BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR

Ever since authors like Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe cracked the shell on Nantucket's oyster and shared it on a bed of book pages with the world, many Americans have dreamt of quitting the mainland to write from this island, and about this island. There used to exist a single, major obstacle to living this dream - the means of publishing a book belonged to major corporations, and unless one of those publishers deemed your writing accessible to a larger, national audience, you'd just as soon catch your own sperm whale in the harbor as see your writing in a bound book on a

Self-published author Francis Pease in front of the computer where he wrote "Memories of a Nantucket Boyhood," his memoirs of a Depression-era island boyhood. Far left: Images of Pease from his youth. Until the last two decades, that is. With the proliferation of self-publishing and publishing-ondemand, one can plant one's flag and one's pen in the sand on Nantucket and maybe even sell a few books here afterwards.

Over a dozen summer and year-round residents have done well with self-published books in recent years, according to Mimi Beman, owner of Mitchell's Book Corner and de facto advisor for island writers. Just a few of those books are:

+ Jack Warner's "Reflections in the Rearview Mirror."

+ Nancy Newhouse's "We Are Nantucket." + Andrew Spencer's "Veneer." + Phil Austin's "Talking Leaf." + C.S. Lovelace's "Memoirs of a Lost Island." + Steve Axelrod's "Paranoid."

+ Carla Finn's "Nantucket Beach Picnics"

That is already more titles than you can count on one hand without a genetic deformity. Among the most financially successful self-publishing Nantucket authors, according to Beman, are Wendy Rouillard - a Parson's School of Design graduate who self-publishes her "Barnaby the Bear" children's series from Nantucket - and Peter and Cheryl Barnes and Susan Arciero, creators of the children's books "Nat, Nat, the Nantucket Cat" and "Nat, Nat Goes to the Beach."

Those books have done well on a national scale, but most local, self-publishing authors can consider themselves successful if they've sold 1,000 copies - a number first set by Bill Haddon's "classic" photojournalistic book "Nantucket."

Author of the well regarded "Scallop Season" (with photos by our own Rob Benchley), Jim Patrick released 3,000 copies of "Nantucket Love Stories," his first self-published, Nantucketthemed book, in 1992. It took seven years, but the book sold out. Patrick and Benchley released "Scallop Season," a black and white photo-documentary and coffee table book about the scallopers who preserve the Nantucket tradition, in September 2002. It has sold about 2,700 copies to date - having sold about 2,300 units in its first year and about 60 to 70 every year since. In its first year out, "Scallop Season" was also the highest grossing book on Nantucket for the year, even though it was released in September.

"On Nantucket, you do have an easily reachable base," Patrick said on the phone from Fort Lauderdale, where he now works as the director of the drama program at Pine Crest Academy. "You kind of have a guarantee that, if you have a reasonably appealing book, you'll sell something in the neighborhood of 3,000 copies over a period of years."

Beman offered three reasons for the proliferation of on-island self-publishing.

First of all, she said, self-publishing doesn't have the stigma that 'vanity' publishing used to have: "Everybody sort of feels they have a book in them, and now it's just easier to do it."

Author of "The Ghost of Tom Never" and retired advertising executive, Jack Warner had his manuscript for about three and a half years and was shopping publishers.

"I went to one publisher who said, 'We love it, but we want to do straight history, so drop the ghost and make it your own story,' Which I was reluctant to do," Warner remembered. "Then, I took it to another publisher who said 'Beef up the ghost.'"

Exasperated, Warner decided to get the book out by himself, and it did well last summer.

Author of the self-published memoir "Getting to Nantucket," Kerry Hallam also chose to selfpublish the book he'd spent a decade writing, rather than see it altered by an editor.

Ditto self-published author Donold Lourie, who spent a part of his life courting editors. "It took forever for publishers to respond, and unless you're awfully lucky or awfully good, it's kind of a dream, it doesn't happen," said Lourie, who has published six books since 1980 - the latest of which is the bawdy and satirical "The Naked Trustee."

The second reason that self-publishing has become more popular is because it's just easier - less time-consuming and less expensive - than it used to be, according to Beman. "It used to be a huge investment. Now it costs as little as a couple hundred dollars. Also, it can be done in a matter of weeks, maybe days, and you get a decent product."

Beman added that publishing-on-demand has relieved even more of the time and the cost of selfpublishing. "You can get a company to actually publish your book and print it as stores and customers need it. It takes less time than you think - in some cases, just a few days - and there are dozens of them out there." (Beman generally recommends Amazon.com's self-publishing imprint BookSurge to island writers who approach her for advice.)

With print-on-demand publishers, or PODs, local self-publishers can order units as needed, which also means allowing books to "hibernate" through the winter and then re-ordering copies for the summer season, with a small minimum on the number of units. These days, Lourie's strictly a POD author.

Up-sells like marketing and proofreading services aside, most self-published paperbacks cost under $1,000 to self-publish, while hardcovers are produced to the tune of $4,000 to $6,000.

Author of "Memories of a Nantucket Boyhood," Francis Pease said it took him under four months to get his book published, and that his self-publisher guided him through the process, which included getting a Library of Congress card and an ISBN number.

"All that jazz," Pease said. "The process didn't strike me as being terribly long, and the publisher was very good to me."

Warner said he saw the process of self-publishing in three steps:

"The first step is creating the book, which is a private, contemplative, personal and enriching process," he said. "The second step is producing it: Now you have to pull together a bunch of people to manufacture the book, and you find that your priorities aren't their priorities, so you have to nudge and push. It's like building a house. You have to take two separate sets of inclinations and reconcile them." The last aspect of selling one's book, according to Warner, is the marketing - if the book is meant to sell locally, this is an entirely possible job for an individual. Word of mouth helps. "Allen Reinhard was mentioning my book to people on his conservation walks," Warner said. "You can't ask for better work of mouth than that."

The third reason that self-publishing on Nantucket has increased, according to Beman, is that, on this island, there always seems to be a market for stories by Nantucketers and about Nantucket.

While the whole country may not be interested in say, your retelling of the history of Tom Never using a ghost as a narrator, there is most definitely an audience on island for this story - and for others like it - as Warner learned last summer.

Jack Warner knew that "The Ghost of Tom Never" would not appeal to a mass market. "But what I learned was that the book was of great interest to those who are committed to Nantucket, and that the island bookstores would be the main place to get it," Warner said.

According Beman, it helped a great deal that Warner had an appealing cover: an eerie, moonlight homestead, by local artist John Lochtefeld.

"His choice of artwork was superb," Beman said.

Beman offered Charles Soule, who just recently released his mystery "In the Same Space" through BookSurge. as another example of an author who picked smart cover art.

"His book has done pretty well for this time of the year," Beman said. "It's easy to see on the shelf. I mean, just look at what's on the cover. It's the steamship."

Beman added, "If Nantucket's in the title or description, and the book has good cover art, people will pick it up, especially in the summer."

Though an island writer does not need not cater to summer residents in order to sell a self-published book, it behooves him or her to have a clear and specific audience in mind.

On the bookshelves in Beman's head, some Nantucket books are shelved under "memories of ordinary life" - self-published novels and memoirs that act like a time capsule on the island.

"In some ways, I'm in favor of self-publishing because it's a way to record your memories. Some of these can be oral histories, in a sense, and that I find very important," said Beman, "Mr. Lovelace's book ["Memoirs of a Lost Island"] is a nice example of self-publishing that actually conserves Nantucket history."

She added to this list Pease's "Memories of a Nantucket Boyhood" - a sketch of his youth on Nantucket during the Depression era, "when we had movies twice a week in the winter time and the rest was up to us," remembered Pease, who has sold most of his copies to year-round islanders who are happy to relive bygone days or to Nantucketers curious to get first-hand accounts of island history having nothing to do with the Quakers, or whales.

"The really nice thing about self publishing is that you can find a topic that may have a small niche, and you can reach them through self publishing. A lot of times, mainstream publishers won't do that," said Nantucket teacher Jim Sulzer, who had already published one book, "Nantucket Daybreak," through a publisher when he decided to create a book based on his first-hand experiences caring for an elderly parent: "Mom Comes Home."

"I thought it had useful information for people in a similar situation and I knew that mainstream publishers wouldn't pick it up," he said.

In giving their "best tribute to the scalloping business and flavor of the island," Patrick and Benchley were able to achieve their success by selling "Scallop Season" mainly to year-rounders.

"A lot of islanders bought it to give to friends and relatives for Christmas presents that year. I don't think we sold a whole lot to summer residents," Patrick said. "I don't think we ever set a summer audience in our mind. We really liked it that way, in retrospect."

Patrick added another reason that self-publishing on Nantucket is so popular - a reason that Beman, ironically, missed.

"We were able to do what we did with the help of local bookstores," said Patrick, who called Beman "awesome" at giving the authors "continual help and advice" and added that Wendy Hudson at Bookworks threw the men a signing party on opening day of the 2002 scalloping season.

"Nantucket is unique from mostly any other place in that you're still able to get grass roots support," Patrick said. "Without the local bookstores, self-publishing on Nantucket would not be possible, and they both take a lot of pride in that. ƒ Out in the 'real world,' it's almost impossible to sell a book that way. You can't work through the chains unless you're affiliated with a major publisher."

Does the bookseller sell the book, or does the book sell itself?

"Any book that comes out about Nantucket sells," said Beman.

But most self-published authors say that they don't get anywhere near making a large financial gain. Not even being a "bestseller" on Nantucket yields financial windfalls, conceded Patrick, who called "Scallop Season" a "labor of love."

"We didn't get fully in the black for a year and a half. But at least the bookstores on Nantucket make it possible to at least get your money back."

Pease also said he didn't go into his self-publishing venture with the idea that he was going to "make a fortune."

"In fact, I'm out of pocket quite a few bucks. But it was worth it," he said.

Most self-publishing authors say that their rewards extend beyond the pecuniary.

"It's a great feeling to contribute a little something to the world and not lose money on it," Patrick said.

For some, like Pease, connecting with even a few dozen readers on a personal level is rewarding.

"A few people were enthused about it, and every once in a while someone still is," he said. "Catherine Flannagan Stover, the town clerk, had a copy in her office and asked me to sign it. Others have done the same. That's been kind of fun."

"I've gotten lots of feedback," said Hallam. "I had gotten an unsolicited letter from a gentleman who had seen Ruth and me perform when we lived in Germany, and here it is 30 odd years later, and this gentleman wrote me this nice letter saying how much he enjoyed the book, and how it reminded him of his life. ƒ It's a nice thing to know you've written something that's touched someone's life."

Sulzer has also received "wonderful letters."

"I didn't see it as a way to make money, just a way to reach people," he said. "And in writing the book, I felt really connected with an audience interested in that topic that I wouldn't have connected with otherwise."

Sometimes, self-publishing even leads to other ventures. Author of the self-published "De Pareja Transferals" and "Run, Don't Walk" series, Dave Murphy had one of his stories adapted for the stage. Shortly after self-publishing "Boarding Call," GD Harding received a commission to write the history of a local company.

In addition to preserving history for summer and year-round residents and for friends and family, and in addition to opening up new creative doors, some self-published island writers just like the process of living as a writer on Nantucket and seeing their books in local stores. Often, these are writers who've completed their careers in business fields, and yearn to spend the "next chapters" of their lives indulging in creative expression.

Lourie spent most of his life working in law and business before moving to Nantucket to write.

"You don't make much money. I made my money in business and left," Lourie said. "It's the life that is so great, that's why I write. It's a marvelous

way to live." I Self-publishers share tips

Jim Patrick, "Scallop Season" By all means, go for it. And really do your project and the market justice. If somebody just wanted to use the Nantucket name to sell a few books, I'd say don't bother. But if you have a Nantucket-based passion, people want to hear about it, and you should pursue it.

Donold Lourie, "The Naked Trustee" Go for it. Do it. I'm glad these publishing companies exist, because they give us a chance to be published authors, even if you have to pay for it. So if you love the writing, don't be discouraged, because it's a wonderful life. Just don't be sold on all the things you think you're gonna get from the publishers. All these special offers for publicity are not worth it, in my opinion, at all. I've paid them quite a bit of money to do things like press releases for me, and they didn't do anything for me at all.

Jim Sulzer, "Mom Comes Home" Iwouldn't recommend self-publishing for someone trying to reach a huge audience; the advertising and self-promotion is daunting. It's better for people with a niche audience in mind. It's like the difference between giving a small concert to an audience of friends and associates and giving a larger concert someplace else - both are important in different ways.

Francis Pease, "Memories of a Nantucket Boyhood" Don't try to gild the lily. Just tell it like it was.