. In Part 1, John discussed the process of writing a family narrative. In today's post, John talks about his journey through self-publishing. 
Lynn: Why did you decide to self-publish? Did you try
to sell your story to a traditional publishing house first?
John: I decided to self-publish when my dad was about to enter a
nursing home and I knew there was no time to waste. I wanted him to be able to hold the book,
with the picture of him on the cover, in his hands. I actually made a promise to him as he lay in
his bed at the VA hospital that I would self-publish the book sooner rather
than any other way later. At the
hospital, I also asked for his permission to use his picture from the Civilian
Conservation Corps on the cover. “Yes!”
his baby-blue eyes brightened at the prospect!
I knew there was no going back on that promise.
I also knew that traditional publishers exert great
influence over cover designs and often change the titles of books for marketing
purposes, which is fine. But I became
personally committed to the cover image of Oh, Beautiful, and I’m rather fond
of the title and subtitle, too. I doubt
that a traditional publisher would have let me have my way. So self-publishing meant I didn’t have to
fight those battles.
Previously, I had a literary agent who did try to sell the book
to a publishing house. There were some
close calls, but no cigars. I remember a
handwritten note from one editor saying, “I really wish my house could publish
this.”
Lynn: You used Createspace by Amazon to publish your
book, why did you decide on this particular vehicle for self-publishing. Did you use any other avenues for publishing
your book? How did you find the process?
John: When
I attended a Writer’s Digest conference on self-publishing, the most valuable
session was led by a woman named April L. Hamilton, who wrote The Indie Author Guide
. Her presentation was thorough, thoughtful,
and clear, and I found her book to be an immensely helpful step-by-step guide
to self-publishing, which I knew nothing about. She recommended publishing through CreateSpace
in print and through both the Kindle platform and Smashwords on line. I followed her recommendations.
. Her presentation was thorough, thoughtful,
and clear, and I found her book to be an immensely helpful step-by-step guide
to self-publishing, which I knew nothing about. She recommended publishing through CreateSpace
in print and through both the Kindle platform and Smashwords on line. I followed her recommendations.
The
process can be overwhelming if only because there are so many options depending
on what you might want to accomplish, but April Hamilton sent me down a safe
path for my purposes.
Lynn: Did you employ a team, to help you edit and
design and format the book or was this a one-man show? Did you use a critique
group or beta reviewers? Did you already have these connections due to your
journalism background? What would you
recommend to others?
John: In
addition to the two editors discussed above, about 20 people outside the family
critiqued early drafts. These people
were agents, journalists and writers I had known as colleagues, and friends. Contrary to the common notion that friends
are not good reviewers, I found, at least in the case of a family memoir that
delves into deeply personal affairs, that perceptive friends can sometimes be
the most insightful people to challenge you on what’s being left unsaid or
unexplored. I would recommend a mixture
of professional and personal reviewers who are committed to bringing out the
best in you and your family.
I
hired a designer because of the book’s photographs, which required a high-end
software program. But the benefits
extended well beyond the photos. I had
known the designer through my professional work. Nearly all the people who helped were people I
had previously known or who had been referred to me by friends or colleagues.
Lynn: What sort of timeframe did it take to complete this book, from conception thru to writing and finally publishing?
John: Ten
years of nights, weekends, and vacations.
Lynn: As a self-publisher, you have to market your own
book, what tools or avenues are you using to promote Oh, Beautiful?
John: Everything
conceivable: book events, book clubs,
book reviews, book awards, book fairs, radio interviews, podcasts, social media,
and online interviews like this one. And
news about all of these goes up on my website at www.johnpaulgodges.com.
Lynn: How did you decide on the title and cover art,
which I might say are very impressive?
John: Why, thank you! I
settled on the title of Oh, Beautiful because it’s so musical and so American. Music is central to the story. Throughout the book, lyrics express pivotal
moods and moments in the family and national histories. Thematically, music serves both as a
reverberation of individual souls and as an instrument of collective will. The title also echoes the way my Italian immigrant
grandfather used to extol America as a “BYOO-ti-ful” country. Like the chapter titles, the book title
reflects the personal and national stories simultaneously. So the title of Oh, Beautiful works on many
levels.
The cover art is a 1941 photograph that I discovered while interviewing
my father. We were sifting through his
old World War II footlocker, looking at some of his most cherished yet hidden possessions. These are items that had been locked in that
footlocker for more than 50 years. One of
the items was this photo of him prior to joining the Marines. The photo had been protected in its own
envelope. When I slipped the photo from its
envelope, it took my breath away. I had
never seen it before, but there was my dad:
a 17-year-old poor immigrant kid in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian
Conservation Corps at work in the Hiawatha National Forest. It was just a casual photo, but the composition
was stunning. The expression on my
father’s face was captivating. The image
symbolized so much about the American experience. I also loved the way that the license plate
represented no single state but the entire U.S.C.C.C. I knew that photo had to be the cover. It’s just classic Americana.
Lynn: Many family historians turn strictly to print
publishing because they often want to include documents or photos and thereby excluding
ebooks as an option, however you chose to do both. Your Kindle edition does not
have family pictures, other than the front cover, what was your reasoning for
this approach?
John: The
Kindle technology, at least at the time, did not readily accommodate graphics
beyond the cover image. Other e-book
options did, however, and so the photos at the beginning of each chapter do
appear, even in brilliant color, on devices such as the iPad, iPhone, and
iTouch.
I
wanted to reserve something special for the people who pay the extra cost for
the paperback version. That’s why only
the paperback version includes the supplemental photo album of 17 historical
images at the back of the book.
In
general, I went ahead with a set of options that I felt were fair and technologically
feasible and that could make the story accessible to the greatest number of
people by giving them all the choices I could.
Lynn: Which book is selling the best, the print copy
or digital copy?
John: They’ve
been running neck-and-neck for months, but the Kindle version is pulling away
at the moment.
Lynn: Having gone through the self-publishing process
for the first time, what do you think you did right, what would you do
differently?
John: Hiring
two editors and a designer are the biggest things I did right. All three people helped me in ways I couldn’t
have foreseen. It was especially helpful
for me to find editors who had good references as creative writing instructors
at the college or university level, because I really needed a crash course. I needed people who could teach me how to do
the editing of narrative nonfiction myself.
The
dumbest thing I did was to try to design the book in a word processing
program. Royal waste of time. Before I hired a designer, I tried to do it on
my own, completely unaware that I was doomed to failure because the word
processing program, unbeknownst to me, was automatically converting the
high-res photos into low-res ones, because it couldn’t handle high-res
ones. I initially laid out the entire
book without realizing the futility of it all.
Oh, well. Live and learn. Maybe someone else can benefit from my foolishness.
Lynn: Oh, Beautiful is your first book, are you
writing anything currently that we can look forward to in the future, family
history again? or a different genre? Will you self-publish again?
John: I’d love to write another book, probably narrative
nonfiction once again. But as you can
tell from this interview, it takes me a good long time to settle on a theme and
structure that work for me. The
investment of time, heart, and soul required in writing a good book is so
great, and yet life is so short. It’s
important to spend what little time we have focusing on what really matters. It doesn’t have to be all heavy and somber; humor
and joy matter a lot, too. I just want
my work to be meaningful as well as amusing.
I’ve begun to play with a few ideas involving different kinds of
love. Some of these ideas have begun to
ferment. I’m hoping that one of them
will improve with age.
I want to thank John, for taking the time for this interview, you can read Part 1 of our Interview or my book review of Oh, Beautiful.If your looking for more, you can purchase John's book, Oh, Beautiful: An American Family in the 20th Century or visit his website www.johnpaulgodges.com for more details on the author and his book.
