Article by Dennis Hamley
[Armadillo 6.3 Autumn 2004]
I don't expect that I was the only one to read Frances Day's article in Armadillo 3.3.5 about Back-to-Front, the new children's print-on-demand list of the Solidus Press and feel that here might be the answer to a prayer. Like most authors, I've long pondered on the mystery of the disappearing backlist: perhaps this was a solution, not self-publishing, not, heaven forfend, vanity publishing but a service by authors for other authors and a way to keep control of one's own work. No expensive shelf space, no booksellers' discounts: you always know what you're getting.
I sent a copy of The Fourth Plane at the Flypast, a 1985 novel for Andre Deutsch which did pretty well in its day and was well reviewed, though now I would put the date of its setting prominently on the blurb. The terms offered were uploading costs of about 18p a page and £35 for a new cover, payable in advance or counted against profits. Best to pay up front, I thought. With a cover price of £4.99 this would result in a margin of £2, split equally between Back-to-Front and the author. Not a bad return! But first I had to get permission to use the original print layout. I asked Scholastic, Deutsch's successors, and was at once given freedom to use it, plus other Deutsch/Scholastic books for which I now held the rights. So, in March of this year I received a handsome, well bound and printed paperback with its own display on Amazon and able to be ordered at any bookshop. Helen Miles, with whom I dealt throughout, was terrific to work with.
But how to get it sold? Now I have a website (www.dennishamley.com) there's a good outlet, though it depends on getting hits, and it's great to take the books into schools and sell them there. But I can't say sales have set the world alight: a strategy is needed and websites must work for you or there's no point in them. So I'm doing three more, all football books ¨ Haunted United (1986), Death Penalty (1994, my first Point Crime) and Beautiful Games, bringing football stories dotted around in various collections under one cover and done new-print ¨ and advertising them as THE GREAT FOOTBALL TREBLE. Helen Miles introduced me to Charles Fenoughty, a young artist who provided five possible covers for Haunted United which I put on the website for a øchoose-the-coverÓ competition (bundles of my books for winning kids and prizes of new books for their schools ¨ thank God for review copies ¨ all to be presented on a free author visit). Not a bad take-up so far but more needed before the September 20 closing date. As soon as it's over, a new competition takes its place, this time for Death Penalty.
Other strategies? In 2006 Ann Jungman is bringing out my Hare's Choice in Barn Owl. This is the first in the Hare Trilogy, so there'll be PoD editions of the other two, Badger's Fate and Hawk's Vision, coming out simultaneously: with luck the two ventures will gain from each other.
I can only say that this has been and is being an entirely positive experience: I'd recommend it unreservedly to anybody. For more details contact backtofront@soliduspress.com. The website is www.back-to-front.com. You won't regret it.