Tuned In: Jane Paull, whose nom de plume is Janet Farquhar, wrote and published a largely autobiographical book titled, 'Taught to the Tune.' Paull sent the book to 1stbooks Library, a print-on-demand publisher that, for a fee, made her book available for purchase.




Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer







Print-on-demand publishing provides authors with new options for success

Jane Paull and Carol Brej also have books at WG Books

By Kate Carter

Jane Paull has spent her whole life writing and dreaming of having her work published.

With the help of a print-on-demand publishing company, two years ago she realized her dream and published her first novel, Taught to the Tune.

Print-on-demand publishing is a recent field that came about with the rise of online publishing and the increased usage of the Internet during the mid-1990s. The downloading of novels and other works over the Web onto either home computers or hand-held reading devices has been widely publicized in recent years. But some companies are also helping people who might otherwise never get their work published in physical form by providing an inexpensive form of self-publishing.

Print-on-demand publishing companies store books digitally and make them available literally "on demand," meaning they will print a single copy of a book for each order requested, thus reducing large initial printing costs, expensive inventories and the risks of losing money if the books don't sell.

But though print-on-demand is growing in popularity and affording writers more opportunities than ever before, authors and publishers still face the challenge of encouraging readers to buy their work when they aren't as respected as authors using traditional publishers. Their books aren't usually available in the traditional book-lovers' haunt--bookstores.

A Risk Worth Taking

Paull, 75, who writes under the name Janet Farquhar and has lived in Willow Glen with her husband, Lorin, for 11 years, found out about print-on-demand publishing after she had completed a final version of her novel in 1999. The author, who had earlier published several poems in the Denver Post and short stories in the now-defunct Christian Education monthly magazine, was having trouble getting her work recognized by traditional publishers and book agents.

"I got tired of not having my genius recognized," Paull says. "I thought, 'Well, shucks, maybe this [print-on-demand publishing] is a way to get known.'"

Paull says she started writing poetry when she was 8. Her English teachers encouraged her writing, and her mother, an unpublished writer, thought her daughter "was going to be the next Emily Dickinson," she says.

Paull says she wants to see her work published partly out of ego, "but it's also a need to communicate."

She spent about 50 years "off and on" working on a novel based on her experience as a young teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in 1949 and 1950. Between raising four children and working, she struggled over some initial drafts and received feedback from book critics and contests.

When she retired 11 years ago, Paull sat down to finally write the book. For several years she woke early and wrote for four or five hours every day. The book went through numerous iterations as she took various creative writing classes, read different writing books and articles and received suggestions from members of her writers' club

Finally in 1999 she felt she had a version ready for publication, so she sent it off to four or five publishers and contests, all of whom returned it with criticisms.

Paull says she had read about online and print-on-demand publishing in a Time magazine article about "e-publishing being the coming thing," she says. "So, I decided, 'Well, why not give it a try?'"

She had some hesitations about it, though.

"I figured it would be like vanity publishing," she says. "But I thought, maybe on the Internet, maybe it would get more exposure."

So Paull researched some of the different online and print-on-demand publishers, like iUniverse.com, Xlibris.com and 1stbooks Library (1stbooks.com), and chose 1stbooks to publish her novel.

"They let you say what you wanted on the cover," she says. "I liked that."

After she paid about $700 to develop a cover design and print up some initial copies, the book became available in 2000, she says. She also paid $300 for publicity by the company, but says, "That was kind of a waste of money, I think." The 1stbooks publicist promoted the book by trying to draw similarities in the book to the Columbine High School shooting.

"This didn't have anything to do with that subject," Paull says of her book. "It has more to do with child abuse."

The publicist also sent press releases about the book to a variety of publications, but, "As far as I know," Paull says, "none of them has written a review about it."

In addition, she says, a friend of hers tried to buy a copy of the book at a bookstore in Denver, but was told that it didn't sell print-on-demand books. Because print-on-demand books are not returnable by bookstores as they are by traditional publishers, many booksellers are reluctant to carry them and risk wasting their money.

However, Paull is not entirely disappointed with her experience.

"I'm not on the bestseller list, of course, but it is selling," she says of her book.

She says she has received four royalty checks, that return to her 25 percent of the proceeds, and that her largest check has been about $75.


Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Buy the Book: Only when someone decides to purchase Jane Paull's book, 'Taught to the Tune,' is a copy printed for the customer.




Variety of Options

Some print-on-demand publishing firms make their books available to readers through such online companies as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com as well as through their own websites. But Paull has also sold her books at a bookstore.

Cathy Adkins, owner of Willow Glen Books on Lincoln Avenue, says she carries copies of Taught to the Tune because Paull is a local author. She says she will also order copies of online books for her customers.

"There are other [print-on-demand] books that have been requested and I've brought them in for customers," Adkins says. "It's a very small portion of my orders, but it was zero a year ago."

She attributes the rise in the number of requests for print-on-demand books to the flexibility and possibilities authors have by publishing with nontraditional publishers.

"One of the reasons is that more and more writers are discovering these options."

Greg Ryhal, assistant director of author promotions at 1stbooks Library, said that online and print-on-demand publishers exist to provide authors with those options.

"We provide publishing services rather than being a publisher," he says. "The reason we are in this business is to give authors the chance to get their work out there. Only 1 percent of manuscripts get picked up by traditional publishers every year. That leaves lots of good manuscripts. We hope to broaden the market."

Ryhal says that, while many online publishers also provide print-on-demand services, some small presses and traditional publishers also have print-on-demand divisions. However, "it's definitely not traditional publishing," he says. "It's not recognized by traditional publishers at this time."

Ryhal says that many traditional publishers and others still view print-on-demand and online publishing as vanity presses. For instance, authors pay the companies fees to get their work online or available for print-on-demand, as well as cover design and other optional editing and marketing services.

"That's something of a problem, but we're somewhat rising above that," he says. "We allow authors to retain all rights to their books, because we want our authors to be picked up by traditional publishers. That makes us look better."

Ryhal points to two instances where 1stbooks authors have been picked up by traditional publishers. He also says the company, which has about 10,000 books on its list, has been making money for the past two years, largely from its book and download sales.

The average writer who publishes through 1stbooks sells about 150 books, according to company sales representative Brad Collins.

Bookstores, as previously mentioned, don't like to carry print-on-demand books, and many readers prefer to see and feel their books before buying them. It can be difficult for print-on-demand authors to promote themselves and their books without the support of a large publishing firm.

In an April 2002 article of Writer's Digest, authors are advised to be careful about choosing online publishing companies and to consider their goals before opting for print-on-demand. Books that may not be widely interesting, such as family histories, specific recipes and arcane subjects, are better candidates for online publishing than books that could appeal to a broader audience.

Nevertheless, 1stbooks books never go out of print, Ryhal says, because they are stored electronically and can be printed at any time. And, although he admits that he likes to touch and flip through a book before he buys it, "I think that this type of technology is only going to become more popular," he says. "Kids today are always on the computer. To the future generation, this type of technology is going to gain more acceptance."

The Price is Write: Jane Paull, whose pseudonym is Janet Farquhar, is one of thousands of book authors who are turning to print-on-demand publishing companies to make their books digitally available to the public.




Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer







Determined by Desires

Adkins also carries another online book by a former Willow Glen resident.

Please Remain Seated Until the Ride Has Come to a Complete Stop is a memoir by Dave Collins, who died of leukemia a couple of years ago. His former wife, now Carol Brej, published the book on iUniverse.com earlier this year and, as a customer of Adkins' whose father-in-law used to work at the store, asked Adkins if she would carry it. Adkins says she ordered 20 copies of the books from iUniverse and within a week had only five left in stock.

"You can imagine it was a bit of work for me to get it published, just because it was so emotional for me," Brej says of the book Collins wrote while he was struggling with the final phase of his disease. She says he had wanted to publish his book, but when it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to, he asked Brej to do it for him.

Brej says just getting his draft into manuscript form took much time and energy and she wasn't enthusiastic about sending it to publishing companies and trying to find an interested editor. She found out about print-on-demand from a work friend and, "after much deliberation," chose that method.

"I thought, 'Well, print-on-demand offers opportunities for it to be printed faster,'" she says. "Also, it wouldn't be edited by anyone but me," which was important to her because Collins' voice in the book is an important asset. "This just became a really good viable option. It's available just as it would be from a traditional publisher without having to go through the presentation and approval process."

Brej says she was nervous that using a print-on-demand company would make the book less valuable in the eyes of the public and reviewers. However, iUniverse offers an option of printing books after they've been reviewed and evaluated, and Collins' book received the highest rating, she says.

"That made me feel like I wasn't limiting the book's potential," she says. "I am very happy with that choice."

Brej also chose to have the book available online and be downloadable, largely so that cancer patients, many of whom have limited vision, can read it on their computer screens and adjust the font size to their needs.

She acknowledges that she is not a writer herself and doesn't have plans to publish anything else, although friends have asked her for help publishing their books, she says.

"My situation is definitely different from a typical author," Brej says.

For those who are trying to make money from their work as well as reach out to the wider reading community, print-on-demand publishing may not be the answer.

Paull points out that several famous and successful authors, like Mark Twain and John Grisham, got their start by self-publishing. As she continues to look for ways to promote her book--she says she is trying to find places on the Internet where she and her friends can review the book, and she might do a local book tour.

But for a second novel she has completed, Paull says she will try to find a traditional publisher before resorting to online publishing.

"Before I go to the online thing, I think I'm going to enter it in a contest," she says, "because of the fact that people think that anything self-published is no good."

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