Ken, thank you for taking time for this interview.  Many of the members are interested in your publishing experiences and others could benefit from what you've learned so let's jump right in. The book process, putting it together, laying it out, formatting - is it as much fun as it seemed to be for you?

Well, first let me say that there is a big difference between the feeling I had when I was dreaming about publishing a book and the feeling I had when I was selected to actually put a book together for the world to see.  In the first scenario, I was having a good time pretending.  In the second scenario I was as focused as I have ever been when working on a project, and those who have been involved in an all-consuming endeavor know how much fun that is and how exciting each day is..  In both scenarios I was having fun, but, oh, it was so much more fun knowing that the world was actually going to see and judge the product of my fun

As I mentioned in the first interview, once Sterling convinced me that I should try to publish a book of my poems, I started putting one together.  That was long before I was selected as the Featured Poet.  I started thinking about a cover, about "blurbs" on the back cover with endorsements of my book, I started a table of content and as I wrote more poems and got them fine-tuned by my friends on EP I added them to the manuscript and to the table of content, requiring renumbering the pages in the manuscript and in the table of contents.  That meant every time I added a new poem, I printed an entirely new complete manuscript.

I started dreaming about adding wonderful illustrations.  I wrote to the art schools in New England and inquired if there was an emerging illustrator out there who might be interested in taking a chance on an emerging poet who was putting together a book of poetry.  I thought we could emerge together.  I didn't get any takers.  But I was referred by an art instructor to a professional illustrator in Massachusetts, whom I contacted and began negotiating a working relationship.  Ann and I traveled down there twice, trying to come up with an arrangement we all would be comfortable with, but this relationship did not work out because she had been "burned" so many times by publishers who denied her her due as she perceived it, she wanted iron clad contracts between her and me, between her and Jim Furber, and I eventually decided this was getting a lot deeper into the legal stuff than I was willing to spend time and money on and I terminated our relationship.  I then went to a local calligrapher who had put some of my poems into calligraphy as gifts for my mom and Ann and my granddaughters, and asked her if she was interested in doing a bunch of small illustrations for my book.  She was.  (And her illustrations are perfect for the book.)

After I was selected as Featured Poet on EP, I learned that there is formatting and there is formatting.  The second kind of formatting, which takes skills I didn't have, I was at a loss to figure out.  This kind of formatting involves stuff like superimposing the title of the book over a photo of our farm on the cover.  I could take a print of the farm, cut it with scissors to fit the  page size, then print the title of the book on my computer and then cut out the letters with tiny scissors  and then glue them together to create the book cover, all of which I did myself.  But I couldn't do all that stuff electronically.  Sterling knew how to put the manuscript into PDF (I think that what it was called), but I couldn't change anything once it was in PDF and I didn't want Sterling to be stuck volunteering to redo the whole manuscript when I wanted to reverse the word order in the last line of a poem.  So I went to the yellow pages to see if there was somebody in my territory who could do this stuff.  I ended up working with an independent publisher who worked out of his barn in my town, just up the road a ways.  He and I became good friends as he worked on my project, handling all the technical stuff.  (But I paid him for this expertise, and it wasn't cheap.)

Holy smokes, what question did you ask me here?  I'm really getting wound up.  I'd better end this answer because I can see there is a lot more coming. I had a ball putting my book together.  I obsessed over it.  (Ann got a little irritated at me at times, starting to feel abandoned while I redesigned and redesigned and redesigned.)  In spite of her meaningful looks, I started sleeping at the computer.

Did I have fun?  I certainly did.

Fidlar Doubleday is EP's publishing/printing house, were you satisfied with their work?  Did Fidlar Doubleday give you the finished product you expected and in a timely fashion or are there some improvements needed in the process?

Fidlar Doubleday is terrific.   Because I hadn't worked with them before and was not sure what quality of work they would produce, I ordered only 25 copies in the first printing just in case the finished product wasn't as good as the prototype that we had put together.  But when the first shipment arrived, they were great.  Scott, my publisher friend, was the one who cautioned that I should only order 25 in the first printing because he wasn't sure Fidlar Doubleday could produce the book that we had designed for the price I was quoted.  But when he saw the books, he was impressed and said so.  I immediately ordered 500 more. When I have been in doubt as to the anticipated date of the next shipment, I have emailed Lisa at Fidlar Doubleday and she has responded almost immediately with the information I requested.  When I email her "Thank you," she emails me back,"You're welcome." They have been great to work with.

We noticed several good quotes and reviews in your book, how important was that and how does an author go about getting someone to do that for them?

I have learned  that my gut instinct that told me I needed evidence on the back cover that my book was worth somebody's money and interest has been validated by the people who have purchased the book.  When I first put my manuscript together, before I was selected as Featured Poet, I realized that people in book shops or gift shops picking up my book and considering buying it wouldn't know me from Adam.  As a poet I had absolutely no name recognition.  I hadn't won any awards for my poetry, I had never published any of my poetry, (I'd only been writing poetry for a year and a half), and I anticipated that most people would look at my book entitled "Searching for the Spring:  Poetic Reflections of Maine" by Ken Nye and say to themselves, "Who the hell is Ken Nye?"
 
So one day driving home from school I was thinking about this problem and I got to wondering who in Maine has high name recognition, is well respected and well liked and whose name on my book would give it some credibility as a quality product?  And I thought immediately of our past independent governor, Angus King.  He didn't know me, but I figured that if I asked him to write an introduction to my book, he could say either yes or no, and if he said no, I would be no worse off than I was before and if he said yes it would be a feather in my cap.  So I wrote him a letter and sent along with it a copy of my manuscript (such as it was at that time, not complete since this was months before I was selected as Featured Poet), introduced myself, explained why I was writing him and explaining that the reason I was enclosing the manuscript was that I thought it only fair that he have an opportunity to see what he was considering getting himself into before he made a decision.  A week later I got an email from Gov. King that not only said, "How could I say no?" but "Try this for size, but don't hesitate to suggest changes."  He sent the whole introduction!  I was thrilled.  Later, when I was designing the back cover and wanting "blurbs" from people whose names would give the book credibility ("blurbs" is the actual industry term for those short statements about a book on the back or inside cover.) I excerpted a section of Gov. King's introduction to use as a blurb.

As we laid out our design of the front and back covers, I realized that we had room for more than one blurb.  Sterling, my mentor and one of the main reasons that I kept writing poetry when I first started posting my poems, had been a source of encouragement from the get-go and, when she told me in reviews that I should begin to think about publishing a book, I told her that if I ever did, I wanted her to write the preface.  So, when I was given the opportunity to publish my own book, I asked her if she would write the preface for me.  She said she would but she kept putting it off and I was starting to fear that way down deep she couldn't muster the enthusiasm to endorse the book.  And then she sent the most wonderful preface I could have hoped for.  And I used part of her preface for another blurb on the back.

And we still had room for one more blurb, so I wrote Monica Wood, a Maine novelist, quite well known nationally, not just in Maine, and a friend for years. (She house sat for us  on our farm when we took the kids on a western trip in 1976.) I sent her a copy of the manuscript and she sent me a great blurb for the third blurb on the back cover.  So I ended up having endorsements from an ex-governor of Maine, a published poet, and a Maine novelist. 

(Incidentally, I considered asking Stephen King if he would write something endorsing my book.  (He's a Mainer.)  But when I went to his web site to get his address, he makes it very clear that he does not accept manuscripts to read, review or endorse, so I dropped that idea.  BUT, his daughter, Naomi, is in our church and is being ordained at our church into the Unitarian ministry next Sunday.  She is a friend and I am giving her as a gift for her ordination a copy of "Searching for the Spring."  I do truly want Naomi to have a copy, but I can't help hope that her father will take a look at this book of poems about Maine by a Maine poet and become interested.  We'll see. )

Your marketing plan has been awesome, the best so far.  Can you tell us how your plan started?

I knew from the moment that I was selected to be Featured Poet that marketing my book was going to be a challenge.  But I also knew that I wanted to share my poetry with as many people as I could.  (I think I have become a self promoter as I have gone through life.)  I don't think I am tooting my own horn when I say that, as a high school principal for 23 in Maine, eleven years at the University, and over 35 years in Maine as an educator involved in state wide educational decision making, I had name recognition.  But not as a poet.  My first plan, as I think I mentioned in the first interview, was to spend my retirement visiting the book stores and gift shops of Maine hawking my book.  But I have never been very good selling raffle tickets and stuff like that, preferring to buy them myself so I didn't have to go out and ask people to buy them.  I guess the most problematic part of trying to sell stuff isn't that I'm not good at it; it's that I hate doing it.  And when I had moments of realistic awareness thinking about my traveling around the state hawking my book, I realized that it wasn't going to happen.

Then I was just plain lucky.  One of our church members is a poetry fan, and early on in my poetry career she became familiar with my poetry and was an enthusiastic supporter.  Consequently, she was one of the first recipients of a book from the first printing.  She got all excited and asked what my plans were to get the book out into the world.  I said I hadn't really figured it out yet, and she said she had just the person.  Holly was one of her best friends who was the sales representative for a book entitled "The Names of Maine," a little paperback that gives the origin of the names of most places in Maine.  Holly was responsible for contacting proprietors and purchasing agents of book stores, gift shops and any other venue that she thought might be frequented by people who might buy "The Names of Maine."  She got $1 for every book sold from a site that she had contacted and set up the account.  She had sold over 9,000 copies of "The Names of Maine" in one year last year.  This was late April, my books were to arrive early May, and Holly was about to begin her rounds of book stores, etc. to solicit reorders of "The Names of Maine."  She was happy to take on "Searching for the Spring" as her second project.  She is a human dynamo and has been fantastic.  If it weren't for Holly, I would just be starting to push sales of the second printing of 500.  Because of her, the 500 are gone and we are into the 1,000 copies in the third printing.  She sets up book readings and signings for me, follows up on suggestions of places I think my name may be recognized, sets up meetings of me and teachers in the local schools who could use a live poet in their classes to read poetry and work with the kids as they write their own.  She is a gold mine.

Holly maintains that unless the product she was selling was a quality book, her time would be wasted.  So we are a mutual admiration society.  But she has been a key to the successful sales campaign.

Holly and I also developed a 6 x 9 post card to send to book stores and gift shops that are further away in Maine and which we may not get to for a while.  On the front side of the post card is the same photo of our farm that is on the cover of the book, with the same green title, the author (my name) and the statement "with an introduction by Gov. Angus King." (A name they will recognize.) On the back is as much information as we could squeeze in:  The title of the book, examples of poem titles, a little about who I am, the three blurbs that are on the back of the book, ordering information, the dealer discounts for quantity purchases, my web site, and Holly's phone number and email. We have gotten some orders from far corners of the state based on this post card alone.  But it has been even more effective as an introduction to Holly's visit or phone call.  The proprietor is always sent a post card a week or two before Holly makes contact, so the proprietor usually knows what she is talking about when she first calls.
 
I have also sent copies of the book to television celebrities in Maine, suggesting that they might like the poetry and  find the story of a 63 year old guy who has discovered poetry in the last two years worthy of interest.  We've had some interest, but nothing has come of it yet.  The local weekly rag did a page 2 story about me and my book and that has helped some.  But we are hoping that the Portland Press Herald will review it.  If they do, and if they like it, we are told that bookstores will sell out the next day. 
So we are waiting for a big media feature in t.v. or the Sunday newspaper to start the ball rolling even faster than it's going now.

I have to tell you that I have been thrilled with the reception the book is getting from people who know me or have heard about the book.  Many, many people are buying many many copies to give as gifts, which has lead me to even hope that at some point somebody in the major media is going to discover the book and it will take off.  I think this is not likely, but I think it's possible.  And I shiver just thinking about it.

I have learned that I absolutely love reading my poetry to anyone who will listen.  Because I have been a teacher all my life, Holly is now booking "slams" instead of signings or readings.  "Slam" is a new word for me, but it's been around poetry circles for a long time.  Usually sponsored by bookstores or libraries, a slam (if there is anyone out there who, like me, didn't know this) is a community poetry reading to which anyone and everyone is invited to read their own poems.  I will facilitate the slam, read some of my own stuff, get to know other people who are also into poetry and they may end up buying my book.  If they don't, I've had fun.  (So far I've had one signing.  Lasted an hour and a half.  During that time I talked with only one person who came over to the table to inquire about the origin of my last name, not to talk poetry.  But we had a great conversation and he ended up buying a copy anyway, but he didn't ask me to sign it.  So we aren't pushing signings.)

Are you starting to regret having asked me so me so many questions?  Once you get me going, there's no shutting me up.

How did you ever come up with the idea of a marketing rep?  Is that something our other authors could easily find?  Is it worth it?

I kind of answered this question already, I think.  I had not even thought about a sales rep. until my church friend told me about Holly.  When she explained to me what Holly did for this other book, I realized this is exactly what I need.  But it was just plain a stroke of luck, not of genius.


EP feels independent books stores are more important than the chains, do you agree and how did you connect with them?

 I agree one hundred percent.  In the smaller book stores I can get to know the owners and staff.  When they get low on copies they just call and I or Holly drop off a few more.  With a little encouragement they may put the book out where it will be noticed more than if it's stashed in the shelf, only the spine showing.  My book is in Borders, down at the Maine Mall, but, unless someone goes there specifically to get that book, no one is ever going to see it.  They have two copies squeezed into the "local authors" section, only the spines showing.  They have a huge staff;  I don't know a single one of them. 

 

 How important is it, do you think, to get your words into print, regardless of your final designs? What did it do for you personally?

Well, frankly, this has been a life changing event.  As I reflect back on my life, I can see those events that significantly changed me:  marrying Ann at age 20 began a relationship that has been the focus of my life ever since; playing the role of King Arthur in a community theater production of "Camelot" at the age of 33 changed my perception of myself and what I was capable of;  being selected as Maine's Principal of the Year at the age of 51 validated the energy and hours and stress that I had committed to my career and emboldened me to try something new and challenging; becoming a professor of educational leadership allowed me to use my years of experience in a new way and to impact the future generations of leaders of our schools.  And then discovering poetry at age 61 has opened a whole new vista of dreams and relationships and a new source of satisfaction and accomplishment.  This book is really the essence of me, it is a printed version of stuff that I have had inside me for years, and to have the support and encouragement of family and EP friends to share all of this stuff with the world has been liberating and exhilerating.


If you were approached by an author thinking of putting their poems in a book and having it published what advice would you give them?

The most important thing I would say (if anything I said actually turned out to be important) is that it is imperative that you have a focus for the book.  A simple collection of poems about this and that isn't going to attract the interest of any but the most dedicated poetry officionado.  I was fortunate that, by a natural interest in and love of the woods, I could market my book of poems as a book about Maine, its forests and streams and mountains and stunningly beautiful natural world, even though less than half of my poems actually deal with those things.  A book entitled Searching for the Spring:  Poetic Reflections of Maine has a far greater chance of being examined by a potential buyer than Searching for the Spring:  A collection of original poems.  I know that Scotshawk is working on a collection of his Gettysburg poems.  This is going to sell because there are millions of Civil War buffs all over the world who will be curious about a book that is a collection of poems highlighting the leaders of the most bloody battle in the history of American warfare.  Ron (Scotshawk) has a lot of other terrific poems about myriad topics, and he can add them at the end of the Civil War section, kind of like I did with the second section of my book which I entitled "From the Heart."  If you have written a lot of love poems, market your book as a "lover's resource" or something.  Find a way to give your book a specific focus to appeal to a particular market. That's the advice that I would offer.

 

Ken, we know you're busy and we so appreciate you giving us this time.  We thank you and we want you to know how proud we are.  EP Staff

I have said before but I will say again, Jim, how grateful I am to you and to EP.  You have all been the architects of a dream come true for me.  Thank you.