Book Series Goes from Royalty Publishing to POD

by William P. Robertson
(Duke Center, PA)

Publishing the Bucktail Novel Series

Back in the late 1990's I decided it was time to tackle the writing of a novel. My poetry, short stories, and articles had appeared in over 400 magazines in ten countries, which provided me with a lengthy resume and hopefully enough credentials to interest a royalty publishing house. I wanted to write a YA historical fiction book because that was what I read voraciously in my youth. After much thought, the topic I settled upon was the Bucktail Regiment.

The Bucktails fought in the Civil War and were born in McKean County, Pennsylvania, where I lived. Furthermore, the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteers were sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers who were in the thick of the action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. Such high-profile riflemen, I figured, would surely catch the interest of even the most reticent young reader.

I had first heard of the Bucktails when I was in sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School in Bradford, Pennsylvania. There, I served on the Safety Patrol sponsored by the American Automobile Associate (AAA). As a reward for our duties, we Patrol Boys were taken on a trip to Washington, D.C., and got to march in a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue with other units from all over the country. That year, we were given Civil War kepi caps and got to represent the Bucktails in the big procession. On the return trip we then stopped at Gettysburg Battlefield, were shown the Bucktail Monument, and were told about the regiment's legendary heroism. I guess the seed was planted in 1962 for me to write about the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteers.

After specializing in poetry most of my life, composing a full-length novel was a daunting task. The convincing development of characters, plot logic, and the fine points of grammar became immediate obstacles to my goal. Finally, I asked David Rimer, an English teaching colleague of mine at Bradford Area High School, to help me with the process. He suggested we do a thorough researching of the Bucktails before we began. That ended up being a six-month scavenger hunt at local libraries, historical societies, and in private Civil War collections. We also snapped photos of G.A.R. monuments and gravestones and attended events sponsored by Bucktail Regiment reenactor groups to get a flavor of the rich tradition we would be chronicling. We had definitely picked a good topic because a wealth of information existed and local interest in the regiment was immediately evident.

The writing of the first book, "Hayfoot, Strawfoot: Bucktail Recruits," took two full years. I handled most of the creative duties, while David Rimer employed his technical writing skills. At first, we tried composing a chapter at a time, which we edited over and over before going on to the next chapter. This didn't work well because it impeded the flow of the overall storyline and caused friction between us as we sweated the details. Finally, I plunged ahead and wrote the complete first draft before turning it over to David for editing. This was a more efficient way of proceeding because it allowed each of us to utilize our strengths as writers. I could improvise at will and let my partner mold the novel into shape later. He, in turn, found holes in the plot and endless grammatical miscues that turned into a dozen rewrites of the novel. When it came to the two main characters, I used my background as a woodsman to develop Bucky Culp, who lived off the land with his trapper father. I added realism by having Bucky act out several of my own hunting adventures. The sissy preacher's son, Jimmy Jewett, on the other hand, was brought to life by David's research of actual young Civil War recruits. He created a believable small town boy motivated by the burning patriotism that flourished in the spring of 1861 here in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Before sending "Hayfoot, Strawfoot" off to publishers, David and I submitted the manuscript to a book doctor in California. She felt that we needed to work on the point of view aspect of the novel and explained step-by-step how to do that. She also gave us helpful hints about approaching publishers and how to write an effective one page synopsis. After acting on her suggestions, we confidently began querying all the big-name publishing houses listed in "Writer's Market," expecting any day to hit pay dirt.

Two and a half frustrating years later, David and I had enough rejection slips to wallpaper a good-sized room. We had about run out of options with royalty publishers when my partner's daughter told us of a small Pennsylvania publishing house that her friend had luck with. This company was interested in seeing our book, too, so we sent them the hard copy and disk copy that they required. We had about given up hope of hearing from them when six months later they called to say our novel was accepted. They were starting a new line of YA books, and the Civil War was their primary focus. We had hit both of their criteria on the nose, and they would be most happy to accept other books about Bucky Culp and Jimmy Jewett if we were interested in developing a Bucktail series.

It was two more long years before our books saw print. There was further editing, the wait for an artist to paint a cover, and other company procedures to endure. In the meantime, David and I wrote "The Bucktails' Shenandoah March," which was also accepted and rushed into production to come out simultaneously with our first novel. Wow! Two novels released together exceeded even our expectations, and we began crafting still more books by focusing on the various campaigns fought by the illustrious Bucktails. Our publisher couldn't be happier, either, and encouraged us to write as many volumes as possible. We ended up writing seven novels covering the entire Civil War service record of the boys from McKean County.

When "Hayfoot, Strawfoot" and "The Bucktails' Shenandoah March" came out in 2002, they fast became regional hits. I began doing book talks and signings within an eight county radius of my home and couldn't order novels fast enough to keep up with the demand. The only problem was the books weren't selling much elsewhere, which cooled our publisher to releasing future volumes of the series. I, meanwhile, was being inundated with queries from friends, libraries, and rabid fans about "The Bucktails' Antietam Trials" that I assured them was in the pipeline. David and I also had finished "The Battling Bucktails at Fredericksburg," which was accepted but buried in publishing house limbo. "Trials" and "Battling" were to stay there for four years while our company did "research" to see if there was a market for the books. This long delay was killing the initial groundwork we did to break the series locally, and David and I pleaded to no avail for the publication of our new titles.

In hindsight, I can't really blame the royalty publisher for holding up release of our novels. They were the ones risking the money to satisfy a wild demand from a small but fervent regional audience of our hardcore fans. In the end, it worked best for David and me to self-publish the remaining Bucktail novels through a POD publisher that could produce them in a more timely manner. We settled on a company recommended by Rod Cochran, author of another regional smash hit entitled "Bear Hollow." We were drawn to this publisher's commitment to produce a book within three months of receiving it. They also had a website where they sold their titles, and they listed their books on Amazon.com. Furthermore, the company had connections with Ingram's Distribution so their authors' titles could be bought directly by bookstores. In short, the POD publisher had basically the same connections as our royalty publisher.

The same year our royalty publisher finally released "Antietam Trials" and "The Battling Bucktails," David and I tested the POD waters with "The Bucktails: Perils on the Peninsula." That title actually exceeded the sales of the royalty company books in our regional market when I staged a publicity blitz. It soon became apparent it was my public appearances that resulted in sales rather than "who" published the books. All the school and historical society lectures, craft fair book signings, and library book talks were really paying off. Equally important, I did a host of local TV and radio talk shows in Olean and Buffalo, New York and at Penn State University, Braford, and Smethport, Pennsylvania. I was basically using the same strategy as a rock 'n' roll band going on tour to create a market for its creative output.

To take advantage of the groundswell of popularity produced by this constant promotion, David and I again followed the POD route for our final two Bucktail novels, releasing "The Bucktails at the Devil's Den" and "The Bucktails' Last Call" the next year. Going POD provided the steady flow of product needed to satisfy our book-hungry regional following. The quicker release of the novels also resulted in more complete-set sales, being the books were still "hot." David and I learned the hard way that if you sign a contract with a royalty publisher for a YA series, make sure to have firm release dates included. Otherwise, ask your book doctor if POD publishing is right for you.

Visit The Bucktails at the Devil's Den.