A.B.C. Editions

Artists Bistro Café (A.B.C. for short) got its start some 15 years ago. I had one author to publish: myself. Having come to accept that my humour and interests were probably too far off the well-trodden paths of commercial publication to merit any established publisher’s time and investment, I decided to take things into my own hands. 

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After all, acquiring editors are desperately in need of guaranteed bestsellers. Poor souls, it keeps them up at night, the woe that so few books are destined to become overnight sensations, chart-toppers, cultural icons and household names - those once-in-a-blue-moon books so vital to keeping big-time editing houses afloat and (more importantly still) to underwriting the year-end bonuses (should they be so lucky) of acquiring editors. 
 

The hard truth is this: in the real world, few books reach the stratospheres; most struggle to break even; a few too many bomb completely. 

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But that’s publishing. At best, the majority of books published today are destined to generate but a small readership, small print-runs, and relative anonymity... unless by some fluke they contain something that is so actually laudable, that they miraculously get discovered and earn wider recognition. 

 

(Whenever my perennial optimism starts to flag, I shore it up with the story of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ;-)​

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Which brings us to today. Over the years, I entertained myself at times with a fantasy of eventually enlarging the scope of A.B.C. to publish other obscure authors like myself. Wouldn’t that be fun, I thought, to work with likeminded souls eager to bring their unique vision to book-bound pages! 

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Today, though, I am older and wiser - wary of the complexities generated by binding contracts, legal wrangles and unexpected disputes (all headaches I can do without), and unhappily forced to wonder whether what I’m reading is authored by A.I.  Business deals are no longer safely concluded with a handshake; our world’s creative waters are muddied; things have changed...

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For those reasons, insofar as publishing goes, A.B.C. Editions is likely to remain a one-author-show, to preserve my peace of mind and allow me to devote myself full time to writing. But I am always open to speaking with likeminded souls who are eager to bring their unique vision to book-bound pages. If that’s you, and you would like to talk about your work with someone who genuinely cares about books, please feel free to contact me. 

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