Oh, man, I’m so excited. I’m a publisher! No, wait, I misspoke, and left off two exclamation marks: I’m a publisher!!! I can prove it. I have my not-really-framable piece of paper from the corporation commissioner that says I’m doing business under an assumed business name: Adrasteia Publishing. If I’d wanted to pay $10 more I could have gotten a rather cheesy only-slightly-more-suitable-for-framing certificate featuring a background photo of the Oregon state capital, but I decided thriftiness was going to be one of the hallmarks of Adrasteia Publishing—along with, hopefully, publishing (my own books, of course).
After much exploring in the dense and dark jungles of Publisher Land, I think I’ve finally hit upon a viable for my four, count them, four, books that either need to get back in print, commercially in print, or just plain in print. Naturally my first choice was to find a publisher who would (a) pay me a princely sum to publish my books; (b) get them in print just the way I had written them, namely, without any significant editorial changes, (c) was committed to keeping them in print for ever and ever, and (d) would promote the living daylights out of them.
Many times I found a firm that met all of these criteria. But then I would wake up and have to go make coffee. I kept hoping that my dream would become reality, but that isn’t the way life usually works. Reality makes reality. Anyway, I’ve finally linked up with a publisher who, by all accounts, has found a way to meld the benefits of print on demand (POD) and traditional publishing approaches: Unlimited Publishing. You can see from their web site that they take a markedly different approach from the run-of-the-mill POD firm. Well, you would be able to see that if you had checked into as many POD web sites as I have. But take my word for it, it’s true.
Or, don’t take my word for it, and contrast Unlimited Publishing with one of the churn-the-books-out-and-take-their-money firms, Trafford Publishing Not that there is anything inherently wrong with Trafford if you just want to get your book on Amazon and sell a hundred copies to friends and family. But I have higher aspirations, for I too am a publisher (albeit with no published books yet, but let’s not quibble with details).
Unlimited will be the distributing publisher of Return to the One and, hopefully, my other books. Adrasteia will be the contributing publisher. While I haven’t yet understood all that distinguishes us, I have already learned enough about the trade to figure out that Unlimited Publishing will distribute my books, and Adrasteia Publishing will contribute the books, hence, our titles. Ah yes, Adrasteia also will contribute some money to Unlimited, as is the case with co-publishing arrangements, but the green stuff theoretically will flow the other way eventually, in the form of royalties.
Adrasteia means “inescapable” in Greek. Plotinus uses the term, once, and I liked the way it sounds. Adrasteia also is a goddess, one of Zeus’ daughters, and I felt that it wouldn’t hurt to form an alliance with the progeny of a powerful Greek god. “Zeus, how about throwing some thunderbolts at the publishers who have sent me rejection letters? I could give you a list of names and addresses, but since you’re a god, I assume you already know who should be thunderbolted. Your buddy, Brian (P.S. Did I mention that I’ve named my publishing company after your daughter?)”
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