Not Finished Yet: One Family's Quest For A Most Excellent Adventure, by Laureen Hudson, is now open for pre-orders! We'll be publishing this in April of 2010.

Once you have children, your traveling days are over. Right?

One night, after the kids had gone to bed, Laureen & Jason Hudson had a long talk. They realized that they had become that which they never wanted to be; people having abandoned the big picture in preference for the paycheck. They realized that if they stayed in the groove they were in for one moment longer, they were going to explode. But how were they going to manage, with children?

There's always an answer, if you're open to it.

They kept talking. And within the week, they'd put the house on the market, and contacted a broker about buying a boat, a 1991 Lagoon '47. They named her s/v Excellent Adventure.

Disconnecting from The System is harder than it sounds; two full years later, they were still crash landing bits of the “suburban dream.” Between getting rid of shoreside social, legal, and political entanglements, and getting rid of stuff, it's a big job to completely change the lifestyle of a family of five.

But come October 2009, they're finally going to cut the lines, sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge, turn left, and go long.

So come along and join them on their quest for a most excellent adventure!

 

Tags: excellent adventure, laureen hudson, not finished yet, pre-orders, press release
Current Location: out in the world
Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: guitar riffs

I woke on the fraud side of the bed today. It's that feeling that you have when you wake up and feel like nothing you are doing is authentic. That you're letting everyone down. Why can't they see that I'm just a total fraud? An imposter?

It's a failing/nervous tic that I've found most artists have.

And believe it or not, I think it makes me a better publisher.

I know that I'm not an imposter. I know that my authors are not imposters, even on the days when *they* wake up on the fraud side of the bed. When they struggle with their projects. When they worry that they're not giving me their best stuff.

I've been there. I know what to say. Whether it's time to hold a hand and say, "You can do it," or it's time to bust out the 2x4 and say, "Knock it off." I get it.

This is why I don't think the big houses are necessarily the best place for writing, or art books anymore. Most of the people there are not artists in their own right. They're MBAs and accountants. Good folks, but they're focus is on the bottom line, not on the question of whether or not their authors/artists are self-destructing before their eyes because they don't know how to adequately deploy the Tea Pot of Sympathy or the 2x4 of Correction.

And we won't speak of the Cattle Prod of Deadlines...

So. Color me an imposter. I'm not. Neither are you. Remember that when the Fraud Demon comes calling. It's just a manifestation of Resistance and we all know what to do with it.

Make it die the death.

Make art at it.

In the meantime, I'll be doing the same. I'll also be warming up the Tea Pot of Sympathy.

Tags: 2x4 of correction, cattle prod of deadlines, fraud, fraud demon, imposter, resistance, tea pot of sympathy
Current Location: out in the world
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Imposter, Oingo Boingo

I've had time to calm down, but I still wish to continue a bit with what I started over at my own blog (quennessa), which was a response to what James Owen (coppervale) had posted on his blog regarding the current accusations from a few that he was selling out by focusing currently on his Imaginarium Geographica novels, rather than on completing his Starchild series.

A point that was getting lost in the shuffle is what I personally tend to think of as the difference between "selling out" and lacking in artistic integrity.

Getting paid for your work, especially getting paid a living wage so you can pay for your responsibilities, i.e. bills, children and rent, is not selling out. Calling it that is idolizing juvenile and irresponsible behavior and calling it Art.

It's not. It's bullshit.

Churning out hack work to make money however, does (at times) lack in artistic integrity.

Yet, I personally can't judge that. You do what you need to do to put food on the table. I'm sure the screenwriter for Catwoman wasn't hugely proud of that movie. But I bet it made the note on his mortgage or paid the rent or made the school tuition fund. Not all art needs to be high Art. It can be bubble gum, popcorn mindless fun. Might I point out the pictures of Michael Bay and most romance novels written by Johanna Lindsey as evidence.

So, while I absolutely frown at the lack of artistic integrity, I don't think we get to judge except in the way that matters. With our dollars.

Pay for the art that matters then, even if it only matters *to you*. If you think Michael Bay is a hack, then don't go and see his movies. In the end, though, we are not the ones who will decide which art will endure. Dickens and Shakespeare were writing their equivalent of soap operas for their audiences and yet, they're who we remember. I fully expect General Hospital to be immortalized in a hundred years.

All we can do is support the art that matters to us in the present. That's why I started the press. That's why we pay pro rate royalties, even if we don't pay an advance. Why we're pounding the Social Networking/Social Object angle. To get the word out. To do what we can to support what we believe in.

Selling out? Abandoning artistic integrity? Frankly, until we as a society start supporting artists to do the work that matters to them, rather than whatever will feed them, no matter how crap, I'm all for it.

Shakespeare gots to get paid.

And in the meantime, check out Master Owen's books. They're wonderful. So much for "selling out."

We should all be so lucky.

Tags: artistic integrity, here there be dragons, imaginarium geographica, james owen, selling out
Current Location: out and about
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: conversations in the distance

I've been pounding on Hunt Press's social media lately. Considering I'm the editor and not Madame Publisher, I am learning a whole heck of a lot about what publishing looks like out there, and frankly, I'm astonished.

Just because the feel of a book in your hands is a nearly religious experience, doesn't mean you shouldn't be set up to tweet your joy in that to a diverse base of digitally-enabled bibliophiles.

I think the whole (bogus) war that got set up between paper news and digital news has somewhat informed what's happening out there with social media and small presses, and I really, really want it to die the death. It's unnecessary. And obstructionist. Paper publishing and electronic networking need not be mutually exclusive!

As Madame Publisher has said, this is war. Being a small press dedicated to actually publishing, we have a lot of work to do, and it's establishing the lines of honest conversations through social media that will be a big part of enabling us to do that.

So, if you have blogs that you follow, or twitterers that you like, let us know in the comments.

~~L!

Madam Publisher's Note: You can follow us on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/huntpress

Tags: blogs, connected, laureen hudson, social media, twitter
Current Location: out there
Current Mood: working

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
- Thomas Paine

Neda’s face haunts me.

I don’t know how it cannot haunt us all. A woman’s death in her father’s arms. That girl could be my girl. That man, my husband.

It is the recognition of ourselves in the Other, the profound realization that we are all one. Their struggle is our struggle. Their wish is our wish. Let the truth will out. Do not silence us, for we cannot be silenced. Our silence shouts louder than your bullets, your lies.

In the face of this, it’s hard to take the struggles of a micropress seriously.

But Thomas Paine was probably one of the first micropresses. It was his pamphlet that fired a fearful nation into standing up to what was at the time considered an unassailable empire. Hand printed pamphlets passed out in a dark Winter that gave no promise of Spring or Hope. He said that those were the times that tried men’s souls.

And here we are again, half a world away.

It has been books that have taught me, more than anything. Science fiction that taught me tolerance and opening to the Other. That common ground can be found in anything, no matter how alien. Fantasy taught me the depths of courage and bravery, that no one is too small or too slight to make a difference.

Fiction?

Fiction inspires fact. Inspires people to strive. Forces them to face their preconceived ideas. Forges the path and the way.

The cell phone is the Star Trek communicator and right now, it is the tool of Liberty, bearing the word of a struggling people. Science fiction. This is the Future, in all its glory and all its horror.

This is why I work. This is why I press on.

Because it’s a gift, and half a world a way, there are people who do not have this gift.

It’s all one. It all matters.

So.

To work then.

Tags: cry freedom, godownfighting, iran, iranelection, neda, thomas paine
Current Location: out and about
Current Mood: grieving
Current Music: conversations in the distance

Contrary to popular supposition, I do not routinely stab people through the heart with my sharpened red pencil.

Editing is a pretty complex task, and there are a lot of opinions out there about how it's best done. I think many people, in their distress, equate editors with grammar teachers. There's this idea that I exist to pounce on grammatical errors, that I delight in your discomfort, and that there are rules involved that no one can meet.

I am not that editor.

In my world, editing is about getting inspired ideas out of your head and onto the page in an engaging, understandable, and above all, marketable form. I want to know what you're thinking and how you're thinking it; you are the only one who has the ideas you have. I want to talk to you about your ideas, not about your punctuation.

Anyone can wrangle with grammar. But only you can write your book.

It's my belief that compassionate, cooperative editing is one of the value-adds to publishing with Hunt Press. We're not interested in canning your book because I spot a dangling participle; we're interested in writing that's so compelling, it's worth it to massage into publishable shape.

It's about the ideas. It's about changing the world with the book you wrote. Write what you love. And let us handle the other stuff.

- Laureen

Tags: compassionate editing, laureen hudson, madam editor
Current Location: office
Current Mood: working

Actually, why me?

I’ve been asked this question a few times in the last month and it has allowed me to crystallize a lot of my thought around publishing, POD, micropress, and just in general, the madness that is publishing.

The questions seem to devolve into two camps: why micropublishing? and why not go with a big publishing house/agent/the traditional model?

Madam Editor suggests though that the root of the question actually is, can a micro house make as much money as publishing with a big house?

Ah, but that's not what people ask me. And frankly, I'm not looking to make *as much* money, I'm looking to make *sustainable* money. Because the blunt fact is, you can't sustain a blockbuster mentality. At a certain point, you just fall over from exhaustion: the exhaustion of frantically searching for the next blockbuster and the exhaustion of recovering when you inevitably fail.

That's not a life worth living.

So that leaves the camps of thought.

The first camp: why not? Seriously. It’s the Everest response. Because it’s there. Because I can. And because I watched several other small presses doing things in ways that frankly, I just wouldn’t and couldn’t understand. Struggling because they didn’t have the unique skill set that I possess or struggling because they didn’t know the incredibly talented people that I know or know of.

I was also getting more and more of a sense that my own work, which I wanted to see out in the world, was either too specialized, too niche, or just plain getting lost in the shuffle of the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts trying to get past the gatekeepers of the pitifully few large publishing houses that still exist. It’s like *being* the needle and wondering why no one can find you in the haystack.

But hey. There’s this tool. It’s called POD. And I’m smarter than the average bear, so…

Why not?

The Wishing Coin was the answer to that question. And from there, I was hooked. What they don’t tell you is that publishing is a drug. You start getting high on seeing books become reality, in taking an author’s brain child and turning it into a being of living and breathing paper. Because it is. Books have lives. I found out I had a talent for this strange beast. I found that I longed for the spirit of Jim Baen and Lester Del Rey who ran their houses with a personal touch, not by a spreadsheet and by corporate fiat.

Incidentally, they all started small. Small grows to big. It's the enterprenurial spirit in publishing... Frankly, I doubt Hunt Press will *remain* small. But the core values I mean to keep, no matter our external changes.

So, I discovered I wanted to be a midwife of books. Madam Editor insists that I wanted to be The Queen of All She Surveys.

Well, that too. But I love the birthing of books too.

I haven’t looked back since.

The answer to the second camp is far more militant:

Yeah. Sure. Find an agent. Let me know when you’ve got one.

*looks at watch*

Oh, it’s going to take you one to five years, if at all to get one?

Oh. I’m sorry. While you’re still looking, I’m going to be publishing books. Y’know. While you’re still looking for an agent.

Big publishing house?

Yeah. While they’re still fighting in editorial meetings about whether or not they can spare the marketing budget to promote an unknown author and niche book, my authors and I will be out and selling books.

The old model is a dinosaur. It cannot compete with me. I am small. I am nimble. I have the weight of momentum and dynamism behind me. I turn on a dime. They fall on their faces. They cannot compete with me.

I don't mean to *stay* small, but I mean to keep to what's currently driving me, which is responsiveness. I'm not this lumbering behemoth trying to get consensus of 200 people and ten departments. And people argue with me plenty. But in the end, the buck stops with me. I either love or hate the work.

The indie bookstores love me, because they have a relationship with *me*, not someone at a marketing/PR department who may or may not be there in six months. I'm in it for the long haul, and so have a vested interest in building these relationships. Small can be replaced with personal. People are tired of the impersonal and the faceless. And I'm certainly not that.

Can I roll out a powerhouse? I don’t know. But I’ll go down fighting. What makes you think that you’re going to win the lottery? I’d rather take that magical thinking to the 7-11 and buy a lottery ticket. I have just as much chance as striking it big with a blockbuster.

No.

Play hard. Play now. Put it all out there or go home. You want to be discovered? I suggest standing on the corner of Hollywood & Vine with all the other little hopefuls, holding their disappointment in their hats and trying not to show it.

To quote James Owen: We’re not IN publishing. We’re at war. And I don’t intend to lose.

At war against whom?

Against entropy. Against the long night. Against obscurity. We'll all eventually fail against those titans. But while we last, while the battle rages, oh, yes, we will be glorious.

Let it not be said that we did not at least *attempt* to leave our mark on the world.

Tags: about us, angela n. hunt, defiance, laureen hudson, madam editor, madam publisher, the war of art, why us
Current Location: out and about
Current Mood: focused
Current Music: I'm Still Waiting, Kate Bush

The clouds have rolled in here in coastal Southern California, in more ways than one.

As some of you have noted and informed us (bless you!), the main Hunt Press website went down like the Hindenberg somewhere in the last month. We don't know when exactly, but it died the death, taking the hosting and the email functionality with it. If you've tried to contact us, you've been getting the Bounce of Death. Please send questions to angela.n.hunt at gmail dot com for the near future and we'll let you know as soon as email is back up and running.

Site is being repaired as fast as we can manage and we'll let you know as soon as it's live. In the meantime, the Lulu echo page is working at http://www.lulu.com/huntpress and you can find the Blurb titles when you search for either title name or for quennessa at http://www.blurb.com.

Stop gaps, all, but we do what we can. Ah, technology.

* * *

Also, our wonderful author, Tammy Takahashi, has a long list of speaking engagements this year! We'll have details up soon or if you're impatient, ping Madam Publisher as noted above.

Our other wonderful author, Ayamanatara, also has some fabulous events going this year which you can find out more about at http://www.ayamanatara.com.

Best news of all, the press has just acquired a fabulous new book, Not Finished Yet, by Laureen Hudson, a memoir of a family's adventure moving aboard a 47' catamaran. We'll be publishing this in April of 2010 and pre-orders will go live very soon.

* * *

There's plenty more, but this was the urgent news. Please spread the word! A small press lives and dies on the support of its readers and we are indebted to all of you beyond words.

Namaste!

Hunt Press

Tags: june update
Current Location: Hunt Press Central
Current Mood: productive
Current Music: just the humming in our heads

Tammy, our delightful Deschooling Gently author, has a number of speaking engagements coming up. If you get the chance, definitely catch her. And if you have missed getting the book yet, it's also a great opportunity to pick one up and get it signed!

Upcoming Appearances:

Sept. 14th - 15th
Homeschooling Conference
Grand Californian, Disneyland
NB: this is developing and Tammy will be doing two separate talks at this conference
http://www.southwest-home-education.com/home.html

Sept. 29th
6:30 to 8:30 PM
Alta Dena Library
Homeschooling Info Meeting
NB: This library also carries DG in its circulation

Tags: deschooling gently, speaking appearances, tammy takahashi
Current Mood: working

We only need to sell another 16 books to make 750.

WOOT!

And today is the last day of the March Sales Contest at Lulu, our glorious printer. How's this for good news?

Help us break 750! Buy a book! :) Tell your friends!

365 Days to Enlightenment
by Ayamanatara




Deschooling Gently
by Tammy Takahashi




Rubies for Her
by Angela N. Hunt




Fortunes Told While You Wait
by Angela N. Hunt




And of course, there's the glorious Suspended over at Blurb, which we want to remind everyone is waiting to come live on your coffee table and is in the running for best photo book in Blurb's photography.book.now contest.

Tags: 365, angela n. hunt, ayamanatara, blurb, deschooling gently, fortunes told while you wait, lulu, photography, photography.book.now, rubies for her, suspended, tammy takahashi
Current Mood: fabulous!