Friday, March 22, 2019

SELF-PUBLISHING - Part 4

The God Interviews

My relationship with the Deity is argumentative but generally good. Put it this way: we believe in each other. Whether you believe or disbelieve in a Deity is not my business and frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn. Religion is a whole other story, a problematic one. Please keep in mind that when I say Deity or the G-word I’m not talking about religion, any religion. I’m referring to Something which is real, unknowable, and not a human construction. 
Yes I know! The logical response to that statement is:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
My answer to that response is:
Ha ha ha ha! Logic has nothing to do with it.


I started drawing The God Interviews in 2004 as a comic strip, posting installments on my blog, Blaugustine. It got such enthusiastic comments that I decided to see if any mainstream publishers would be interested. Again I received the “lovely but not commercial” replies so I opted, reluctantly, for self-publishing.

Digital technology was now available and preparing a print-ready PDF, though time-consuming, was not a problem for me. I chose to have full colour throughout - a mistake which made printing the book much more expensive than it would have been had I stuck to black and white. Initially I used Lulu to print the book and sell it via a page on their website but their charges were too high so I found other companies to print extra copies on demand.

The God Interviews, the book, was launched at the Cartoon Museum in 2006 and had some excellent reviews but, as usual, I didn't have the contacts, the patience or the chutzpah to promote it adequately so it sits on the shelf, dozing. I’m out of copies at present but second-hand copies are generally available via Amazon or AbeBooks etc. Herewith the cover and some sample images.



7 comments:

Tom said...

We are as one as far as your opening paragraph on belief/knowing is concerned. And I just loved 'The God Interviews'.

Vincent said...
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Vincent said...
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Vincent said...

(third time lucky?)
I've just finished re-reading a novel on the same theme, we're talking about a vast difference in scale here, but if you will permit an anecdote there are startling parallels in relation to self-publishig and the fate of books rejected by the commercial world

Here's a piece about it by the author in the Guardian. She speaks of

"interesting rejection letters. I particularly cherish one which said the book would still be read in 100 years but was unpublishable now."

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly remembered reading a novel in the distant past, no idea of the title, author or any keywords which might lead me to it, only that the author had been to a women's college at Oxford and that it was set hundreds of years ago in a Mediterranean island where there were snowy mountains where shepherds pastured their flocks in the summer. It had resonated powerfully and I longed for a reunion, like a lover recalling an old flame. This morning I've just finished it, liked it far better than the first time, when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1995: "Knowledge of Angels", by Jill Paton Walsh.

So I'd remind us all of Vita Brevis, Ars Longa. Our work may go out of print and become rare in the resellers' market; but remain dormant in memory like a seed waiting to germinate in some future climate.

Vincent said...

Meant to mention my cherished copy of The God Interviews, bought in Oct 2014. This need never go "out of print" as the wonderful invention of pdf means it can be available forever for others to print with their own paper & ink. You could sell it for download at any price you choose, or offer it free, as Ellie & I did with Divine Economy

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Vincent, why I prefer being published by any mainstream publishing house to self-publishing (in any form) is simply because publishing companies have the resources, financial and promotional, to distribute a book (if they have confidence in it) to a much wider public, posibly worldwide (in translations) than I could ever reach.

It's not commercial gain I'm after (though I certainly wouldn't object to it) but the possibility of my work reaching a wider audience. I'm not ashamed of wanting this, why should I be? I am confident that some of the work I've done in my life as artist is as good as, sometimes better, than some of the work which is famous world wide. There we are, I've blown my trumpet!

Thanks forv your support. I'm so glad you got the God Interviews way back then.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Tom, thank you very much. I'm so glad that The God interviews spoke to you. I think you you have your own telephonic/telepathic conversations with G. quite often.