Extreme Vanity
Silvia Hartmann
I've always been fascinated with the
concept of vanity publishing, ever since I wrote my first book way back in 1987
and became the proud owner of a full collection of antique rejection slips - the
real thing, a thin slip of paper cut from a sheet produced on a ditto machine
with one line or two, reading, "Not interested" in variations.
Back then, I didn't really understand why it would be deemed to be vanity if you
paid to publish a book yourself which you knew had an audience and was much
needed - the book in question was "Your Dog and Your Baby - A Practical Guide".
I was working as an animal behaviour counsellor at the time and this was a hot
topic amongst dog owners. Many young couples get a dog first, then they get
pregnant, and there was no good advice on what to do, how to prepare the dog for
the arrival of the baby, hygiene guidance, how to prevent jealousy and so forth.
Suffice to say, we published the book - in those days, this involved taking out
a second mortgage on the house! - and the first printing sold out within the
year. The book has been selling ever since then, is still on sale today, and is
still helping people on that particular and often emotional topic.
I will be honest and admit that after this project, I had broken a threshold
which could never be repaired; I gave up on trying to get publishing deals and
published everything I wrote myself from that day forth.
I made a good living from writing How To manuals on many different topics.
Eventually, an entire publishing company grew around my endeavours, as is so
often the case, and the more the publishing company grew, the more books I sold.
The more books I sold, the more standard publishing deals came in, for
translations of my books into other languages and the republishing rights for
special editions.
After many years of writing How To books there came the day I knew that the time
had come for my own "Lord of the Rings" and in 2000, I took two years out of my
busy schedule to write a trilogy of fantasy novels called "In Serein".
It never occurred to me for one moment to seek an outside publisher, and the
freedom and joy this gave to my writing, being able to write exactly what I
wanted to write about, and exactly how I wanted to write it, without having to
look over my shoulder and worry about what an editor might make of it, was
joyous.
Writing this trilogy was my best creative endeavour to this day. It was an
exploration, it was an experiment, it was me doing my thing as a writing artist
- ho holds barred.
It was awesome and I loved it.
As my bills were being paid by the publishing company and the many How To
manuals and trainings I had written, I wasn't worried about publishing In Serein
or needing it to be on every bookshelf in the country. So we published it but
beyond that, we didn't do anything with it and the three books that make up the
trilogy just sat in the catalogue, for the hard core fans, and that was fine by
me.
And so it came to pass that this year my 50th birthday arrived, and when asked
what I wanted for a present, I said I wanted one single copy of the entire In
Serein trilogy - all 3 books, 30 parts, 240 chapters, 500,000 words! - in a huge
big black leather bound old fashioned book with gold leaf, printed on marbled
parchment with gilded edges.
I said it as a joke, but my good friends and family went ahead and found a fine
art printer and binder who specialises in such one off creations, obtained a
quote for the project, and set the whole thing in motion.
The cost of producing this single book is £500.
This includes the paper, the leather for the binding, the printing and the gold
leaf blocking on the covers.
What it doesn't include is my time spent editing the whole thing, personally, by
hand, to create the final PDF the printer will be using.
So here I am, now totally responsible for this book. I am responsible not just
for the flowery prose, the progression of events and the messages, but also for
the choice of lettering and fonts, where every single chapter starts and ends,
for all orphans and widows and every comma, every space, every letter and every
full stop.
At first, I thought it was a little tedious but as time went by, I was more and
more amused by it all.
Truly, this is as close as one might get these days to sitting in a monk's cell
and hand lettering the whole thing with ink on parchment, and then carefully
stitching the individual pages together at the end!
I was given samples to choose the leather for the binding. At first, I couldn't
tell the difference. The leathers looked the same, smelled the same, even felt
the same. Then it occurred to me to try and tear the samples, and there was the
difference and the reason why some leather would cost £80, and some over £300.
The cheap leather ripped like cardboard. It would never last or be able to
handle being wiped down after a spillage, or dropped accidentally.
The same held true for the paper of which there were many choices. In the end I
went with a champagne coloured, heavy weight Vellum that resisted the tearing
test better than the cheap leather had.
So this is extreme vanity publishing.
It is arrogant. It is expensive. It is time consuming. It is scary. It is
wonderful, freeing, exciting and so much fun - a thoroughly amazing experience
of true dominion as a writer and an artist to create an object that is unique,
and at least to me, absolutely priceless.
I have just handed over the massive PDF files to the printer. I'm committed now,
whatever is in that file will go into the book.
I can't wait to see the finished product, to hold the book in my hands, on my
lap more like because that's going to be A4 size, and a thousand pages thick.
This book is absolutely a statement - and a gift to me, by me.
It has been said that if you push a vice hard enough, it will turn into a
virtue.
I'm not sure if this applies to my case of extreme vanity publishing, but if you
are any kind of writer, I'm sure you can sit back and imagine what YOU would
feel like if that was your novel, if that was your book - a single leather bound
copy in all the world, completely yours, in every way.
The fact is that unique hand bound books or super low run editions are expensive
but entirely affordable, and they make a wonderful gift for yourself or an
author friend for those extra special occasions. If you are a well known author,
such unusual and rare books can even become potentially extremely valuable
collector's items you can leave to your descendents.
I do know that authors have to live in the real world and that involves constant
compromise in what you do and how you do it. But perhaps there is a project in
your heart, something that would "never sell," something that you know you would
never find a publisher for, something highly experimental, or something that is
so personal and precious to you that you want to keep out of the hands of
publishers and editors altogether, like my dear In Serein.
Allow yourself the luxury and consider your own extreme vanity project. It is
truly wonderful to set the magical author within free to "do what thou wilt".
I have spent decades writing for money, for markets, for readers, for various
purposes, for the benefit of other people.
This book is for me.
Uncompromising, incontrovertible, unconditionally so.
And it seems to me that there is a level of coming of age involved with my
extreme vanity project, as an author, as an artist, as a free human being who
was given a voice, and a pen.
Silvia Hartmann August
2009 |
