Industry Interviews: Twit Publishing

Here today with me is Craig Gabrysch, owner of Twit Publishing.

JR: Tell everyone a little about yourself and Twit Publishing.

CG: Well, first off, I’m actually co-owner with my brother, Chris Gabrysch. And, according to the paperwork, neither  of us actually own it. We’re “managing members.”

I write a little fiction for Twit’s anthologies, and serve as a sort of junior editor (meaning I help proof the books).

Other than that, I do all the layout for the print books and eBook conversions, manage the website, etc. Ideally, I’d be the one writing the blogs and do Twitter stuff too, but those are on the back burner at the moment.

JR: What separates your business model from other publishing companies?

CG: Oh, geez. Not much, I think. I mean, we’re all kind of testing out new ideas right now, right? Seeing what the market will handle on prices, what the best way to get your name out there is. We do print-on-demand exclusively and eBooks, but I don’t think that really sets us apart from anyone else.

We ARE kind of old school, in that we have a “stable” of authors that write for us, ones that we are publishing longer works from.

The other thing is that we perform everything in the publishing process in-house. Like I said, I do the layout and Chris does the book covers and editing.

JR: What do you feel your company does better than other publishers?

CG: Depends on which publisher you’re talking about. I think Twit does a really great job of putting together the Twit Publishing Presents: PULP! series.  It’s a unique series, in my opinion, because it offers a cross-section of genre fiction. Western, scifi, fantasy, etc. It’s almost like a weird, genre literary mag that we put out twice a year, but strictly in book form.

JR: Now I have to ask, what exactly is Pulp?

CG: Depends on how you look at it: Pulp was a non-specific genre that specifically referred to the kind of paper the stories were printed on: ie crappy, cheap, uneven, bottom of the bucket paper.

There were A LOT of genres covered in the old Pulps: everything from westerns to science fiction to cop fiction, to detective fiction, or fantasy and horror. Even erotica. A lot of the early gay and lesbian fiction was printed on pulp paper.

Now, the way we do it, we took the more popular genres like horror, fantasy, science fiction, western, crime and detective, and crammed ‘em all together in one book. And, then there’s all those genre mashups, too. Those are in there.

At the root of it, Chris and I have always talked about how much pop-fiction owes to the old pulps, and we wanted to put out something that embraced it. We’re not trying to emulate the old pulps, mind you, because (quite honestly) some of that writing really, really stunk. We’re just tipping our hat to it.

JR: How did you find authors for your books?

CG: For our first and second book, it was Craig’s List and our friends. I even wrote a story to fill in space. Our second book had quite a few authors from the first book. Our 3rd book had a lot of stories from authors on duotrope.com, but almost half of them came from authors that were involved in Summer/Fall 2010 and Winter/Spring 2011.

JR: I know from experience how hard it can be dealing with many authors. What do you feel is the hardest part of putting together an anthology?

CG: Selecting the stories. And not even the cutting down from 14 to 12 stories part. It’s the “look, this isn’t really genre ficiton. It’s a little too experimental for us.” We’ve had to turn down several really, really great short stories strictly because they didn’t fit. But they were awesome.

JR: What advice would give a new author wanting to get his/her book published traditionally?

CG: Step 1. READ.

Step 2. WRITE.

Step 3. EDIT.

Step 4. PROOFREAD.

Step 5. EDIT SOME MORE.

Publish short stories with a lot of small publishers that don’t want you to pay to get published. This is useful, strictly speaking, because it builds a portfolio for you that you can point to. Also, short stories are a hell of a lot HARDER to write than novels. It’ll teach you wonderful, useful things, such as: how to use one very specific word for an idea, rather than four very unspecific words that convey the idea, but take up space.

Write a novel.

Edit the crap out of the novel. Maybe even hire a freelance editor to look over it.

Find an agent and submit.

But, the most important thing to remember is Steps 3-5. At the end of the day, writers are artists, and words are our chosen artistic medium. If your prose is vague, or messy, then the story becomes muddled and uninteresting. Show some care for your work, and check for freakin’ typos.

JR: For you, what is the most frustrating aspect of dealing with an author?

CG: None for me. I only deal with the happy stuff. I do sit down with some authors near me and talk about writing, but it’s not frustrating per se. Deadlines, maybe? Chris would probably have a huge list, but so far no complaints.

JR: What are you goals for the future, and what steps will help you achieve these goals?

CG: Oh, geez. I dunno. Sell a million books?

What will help? Doing blog interviews like this, and continuing to meet people and connect with readers. Oh, and convincing JK Rowling that she needs to publish with us.

But, seriously, I think the thing that’s going to help us most is releasing a series of novels by an author with a very strong, personal voice and presence.

JR: For everyone following this, I met Craig at All-Con 2011. I must say it was a weird event for me. I had no idea what Steampunk was and there were men walking around with dolls. What experience did you get from a 3-day event like All-Con and how will this knowledge help you in the future?

CG: Nerds are strange folk. And there’s A LOT of drinking. So take your vitamins and eat frequently if you go to a convention, or you’ll be incredibly hungover every day.

JR: What is your favorite book of all time?

CG: That is SUCH a tough question, because I really don’t know. I’ve read all over the map and read all sorts of different genres and authors. Dune is up there, but so is the Dark Tower Series, and so is James Joyce and Hemingway.

JR: Your turn. Ask me any question you would like.

CG: How did you manage to make a living doing this?

JR: Really, I just had to make a commitment to publishing and stop waiting for the money to make me do this full time. I put more focus on advertising and promoting my products, and asked for advice from successful people who could teach me something about owning a business.

Short Answer:

The biggest problem with politicians is… I think they’re zealots. They HAVE to join these political parties, and to join them they HAVE to pass these litmus tests of certain values that are black or white. Like republicans have to be anti-abortion and democrats have to be for welfare. It’s one or the other. I think we need two or three more political parties so they’re forced to compromise.

One thing I have always wanted to do is… go to space. Not necessarily space, either. I want to go to another planet.

My worst habit is definitely… not blogging? Smoking? Drinking? Being too honest? I have lots.

Nothing frustrates me more than… people who sit around and bitch and whine, but don’t ever DO. Like, if you can’t find a better job because you don’t have a college degree, why don’t you go and get one? If you don’t like your girlfriend, break up with her. Just STOP WHINING ABOUT IT. If you’re not good at something, practice your ass off and STOP WHINING ABOUT HOW SOMETHING IS HARD. Oh, and people who fail at something they attempt, then think this is some sort of end-game scenario. No, just try again.

If I had one wish it would be… to have my own land outside of Dallas where I could have my own sustainable house.

Publishers are… technicians. We take a manuscript, put it through a series of processes, and pop out a book.

You can read more about Twit Publishing and view their catalogue here: Twit Publishing