I published my first novel Cop Out with PABD (www.pabd.com) and was very
happy with their service; this is a print on demand facility based in Canada
(it was established in the UK but is now based across the Atlantic), and
unlike many independents offers a link into Amazon and other major online
booksellers. This means that buyers can actually get a copy without too much
hassle. The reason I went for this service was a result of general
disillusionment with the mainstream publishing industry; I have twice had
contracts to publish that book but in both cases the publishers ceased
trading (one went into liquidation, the other just evaporated) and the major
publishing houses were interested only in the next Ian Banks, Ian Rankin or
whoever. This is due at least in part to the demands of an increasingly
powerful retail trade, whose hegemonic approach is stifling all but the most
immediately commercial of books.
Maybe on-demand publishing is perceived by some as a step away from vanity
publishing, but the counterview is that we authors choosing that route are
simply doing what the likes of Simply Red and Chris Rea have done in the
music scene, creating their own labels as a means of holding onto control of
their own work. It also does away with the interminable waits that go
hand-in-hand with publishing, an industry which seems to move with the speed
of a tectonic plate.
I knew that my novel wouldn't ever sell in high numbers (though I've been
pleasantly surprised by the numbers sold to date) but at least it now exists
in the form I wanted it to be published in, rather than being forced to
alter it to suit the whim of a buyer from WHWaterkars or whoever.
Significantly my next novel will be published the same way, despite a couple
of (to date informal) approaches from publishing houses. This is because I
would like to see it out by the end of 20056, not in Autumn 2007 as has been
hinted at...
In addition to its appearance on the Amazon listing and on PABD's own site I
have also added an extract to my own website (www.dennisfoy.org) as a means
of adding some sales exposure.

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