Experiments in Publishing

How to game the system

One of my goals with Belt Publishing is to keep finding ways to sidestep traditional publishing practices. If we don’t keep finding new and creative avenues to sell books, we will be playing a game that we cannot win, because publishing conglomeration, plus the behemoths of Amazon and Ingram, mean doing it the way others do will not allow us to thrive (or, even, survive). I am not going to say we are trying to ‘disrupt’ publishing, but…

The biggest success I’ve had thus far in terms of refusing standard operating procedures is by convincing consumers to order directly from our store (longtime newsletter readers have heard me beat this drum often; apologies for the redundancy!). Cutting out the middlemen about 25% of the time has allowed us to keep expanding (and being).

But I always have my eyes out for new ideas.

I’m not alone; Dave Eggers recently announced that he will be publishing his next novel in hardbacks that will be available only to independent bookstores; the paperback wi…