Jul 25 2007
About
In 2006, I chose to publish my mystery, Too Near the Edge (my first novel) through my family publishing company, PMI Books, www.pmibooks.com. I didn’t send the novel to any agents or publishers first. Also in 2006 PMI Books published a chick lit novel, Following My Toes by my daughter, Laurel Osterkamp who teaches creative writing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We made the self-publishing decision based on my experience with my two published nonfiction books. The first, a self-help stress-management book, was originally published by a small press that did no PR and was struggling to survive. My husband (co-author) and I bought back the rights, started our own company, and have sold over 50,000 copies of that book Stress? Find Your Balance, which is now in its 4th edition. My next book, also self-help (on communication between adults and their parents) had a NYC agent who got me an advance and a contract with Berkley Publishing group. They published the book with a title I hated, did meager PR, and the book only ever sold about 5,000 copies and was soon out of print.
PMI Books is a member of PMA (the Independent Book Publishers Association) and our books have distribution through Ingram and Baker and Taylor with a standard 55% discount. They are also returnable. Our books are available on Amazon and other online sites, and we can keep them in print as long as we want. Our novels have gotten good reviews from online reviewers and Too Near the Edge recently won a silver medal for best regional fiction in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) contest.
We are proud of our books and we believe our books—and all books—should be accorded equal opportunity in terms of being considered for reviews, being allowed to enter award contests, and being permitted to participate in book signings, fairs and events. This blog is about combating bias against books based on how they are published. A book should be judged on its quality, not on who publishes it.
Lynn Osterkamp, Ph.D., MSW
PMI Books
Lynn,
I found your blog via the BMW site. I was a BMW member when I lived in Boulder (we moved to Santa Fe 4 years ago). Kudos on a useful and nicely done blog.
I self-published (via Right Hand Communications LLC) my two books (which you can see at gailreitenbach.com) with LSI last year and am also a PMA member and IPPY award winner. I’m going to let a couple of folks here in Santa Fe know about your blog.
I’ll come back and read more entries when I have more time.
Best of luck,
Gail