An Unusual Publishing Approach
Posted: Thursday, June 25, 2009
by Jean Purcell
OpineBooks.com
Every writer should evaluate publishers of interest to him or her. This involves research into publishing houses' philosophies, histories, genres, and editorial requirements.Writers should hope for editorial relationships that might become repeatable and meaningful as well as professionally reliable.
My husband and I founded Opine Publishing in 2000. From Columbia, Maryland, Opine develops, publishes, warehouses, distributes, and markets inspiring, meaningful, and enjoyable books by Christian writers. Through OpineBooks.com, the company catalogs and sells books retail and wholesale.
When the transformation bore fruit, neither of us could comprehend fully its future ramifications. I, who had let writing go by the wayside for many years, wanted to write about the dynamic changes we had experienced individually and enjoyed together. I felt impelled and excited to write about these things.
Powerful experiences that resemble miracles, cause complete change of mind, and heal spiritual blindness cause that reaction when they happen to us. We want everyone to know about his or her own as-yet unseen possibilities.
I wrote that transformation book, a publisher accepted, published, and marketed it, and I thought that was the end of that long journey. It had taken 14 years, on and off, for me to write and complete my first book. After investing years in writing, I had other ideas to share. I wanted to write other books, and thought the publisher would now be in charge of my first one.
That wrong assumption would be my first hard lesson as a writer, a lesson I would share often, later, with writers I would mentor, consult or edit for, or publish.
As an American first-book author living abroad and published by a British publishing house, when I moved back to the States two years later, I wanted my book to be available in the U. S. My publisher did not have U. S. distribution at that time; so the obvious solution was to buy back all rights to my book. The publisher agreed on the basis that he would retain enough stock for upcoming U. K. sales.
The first publishing step for my husband and me was to establish a Sole Proprietor company, for tax purposes. We later moved to LLC status.
We named our company Opine, the name of our getaway place near Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. We had named that place, bought to allow us to getaway, think, reason, and reflect. Its name was perfect for publishing.
We did not know that many people had no idea of the meaning of "opine," an oft-used word of Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous detectives in English fiction. We could see that we should familiarize industry people with Opine Publishing as a name. More importantly, we should familiarize potential buyers with my book, Not All Roads Lead Home, which had come out of that amazing transformation I mentioned at the beginning.
After publishing a reader's guide for my book, we decided that Opine would publish our oldest daughter's first book. As a talented humor columnist, she had a strong basis for a book.
Having recently returned to the U. S. to live, I could see that good humor and family-life writing by women authors was hiding under a basket. Erma Bombeck, an admired humorist, had passed on. I wanted to bring both good humor and family life more into the light again. I knew Deirdre Reilly's writing and rsum could do that.
Two outstanding books followed Exhausted Rapunzel by Deirdre Reilly. Beryl Adamsbaum's first books, Seeking God's Face and Only Believe, broadened our experience editing, developing books, printing, and marketing. Beryl now has a large book publishing division behind her in Europe, where she lives.
Opine Publishing released the second edition of Not All Roads Lead Home, including an index and reader's resource. Three years later, Opine published The Mourner's Comforter, a rare 19 th century classic by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
During six years releasing six books, many manuscripts came to Opine Publishing and we offered one contract to a promising writer unknown to us. That contract was later mutually revoked. At that point, I did not realize the jewel of insight inherent in those events.
The years developing a release of the 18 th century classic for modern readers allowed me to mentor more promising Christian writers, to begin consulting and editing for writers outside Opine Publishing, and to expand a free, subscriber-based newsletter, Opinari Quarterly for Christian writers, publishing professionals, book lovers, and reviewers.
The Opine/Opinari team is composed of Christians interested in outstanding, meaningful, and enjoyable books. We still do not receive salaries from the company. We operate on a pay as we go basis. Sales of existing books and from consulting will continue, we hope, to enhance more books.
The fact that the transformation that inspired Not All Roads Lead Home led my husband and me to establish a publishing company demonstrates the leading of God in the lives of His children. My husband and I could not foresee that fifteen years later we would become publishers in name and then in action.
We have learned as we have published. Marketing continues to be the most challenging aspect. I believe there is an abundance of good manuscripts by Christian writers at all times. Some are beginning writers and others are advanced, with many publication credits on their rsums .
The chief features of our commitment and unusual approach to publishing have developed through our Christian beliefs and years of experience. These include:
To publish uplifting, meaningful, and enjoyable books by Christian authors;
To choose our schedule for publishing, not bound by the industry's traditional model of releasing a host of new books every year;
To avoid using churches as marketplaces;
To market our books actively, without apology, as part of "reliable and convincing communication about something of value" We believe every book we publish has great value for readers;
To continue to mentor Christian authors through Opinari Quarterly;
To continue to consult on a fee basis with Christian authors, along a spectrum from ideas to publication, within or outside Opine Publishing. Fee charges help a writer or their sponsor to evaluate their commitment; they help a publisher build toward new, outstanding books.
A closer look at publishing should inform about philosophy, genres, and interest, as well as editorial requirements and editors. Looking at our unusual publishing model, writers can evaluate other small and large publishing houses to learn the bases for their operations. In this way, writers and publishers find the relationships that can grow through the years through inspiring, meaningful, and enjoyable books.
I believe that the publishing houses that have a story, a history of personal investment in, and a passion for, publishing good books have the best platform upon which to serve their staffs, the industry, and most importantly writers and multitudes of devoted readers.
Opine -> opinari [L.]: to think, to reason, to believe
(c) 2009 Jane Bullard
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