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M is for Meizius

Curtis Bausse One Green Bottle Meizius Publishing

Number 13 in The A to Z of the Writer’s Affliction, part of the A to Z blogging challenge.

Why? Now that’s a good question. Why did I go through Meizius Publishing to bring out One Green Bottle when I could have done it on my own? When you self-publish you get to keep 70% of the retail price – go through a publisher and it’s less than a third of that. As for promotion, it makes little difference – you have to do it anyway. Unless you’re Martina Cole or Lee Child, gone are the days when the publisher did it all for you. So what’s the point of being traditionally published, especially by a tiny outfit like Meizius?

When I started out, I knew nothing about all this. So naturally, the first thing I did was approach agents. I got the usual mix of standard rejections, nice rejections and the occasional you-came-very-close rejection. One who said, ‘I like this very much. Can you tell me more about yourself?’ So I sent a brief bio and never got a reply, which had me wondering where I’d gone wrong in my life. OK, I’m Welsh, but even so. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that I eat babies. I’ve heard that agents can be a bit squeamish about that. Another answer I got was, ‘Please do consider us in future if you decide to write a  novel.’ Silly me! I’d obviously clicked the wrong link and sent the dishwasher instruction manual.

So anyway, after a while, I got fed up and wrote directly to publishers. Meizius, second on the list, said yes. So I said yes too, and that was it.

There’s a whole debate about this: TP versus SP. ‘For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way,’ proclaims Ros Barber in The Guardian. Which a few days later was countered by Rachel Abbott’s piece, 14-hour days, marketing and dealing with snobbery: my life as a self-published bestseller. Now, I’ve read a lot of the for and against and reached one firm conclusion: the arguments go round in circles and cancel each other out. So back to the original question – why Meizius?

Well, for a start, it was good to be accepted, however small the publisher. So I’ll always be grateful to Aaron Meizius for that. It may simply be, in the words of Atthys Gage, a veneer of legitimacy, but it’s legitimacy all the same. Then there’s a sense of belonging. I don’t have much contact with other Meizius authors, but it’s good to know there’s a group of us under the same umbrella. Writing is solitary enough as it is, and I didn’t fancy reinforcing that. And along with that comes support. Prompt responses to my emails. A flexible approach on various aspects from cover design to giveaways. Production of an audio book (forthcoming). Proof-reading, editing, formatting. The general feeling that we’re in this together, and what will benefit one will benefit the other.

I’m not saying I’ll never self-publish – in fact, following the book a break competition, there’s a short story anthology in the self-publishing pipeline. Nor do I rule out seeking agent representation. But for now, Magali Rousseau and I are committed to Meizius Publishing. And both of us are happy.

11 thoughts on “M is for Meizius”

  1. My 2 cents’ is that the decision of whether to SP or go with TP depends greatly on the author’s goals—as you said, unless you’re a famous author already (or some well-known ‘personality,’ aka celebrity), you will have to promote the work whether via TP or SP. Loved seeing what you’ve learned through publishing your novel; thanks for sharing, Curtis!

  2. I applaud your pursuit and capture of Traditional Publishing. (I can’t call it “TP”. In America, TP refers specifically to the verb “toilet paper” as in, “Let’s go TP that crazy author’s house!” Done properly, it simulates a winter snow storm covering house, yard, and the crowns of trees. Does this recreational mischief never happen in France? Or Great Britain?)

    SP may indeed give rise to some worthy works, but the reality seems to be that the overwhelming bulk of SP works are — excuse my slang — crap. That could be a difficult prejudice to overcome among family and friends if a new author chooses that route.

    1. Well, that’s a quaint custom we don’t yet have in Europe. Will it come our way like everything else from the US? Hmm… You’re quite right about the SP image, which also weighed in my decision, even if there is some very good self-published work out there.

  3. Hope that TPing it does not cross the pond. I think its popularity has waned even here in sunny southern California, having reached its peak in the mid-’90s. Maybe it has something to do with increased environmental awareness. Maybe the price of toilet paper has gone too high. Maybe it’s just another formerly popular middle-of-the-night outdoor activity that has been supplanted by electronic entertainment. Personally, I always viewed it as littering, but aspiring Cool Moms viewed it as a sign of acceptance by the Cool Kids, and would actually chauffeur their own kids on these forays — probably in hope they would be targeted in return.

    Cool is a complicated lifestyle.

      1. I was cool enough to resist the peer pressure to be cool. 😉

        I also want to warn you — I challenged you to the 3 Day Quote Challenge. No obligation and no hard feelings if you’d rather not. :)https://stranscht.com/2016/04/18/3-day-quote-challenge-3/

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