The phenomenon of online books means that writers can control their publishing fate. But is it worth it? American authors like Allison Win Scotch say it is. She is self-publishing her novel THE THEORY OF OPPOSITES. “After a terribly discouraging experience with my fourth book, based not on the book (which I loved) or the reviews (which were the strongest of my career) but things totally outside of my control, I knew I had to change something,” Scotch says in her blog. http://writerunboxed.com/2013//11/24962

Through her agent Elizabeth Weed, Scotch has sold a film option to Jennifer Garner’s Vandalia Film; audio rights to Brilliance; and large print rights to Thorndike in advance of publication.

Like Scotch, Canadian author Robert MacBain did it himself and he loved the experience. Unlike Scotch, he hasn’t yet published with traditional publishing houses. (Scotch published with Random House and Penguin in the US.) Here’s Robert talking about what it’s like to go out on your own in the digital marketplace.

Q: Why did you decide to self-publish your novel online? I know many writers are doing it these days but what was it about going indie that most appealed to you?

A: Actually, it wasn’t my choice.  More than 30 agents turned me down. Without an agent, you can’t get a publisher. So, I decided to go it alone. If it works out the way I hope that it does, I’ll do much better financially than I would with a publisher – 70% on the eBook sales and 47% on the paperback.

Q: Can you briefly describe the story in Two Lives Crossing?

A:Two University of Toronto professors in their mid-thirties find out in 1974 that, not only are they adopted, but that they are brothers.  One was raised as a Blackfoot at an Indian reserve near Calgary and has a PhD from Berkeley.  The other was raised white in a middle-class home in Toronto and is going to be the Conservative candidate in an upcoming federal election.  When they discover the secret of their births, their lives are changed dramatically.

Q: What is the most surprising thing you discovered about doing it yourself?

A:The scope of the distribution. The eBook is available through Kobo in 70 countries and the paperback is available in North America, the U.K, Italy, India, you name it.  While the book is not on the shelves at Indigo, Chapters or Coles, customers can order it at their counters and pick it up a week later. The paperback is also available online at Amazon and ChaptersIndigo.

Q: Can you walk us through your process with the eBook?

A: When I decided to start with an eBook, I asked Pieter Swinkels of Kobo for the names of people who could convert the Microsoft Word manuscript into an ePub. Among the five names recommended was Lynda Kanelakos of Wild Element – www.wildelement.ca in Perth, Ontario, a very creative shop that specializes in digital design and service.

After we got the novel on Kobo, we started on the print edition. Lynda and her people got the manuscript ready to be uploaded to Lightning Source, the company that prints the books on demand and arranges for them to be available through Amazon, ChaptersIndigo et al.

I designed the cover – showing Highland dancers and fancy shawl dancers in a circle – and Lynda gave it the final touch. It was Lynda who suggested that we go with a velvet-like matte cover rather than glossy. She’s been fabulous from beginning to end and will start on my next book in February.

Q: What is the hardest thing an author encounters in this kind of publishing format?

A: Really haven’t run into anything that I would describe as hard.  The cover is beautiful and the printing quality is first-rate.  My designer/distributor in Perth, Ontario handles all of the administration. It’s all really quite simple. One thing discourages me, though: Going to the magazine/book section at Loblaw’s or Shoppers and not seeing any Canadian titles.  When I do find one, that’s the exception that proves the rule.  And, more often than not, the Canadian author’s book is set in the U.S.  My new novel, Two Lives Crossing, like your novel, The Western Light, is 100% Canadian.  You don’t find American authors saying; “Gee, I think I’ll set my book in Moose Jaw.”

A: Relatively speaking, the fact that I’m in complete control.  Don’t have to rely on anyone else to come through for me. It’s my show – all the way. On top of that, I’m going to make significantly more money than I would with a publisher.

Q: Publishers say that we can all put a book out there but it’s like sticking it in a vast online parking lot. Without them, it’s hard to get attention for a book. Is this true?

A: If you’re a successful author, a publisher can do a lot for you – and take a big chunk of the net profit for having done so.  If you’re a first-time author, they’re unlikely to invest a significant amount on marketing etc.  Might as well be in that vast online parking lot that you referred to.

Q: How are you getting attention for your book?

A: It’s slow going but I’m generating a lot of word-of-mouth. Seeds I’ve planted will bear fruit between now and next spring. I’m in this for the long haul.  No “overnight success” expected or required.  I’ve been at the top of the class in everything else that I’ve done – journalism, politics and public relations – and I don’t see any reason why it should be different this time. I’ll get there.

Author Robert MacBain

Robert MacBain’s website is www.robertmacbainbooks.ca

This year Wayne Grady’s new novel, Emancipation Day was long-listed for the Giller. In my view, it should have been on the short lists for all our Canadian prizes. It’s the first time Grady has published a novel. He’s a former chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada and a highly respected non-fiction author.

Q: You said your new novel began as a non-fiction book. Can you tell me how this book started out and why you switched to fiction?

A: In 1995, I found out that my father, whom I had always thought of as a white person, was actually a very light-skinned black man who had been passing for white. I knew immediately that I would write about this, and since all my writing to date had been non-fiction, I naturally began thinking of this as a creative non-fiction memoir of my parents before I was born. I was excited by the idea of writing in that fuzzy, grey area between fiction and non-fiction, where I think a lot of very good writing has taken place. Something along the lines of Tobias Wolff’s The Duke of Deception, which is about his father’s denial of his Jewish heritage

Q: In a few words, can you describe its story?

A: In Emancipation Day, Jack Lewis, an 18-year-old light-skinned black man from Windsor, Ontario, decides that he rightly belongs in the white world; in 1943, he joins the Canadian Navy, which at the time was not accepting blacks, as a kind of test, is accepted and transferred to St. John’s Nfld, where he meets Vivian Fanshawe, a young, white girl of 19. They marry, and at her insistence he takes her back to Windsor to meet his parents. She realizes right away that Jack hasn’t been honest with her, confronts him on the question of his race, and the rest of the novel deals with the way they handle their relationship. And also with the way Jack and his father, William Henry, work out their similarly troubled dynamic.

Q: Your novel is set circa World War II, and its major theme is the pressure exerted on people of mixed race by both white and black family members. Has this changed since you wrote your novel?

A: Recent statistics say that 80% of the population of the US is at least 5% black; that’s about 15 million people who are like Jack, who denies his black ancestry, or like me, who didn’t know about it. Yes, the consequences of being black has changed in some areas, but during a recent trip to Alabama and Georgia, I clearly saw that racism is alive and kicking in the American South. And it is clear that most of the opposition to Obama is coming from a group of Southern Republicans whose motivation is frankly racist. Has much changed? The surface has changed, but there is still a long way to go.

Q: How do you feel about being of mixed race? What do you call yourself now that you know you are?

A: I am very comfortable thinking of myself as having an African heritage. Although on census forms I tick off “Mixed,” I do not say that I belong to a visible minority, since I don’t think my ethnic background is visible, and I do not want to pretend to know what it is like to have grown up and lived as a black man. I believe that would be disrespectful to people who have suffered as a result of the colour of their skin.

Q: How has your life changed since you found out about your background?

A: I don’t know how or if the knowledge of my black ancestry has changed me, as a person, but it has changed the way I see the world. I am more aware of racial issues. And I am curious about how other people view me. When I was in Selma, Alabama, I couldn’t tell whether the black congregation in the Baptist Church I went to (for a reenactment of the 1963 walk to Montgomery, Alabama, for voting rights for black Americans) were seeing me as a white guy or as a fellow black, but I think the latter, and I was extremely moved. I wanted to be accepted by them, and that’s how I know that somewhere I have been profoundly changed by my knowledge.

Q: How hard was it to turn your parents into fiction? Can you give me an example of something that felt difficult or challenging to render?

A: That was the major stumbling block in the novel: I was very angry with my father — not for passing, but for not admitting it to me when I showed him proof of what I had found out, and for not telling my mother, making her think she was crazy for even asking. I had to get over that in order to portray Jack Lewis as a sympathetic character, someone Vivian could fall in love with and stay in love with despite his denial of his family. I had to forgive my father in order to make the novel work.

Q: What has the reaction been like from your family?

A: I haven’t heard from my family in Windsor, whom I have now met and who are proud members of Windsor’s black community, but I think they’re okay with it. After all, I outed my father, which is not encouraged even among those who have been rejected by the person who passes. My brother and daughters have been very supportive, and of course Merilyn has helped me get through all 22 drafts of the book.

Q: There’s a surprise ending. I went back and reread it several times and concluded it was the natural way for your novel to end. Without giving away the powerful conclusion, can you tell me why you chose to finish your story this way?

A: That final short chapter was, at one point, the opening chapter, but of course it gives too much away and would remove some of the tension that holds the novel together. As the final chapter, I wanted it to show how the deep conflicts that run through the novel were eventually resolved, or if not resolved at least how they played out in the characters’ lives. It’s not a happy ending, but it’s not a tragic ending, either: it’s real life. I wanted to suggest to the reader that there is a strong current of nonfiction in the novel, as I think there is in most novels. And I wanted the reader to experience the same “shock of recognition” that I experienced when I first discovered my father’s secret history.

Wayne Grady is an award-winning writer of nonfiction and fiction. He has written 14 books of science and natural history, travel and personal essays. He has also published short fiction and a novel, Emancipation Day.

About two weeks ago, I spoke about my new novel, The Western Light, at Wine and Words in Niagara-on-the Lake. The event was sponsored by the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library and held at the glamorous Tasting Bar in the Konzelmann Estate Winery, which is known for its ice wines. After I talked, everyone there drank a Pinot Gris from the Konzelman grapes and sampled four different elegant hors’ d’oeuvres. Many of the large audience had already read my book, a true plus for authors. I also loved the relaxing eat drink and be literary atmosphere. Today my blog features Beth Ann Labelle who started the series and Bruno Reis, a spokesman for Konzelmann who hosted my event.

Beth Labelle: founder of the Wine and Words series

Q: Beth Ann, you’ve created a popular reading series that rivals anything that other Canadian libraries put on–how did you do this?

A: We wanted to stand apart from other series and offer people a distinct experience. We are fortunate in Niagara-on-the-Lake to be surrounded by so many wineries because of the lush agricultural land. Partnering with the Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake gave us a variety of unique venues to host our events.  (The series goes to a different local winery for each author.) Not only can people hear acclaimed Canadian writers discuss their work, they can also discover the many wines our region has to offer.  As a library we have the advantage of knowing what the public is reading and which authors would be most appealing to our community.

Q: What is your mandate?

A: Our mandate is to connect readers with authors. Libraries are all about promoting ideas, whatever form that takes. If we can introduce a reader to new ideas or experiences through the written word then we have done our jobs.

Q: Your library claims to have been expanding minds since the 1800′s. Why did it decide to link up with the wineries?

A: Founded in 1800, Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library was Upper Canada’s first circulating library. In 1805 the library began to house the specialized works of the Niagara Agricultural Society. So the partnership between the library and the agricultural sector has been long established.  But it wasn’t until the creation of Wine & Words that we stepped out of the library and took advantage of the beautiful venues and gracious hospitality of the town’s wineries.

Q: Bruno, you work for Konzelmann Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Haven’t the Konzelmanns been making European wine growers for centuries?

A: That’s true. The Konzelmann family came over from Stuttgart, Germany and bought this forty-acre property in 1987. The soil here is perfect for growing Burgundy or Alsatian wine. It’s fresher and has more minerals than the soil for this kind of grape in Europe. Then too, we are near Lake Ontario and it’s always warmer by the lake. The temperature can be minus 12 or 13 but we never get minus 18 or 20. The warmer temperatures are ideal for making ice wine.

Q: And for making Gewurtztraminer. I’m sipping some of your wine as we speak. Are your wines available at the LCBO?

A: Twelve of our wines are available in liquor stores. The bigger stores always carry our brand.

Q: Bruno, what is it about wine and books? Why are they such a good combination?

A: To make wine is odd or unusual. It’s the same thing with writing books. Or maybe a better way of saying this is that you have to be a unique person to do either. And then there’s nothing better, when you sit by your fireplace and read a good book drinking a glass of good wine.

Konzelmann Estate Winery – Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada

On Monday, Oct. 21 at 7 pm Susan Swan is discussing her novel The Western Light at the Annette Library.

Please note the date of Swan’s talk has been changed to the 21 of October after a death in Swan’s family.

The Western Light was nominated for the Evergreen Award as one of the best 2012 books of fiction and non-fiction by the Ontario Library Association.

Pam Mountain at the Annette Library has been running an Evergreen Summer Reading Club for adults at her branch of the Toronto Public Library in order to discuss the Evergreen nominations. Two other branches in Pam’s area are also running a book club about the award – Runnymede and Mimico. Swan will talk for 40 – 45 minutes, leaving time for questions and book sales/signing.  The branch closes at 8:30 pm.

The Western Light

Susan Swan’s newest classic, The Western Light, is a prequel to The Wives of Bath. The story pulls us into the life of young Mouse Bradford, torn between love for her father and the charismatic asylum inmate John Pilkie, an ex Red Wings hockey player, serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife and baby girl.

Set in Madoc’s Landing, a fictional Ontario town on Georgian Bay, The Western Light “weaves in details of the history of the Ontario oil boomtown Petrolia, hockey mania, bootlegging taxi drivers, and debates over psychiatry and universal health care. [Swan's] poetic descriptions of Ontario’s harsh winter weather and adept use of colloquial speech are particularly vivid, and help bring the world of the novel to vibrant life.”

Directions: Annette St. Library

145 Annette Street, Toronto

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