This is a long status update for those of you who have asked me for details about how things are going and how to release a project like this into the world.
For the rest of you, the short story is I’m releasing a special edition of the book report on Metalabel August 5, book events have been incredibly moving and a lot of work, I need a slightly more scalable distribution strategy for selling into stores… and I have a team! It’s all still weird; it’s all still interesting.
I’ll be picking up the pace of these updates over the next couple of weeks until the release and then will return to regularly unscheduled/when I can get around to it programming.
I’m going to be releasing the book report on Tuesday, August 5 in a special edition on Metalabel, a new platform for publishing creative work. I’ve been collecting — mostly books and zines — on Metalabel since the middle of last year, and I like the collective vibes and emphasis on small editions. As part of the release, I’ll be selling books, of course. But the release also includes some extras: a care package that includes a poster and permission slips. A digital version of the book will be available as Pay What You Want, and there’s also a Give It Forward fund to send free books to people who might appreciate them. Here’s a preview:
This also seems like a good time to give you an update on how things have gone so far and a little a check in on my original plan for the book report from back in January: 1. Release on Metalabel 2. Sell to Indie Bookstores 3. Go on Tour.
The book is in bookstores!
The book report is available in some of my favorite local independent shops. I recommend all of these for a visit:
Russian River Books & Letters, Guerneville, CA
Neon Raspberry Art House, Occidental, CA
On Waverly, San Francisco, CA
Bather’s Library, Oakland, CA
I’d like to get it into more stores, but it’s a lot of work to figure out which stores, reach out to them, give them the information they need to make a decision about carrying the book, figure out how to get them copies of the book and then figure out payment schedules (shout out to On Waverly who sent me a sales report like clockwork the very first month the book was for sale).
It turns out that many stores — even your most beloved indie bookstore — have policies against working with independently-produced projects. The transaction costs are high. For everyone.
I also know that just because a book is out in the world doesn’t mean you’re going to find it in your local bookstore. One of my favorite essays on publishing a book is For Me, With Love and Squalor by Lauren Markham: “But more often than not, it’s not on the shelves at all”. I think I’ll probably bite the bullet and try to figure out how to distribute my book through Ingram, so that things are easier (?) all around.
Lessons From a Dozen Events
Since this whole project started, I’ve done about a dozen events ranging from very public to very private — at a traditional gallery, a public library — with groups ranging from a dozen to more than 100. They’ve all been satisfying in different ways, but as I move forward with the project, I am most interested in the extremes - either events that can include lots of other people and justify the work involved or events that are low key and intimate where I can actually talk to everyone in attendance and where neither I nor the host has to do too much ahead of time.
I have a team!
Perhaps the most surprising (to me) aspect of the project is that I have a small team of people working with me on the Metalabel release: Jolie is interning with me for the summer; Collin and Katie are colleagues with whom I am doing a work trade; Colin is married to me and therefore has to help out but seems to be enjoying himself. We have a weekly meeting on Mondays where we’re mostly giggling about nonsequiturs and sometimes getting things done. Since I’m on the East Coast for the summer, we all met up at a bowling alley for a “team offsite”. I’m not entirely sure how all this happened, but it’s lovely and feels very much in keeping with the spirit of the project.
What’s Next?
This next phase of the project - in advance of the August 5 release - involves trying to convince other people to write about the project, and this has turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought. I’ve done interviews for a number of Substack newsletters including:
Nancy Reddy’s Write More, Be Less Careful about writing and motherhood
Kristin Merrilees’s PHONE TIME about internet culture, technology and media
Nikki Summer’s We’re A Lot about feminism, pop culture and midlife
I’ve really enjoyed these conversations because they allow me to explore different aspects of the project. The writers have been gracious and supportive. And these independent outlets feel like the kind of media ecosystem I want to be a part of and contributing to. I also did my first podcast about the project with Igor Schwartzmann and Johannes Kleske of Follow the Rabbit, which I wrote about last week.
Most of these have happened pretty organically and/or as a result of sending one email. I send an email, they respond, and we either have a conversation or they send me a list of questions that I respond to over email. In part because I am such a slow writer, I have been particularly impressed when these writers have been able to take our conversation and weave it into a broader narrative.
Press Coverage - Still Trying to Figure It Out
I haven’t yet been able to figure out how the review process works in more traditional outlets, but I’m working on it. I’ve looked up the submission policies of various literary journals, and many go something like we only consider reviews of books that have been published within the last six months, and we are primarily interested in work that is under the radar/isn’t covered elsewhere but we don’t publish reviews of self-published work, and we won’t get back to you for four months. Don’t call us, we’ll call you!
I’m not complaining; most of these journals are run on volunteer labor on nonexistent budgets. I’m thrilled they exist at all. But I do wish it were easier to figure out how to interact with them. All of which is to say if you’d like to write about the book, just reply to this email. I’ll send you a copy.
What About the Books?
I decided to print 500 copies of the book after I kept running out of books while printing them 25 and 50 at a time, so I finally decided to do a proper print run in anticipation of the August 5 release. Between the bookstores and the events and selling them out of the trunk of my car, those 500 books I ordered are now 368!
Action Items
If you’ve made it this far and are looking around and wondering what to do now, let me make some requests/suggestions:
If you’d like to write about the project, I’d love that. Just reply to this note, and I’ll send you a digital copy.
If you can get yourself to the River Electric on August 5 for Happy Hour, come hang out with me. From what I can gather, Pub Days are anticlimactic, so I thought I should have a party.
Please consider supporting the project on Metalabel by buying one of the editions on August 5 when the book is released.
Christie! This is all so inspiring. Thanks for sharing the story of doing something pretty unique and creative with us. Xo