reaching out. With all due respect, unless you're offering me free services or money up front I'm not interested. These days it's much easier for writers and publishers to spend money than it is to make money. Part of my post book strategy is to spend on nothing that's not absolutely guaranteed to sell books. I know what those things are.... and it's not marketing. The other part of my strategy is simply to write more books... mostly for the pleasure of it.
I understand that you're looking to make a living and I respect that. Figured I'd offer you the courtesy of an honest response.
Good luck to you.
Joe
I may have been a bit disingenous; of course I want to make money writing and publishing. And I’m not opposed to marketing; I’ve just learned to be extremely careful with it. Like I had written this guy, it can be a huge waste of money.
I had opened the door by responding to him, but he never responded to me. Hence no opportunity to build a relationship.
My favourite so far, though, is this one, (apologies to those of you who may have seen it already on my blog.
“Dear Author Joe. I hope this email finds you well. I came across your book and was impressed by the quality of your writing and the engaging storyline. As an experienced book promoter, I believe that your book has the potential to reach a wider audience and achieve greater success. I would like to offer you my professional book promotion services to help you achieve your goals.”
He went on in this vein at some length. I do not believe he had either me (or any of my books) best interests at heart. Even if I were to give him the benefit of the doubt he was certainly going about it the wrong way.
I wrote back:
“Thanks for reaching out. Which book of mine are you referring to? Did you actually purchase it and read it? Can you be more specific about what you found appealing? What marketing tools and techniques do you employ? Thanks.”
He promptly responded:
“Hi Joe, thanks for your reply! I came across PETER PAN through a friend of mine. I had to pay her few bucks to get it, cause I was going for holiday then, this what made me contact you through LinkedIn to offer you my digital marketing skills, I have years of experience in this field and I believe, my team and I can get you your Desired results (sic).”
To which I replied:
“Thanks for the info. However, I did not write Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan at the turn of the last century. Your assessment of its quality is certainly accurate; it has done quite well for itself. I do not believe I will be requiring your services. All the best, Joe.”
To which he never replied.
I would be interested in any service that I thought might actually make all parties money. If you could market Donovan Street Press books in such a way that it made money over and above the marketing costs, then I would be interested. I would happily pay for such a service. Cuz it would be worth it.
In my experience, though, these are few and far between. I believe that Bookbub can work, for example, but this is because they have a mailing list of well over a million subscribers. Even if only 1.5% of those people buy your book, you’re probably in good shape.
The other thing is that when these people reach out to me, they’re obviously not familiar with my work (Peter Pan, for crying out loud?) Do a minimum of research. Know who I am, know my product. If you can demonstrate that you actually know me and my work, and believe in it, and can demonstrate how you can make us both money, then maybe I will consider doing business with you.
I love graphic novels, especially ones with depth.
Feeding Ghosts fits the bill perfectly.
It’s an obsessively thoughtful, well-written and evocatively drawn deep dive into the dysfunctional relationship between a daughter (Tessa Hull, the author), Tessa's mother, and Tessa's mentally ill grandmother. A chilling detour into modern Chinese history, the likely source of Tessa's grandmother's mental illness, deftly illustrates the stunning damage a single man, one terrible leader, can inflict upon a nation.
An obvious labour of love, many years in the making, Feeding Ghosts comes from a place of great passion and pain. Relationships are fraught as mothers, daughters and cultures clash, and not everyone gets a happy ending, but compassion and understanding are ultimately attainable, after much effort.
Men are given short shrift. They are almost entirely absent in this account; most that do have the misfortune to appear are (literally) drawn as some combination of selfish, pathetic, suicidal, and lazy, with some philanthropic exceptions. Despite this caveat, Feeding Ghosts remains insightful, illuminating, and compulsively readable.
A work of this depth and insight demands no fewer than 5 stars.
Distribution
Three weeks ago I started surveying publishing distribution outfits in an attempt to understand exactly how these companies operate and who’s out there. There aren’t that many of them, so I’ve been tackling them one at a time.
Three weeks ago we looked at a company called Ampersand Inc. Two weeks ago we had a gander at Canada Book Distributors. Last week we examined the collapse of Small Press Distribution.
This week we’ll tackle these folks:
Asterism
Founded and run by small press people, they bill themselves as an “online bookstore and trade distributor for books by independent presses.”
They believe in “transparency, communication, and collaboration,” and they focus on literary presses that publish fiction, poetry, essays, criticism, plays.
They profess to have re-thought the whole distribution business. They don’t offer returns on wholesale orders (with some exceptions) which I gather means that if you send them books for distribution those books are not going to wind up back in your office along with an exorbitant shipping bill. They won’t sell your books to online discounters that will undercut your own prices. They offer “near-immediate payouts” to publishers, and don’t charge “exploitative fees.”
They are not exclusive (you can do business with others) and there are no contracts involved. There is no fee to get set up, no recurring fees, and they take 24% of the final sale price of each book sold.
They have a warehouse in Seattle from which they ship the books (or do “fulfillment” as they call it).
I saw about 90 publishers on their website currently doing business with them.
To join them, looks like all you have to do is fill out a simple form on their website. I could not see any specific guidelines around book standards or the like. Can’t imagine they would agree to distribute just anything.
Apparently one can email Joshua Rothes at josh@asterismbooks.com directly if one wants to know more. Joshua is the owner of both Asterism and Sublunary Editions (along with Phil Bevis of Chatwin Books, and there are a handful of other people involved as well).
Potentially a good fit for a fledging outfit like Donovan Street Press Inc.? Perhaps. I will be emailing Joshua to find out more.
Donovan Street Press Books (So Far!)
Adventures in the Radio Trade
"In dozens of amiable, frequently humorous vignettes... Mahoney fondly recalls his career as a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio technician in this memoir... amusing and highly informative." ~ Kirkus Reviews
A Time and a Place
“Entertaining, chaotic adventure.” ~ Publishers Weekly.
A note as well that the hardcover version of A Time and a Place now features the new cover, and is available at a much less expensive price than before.
Other Times and Places
“ …a lovely little collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories, fun and well written.” ~ Charles P. Kelly
The Deer Yard and Other Stories
“Partly memoir, partly fiction, The Deer Yard is more than merely a good read …well-written, gentle stories, well worth reading.” ~ Ottawa Review of Books
Coming Soon
The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner
Re-Creative: the Podcast
Our podcast Re-Creative (hosted by the author of this newsletter, Joe Mahoney, and author Mark A. Rayner) is currently on a brief hiatus, but will resume shortly.
Appearances
I’ll be at the Mother’s Day Market in Richibucto Saturday May 11th from 9am until 2pm.
This has been the sixteenth edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.