Wish Me Luck

For the first time in a year, I am submitting The Samurai Poet to a publisher for consideration. Why the delay?

As I hinted in my last post about a rejection letter, I was feeling nonplussed about the specificity of publisher requirements. Few small presses in Canada seem interested in historical fiction, and the one I did find only wanted historical fiction set in Canada. While I accept that most small presses have a focused mandate, the sheer provincialism implicit in requests for Canadian fiction by Canadian authors strikes me as needlessly limiting. Sure, we all love Alice Munro's acutely observed short stories set in the small towns of Ontario, but no one else can write like our future Nobel prize winner, and not everyone wants to utilize the same settings.

Not Canadian enough for you?

A few months ago, I finally unearthed another Canadian publisher with some roots in historical and military publishing, so it seems possible that they will look at The Samurai Poet with an open mind. If they are not interested in it, I don't know who's left to try. If there's no one viable, I am seriously considering going Indie. Note that I didn't say self-publishing. When I think self-published, I think poorly edited vanity projects. When I think Indie, I think work as good or better than anything available in the mainstream, but work that does not fit into readily defined publishing niches that traditional houses utilize.

Seem like a self-serving non-distinction? Think about the music scene for a moment. Do the major labels have a monopoly on the best music? In fact, they actually make most of their money from the most insipid, lightweight, but popular music out there. I eschew top forty radio music, far preferring the intelligence and the edge I hear in the songs of Spoon, Port O'Brien, Arcade Fire, Metric, and Rural Alberta Advantage. When I think of Indie publishing using Indie music as my frame of reference, suddenly it seems like a viable option. Why wait forever to find a publisher when I can take the book directly to the public and move on to my next project?

Any thoughts?