The Writer’s Fugue: A Journey into Indie Academic Arts Independent Publishing
by Ruth Skilbeck, PhD
Dear Readers,
It has been a while since last I wrote, and
longer since I wrote regularly of my search to find my motherline, and of my
adventures as a commuting part-time-elevated-from casual-lecturer, at
universities in Sydney to the northern city of Newcastle of New South Wales.
Why the silence? I have been busy working on plans for a new writing and
publishing venture, which I have made hints about, in the course of the blog,
though not sure when I was writing then what form these ideas and research into
online and new publishing would take.
Some of you will know that I have been
writing a five fugue novel series, with series title Australian Fugue. The latest of the books in the series is about
how I found my mother-line, and tells the story of my mother’s family’s secret
past. In the book I reveal the secret I have uncovered.
Some of my readers will know that I
researched and wrote my PhD in creative writing and cultural studies (literature
and philosophy in old disciplines) – on The
Writer’s Fugue: Musicalization, Trauma and Subjectivity in the Literature of
Modernity (that was awarded by UTS-Sydney in 2007). I have continued to
publish my essays and articles in the arts press and academic journals – and my
work appears in Communication and
Critical/Cultural Studies; The International Journal of the Arts in Society;
The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative; Pacific Journalism Review, The International Journal of the Image (in
press). But I hesitated over where
and how to try to publish my books – as book publishing is changing so rapidly
by the day it seems, I have not been sure what was the best way to try to
publish.
I have been extensively researching the
options for academic and creative writing book publishing. It seems to me that
the most interesting and innovative things are happening in the areas of
author-publishing, not self-publishing in the old mode of ‘vanity publishing’
but instead authors starting up their own publishing imprints and houses, to
publish their own works, and promote these online. The term is ‘indie authors’
and an industry has rapidly grown up around this new form of publishing, as
indie authors hire and manage teams of editors, book designers, website designers,
to help them make their books, and promote them to readers around the
world. Many have heard of the successes
of some best-selling fiction authors who have done this, such as J.F. Penn,
historical fiction author, Libby Fischer Helmann, best selling crime writer and recent successes widely reported in mainstream media of E.L James author of erotic fiction Fifty Shades of Grey, recently
made into a feature film, and many others writing in new and hybrid and
traditional genres, and in literary fiction. Increasingly indie authors are negotiating deals with major
commercial publishing companies- though some choose not to, and a new trend is
best selling and successful authors moving into indie publishing so they can
have more control over their books and works. Indie authors now regularly are
found in the bestselling author lists, and many have huge audiences around the
world that they connect with through the conversational modes of social media,
and through the new ebook and book distribution platforms such as Amazon,
Google, Goodreads (more on these in future posts). Now indie authors are able
to publish ebooks and to make beautifully designed books of their works
available through platforms such as Smashwords. As the number of readers using ereaders, is
growing around the world, the distinctions between indie authors own imprints
and the imprints of commercial publishing companies had blurred, with many
readers even preferring to read works by indie authors- to see what they are
doing and how they are doing it.
In my research, I have found out that many
commercial and large publishers will not now take on new authors unless they
are independently published, and have already established their own
readerships.
What I am interested in doing, and am going
to be trying out, as well as publishing creative wriitng is publishing academic
works.
So far, I have not come across any academic
authors who have published in this way.
My first book publication will be The Writer’s Fugue, my redesigned PhD.
It’s been up for a while as a virtual presence on Google though I didn’t put it
up there, and don't know who did, and its page numbers are overestimated, in reality it is closer to
280 pages, not the 556 that some unknown agent has recorded. It is up there on the internet as a ghostly presence and I will soon be replacing it with the real thing. An ebook and book, with a proper cover designed by myself, rather than the absence that currently marks the place. Though it serves the purpose of a prompt and reminder that I must not waste any more time!
Already I have encountered a number of
challenges to do with publishing a PhD as a book as an indie author, or
independent author, to give this more gravitas.
I will discuss these challenges, and share
my progress in publishing my first book The
Writer’s Fugue, and how I am addressing these challenges in my coming blog
posts. Meanwhile I am starting up my own publishing house, and imprint, and
will reveal that here soon.
From now on I will be using my blog to share
my progress in independent publishing, and you can expect daily posts on news
and views on my research and experiences in the processes of creative indie
publishing, and independent academic publishing. I am trialing daily posts, and will do this over
the next few weeks – anticipated time frame. This will focus on my first
publishing venture The Writer’s Fugue,
published as a book, that I will write about in the Daily Fugue.
I will be sharing the information I have
researched for readers and writers and artists- like myself, and hope that it
will be useful to you.
Happy
writing and reading, and all the best,
Ruth
Comments
and contributions to the topic discussions are very welcome.
You
can post these on the blog, in the space below.
Sites mentioned in this post:
