My journey into self publishing was born out of necessity as well as out of frustration. In 1991 there were no publishers of novels in the six state area where I lived. My frustration grew as rejection letters kept piling up from major publishers in New York who were emphatic that no one would be interested in a historical novel about Kansas City. In those days it was a risky venture because no other writer had self published a novel in my area of the country. The prevailing wisdom was that the novel would not be taken seriously and would definitely not be reviewed.
However, after working on the novel for 10 years, the thought of it languishing in a dresser drawer would be a sad ending to what I thought was a good book. The plunge into self publishing was daunting because I knew from the beginning that for the novel to be taken seriously the quality would have to be as good as, or better than books put out by major publishers. And it would be expensive to make that happen. But in spite of all my reservations I began the process by hiring the best rated editors, typesetter, and book publisher.
When the book was finished I took it around to bookstore managers and left them a free copy of the novel with the proposition that if they liked it they would give me an order. They did, and the book was stocked in every bookstore in the city. My strategy for publicity was to leave a copy of the book with two of my favorite newspaper columnists with the same proposition. If they liked the book they might give me a mention in their column. One of the reporters wrote about current affairs in Kansas City and the other wrote about business. Both reporters wrote a story about me and about how much they enjoyed the novel and that led to more articles and then radio and television appearances.
Although book sales for Gully Town were excellent, and the novel made it to number 3 on the regional best seller list, the greatest satisfaction came in an article about the history of Kansas City in the Kansas City Star. The reporter printed the cover of three books that were significant in the history of the city: Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis, and my novel, Gully Town. And that alone made the self publishing venture worthwhile.
