By Ashini J. Desai
I’ll tell you the truth. DRP formed from a place of ego. Thankfully, it did not take long for us to grown from that stance.
As writers, we were frustrated with our efforts to be published. We had stories we wanted to tell, but they didn’t fit into specific buckets. Our short stories were rejected or ignored by publishers, or if they were accepted—oh happy day—the editors would ruthlessly reshape them until our own vision was lost. So, when Bethany said, “I want to start a press and publish an anthology called Not Quite As You Were Told,” I quickly raised my hand and was up for it! Why are we waiting for others to publish our work?
Execution of the Idea
But wait… I don’t have any formal publishing or editing experience. I’ve been in the corporate technology field for years — I understand the importance of having expertise and experience. How do we even do this without having a background? But then, my 50-year-old cynicism was squashed by the youthful optimism and enthusiasm of Bethany, Paige and Hayley. “We will figure this out.” Okay, let’s do it.
We turned to people who knew. We met with self-published writer friends and they provided tips, resources and direction on where to go. We learned more about Amazon’s self-publishing platform; with my background in document print technology, this was an area I could understand. On Demand book printing was now accessible, plus easily combined with distribution. Fantastic! Yes, we could do this.
We put out the call for submissions in select online market. We narrowed our final selections to thirteen stories that met our criteria of leading with female-forward stories. We researched and drew up a sample author agreement for publications, which my lawyer cousin reviewed. We collaborated with her to strengthen the language and we were good to go.
As writers—and now publishers—we believe artists should be compensated for their contributions.This may sound obvious to those not in the industry, but writers know this is NOT the norm. To be honest, I have my poems, essays and short stories published in a number of anthologies and journals. However, my lifetime earnings from my work is $135. I usually receive a complimentary author copy; I’ve definitely spent more money buying my own work and then, I usually give away the copies .
Therefore, all four of us put our money into the pot to make sure we can give a token contribution to our authors.
Reaching Out
Now this is the best part of the story. Through this process, we got to know our authors better through social media. This was the first publication for some of our authors. As oft-rejected writers, we console ourselves, “This story will find a home one day, this just wasn’t it.” It was quite thrilling and humbling to know that we gave these stories a home while uplifting the author themselves. Had we not done this “passion project,” their stories may have floated between submissions and rejections for years. One of them requested a money order so it could be framed as the first of many payments for his work. This is when we realized it wasn’t just the four of us sitting in my basement or coffee shops. This book was going to be important in our authors’ lives.
The most touching and heartwarming part of this experience is Melissa Jean Langer, who wrote two stories for us that we loved. She shared photos of herself signing the book for friends and family, and she did a video reading for our social media. Unfortunately, she passed away last summer. We were heartbroken by the loss of a lovely and talented young writer. We found solace in knowing we were able to give her family a small memory of Melissa’s creative gifts. Her family even created and shared pictures of a memorial art piece, which incorporated our book. Since we had the flexibility of self-publishing the book, we updated the book with a dedication page to her.
We also discovered a new audience in Canada. We sent our Aunt Sudha in Niagara Falls a copy of the book in September as a birthday gift. As an artist, she has always been an enthusiastic supporter of my creative writing projects. She loved my story, “Bleeding Heart,” about a young widow; I told her she was one of the inspirations since she was widowed before thirty with three small children. She’s a powerhouse of energy at 74 years now. She shared the book with her friends and I’ve received wonderful emails from gracious senior Canadian women who enjoyed my story. They were inspired to learn more about the history of widows in India, since I alluded to it in my story. As a writer, one wants to provoke a response or emotion in the readers; to know the readers took it one step further, carrying the story with them, is gratifying.
Turning the Page
We’ve learned a lot and over the summer of 2020, we were motivated to start our second anthology. I always knew we wouldn’t stop at just one. Yes, the Pandemic has made collaboration more difficult than the first time, but we are as productive as ever. We’ve learned new skills from story editing and cover art design to building our website and continuously creating social media content. We are relentlessly educating ourselves wherever we can. None of us could have done this alone. When one person is apprehensive of the next daunting step, someone else will jump forward with confidence and assurance.
I always repeat the phrase, “If you want to go fast, go alone.. If you want to go far, go together.” The Dandelion Revolution Press journey has been in collaboration with so many people so looking forward to a great future and continue sharing creative storytelling with the world.