Don’t Hate Me Because I’m P.O.D.

By Debbie Holland

I’ve heard it said that almost everybody has at least one book in them, and when I enter one of the Lots o’Books Superstores I must concur.  By the sheer numbers, it appears as if all humans have indeed already authored their allotted tomes.  But the volumes and volumes seen on store shelves represent only a tiny fraction of the actual works that have been penned, typed, word-processed, or scribbled — even if 99% of those best-seller-wannabes have been relegated to the proverbial back burner, or under the bed, or in the black hole of a closet, stowed evidence of forgotten folly.

There are the lucky, talented few who have sufficiently wowed either agent or editor or publisher and gone on to live in The Land of the Published, that utopia dreamed about by anyone who strings together, and then records more than a couple of words.  Then there are those of us who have not experienced the bidding wars, the schmoozing and the elbow-rubbing of the book makers/sellers, the phone calls from “my editor,” or seeing our names and titles on the best seller lists.  We are the dedicated, the determined and the dissed.  We have given the publishing nabobs their shot at our word-smithing and been form-letter rejected for our considerable efforts.

I do not judge the Herculean efforts of the people in charge of choosing the next blockbuster from the massive quantities of manuscripts claiming to BE the next blockbuster that each book reader/chooser must face on a daily basis.  I can recognize the negatives in their job descriptions.  I get the point that for every promising work, they must wade through the Sea of Not Gonna Happen , almost certainly hating the requisite turndown every bit as much as will the hopeful author.  You will not see me applying for the job of someone who must decide another’s future in this way.  So, all due respect is given here.

But, while we acknowledge and esteem the publishing folks and the booksellers, we cannot leave the unpublished authors out in the cold, with only a stack of rejection slips to keep them warm.  We need a little love too.

Enter vanity presses' Print On Demand, or self-publishing.  Alternative paths to writing success, these companies are the Rodney Dangerfields of the literary cosmos.  They exist to provide necessary services to the author who cannot break into the publishing world, no matter the caliber of their work.  But many times the book sellers and reviewers classify the self-published books that actually see the light of day as being second rate, since they must have been rejected by the big houses as being unworthy in some way.  I’d rather see them view a self-published author with a mixture of respect (for being dogged and resourceful enough to have pushed through the hard-backed ceiling), and a sense of discovery (this may be the next John Grisham or Dave Barry).  Am I living in lala land?

Choosing to publish on demand means the author is not only the writer, but possibly the business manager, agent, editor, marketer, yadda yadda yadda as well.  Most of the companies I looked into for my first book listed various levels of after-publishing extras, so I could choose the degree of their involvement.  But in this non-traditional publishing universe, the author is the chief bankroller – no big fat advances from the boss publisher who then gets to make big decisions on the treatment of your work.  I had to count my pennies, doling them out with miserly care.  And even where cash was expended, oftentimes, without the “connection” factor of a big name or big name-makers, it was virtually the tossing of coins into a wishing well.  Selling something that I created and believe in is, at times, a fruitless labor of love, yes, but if I lose the ear of the party to whom I am speaking because of a prejudice about the manufacturing pedigree, then we could have two losses here.

When I learned of the existence of P.O.D. publishers, I also found out about the list of authors who have self-published, such as Deepak Chopra, Mark Twain, Zane Grey, D.H. Lawrence, John Grisham, Edgar Rice Burroughs and James Redfield.  Bona fide talent enough for ya?  Their existence in the group should surely help validate any listing of authors, regardless of the process that birthed their books.

But in reality, we humans seem to believe that we must divide ourselves into classes.  And in the literary world, P.O.D. authors habitate the step of the ladder that is viewed as having some objectionable substance stuck to it.  Learning this truth had left me terribly disappointed, and yes, just plain mad, that as hard as it is to create a book, They Who Must Be Obeyed would still dismiss us with one bold stroke of the red pen.  Shame on them!  All we are saying... is give P.O.D. a chance.  

Debbie Holland is a freelance writer whose book The Boomers' Next Frontier was named January Book of the Month at bbhq.com (Baby Boomers Headquarters).  It is also available at Amazon.com.  She is now at work on her second book, a novel about Southern Baby Boomer women.

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