This is a book that seems to blur the distinction between self-publishing and micro-presses.
I reached this conclusion because it was listed by Amazon as having been published by CreateSpace. Since CreateSpace should only show as the publisher of record if the book has been self-published, it came as somewhat of a surprise to me to see the the book cover claimed it had been published by Brown Paper Publishing, at www.brownpaperpublishing.net. After an hour or so of fruitless perusal of Brown Paper Publishing’s website, Bowker’s website, and CreateSpace’s website, I decided to simply read the book and figure out who actually published it later. As it turns out, this may have been the best course, because it saved me from the whole pointless search.
I can’t read this book.
To begin with, the book bears many of the stamps of poorly-done self-publishing. Although there are no widows (partial lines beginning a page), the method of avoiding them was to allow the pages to run under or over by up to two lines, which is twice the normal standard and which leads to a very ragged-looking book. In addition, facing page pairs frequently have different numbers of lines. All of this is on top of the common self-publisher’s error of cramming too many lines onto a page in an effort to hold page count down, thus reducing the admittedly ridiculous cost of printing. In this case, the number of lines of text on a full page is 49, which, given an 8-inch page with margins, headers, and footers, puts seven lines of text in one vertical inch. I have seen shampoo bottles and medicine bottles with more readable text than this book.
The next problem is that the indentation of the paragraphs varies up and down from around half an inch to around three-quarters of an inch, without pattern and apparently without purpose, which makes for a very jarring read.
I could perhaps have ignored both of those issues, were it not for the fact that there are no quotation marks used in dialogue. All very avant-garde and literary and high-falutin’, no doubt, but also very unreadable.
I labored through the first two chapters, and when I discovered that I really didn’t care what happened on the next page, I didn’t turn it.
I believe that self-publishing and micro-presses are the future.
It is ironic that my first review on this blog should be a negative review, and I considered not posting it, but I felt that I had to. In order to realize the future that awaits self-publishing, it is necessary that the public accept it, from reviewers and purchasing departments down to street-level readers, and in order for that to happen, it is incumbent upon every author who self-publishes to ensure that the product offered is held to the same standards recognized by the rest of the industry.
Unfortunately, this book fails those standards.
The Dog at the Signpost
Eric Glick
Brown Paper Publishing, 2007
204 pp, $14.00
ISBN 978-1434848253
