What are you making public?

I taught a class this summer called "How to publish your own book." Two things: 1) I LOVED teaching!! I did not expect to fall head over heels with it like I did. If you've been to one of my talks or story times, you know I enjoy public speaking, so I guess it would naturally follow that I loved being in a classroom and sharing what I love and learning along with every one else. 2) The theme of the class is the theme of my life– "publish" means make public and so every day we asked each other in class, "what are you making public?"

an image from Philippa Lawrence's Bound project

If you are a writer (or artist, musician, actor, etc), you may have noticed that it can seem like an uphill battle to make a "living" with your craft. But we creatives know that life is saturated with the craft, not something to be tucked away when you have time, or when it is convenient (ha!) to pursue. Hence the question, "what are you making public?" I have found that I have to live my craft, live my message 24/7…then the leap to "publishing" isn't a leap at all; it's just another step in the creative process.

My neighbor and good friend Michele sent me the link to this article that Kathryn Stockett wrote about getting her amazing book The Help published. Rather, the article is about the fact that she was rejected 60 times. Sixty. Six times ten. On my Goodreads account, I created a bookshelf called "Books I wish I'd written" and The Help is at the top of my list. When I read the book last summer and looked at Ms. Stockett's bio, I was annoyed. She's from the south and works in NYC. Surprise, surprise, I muttered to myself, thinking she had some inside pampered track and no wonder she was published (besides that irritating little detail that the book was excellent). [Also, I think that writers from the South have an unfair advantage. I mean, I grew up on the West Coast where the weather was mild and people were intellectual. People in the South have crazy stories and don't have to look far for unique characters, charming backwater towns and entertaining plot lines. But I digress]…My point is that Ms. Stockett was not at all a pampered writer: she was obsessed with her book and her characters. She lived with them night and day, internalizing them (sneaking off with them, as you will see from her article) and this basically means living them.

Please, I am begging you, do not give up if you are looking to be published. Live your message, live your passion; make it public in who you are. And be open to the "non"-traditional ways of publishing. If you are hankering after The Big Six (Random House

Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan), you need to know:

7 out of 10 books printed by the Big 6 lose money
10% of their titles generate 90% of their revenue
Big 6 have big overhead in the Big Apple

This publishing model cannot be maintained, as we all know and are seeing before our very eyes every day. Believe me, there's nothing wrong with being published by these publishers and I read their books (I also read small-press books and self-published books); I'm just saying, if you aren't published by the Big 6, that's no reason to give up. For starters, you can consider this new, easy, most viable publishing option.

And…Keep going. And live your passion. You're publishing your message every day with every interaction and every thought you make public!