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with Doug Holder, Somerville News arts editor and creator of Bagel Bards, a weekly Saturday morning meeting of a group of poets, and lead publisher of five anthologies of local poets; Dan Mazur, co-founder of Boston Comics Roundtable and editor of several comic anthologies; and Barbara Ross, author of Death of An Ambitious Woman, mystery writer and editor/contributor to Level Best Books short story anthologies. The session was moderated by NWU co-chair Charles Coe.

Doug Holder:

He describes Stone Soup, of which he was president for a year, and the Bagel Bards as alternatives to the "closed shop" of universities. Poets need a community, and the group has published "grass roots" anthologies featuring local poets. They call themselves the Bagel Bards because they meet for breakfast Saturdays at the Au Bon Pain Davis Square location (9-12). They started their publication small, now it's a big effort and have published five anthologies. The books are designed for print-on-demand technology. POD tech has little start up costs. For a reading, a contributing author can order a few or 30 books. They have recently started an on-line magazine. "Start your own community," he says. "Get like-minded people, use Facebook, listservs and flyers, to sell books."

Dan Mazur

The origin of the Boston Comics Roundtable is similar to the evolution of the Bagel Bards, but they do comics. Dan wanted people to talk to, so he and one other person began to meet at Cafe Pamplona five years ago. He began to spread the word at comic conventions and other events, and got up to 5 to 8 people, but six months later it was just Dan and his friend again. When they decided to create an anthology, 20 people showed up, and the group has continued to grow. They included all members in the first two issues (Inbound #1 and 2), and they sold well enough to do a 3^rd issue.  They now meet at the Democracy Center at 25 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, every Thursday at 6 pm. They have since done an issue with a Boston history theme book, and it sold beyond the comic audience because of the theme. Tension in the group: a welcome democratic group who publishes everybody versus a classy product with aesthetic control. The next book had a food format, and more people became interested. Their contributors went beyond Boston to as far as White River Junction, VT, but their editorial process left people out, forcing them to make a decision: "what will group publishing be?" They used some of the unpublished pieces in Outbound, a sci-fi issue, and Hellbound, true horror stories. Question of late is "Should BCR be a publisher?" At least 25-30 people show up every week, and are trying to determine what's next to serve members of group. BCR does not do publishing on demand because the contributors prefer offset printing.

Charles Coe- The grass roots culture wrestles with access versus the rigor of quality.

Barbara Ross

She is not a founder of Level Best Books press, but became more involved when the anthology series was about to have its plug pulled. The anthologies have been published every year for eight years since the LBB press was founded in 2003. They aim to include all New England states, and the stories range from capers and dark stories, to rural and city settings. Since the beginning, the series has always included one to four people who are new unpublished voices alongside the veteran writers. Their anthologies have won honorable mentions for the Al Blanchard Award. The deadline for their next anthology just ended. For sales they depend on the mystery writer/reader community, and it is very important for business reasons. They get support from the national Sisters in Crime writers' organization, and are affiliated with New England Crimebake. Without this community, they would not be able to put out the anthologies.

 

Q and A

1—How are your writers compensated?

BR:  we do pay $25, but some authors don't even cash the check. They also are to submit their stories to other venues. Authors get 50% percent off list price, and authors are important source of revenue for the press. They threw in the money for first printing, and the objective is to earn it back.

DM—Our printing costs vary widely. We ask contributors to buy books. The BC Roundtable has considered going nonprofit, but if they do, they won't be publishers anymore but they can try to find arts grants.

DH—Bagel Bards have talked about going nonprofit, but a board—yech! People get complimentary copies, and they get income from sales of books, and have no start up costs. The contributors can purchase the books at wholesale cost, and after orders of 35 books pay only $1 per book.

CC—re: 501c3 or not: It's good to because you can accept tax deductible contributions. Or, acting as fiscal agents, other nonprofits can hold fundraisers for you. But it's hard to get grants, and the Mass Cultural Council does not fund non-501c3 groups.

 

2--Why does it take so long to get an anthology out in print?

BR—It will take a long time if group is engaged in in-fighting, and it depends on people's time.

DH- Our approach is to just take bull by the horns and do it.

DM—We aim for a comics convention, as this is the main sales opportunities for their publicaitons.

BR—it helps that we can sell at the New England Crimebake conference. 

 

3—re: Doug's efforts to create a community, and Doug publishes  and organizes a lot of reviews of books.  How do you handle rejections?

DH—Bagel Bards does review small press books, and has a cadre of Bagel Bard book reviewers.  But rejections: you lose friends that way. And you do have to reject people, and say it's not a good fit. The rejected party can perceive as it as a rejection of the person, not the writer. Often, in our case rejection can be a space issue.

DM—our group dynamics are complex. It's a small inner circle of committee, but a welcoming community. Our contributors like expensive looking books and we have to sell them, so BCR wants to keep some editorial standards. But to say "now we're going to be more selective," or when editors have to work with them to improve their book, has given us a reason to transition to a group that doesn't publish, but has publishing faction. We just try to be clear up front what the expectations will be. For the Food issue, we turned away a lot of stories, but we sent some to 'Leftovers of the Living Dead.' Some didn't like that. But in independent comics, everybody starts off as a self-publisher. At comic cons, people print and sell their own. This is an acceptable venue for self-publishing.

BR—LBB has an acceptance process. Rejection is part of a writer's life: "It's a product." LBB gets 80 stories, of which 25 will make it. About 5 of 80 are unpublishable, and we don't have time to edit. But we've learned to say, "this doesn't fit in this book at this time."

CC—If you're rejected give yourself a self-pity break. But when the time is up, get over it.

 

4—re: Steven King "On Writing": do you three prefer a space with no interruptions, versus a space with a lot of interruptions?

DH—likes white noise in a cafeteria, coffee shop; it's an individual matter.

DM—when writing it's a combo: home, public.

BR—depends where I am in process, hates first drafts, but it helps to not be at home. Revisions and second drafts she does at home.

 

5—How important and useful have you found blogging and new media, and do you feel pressure to move to online publishing?

BR—social media is important. It helps publicize book launches at Porter Square books. Anthologies are like ready-made blogs; it gets barriers tumbling.

DM—doesn't like blogging, doesn't like Facebook, and is trying to blog. But his group is younger, and online publishing is big in comics. Web comics are good sites.

DH—loves blogs. Books are reviewed on blogs, and they use list serves for announcements. Facebook has gotten him gigs. It becomes an obsession but it's a necessary networking thing.

DM—Google groups take the place of Facebook in the comics world.

CC—How to find out about calls for submissions?

DH—Poets Market, Poets and Writers, and in small press reviews. There are thousands of small presses, and it's a good place to start. Watch out for scams, where you have to pay for publishing.

DM—word of mouth.

BR—the National Organizaiton of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, although most are invitation only and you have to look around for that.

 

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