Writing and Publishing from the Back of Nowhere

by Linda Abbott Trapp
(Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Most writers crave isolation. Some take it to extremes, moving far from the distractions of telemarketers, familiar restaurants, pleasant and peculiar relatives, and the other temptations and demands of ordinary life. One novelist I know, a fellow expatriate living in Mexico, hides out in a charming little coastal village accessible only by boat. There must be some practical benefits to such a choice, or people, even eccentric writers, wouldn't do it. But do those benefits outweigh the many disadvantages of self-imposed exile from the services and creature comforts of the familiar? Is remoteness more suited to the independent souls who self-publish? I've tried it both ways, and my experiences may be useful to you before you board the bus to the back of nowhere.

The first sacrifice you'll notice that you have made is that of a support group. Where are the other writers who will encourage you and critique your efforts? Where is the stimulation of hearing their readings, testing their ideas against yours, meeting their visiting editors and friends who just happen to do a radio show? Who will suggest a printer that is wonderful with the color work you need? Who has walked the self-publishing path before you, and done well with it? The best solution is to find the nearest local writers' group, and to connect with those folks at least monthly, preferably more often. Ours, in Puerto Vallarta, is highly transient, but the wealth of talent and the general good humor and experienced reassurance is a godsend to those who are just beginning to think about completing, and then self-publishing, their work. The more experienced members, and the more famous ones who fly in for an annual writers' conference provide, not only the model of their own work and its process, but also the clarity about what needs to be done, and how the doing will be different for those who self-publish.

The basic difference that must be dealt with is the "someone else" distinction. With an editor, an agent, a publisher, and a publicist at your disposal, someone else carries much of the burden of transforming your manuscript into the next best seller. Ultimately, however, none of those talented and farsighted people will give your book the attention you will give it, for as long as you will give it, in as many creative and unorthodox methods as you will give it. The questions to ask yourself are how many of those functions can you take on, how many will you need to outsource, and can you do that from your isolated post? The publisher and I hired an editor for my Fresno, Valley of Abundance book to fact-check and tweak the language. Years later, I asked nine bright friends (also expatriates, in various stages of retirement) to read and edit my latest book, Intentional Living; Lessons from the Tree of Life. Both strategies worked well. In addition, there are competent editors who can be found online. Be sure to query their references before making a commitment, or try a sample article with them to evaluate their fitness for your task. With a good fit, and a Yahoo Messenger or Skype telephone connection through your computers, there is every possibility that you can access professional editing quite nicely from nearly anywhere.

Once edited, the next steps are to get the cover designed and the book published. Designers and computers exist in every culture, at least in the larger towns. A theater owner took several of my photos and created a cover I love for my Ornamental Plants and Flowers of Tropical Mexico. Her work was fresh and exciting, and superior to what I might have done with the same photos, and reasonably priced as well. For that book, I simply uploaded both the text and the cover to the printer's server. The actual printing was done in Korea, where their reputation for color excellence is well deserved, and the books shipped to Los Angeles, where we picked them up and brought them south. I had investigated ten or so possible publishers, here and abroad, before settling on the Korean printers, who conveniently had a San Francisco-area contact person I could easily talk with by phone and email.

The same process worked for my Letters to My Granddaughters book, using my photo and a local designer to arrange the cover materials, then uploading the whole thing for the Korean printer. After placing that book and the Ornamental Plants book with distributors and on Amazon.com, I hired someone through the internet to make the Letters book available in Kindle format as well. The Intentional Living book cover was designed at BookSurge as part of their contract, using text and photo I supplied. I found that photo, a powerful portrait of a Ceiba tree, the Mayan Tree of Life, on the internet, and contacted the photographer to obtain permission. BookSurge shipped copies to me for local booksignings and reviews, and made books obtainable in the US through Baker and Taylor and Amazon.com.

Marketing is a bit more of a challenge. Remote telephone interviewing will get you on some radio shows, and into more internet communities, but for the face-to-face interaction of a traditional booksigning, you have to go to the site. Sending out review copies has been my greatest challenge. I've been reduced to begging friends going north to carry a wrapped book or two to mail out for me when they get to a place where the mail service is reliable.

Other things are easier, though. You can set up a tour remotely, order the needed bookmarks and business cards remotely, and check that copies of your book will be in place remotely, but ultimately, you're going to have to go there. When I venture out, airline ticket in hand and rental car waiting, I usually have a list of groceries and other goodies to bring back as well, to make this tropical paradise a little more friendly for this user. Then, when the tour is completed, I return to the beauty and peace of my writing haven, overlooking the jungle, glad that the noisiest thing around is that beautiful orange bird over on the palm. I'm grateful, and ready again to work in the solitude, serenity, and sanctity of the back of nowhere.

Dr. Linda Abbott Trapp is a former Dean at the California School of Professional Psychology and owner of the consulting firm Abbott & Associates who lives and writes in Puerto Vallarta. She has written seven books, over 250 articles, and numerous columns and reviews.

Except for the Fresno, Valley of Abundance book which is only available through out-of print sources, the books mentioned in this article can be previewed at Abbott Publications - Books That Matter.