Rosemary For Remembrance - NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR AUTHORS by Trevor Thorn.

As I write, I am pondering the detail of a new contract with a publisher so they can publish some of my work in small-scale downloads. I suppose the pre-internet equivalent would be for the publication of pamphlets for which the economic decisions for a publisher would be complicated. How large should the print-run be? How can you retail pamphlets in amongst the huge volume of books available on most topics? Who would be prepared to sell such a necessarily low-cost publication with the obvious implication of only tiny profits (if any at all)? How would a pamphlet be advertised? A question which begs a further inevitable question of how much added cost this would involve.

But these questions diminish substantially in respect of a download. The print-run is not a question, and provided sales cover the editing and modest production costs of the publisher, they can take much more of a risk than they could with a pamphlet. Additionally, all author-publisher communications can be done over the internet,

So here I am poised on the threshold of my first download publication for a publisher who sends out a weekly list of resources, in this case, suitable for the season of the year. (Wild Goose Publications, the publishing arm of the Iona Community).

If you can see some possibilities of a parallel with your writings, I would feel reasonably certain that Wild Goose are not the only publisher pursuing this route, so it may be worth looking at lists which reflect the themes you write to, and seeing if they have a similar method of publishing short material. Here is the ‘cover’ of the publication that has sparked this blog entry.

If this sounds of interest, you could have a look at the way in which WGP handle such publishing on their website and even make a purchase of this, my new and short collection, titled ‘Rosemary for Remembrance’ which became available yesterday. If you are interested, the small collection will cost just £2-20 + VAT and it may be of interest to some readers that the collection includes a very attractive and tested children’s/ congregational activity for Easter Day which culminates with all the congregation being given a sprig of Rosemary, representing the spices which the moment took with them to the tomb. Details and the opportunity to purchase can be found at http://www.ionabooks.com/rosemary-for-remembrance-pdf-download.html

Trevor Thorn.

Other material written by me can be found HERE on my blog entitled ‘The Cross and The Cosmos'