The Sundance Book Festival

by MJ Rose

March was Small Press month, but did anyone care? Despite some big success stories, independent publishers are still viewed as only one step up from vanity presses.

Tell someone you are a self-published author and they look at you like a delusional egotist. But tell someone you are an independent filmmaker and they are fascinated and awed.

For years at Sundance, and more recently at the Telluride and Hampton's Film festivals, we have applauded independent filmmakers. We've admired these mavericks for their vision, determination and courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable credit card debt.

Hollywood not only validates these conferences but also combs them for emerging talent.

With zeal, film critics attend the festivals searching for that one obscure film they can confer greatness upon. In fact, it is expected of them.

But while the sounds of many hands clapping reverberate in screening rooms, derisive laughter greets the independent publisher. Nothing creative or revolutionary about it. Most people still believe that if a book is any good it will find a home with one of the larger publishing companies. There are no readings at bookstores for the self-published writer. Even local bookstores politely decline to host signings unless authors can promise to deliver their own audiences.

And as to book reviewers, most will admit they don't pay much attention to a small press book, especially when it's fiction. At a recent symposium, panelists from the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and the LA Times were asked about their policies regarding self-published books. Unanimously they stated they do not review a book unless they recognize the publisher's name. And those three newspapers are not alone.

Some filmmakers understand that big studios don't have a place for smaller, noncommercial stories. They drive independent film.

Authors who understand a similar truth drive independent publishing. The larger houses are attracted to books with best seller potential (25,000 copies and up). A book expected to sell only 3,000 copies is pushed aside for the big name tome. Yet, last year small presses produced and sold over 30% of all books purchased in this country. Meanwhile, independent films generated only three percent of US sales.

So why is there such reluctance to give equal status to the filmmakers who take their work into their own hands and the authors who do the same?

Is it because independent films cost significantly more than independently published books and so garner greater respect? Is it because for a movie to be made the independent filmmaker needs the cooperation of a cast and crew but for a book to be published all that is needed is an author with enough money to print up a few hundred copies?

Or is it because the home video market gives independent films a viable alternative to distribution in theaters?

We will soon find out. The Internet is now giving independent publishers a viable alternative to distribution in bookstores.

In the last few years more and more books have been sold via electronic download directly from one email address to another. E-books are no longer a sci-fi fantasy, and e-readers are becoming more affordable every week. Reviewers are no longer just erudite members of the fourth estate but actual readers who can post their comments on line at Amazon.com and other online bookstores.

Web marketing is a viable option for the small press. Websites are now marketing vehicles for enterprising authors. A novel about a breast-feeding truck driver who likes to scuba dive can be marketed via newsgroups, websites, listservs and e-zines devoted to each of those subjects. All the entrepreneurial author has to do pound the Internet pavement.

The Sundance Book Festival?

No plane fare or hotel reservations necessary, just log on.

MJ Rose is the author of Lip Service, the first self-published and Internet marketed novel chosen by the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs to be a featured alternate selection.

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