Crad Kilodney, Other Times and Places, and Yet More New Brunswick Publishers
I love long subtitles better than figs (Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 2, sort of)
Being the twelfth edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press.
Crad Kilodney
Many years ago I met Crad Kilodney, who was surely the patron saint of indie writers everywhere. Kilodney, whose real name was Lou Trifon, was a transplanted American who spent seventeen years hand-selling books (with titles like “Putrid Scum”) on the streets of Toronto.
I would see Crad around and always felt kind of sorry for him. “I will be a real writer,” I told myself. “I will publish with a real publisher and be respectable. I will not self-publish crappy looking books with strange titles.” And I would go on my way and take forever to write even one book while Crad wrote many and for all I know made more money doing so than I ever will, not that it’s about that.
Then one day Crad was selling his books at a table in an actual bookstore off Yonge Street and I decided to talk to him, even though talking to him would mean buying one of his books, which I didn’t really want and probably would never read.
We had a pleasant chat, not a word of which I remember, and I bought one of his books adorned with a cover that an acquaintance of mine would call an “indie-death cover” because it wasn’t very professional and seemed more designed to repell readers than attract them.
That book sat on my bookshelf for years, unread, until it vanished in one of my periodic ruthless purges, and now I regret the loss of it, wishing that I’d at least given it a try. And over the years, during my own journey as a writer, over which I’ve become much less haughty, my snobbery beaten down by the realities of publishing and writing, I’ve thought of good old Crad Kilodney, and come to respect the pluck of that man, selling his own weird books his own weird way out there on the cold streets of Toronto for so long.
Looking him up just now I’m intrigued to learn that he was once in a relationship with Gwendolyn MacEwen, a well-regarded Canadian poet and novelist and the subject of a radio play called Alien Creature that I recorded for CBC Radio once upon a time with actress and playwright Linda Griffiths.
And I’m doubly intrigued to learn that, as near as I can tell, Crad almost certainly WASN’T the guy I met in that bookstore off Yonge Street that one day so long ago. Although I can’t remember the title of the book I bought (it had something to do with a quest and a stonemason’s son, I think), it doesn’t appear to be anything Crad wrote. (Who was that guy, then? What was the book? Probably I’ll never know.) Somehow the two have become conflated in my mind, their essence as writers the same, an irresitable urge to create, and then to get that creation out there, to hell with conventional, commercial means of doing so, likely in spite of the commercial world’s palpable contempt for their work.
So anyway, Crad Kilodney is the patron saint of indie writers in my mind, and so is that other guy, whoever he was.
Other Times and Places
I’m just about out of copies of my short story collection Other Times and Places, which includes the first short story I ever published, The Scapegoat. The Scapegoat was published in the April 2000 edition of the Canadian spec fic magazine Challenging Destiny #9, pictured here:
Before Messrs. David M. Switzer & Robert P. Switzer published The Scapegoat in their fine magazine I despaired of ever becoming a published writer. Before that point, whenever I told people that I was a writer, they would ask me if I’d ever had anything published and I would be forced to respond “no.” After that point I could say “yes.”
Even better, The Scapegoat was accompanied by tailor-made illustrations by artist Jason Walton. I was thrilled that somebody actually drew something inspired by my fiction, and not just anything, but two super cool illustrations. The two illustrations, posted below, actually tell their own version of the story. In the story, Lucifer (the eponymous scapegoat), creates himself out of nothing, starting with a single electron, as seen in Jason’s first illustration, before evolving into his final form, as seen in Jason’s second illustration.
The Scapegoat was a turning point for me in other ways. Unlike other short stories I’d written up to that point, it took me a long time to write. Finishing it required discipline. Several times I had to decide: am I going to watch this show/read this book/go out with friends, or write? And I knew that if I didn’t write the story wouldn’t get written. So I wrote, and gradually acquired the discipline (sorely lacking in my life up to that point) to continue writing.
Otherwise nothing would ever have gotten written.
So anyway, I’m just about out of copies of Other Times and Places cuz they tend to sell like hotcakes when I’m out handselling books. I think people like the fact that it’s short stories, and they like the platypus on the cover, which my daughter Erin drew for me, and which cover designer Jeff Minkovics expertly integrated into his cool cover design. People also like the price. I’ve been selling it for $5 a copy because it’s a tiny little book, and it’s easy for people to just whip out $5 bills, even though after shipping that represents a loss for me of about $2. I consider it a loss leader, hopefully introducing people to my work and inducing them to buy more. (I can always dream.)
I originally published Other Times and Places through Lulu, and was shocked when the first copies arrived and they were so crazy small and thin. It was my first foray into self-publishing and I barely knew what I was doing. Rather than ordering more copies through Lulu, I’m redesigning the whole book on Vellum and will switch to KDP to publish a bigger version of the book with larger font. Making the Lulu version of the book a collector’s edition. Stay tuned!
New Brunswick Publishers
This is the sixth installment of our survey of publishers in Atlantic Canada. I’ve already covered publishers in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and part of New Brunswick. You can find those surveys in previous editions of Assorted Nonsense.
Today I’ll cover the rest of the publishers in New Brunswick. I found seven publishers in New Brunswick in total; the first four are covered in the previous edition of Assorted Nonsense.
So here are the final three (not including my own Donovan Street Press).
Hardscrabble Press
Hardscrabble Press operates out of Sackville, New Brunswick, just down the road from Donovan Street Press (which is based in Riverview). They’re “a micro-press dedicated to publishing beautiful books that are designed, printed, and bound at the press.” Their focus is poetry and chapbooks, especially chapbooks featuring “Notes on the Craft” by famous practioners of said craft such as Virgina Woolf.
They use both letterpress and digital methods of making limited-edition chapbooks. It’s also “the letterpress studio of poet Keagan Hawthorne,” Keagan being the proprietor of Hardscrabble Press and an award-winning poet.
(According to Wikipedia, Letterpress printing is “is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper.”)
Hardscrabble Press receives funding from Renaissance Sackville, which is an organization sponsored by the Town of Sackville devoted to Sackville community development. That makes Hardscrabble Press the first publisher I’ve seen so far benefiting from municipal funding.
They do their own distribution directly from their website, and accept submissions in any genre (as long as they’re short), aiming to publish 2-3 books a year.
Hardscrabble Press is a neat little operation with a great website and some cool-looking books.
Monster House Publishing
Monster House Publishing isn’t nearly as scary as it sounds. Like many publishers, it began with a single author looking to publish a book. In this case, a fellow by the name of Paul McAllister who dreamed of publishing a children’s book, which he did, called There and Back Again, with artist Emily Brown. It grew into a series featuring a monster named Herman, which spawned its own publishing house… Monster House Publishing.
Based out of Fredericton, Monster House Publishing “aims to inspire a love of literacy in children across New Brunswick, throughout Canada, and beyond by bringing fun and engaging stories by Maritime authors and artists to life.”
Their books are distributed by Ampersand Distribution.
They’re not currently accepting submissions, apparently having received many “fantastic” submissions.
I do not see that they receive any public financial support. They do seem to be quite active, sponsoring awards and conducting book tours. Although they don’t explicitly solicit submissions in the traditional sense, they are looking for writers and artists with whom to collaborate.
And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you can call books about imaginary monsters speculative fiction. Because…. fantasy, right? But no SF&F in the traditional sense.
Partridge Island Publishing
Partridge Island Publishing operates out of Saint John, New Brunswick. They focus on stories by Canadian writers and are committed to making the publishing experience a positive one for the writers with whom they work. They look to be focussing on children’s books and memoir, and are open to submissions in those genres.
Although a small press, they are traditional in that they don’t accept any money from authors. No whiff of vanity publishing from these folks. In fact, they go out of their way to make that perfectly clear.
I don’t see that they’re receiving any public money; nor do I see that they have any distribution set up. They sell books off their websites, at select locations such as Indigo East Point, Cole McAllister Mall, NB Museum, Market Square and Amazon. They even have their own little store, operating out of something called “Area 506 Waterfront Container Village”, which I guess is a Saint John thing I’ll have to check out one day.
TAKEAWAYS
I counted seven publishers in New Brunswick
Only two have traditional distribution that I could see, though that’s not counting Goose Lane. I couldn’t see any distributors listed on Goose Lane’s site, but thinking about it Goose Lane MUST have distribution. But maybe not…
Three NB publishers receive public money, four if you include the help Hardscrabble Press receives from Renaissance Sackville (which I’m guessing isn’t much)
All of these New Brunswick publishers, large and small, seem to be nifty operations. People obviously doing it for the love of it. I’m impressed and inspired.
Conclusion
This concludes my survey of Atlantic Canadian publishers. I covered Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, all of which you can find in earlier editions of Assorted Nonsense.
What have I learned?
There are over thirty publishers of all shapes and sizes in Atlantic Canada. Some have several staff and are fairly large operations, such as Nimbus, out of Halifax. Many are one or two person operations. Many have been around for years. They publish some great looking books. They frequently specialize in Canadian writers (probably to help secure public funding, but also because that’s their interest), and often prefer to work with local writers. There are lot of talented writers in Atlantic Canada! Some but not all of the publishers I surveyed are open to un-agented submissions.
Some of these publishers source out distribution to specialized distributors, or piggy-back on a large publisher like Nimbus. One had their own salesman, who approaches selective retail operations on his own. All sell books off their own websites; several have consignment arrangements with local stores such as Chapters or local specialty shops. Many receive public funding from federal and provincial organizations such the Canada Council for the Arts. And although a small percentage of these publishers dabble in speculative fiction, not one single publisher in Atlantic Canada specializes in science fiction and fantasy (snobs).
So what does that tell me? What does it mean for Donovan Street Press Inc.?
It’s possible to successfully run a small publisher in Atlantic Canada
It’s possible to get public funding for such a publisher
It’s probably necessary to get public funding to really make a go of it, and scale up
It’s possible (but not initially necessary) to get professional distribution
There is an obvious gap in science fiction and fantasy publishing in Atlantic Canada
Much to mull over.
Next up: I will survey the various book distribution outfits available to Atlantic Canadian publishers.
Appearances
Last Saturday I was at the Riverview Lion’s Club for the Athena’s Touch Craft Fair.
The following day I drove up to Miramichi and spent the day at Miramichi High School making new friends and selling books. I sold two books within fifteen minutes of walking into the place. All told it was a good weekend
I’ll be at the Mother’s Day Market in Richibucto Saturday May 11th from 9am until 2pm.
I’m always on the look out for new places to sell books. If you know of any, lemme know at joemahoney@donovanstreetpress.com
Donovan Street Press Books (So Far!)
The Deer Yard and Other Stories
Books to Come
The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner
Podcasts (So Far)
Re-Creative (currently on hiatus, but will resume shortly)
This has been the twelfth edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.