When did The Wessex Collective begin?
2005 so we are really new.
Who started it? Did you all know each other to start with?
Peter
Burnham and I started it. Peter has edited a lit. magazine called The
Long Story for 25 years and he has published some of my fiction over
the years and we have corresponded about literature for most of that
time (about seventeen years in fact). We have never met face to face
only through correspondence. I have known Ita Willen since she and I
were 14 years and had dreams of being writers. Peter knew Brian
Backstrand (their wives went to college together I think) and had
published some of his poetry in TLS. He also published some fiction and
poetry by William Davey, now deceased, whose books were published in
many other countries such as China, France, Sweden, Israel, but never
in the United States before we started working with his widow and
literary executor.
Why was it started?
We
were discouraged by what was happening with the mainstream
publishers
and realized that the small independent publishers were struggling to
survive and realized that not only our own work but a lot of good work
that we knew about was just not going to get out there unless we did it
ourselves. So we decided to pool our resources and skills and go for it.
What is your "mission"?
We
want to put serious works of fiction, the kind that might some day
become "classic" out where it can be discovered and read by serious
readers, now, a year from now, ten years from now, etc.
How does it work as a collective?
No
author is paid anything. If one title sells more copies than another,
the money from all the sales goes back into the collective account to
help pay for printing and promoting other books. I have two foreign
publishers looking at Stillbird: if they decide to buy the
translation rights, that money will go back into the collective
account. One author has a fan base from previous work and we made
enough on prepublication sales to pay for the printing of his book and
get a headstart on another project. Peter has the skills and equipment
to prep. the mss. for the printers. Everyone helps with whatever PR we
do. Its a one for all and all for one kind of operation.
Where- do you all live near each other or ?
No. Without the internet and email we could not be doing
this.
Are you actively looking for more authors? Do you accept manuscripts?
We
have not opened the door to unsolicited mss. because we don't have the
time to read a large number of mss. If someone is recommended to us and
they are interested in our concept than we will read their mss. Laurel
Speer, a poet and reviewer for Small Press Review who knew Peter
recommended we be in touch with Paul Johnson, the author of our latest
title, The Marble Orchard. We liked his book, he liked our
concept and we have are really enjoyed getting to know each other.
But
I am also curious- your authors are not as accessible as most authors
are now-they do not seem to have web sites, there is seemingly so way
to contact them directly. Is this on purpose?
No
not on purpose, I think I can speak for all of us
that it is not really
about the individual authors but about the books. We want the work to
speak for itself. I'm more "out there" than any of the others trying to
promote all the books. I'm an attorney by profession and more
comfortable speaking to groups but even I am more comfortable
talking
about the collective and about the other books than reading from my own
work. I know that self promotion is necessary even for authors with
large publishers behind them, but it can feel awkward.
This leads to my next question- how
are you able to compete with the large publishing comapnies in terms of
PR? They have major media firms and divisions behind them to promote
their books. How do you hope to get the workd out more about your
authors and books?
I am personally very
interested in forming coalitions with other
small publishers to promote each other's books but also at some point
perhaps publishing single projects together (i.e not a permanent
partnership but a temporary partnership on a particular project). This
is primarily because the promotion part is really the hardest part and
each small publisher has different contacts that they can pool just the
way we are already pooling other resources. Peter didn't think I'd be
able to find other small publishers who would be interested but I
continue to pursue the concept. I've seen my daughter who has a "green"
fair trade fashion company (www.coolnotcruel.com)
work cooperatively with other small businesses and I've seen small
indie film companies form these temporary partnerships to produce
single films. So why not use this model in the world of small
publishing?
Read more about The Wessex Collective
http://www.wessexcollective.com/
Also books are now available at www.thebooklink.com