Out With The Old, In With The New

2011 was truly a banner year all around.  If someone told me this time last year that I’d launch three books in the span of 8 months while working on two more and holding down a full time job, I’d tell them they were nuts.
Mockery got better media exposure than my last three books combined and went on to sell more copies faster than any other book I’ve released.  In terms of sales it’s second only to If They Can’t Take A Joke.  It continues to sell steadily even though the inaugural push is over with.
Mark McElligott’s Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind was a resounding breakout success from a talented and previously unheard of writer.  Together we managed to find a larger audience for his idiosyncratic brand of humor in his hometown of Lockport as well as throughout Buffalo.  And while there was no real launch campaign for Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick, it’s turned a tidy profit since its release in August that would make its previous poetry predecessors proud.  The collection was received as an entertaining step forward compared to both Breathing Rooms.
            Somehow this year I also managed to get banned from Time Warner Cable and earned a film credit for the music video ‘I Wanna Be Oprah’ (which is still available on YouTube).  I guess we can chalk both up to being in the right place at the right time.
            As far as Big Words Radio, Season 4 turned out to be the magic number.  Somehow despite the over-the-top comedy and subversive, offensive content the show turned out to be the Little Podcast That Could, finding an audience of over 3,000 listeners per month.  Season 5 promises to be just as crass and irreverent as it’s always been, so stay tuned!
The next two years should be light duty compared to this one.  I’m putting the finishing touches on Icarus On The Mend: Memoirs Of A Manic Depressive before working on the cover and interior design with cover artist Derek Patrick Evoy and graphic designer Brian Platter (Six Shot Studios) for a firm signed and numbered (50 copies only) hardcover release date of October 25th, 2012.  Exactly one year later the book will appear again in two trade paperback volumes for the general public.
It remains to be seen whether there will be a 2012 Doubt It Publishing Author Of The Year.  The book I devoted countless time into proofreading, editing and consultation on fell through due to contract negotiations and after Voices From The Herd I have zero interest in extending a call for submissions.  I am working with someone on something else but time will tell if the concept bears fruit or not.
Thanks for such a spectacular year, everybody.  I look forward to a productive and financially successful New Year!

Sincerely,
Tom Waters

Early Concept Art for Icarus On The Mend by Derek Patrick Evoy

Book Signing Dec.4th @Talking Leaves Elmwood w/Mark McElligott

After a four month flurry of promotions together, Mark McElligott and I are still a bit tired and weary.  Nevertheless, we are planning some book events during the busy holiday season.  On Sunday, December 4th, we'll both be at Talking Leaves on Elmwood from 4-6 pm signing copies of Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick, Mockery and Mark's breakout hit Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind.  All three books will be available for $15.  Talking Leaves currently has all three books in stock at both their Elmwood and Main St. locations.

I'm also in the process of setting something up at Dog Ears Books in South Buffalo for December, so stay tuned for news about that.  On top of that, Mark's shown an interest in booking an event at Café Karma in Lockport, so odds are strong that we'll book something for him there. 

Even when we're not busy, we're busy.  I'm promoting lightly on Poke The Scorpion until my calendar frees up, so please try to make it out to Talking Leaves if you want a copy.  My time for the next month is deeply invested in proof-reading an editing a possible manuscript for next year and everything else is on a back burner for the time being.  While my poetry books have never been blockbusters in terms of sales, they're steady sellers over the years and they mean every bit as much to me as the humor books or other projects. 

We look forward to seeing you in December,

Tom Waters

Roll The Bones

The deadline for next year's manuscripts has come and gone. 

We are now at November 1st and after a few false starts, promising first drafts and possible manuscripts, I'm zeroing in on one book for possible publication next year.  While I'd prefer to put out one quality book by a promising new author every year from here on out, that doesn't mean I'll settle.  This summer I looked at a great first draft by a local horror author.  She and I both agreed that the raw materials for the plot were in place but that it still had some room to grow. 

There were a number of other books that crossed my desk, but they just didn't feel right. 

About a week ago, a new author approached me and sent me a sample chapter.  The quality of her voice as a writer and the audacity of her book (for the genre she's shooting for) caught my eye.  While I've never worked in this genre before, the manuscript itself could be well worthy of branching out and learning the market. 

Doubt It Publishing is still a fledgling publishing house.  We've only been around for four years and (despite newbie concerns), a solid catalog is more important than making money.  At the end of the day, I'd rather have a tiny library I can be proud of than a few dollars poorly earned and quickly spent. 

So I leave you with this.  In a month or two, I'll either publish a new author next year or not.  I'm tickled at the thought of tackling a new genre but it all depends on the small details.  My heart tells me to move forward and create a launching pad for a promising author with an incredible voice.  The logical side I retain is so neglected that I await a memo for an appropriate response. 

Expect great news by January or a year of dormancy.  Everything depends on a second revision.  I wish I could say or reveal more, but there's too much at stake.  Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind  was a diamond in the rough and Mark McElligott and I were proud to bring it into the fold.  I hope that this new project is just as fruitful...

Hopeful,
Tom Waters
Editor In Chief,
Doubt It Publishing

Something Borrowed, Something New

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

To say that the last four years have been interesting would be an understatement.  Fate has guided my career as a writer in directions I could never fathom.  After making more money on two poetry books than I expected (which is why I published them myself), I decided to found my own publishing company (Doubt It Publishing).  After that (with the help of co-editor's Cindy Mantai and Alycia Ripley), we released Voices From The Herd, a non-profit anthology about Buffalo with all of the proceeds being deposited directly to The Just Buffalo Literary Center.  After that, it seemed like a natural step to publish one new author a year, so fate guided my hand again and introduced me to Mark McElligott, a 50 year old cartoonist whose writing was among the funniest I've ever read.  Around the same time, I wrote my autobiography (which isn't coming out until next year).

What has all of this taught me after ten years of freelancing, writing, marketing and publishing?  To follow your hunches and stay out of your comfort zone.  I had a stray thought a few weeks ago to delve into the history of Rushford, NY.  As half a native (spending my summers there as a child and taking two weeks in the off season for the past ten years), I've always loved it there and part of my heart will always belong there.  While I despise history books as a genre and prefer biographies and autobiographies, Rushford is the one subject that I'd be willing to sink my teeth into.

So here's the web site for it.  This was built out of a hope that some of you will find it and find yourselves willing to loan or email me documents, memoirs or heretofore unseen information about the history of Rushford.  When I used to conduct print interviews for Artvoice, I preferred to research my subject backwards and forwards before I even started typing; Rushford won't be any different.  Research on the town has already begun, but this is a new genre for me and a much larger topic than a single artist, so any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

I'm astonished to find that there isn't much in the way of books in print, web sites or archived data about Rushford.  In Buffalo you can throw a rock and find three books about Niagara Falls, The Appalachian Trail or The Adirondaks.  It's sad that there aren't many books in print about such a beautiful man-made place and that alone solidified my decision to start writing this book.  I've got a three year window to research and write it.  I'd like to give the history of the area the justice it deserves.

Here's where you come in.  If you have any out of print books in your possession, newspaper clippings, maps, old photos of the town or oral history about Rushford (that you can back up), please email me at your earliest convenience at:

bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com

This is a very long term project with a lot of hard work ahead for me.  Unlike the autobiography, there won't be any play by plays, teasers or behind the scenes spoilers before the book is released.  If you live in Rushford, know something about Rushford that no one else knows or if there's something about the town that you find important to its legacy, please email me.  You have my full attention.

Sincerely,
Tom Waters 

Icarus On The Mend Fetches A King's Ransom, Big Words Radio Wins An Award & Doubt It Publishing Looks For A New Author On The Roster

            With such a large scale project accompanied by an enormous timeline, I thought it would be a natural idea to auction off the original manuscript (along with a copy of the hardcover when it's released).  I started writing Icarus On The Mend last October (in 2010), spent the last two months proof-reading, spell checking and generally filling any gaps in the continuity and continue to put the finishing touches on the second read-through.  The auction started on FB this week and I'm astonished to see that the only copy that anyone can read for the next year is up to $225!  We'll find out how much it fetches by close of business tomorrow. 

            A year from now, Icarus On The Mend will launch on my birthday (October 25th, 2012) in a limited, numbered hardcover edition comprised of 50 copies in an 8.25x10.75 format.  Due to the sheer size of the book (430 pages and counting in 6x9), I had to go bigger in order to make the book cost effective.  I've been working closely with a new artist on the cover concept and he's researching mythology and moths for an acrylic painting due by August 1st.  Returning Doubt It graphic designer Brian Platter (Six Shot Studios) will be designing all three volumes of the book over the course of the next year from the interior to the wraparound cover layout.  Due to the nature (and content) of the book, I'm not in a big hurry to share it with everyone.  Regardless, the book is almost done and there seems to be a very large demand in the market for people to read it.  It's been soothing to have a project that we can all take our time with for once so that we all make sure that the book is as perfect as it's going to be by the time you buy a copy.

            Once we all get around to October of 2013, Icarus On The Mend will come out in two soft cover trade paperback volumes in a 6x9 format with the addition of at least one new chapter.  Brian Platter is working on an original photo reel cover for the first volume along with an identical photo negative for the second. 

            The long term objective for all of this is to release a third volume some twenty years from now as a companion piece to the former two.  Many people have asked me how I can release an autobiography when my life is (in fact) not over with yet.  I decided to start writing it a year ago so that I could retain as much information as possible while it was still instantly retrievable.  After ten years of freelancing, it felt like the right time to reflect on my life in order to prepare for the future.  I also feel that my experience with manic depression might be able to help others coping with the illness, whether it's relatives, friends of those diagnosed or people with the actual diagnosis. 

            The book has already drawn more controversy than I expected and it's not even out yet.  For once I wasn't trying to cause any trouble and it showed up to the party anyway.  The majority of the dissension came from the fact that (in almost every instance), I've used real names in this book.  My intent as to why I'd do this has been called into question and I'm going to address this by saying that there are two ways that you can pen a memoir: You can open up a big gray area where you edit what actually happened and try to apply a complementary image to your life or you can work on being unflinchingly honest about yourself and others.  I haven't compromised my art so far and I'm certainly not going to start now.  I didn't use real names as a marketing ploy and (unless the events reported could have caused someone immediate harm), I didn't use real names to cause anything scandalous.  Again, it felt like the right thing to do and my intentions were genuine. 

            I'm shooting for a $40 price point on the hardcover and a $15 price point on each soft cover.  It's been awhile since I've released a book in hardcover format (If They Can't Take A Joke), so I'm not sure if this will be possible, but that's what we're aiming at.  I appreciate all the feedback that those of you on Facebook have provided in the interim whether it was positive or negative and I'm pretty shocked by the amount of money some of you have been willing to shell out towards the manuscript.  It's been very encouraging and it's given me the initiative for that final push towards polishing off what's left that needs to be done.  This won't be my last book by a long shot, but the production window is buying me enough time for starting a family, taking a long break (if I'm capable of taking it) or the opportunity to focus on other projects and other authors for Doubt It Publishing. 

            Wrapping up, it looks as if The Big Words I Know By Heart Radio Hour is receiving a You Rock award at Bravo on October 22nd to commemorate the Busted Stuff two-party from earlier in the year.  British journalist Joel Meadows will be my distinguished guest on Big Words Radio on October 25th, Richard Wicka will be my guest in November and we're doing the Big Words Finale Show early in December.  The Buffalo News has also accepted my third and final My View submission for the year which should be running some time in October.  They have a three submission cap and one of my goals this year was to hit all three.  There's also one month left for promising Buffalo authors to submit their original manuscripts for possible publication as a 2011 Doubt It Publishing Author Of The Year.  Manuscripts can be sent to: bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com with 'Submission' in the subject field. 

Have a great rest of the week and thanks for keeping up,

Tom Waters

Poke The Scorpion Publicity Junket Rescheduled for late October

     I try to follow my instincts, and my gut tells me that it's a smarter idea to promote Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick during the actual Scorpio season, which runs from October 23rd through November 21st.  While the book is already out online, it makes more sense to promote it effectively during the boom season for the rest of my tribe, so to speak.  While I'm not superstitious and while I don't cling to too many pat philosophies, there are too many parallels and far too many coincidences associated with the Scorpio sign that are worth giving tribute to.  The entire book is devoted to the Scorpio mentality along with scorpions as a species.
     While my poetry collections make up a very small percentage of my overall revenue, the new book is still worth hitting the road and promoting.  Some people shut down instantaneously when you even mention the word poetry, so they're not going to even be receptive.  Other people's ears perk up at the notion of something new and innovative.  Others can be converted given the right circumstances.  That's the market I'm going after.  It's my wish to incorporate a few readings, signings and related events along with some old tricks that have worked in the past.  Mark McElligott will be joining me on the journey in Buffalo and beyond.  The Monsters Of Verse will get back into the habit this fall with a few coffee houses and a few bookstores.  I'm entertaining the idea of even doing some guest bartending stints just for the hell of it.
     Breathing Room Volume I was wildly successful considering the miniscule hopes I had for it.  Volume II did just okay by comparison, but it was weirder, so that's okay.  The few people who picked up the first batch of Scorpion books have called it 'the best poetry book I've written so far.'  It may be my last.  Locking into that frame of mind is difficult to do, but I'd be happy to go out on a high note where poetry is concerned.
     Please enjoy your summers and free up a few weekends in late October and November.  Poke The Scorpion will be hitting you where it hurts soon enough.  In the mean time, I'll be crouched in a small dark place waiting to strike.  Like most scorpions.
Thanks for staying tuned,
Tom Waters 

Poke The Scorpion Book Giveaway!

This month I'll be giving away three random signed copies of Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick.  What do you have to do to get it? 

1. 'Like' Poke The Scorpion on FB by following this link:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/poke-the-scorpion-with-a-sharp-stick-selected-poems-2008-2011/16130225?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

2. Rate the book on lulu.com.

3. Post a link on your Twitter, FB, Google + or any other website you may have.

4. Leave  a comment on this post.

5. Drop me an email at bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com with 'Contest' in the subject heading.

            Final deadline is August 1st, 2011.  Whether you live in Buffalo or beyond, I'll hold a random drawing at the end of July.  If you're local I'll hand you a copy at the first scheduled reading or signing for Poke The Scorpion in August.  If you live out of state or in another country, I'll send you a signed copy out of pocket.  I'd like to launch this book with a bang and I need your help to do it!

Game on,

Tom Waters 

Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick: 30% Off Soft Launch Orders!

Here we go again…

            It's July 1st and (as promised), I'm proud to announce the heavily discounted soft launch of Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick, my third collection of angry, funny and oversexed poetry.  While I wouldn't say that this go round is tamer than Breathing Room Volume I and II, it is softer somehow.  I wrote the bulk of the book right before and right after my wedding, so there's a soft sense of acceptance and inner peaceto the body of work that sets it apart from the other two books.  I'm very proud of the collection for the leap forward in originality as well as the design and the format.  For those of you willing to take a chance on something different, you won't be disappointed.  From now until August (when I plan on promoting the book in Buffalo), Scorpion will be 30% off if you buy direct on lulu.com.  Here's your quick link:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/poke-the-scorpion-with-a-sharp-stick-selected-poems-2008-2011/16130225

            After four solid months of interviews, press releases, and appearances for Mockery, I'm ready for a break.  Mark McElligott, Dave 'The Real Deal' Waters and I have one more outing at Brennan's Bowery Bar next Sunday (The Brennan's Boxed Trifecta) on Sunday, July 10th at 6 p.m. and then I've got a month off before we kick back into high gear.  I've never felt that summer was a good time to promote because there are too many other events going on to compete with, so we'll be resting up and waiting out the season before we get right back into it this fall. 

            For those of you who helped to make Mockery my fastest-selling book, thank you.  It's on target to be my best-selling humor collection to date by year's end.  There's a momentum to all of this that seems to be catching up to me this year in a good way.  Hopefully most of you will make the leap of faith over to Scorpion and join me for the second half of this year.  Things are only going to get better from here on out.  There's a lot left to accomplish. 

Enjoy your 4th of July and buy my new damned book!

Tom Waters  

'Scorpion' Rising, Icarus Ascends & Rust Belt Books On The Horizon

            While Mockery is winding down and Mark McElligott's Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind is still gaining momentum, I've been quietly preparing to go full steam ahead with promotions this fall with Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick.  Brian Platter (Six Shot Studios) and I finished the book in record time.  While I originally set a deadline for the final version of the book at August 1st, it's already done.  You can buy the book in advance by clicking your way over to:

  http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/poke-the-scorpion-with-a-sharp-stick-selected-poems-2008-2011/16069791

            Please click the FB 'Like' tab to the right of the book and feel free to review, comment or rate the book while you're there.  There's a ten page preview of the contents on the page in order to give you a sneak peek at how the book looks. 

            Starting on July 1st (through the end of the month), I'll be running a 30% off sale on lulu for those of you interested in buying the book online.  This should offset their shipping rates and make the book more affordable to those of you who live out of state who are interested in picking up the third poetry collection.  After that I'll be doing a soft launch on Sunday, July 10th at Brennan's Bowery Bar in Williamsville at 6 p.m. along with Mark McElligott and a live musical performance by Dave 'The Real Deal' Waters.  If you're a former classmate from Clarence High School, it sounds as if the classes of '92, '93, '94 and beyond will be dog piling into Brennan's on the same day for an informal reunion.  At last count, there will be no less than 50 other alumni showing up, so this event is shaping up to be a real barn burner.  Signed First Edition copies of Poke The Scorpion, Mockery, Slapstick & Superego, Breathing Room Volume I & II, and If They Can't Take A Joke will be available along with Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind by Mark McElligott and 12 Priests & 3 Gnomes by David Waters. 

            The hard launch for Poke The Scorpion will hit in August and Mark and I will start touring and promoting in Rochester, Buffalo, Alfred and beyond.  While I was apprehensive about releasing two of my own books in the same year, it was a necessary evil I had to carry out in order to devote the time and energy it's going to take to bring Icarus On The Mend in on time for a fall 2012 launch as a numbered hardcover limited edition of no more than 50 copies.  I'll be devoting at least six months to proofreading, editing and re-writing the manuscript so that it's grammatically correct as well as entertaining from a pacing standpoint.  One year later in 2013 I'll be retiring the hardcover format and launching two smaller volumes of the same book with the intention of releasing a third volume when I get older.  Somewhere in the interim I'll release Travesty, a return to shorter form where my bombastic essays are concerned.

            Mark McElligott and I will both be reading this Sunday at Rust Belt Books on Allen St. in the heart of downtown Buffalo at 5 p.m.  We may be a little late, so please be patient with us as we're both driving from the suburbs.  We're paying to rent the space, so attendance and book sales for this event will be crucial.  The turnout will determine whether I go back to Rust Belt books or not, so if you live downtown, make Sunday count for us please.  This is the first reading I've done at Rust Belt in almost a decade.  Mark is polished and primed and almost pitch perfect where his timing and delivery are concerned.  Stockman's, Caz Coffee and Finnan's were good practice for breaking his teeth on audience response and now he's ready for prime time.  Look out, Buffalo, because we're ready to make a sizeable entertainment dent in the collective populace for the rest of this year and we won't stop until we win you over.

See you this Sunday,

Tom Waters   

Doubt It Publishing Logos by Brian Platter (Six Shot Studios)

Final Wraparound Art For Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick

Final wraparound art for Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick by Six Shot Studios.  We're rounding third and heading for home on this one, folks.

Cheers & Jeers: Events As They Develop

Okay, here's the rundown for this particular week…

            Doubt It Publishing Author Mark McElligott will be reading selections from his breakout debut book Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind  this Saturday at Caz Coffee Café at 7 p.m. in South Buffalo.  Our turnout was less than ideal at Finnan's Pub last Sunday, so it would be really nice to see some of you who might be remotely interested in supporting local arts actually show up.  While we both realize that the weather is nice out, we're in the final stretch of a three month junket and we're busting our asses to get his book out to a new audience.  If you live in (or near) South Buffalo and you're free on Saturday, please show some support and stop out to see us at Caz Coffee Café. 

            Most marketing and PR experts would suggest that I shouldn't complain about a lack of turnout because it makes me look whiny or it makes us look bad.  I simply don't care.  Mark and I have both invested a great deal of time and money into publishing two books and promoting them and it seems as if (now that the weather has improved) most of you have no interest in discovering just how funny his book is.  Please prove me wrong.  Clear up your schedule, skip a forgettable trip to the beach or a laughable summer venue and come out to see something real.  If you're the sort of person who needs a newspaper to tell you what you should be interested in or what you should spend your disposable income on, take a chance for once and discover the actual art scene in Buffalo versus the Reader's Digest abridged version.  Copies of Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind will be available for $15. 

            On the whole I've been deeply disappointed with audience turnout for this junket.  I have no control over it and there's no way to analyze it, but many of you have let us down.  It's easier to do nothing than it is to do something, so take comfort in your complacency.  To those of you who continue to show up for the book launches, readings and signings and those of you kind enough to tell your friends, spend money at our scheduled venues and spend your hard earned money to support our work, we really appreciate it.  If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be able to continue creating and publishing new books.  If there were more people like you in Buffalo, there's a strong possibility that we'd actually be able to make a living wage doing this and we'd be able to produce a larger body of work, but odds are that that will never happen since most people in Buffalo (again) need to be told what art is worth buying by their local media like lost and sluggish sheep. 

I appreciate the cross section of you smart enough to make your own decisions and the fact that you march to the beat of your own drummer.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making your own informed decisions based on internal judgment instead of a deep-seated need for peer approval or a desire to have someone else tell you what is and isn't entertaining.  If you receive this message via email, I understand that it's infinitely easier to delete this message than it is to take the time to read it and react or respond to it, so for those of you who are reading this right now, thank you.  To those of you who reply or react by showing up to a reading, thank you even more.  I'll get off my soap box now.

At the time of this writing it is now June 9th, so the Doubt It Publishing call for submissions is now wide open until November 1st.  Again, if you're a local (Buffalo) writer and you have a completed manuscript or a draft in the realm of fiction, non-fiction, poetry or short stories, please send your manuscript in at: bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com.  One of you will be chosen for publication in 2011 and I'll give you the full force of my attention and publicity skills to ensure that we both turn a tidy profit on your brain trust in addition to setting up a slate of appearances and book signings.  If you're willing to put in the work, so am I. 

Thanks in large part to graphic designer extraordinaire Brian Platter (Six Shot Studios), Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick is coming along at a brisk pace.  The book should be available by August 1st at the rate we're going, but I won't count my chickens yet.  The format size is being developed so that it bridges Breathing Room Volume I and II.  The size of the book will be somewhere in between both, which says a lot about the content.  The cover looks gorgeous and I couldn't be happier with the bold design choices that Brian has made for the interior.  For those of you daring enough to jump head first into a poetry book, you're in for a pleasant surprise this fall.  JR Finlayson, David Waters and a host of other local poets and I will be touring throughout Buffalo after the festival and concert season in autumn to promote the book as well as other books. 

This Sunday I'll be returning to Think Twice Radio to interview broadcasting icon Brian Kahle for The Big Words I Know By Heart Radio Hour along with local artist and blogger John Kindelan.  We'll be talking about censorship, the line that's blurred between advertising an investigative journalism and the current state of Buffalo broadcasting.  The conversation will be bold and uncompromising, but I'm sure you've come to expect that from me.  Your frequent (and often vocal) encouragement has molded me into the person I am today. 

These are exciting times.  While my pace may be brisk and my candor unforgiving, it's all because I'm building the framework for a larger plan.  The first ten years of my professional career as a writer are over.  I'm headlong into the next ten and the scope and landscape of a grander design is well underway.  For those of you willing to participate and play along, I'm eternally grateful.  As for the rest of you, you're missing out on something very real and extremely fun. 

Race you to next week,

Tom Waters