What's It Like Working With a Micro-Publisher?

A Literal Literary Loser Learns Lots

Prior to the November 2022 release of my 18th book, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” I was only familiar with two types of publishers.

My romance novels were traditionally published by Avon and Dell. My Figure Skating Mysteries by Berkley Prime Crime, my soap-opera tie-ins by Simon & Schuster, and my historical fiction novel, “The Nesting Dolls,” by HarperCollins.

My two non-fiction books, “Getting Into NYC Kindergarten” and “Getting Into NYC High School,” I published on my own, as I knew where my target audience was better than any publisher would. And then I got the rights back to my romance novels and mysteries and re-issued them myself.

When considering a third option, I knew I didn’t want to go hybrid. Paying someone to publish my book, sharing my royalties with them, and then still needing to do the majority of the heavy lifting in editing, design, production and promotion myself seemed like the worst of both worlds.

But a micro-publisher was something different.

My upcoming novel, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” is set in Birobidzhan, the 20th century’s first independent Jewish state, pre-dating Israel by over 20 years, located on the border of the USSR and China, as well as in the prison camps of World War II, where captured Soviet soldiers collaborated with American ones to survive - and ended up paying the price for it, afterwards.

They were stories I rarely read about in fiction, stories I desperately wanted to tell. They were history through fiction.

And when I went looking for a publisher, I found… History Through Fiction. Their name explains exactly what they’re about and what kind of manuscripts they’re looking for.

History Through Fiction isn’t a major conglomerate like the ones I’d worked with previously. History Through Fiction publishes only a book or two a year. They don’t have the manpower or the distribution channels that my previous publishers did.

But here is what they do have: History Through Fiction has a laser precise focus on my upcoming book. I’m not just one of literally thousands of authors in their stable. They answer emails promptly (unlike this small publisher which I wrote about previously, who… did not). They listen to my input on marketing, editorial, and cover design.

This has its pros and cons.

On the one hand, they definitely solicited my opinion on cover design. On the other hand, I know nothing about cover design. My business is words, not images. When I worked in television production, one director called me a visual wasteland. I have an opinion. But I have no faith in it being the correct one.

When I worked with major publishers, my covers arrived as a done deal. On the one hand, I was not thrilled by the fact that “Annie’s Wild Ride,” my romance novel about two Air Force pilots, seemed to have a duckie on the cover. (I believe it’s supposed to be a amusement park swan ride. You be the judge, here.) I also didn’t think the cover for “When a Man Loves a Woman,” a romance between two surgeons in their early 40s, was well served by this cover. My husband suggested it resembled soft-core porn.

But, in both cases, I could tell myself two things: The decision had been made by experts who must know more about this field than I did - that’s why they were the gatekeepers! And that, whatever happened, it was not my fault.

When I’m asked to weigh in on a cover by a micro-publisher, I can still believe that the decision was made by experts - and, for the record, I love the cover for “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region”; see what you think of it, it’s the image for this post - but I can’t wash my hands of the decision, like I could with my mass published books.

That’s pretty scary.

To be honest, this entire process is pretty scary. When I published with the Big Five, I could take comfort in the belief that I was just a cog in a well-oiled machine, that I would be taken care of - up to a point. When I published on my own, I at least felt like the process was within my control.

With a micro-publisher, I am ceding a good chunk of control. But I am also gaining a partner, someone who has as much to gain - and lose - from how my book does as I do, which was my primary goal when I embarked on this latest journey.

With a micro-publisher, I’m hoping to get the best of both worlds.

I’ll keep you posted here on how it goes!

In the meantime, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” is available for pre-order! Reserve your copy now from the publisher, and you’ll get it in September, two whole months before the official publication date!