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The Lonely Independent: Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Ontario publisher is out in the "hills" and likes it that way
When Blake Stevens gets up in morning he can look out his bedroom window across the rolling green Northumberland Hills. At the front of his house, he can greet the new day on the wide wooden verandah and look down on one of Ontario's most well stocked fishing lakes. Blake, his wife Susan and their golden retriever Sammi, live in a modern two-story log home.Each morning Blake leaves the upper story of the home and walks down the stairs to the ground level. Probably takes him 20 seconds maximum, if the dog gets in the way maybe 25 seconds. Blake Stevens, independent publisher, is at work. No traffic jams, no highway patrol officers using their radar guns to boost police funds. No parking problems. And all this is just one hour by car from Toronto, Canada's largest city, and home to major league hockey, baseball and basketball. Rural peace and quiet, adjacent to all the conveniences of modern city living -- the life of which idylls are comprised.
Of course reality has a habit of intruding and causing some hiccups along the way. On the day I visited the offices of Collector Grade Publications the lake was invisible through the driving snow. The family vehicles were quickly becoming buried under a freezing white blanket, and the administrative head of the organization, wife Susan, was trying to resolve the problem of a courier driver attempting to make a delivery, who had taken a wrong turn and driven his vehicle off the road into a snow drift from which he needed extraction. Just a normal day in the life of today's home-based independent publisher...
Independent publishing is one of those occupations which technology has made ideally suited to 'work from home' operations. That was less true of the 'bad' old days when, as Stevens explains, "I used to have the text in galleys, the headings in galley and the pictures in galleys. I needed a copy typist to type the manuscript and then the typesetter had to type it again. Then take everything along to the printer. Now the whole book ends up on a CD which is shipped to the printer. Back come the books. Provided the master CD is free of errors or typos, so is the finished product."
For someone who has learned the publishing business from the ground up and who now has almost 30 titles behind him, it may be thought Stevens' success is the result of a well thought out strategy and the culmination of a dream. Such would be wrong. Why did Blake Stevens get into publishing? "I really couldn't think of anything else to do. I knew a lot about guns, I like the English language and writing, and I have an interest in art. Simple, I thought, mix those three things together and publish books." It was neither that simple nor that fast.
At age 35 Stevens gave every outward appearance of being a successful computer programmer. In reality he was frustrated and disillusioned. "I woke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and realized here I am lying in this little bed in this little apartment because it's close to where I work. I get up in the morning and go to work to earn enough money to pay for this apartment so I can go back to work to earn money. I could see no end." Stevens did what no responsible person would consider. He quit. Job gone, few prospects, no idea what to do. "The scary thing was I couldn't think of anything I could do for which people would pay me." So he fell back on a hobby. Stevens was a gun collector and acknowledged expert on a wide variety of firearms. "I started traveling around the gun shows. I could buy and sell and make some sort of living."
Prior to quitting his regular job, Stevens had been asked by a small publisher to write a book about Canadian pistols. The book, it was more of a pamphlet, was duly written and presented to Jim Gooding the Ottawa based publisher. The finished publication sold for $2.00. That was in 1974. The booklet still sells steadily but today at $9.00. "That was my first big lesson," says Stevens, "Gooding paid me $500 for the manuscript and the copyright. The book has been selling for 28 years and I get nothing". Lesson one: Never sell the copyright.
Thinking back to that little publication decided Stevens that his future lay in publishing gun books. Had that been the extent of his concept success would have been unlikely. He looked ahead and decided his books would be meticulously researched, historically accurate and each one would be restricted to one particular type of firearm. Instead of publishing a treatise on automatic rifles, Stevens would publish the world's most comprehensive treatment of the Browning Automatic Rifle. Today with an expanding catalogue it sounds sensible, at the time it was either courageous or foolhardy. Lesson two: Find a niche for your product then look more deeply for the hidden niche inside that interest group.
So with an idea set to go, all that was needed was a book. What does a publisher looking for a book do? Stevens wasn't sure, so he sat down and wrote one. The first manuscript was titled North American FAL's (FAL's are light automatic rifles). Then he wrote a second titled UK and Commonwealth FAL's and finally a third in the series titled Metric FAL's. Much later these three books would be reissued in one volume as The FAL Classic Edition. Writing, of course, was merely the first step. The manuscript needed illustrations, layout, binding and printing. Jim Gooding, the astute owner of the copyright on Stevens' first manuscript helped with these details while Stevens watched and learned. Finally with a finished manuscript in his briefcase it was time to find a printer.
The manuscript was the least important part of the process; "No, we don't need to see that, tell us about your bank account." was a common response. Fortunately for the future of Collector Grade not every printer was so heartless, and Stevens found Maracle Press, the printing arm of the Seventh Day Adventists. They were willing to print 1,500 copies of the opus at a price that Stevens' bank account could handle. First, however, there was a difficult question. "What type of book do you want," Stevens was asked. "I was at a complete loss. I had absolutely no idea what the thing should look like, big or little, thick or thin, hardcover or soft. In the end I had to go pretty much with my pocketbook, so I opted for a paper cover, but I did have the pages sewn in. It looks pretty tacky now -- the pictures are dim. We used the wrong font, 10pt sans serif font, which is okay for magazines but not for a book. The layout is too cramped. The cover was hand done and not particularly well done either, and the cover didn't get laminated." That oversight was a problem, as the book was taken around a variety of gun shows where it was handled by oily hands leaving a clear thumbprint where no thumbprint should be. "I made sure the next two were laminated as well as sewn." Lesson three: Do your homework about paper stock, cover laminations, bindings and the like.
So Stevens had 1,500 books and no ready outlet. It had to be the gun shows. Stevens began a regular hike around the shows and started to sell his books. It didn't take long for an identity question to arise. "I could retail the books myself, but some of the gun dealers wanted to buy them wholesale and sell them. If I continued to retail at the shows I was in competition with the people who were buying wholesale." So the retailing Stevens at a variety of gun shows disappeared " Now gun dealers are a major outlet for me". Every weekend somewhere in North America there is a gun show. It is a rare one that does not carry Collector Grade publications. While 1,500 books may not sound like a lot, "I ordered too many. I carried them around for years, although every single one has gone now. It just takes time. Lesson four: Your books will sell ....eventually. It takes time and patience.
The marketing of Collector Grade has now settled down to a mixture of retail sales through mail order or the Internet and wholesale sales through the gun trade. This situation was not planned it just developed as the only logical marketing scheme "I walked around a range of Toronto booksellers only to get the old heave ho. "No we don't have a military history department and we don't want one so goodbye.' It didn't take long to realize that was a complete waste of time. Any town has only a limited number of gun collectors, so the retail book sellers were not going to be of help to me." Next to be tried were the major international book fairs. For three years Stevens attended BookExpo in New York and Chicago and the Frankfurt and London book fairs. "It was very expensive. Travel, accommodations, food, and then the cost of the space. Then even with all that outlay, as an independent publisher at the major shows there is a problem of visibility. Generally I found myself with the rest of the small independents, shunted off to the periphery of the fair." Stevens made some important contacts at these fairs, but decided that book fairs didn't help him find the customers he was seeking. "I heard from a few general distributors who like to carry a range of books, kids books, decorating books, cookery, things like that, but my publications were just too specialized. The generalists are looking for something like 'Guns of the World.' not a detailed history and manufacturing specifications for every model of a particular rifle." If Stevens believed the major book fairs don't take the small independent seriously, he quickly discovered that others share that feeling. "I tried to join the Canadian Book Publishers association only to be told that because I was both author and publisher of my first book I was classified along with little old ladies who write and publish their poetry through a 'vanity' press. I was told I could not join the association." Lesson five: Be prepared for people not to take you seriously.
Despite the setbacks and the unsuccessful marketing efforts the business grew. As it grew and production tools and techniques increasingly came directly into Blake's hands through his computer he continued to push for excellence in content and presentation. "I moved to a 60 pound paper called Stirling litho satin. Everything is still sewn. I use 150 dpi for my half tones, although most people use 133 dpi". That increased density is very important when you are depicting something very small which may be the only difference between Mark I and Mark II. The end result today is a book, which can grace any coffee table, but also serves as a recognized work of reference. Lesson six: Experts and serious collectors will always seek out the most reliable and well-presented sources of information.
Today with almost 30 successful publications, many in reprint, Collector Grade -- Blake and Susan Stevens -- have reached a state where they can quite comfortably handle the publication of two new books each year, while supplying their network of dealers. Most books retail for $69.95. Authors receive a royalty of 10% and the dealer's margin varies according to the number of books they buy. Libraries and museums get 20% off the single copy price. Today the usual initial print run is 5,000 copies. Shipping and handling are taken care of by a shipper across the border in Northern New York. The printer, Friesens of Altona, Manitoba, ships the books direct to the warehouse. Orders are faxed to them and the warehouser ships by US mail or UPS. "It solves all the problems that arise when trying to ship from Canada into the US."
After 20+ years learning the publishing business Collector Grade Publications is acknowledged around the world - over 90% of their sales are made internationally- as a leader in its chosen field. A UK magazine reviewer recently said, "They (Collector Grade) have set a standard for their books." But despite, or perhaps because, of that success Collector Grade represents a paradox. Aiming their publications at a market too small to attract any generalists, Blake Stevens has satisfied the needs of a small group whose publishing needs were being ignored and found his own small, but reliable niche. Those buyers are important. "I know who buys my books. I keep their names because they were damned hard to find in the first place. For my books the market is infinitesimally small. If I had talked to an accountant when I started or even if I knew then what I know now I would never have started. I'd probably have slit my wrists." Lesson seven: The accountants are not always right. If you can meet the needs of a group of readers, however small, you can be a successful independent publisher.
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Brian Slemming is a freelance writer living in Ontario, Canada. During a career which has involved everything from driving a London cab, to producing TV news programs, he spent a period in the sales business and spent many long hours on a variety of trade stands.