Welcome to the 5 Minutes Series. Each week, I’ll ask five questions of some of my favorite authors, editors, publishers, and other industry professionals. This week I’m talking with Shawn L. Bird, author, educator, and publisher.
Tell me about the origin of Lintusen Press.
I was pondering how I have developed a lot of skills in a decade of working with small presses and my own indie publishing. I was disheartened by the predators who charge new writers to put their work out there, or by publishers who pay authors very little or nothing for their work. I was tired of everyone making money off the author’s work except the author themselves.
I imagined a collaborative publishing model where the publisher, editor, cover artist, formatter, and author each shares the risk and the gains more equitably. I imagined a situation where everyone earns if the book does well, and no one does if it doesn’t. And then I thought, why couldn’t I do it? I love formatting books. I already made anthologies every year for my students, so I knew I could easily do the work.
I started with soliciting submissions for The Drabble Advent Calendar, some brilliant authors submitted, and we created a beautiful book that sells well around the holidays, and is still bringing in royalties every year. One participant calculated the first year they earned 27c a word, which is over 3x a short story rate at a well-paid anthology or magazine. I am so proud to create beautiful books, give authors a great place to publish, and let everyone earn equitably. Each book is a tribute to the authors working together.
We’ve done three beautiful anthologies so far, and I’m delighted with how well they’ve been received. I look forward to developing the press in the coming years.
You’re a high school teacher, a writer, and a publisher. Do all of those careers go hand in hand or do you find yourself having to compartmentalize your different roles?
Since I write YA and I am a high school English teacher, it definitely helps the writing. I get ideas from students’ adventures, and I have a particularly close-up view of current teen life. I know their voices and their concerns. The publishing part came from the writing, so everything is intricately linked. But! Retirement has arrived and I’m so excited that the writing and publishing is the focus for the future. Demands on teachers are greater every year, and lately, after a school day I’ve been too tired to do much more than play with the dogs or listen to audio books.
Murdering Mr. Edwards is a delightful and hilarious book. What inspired the idea for that and given your role as a teacher, what was the response to the book?
It had occurred to me that should teachers use their wealth of extremely dangerous knowledge for evil rather than good, they could be deadly. I went around asking my colleagues how they could kill someone in their department of the school. Within three seconds, every teacher had an answer, and then they’d suggest more and more ideas. I wrote some of them into short stories and left them on the staff room table. They were received with enthusiastic laughter, and I was encouraged to write more. I remember asking my principal at the time if I could get in trouble for writing a book about murdering a teacher, and he just shrugged and said, “There’s always a lemon sucker.” Great life advice, that. So, I submitted the first page to a conference Slush event, and it had the audience laughing all through, including the publisher of Coffin Hop, who were keen to offer a contract. I was beyond excited when it was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Crime Writing Award, in the novella category. I knew it was too outside genre norms to win, but what an honour! No teacher has ever commented negatively about the book; they all seem to relate rather well to the premise! Lol It’s a very popular gift for retiring or stressed out teachers. I get some fun emails about it!
Do you have any open calls right now and would you like to talk about any of them?
There are two submission calls this summer. In July, we have a call for ghost stories, for a book set for release in early October. In August, there’s a new advent calendar project- Flash Advent Calendar, so I need 25 stories. I hope authors will submit more than one story uplifting winter themed story for that. I’m aiming for an early November release for that one. Folks can find the details here.
What one piece of advice do you wish you’d been given when you were an emerging writer?
Don’t be in a rush. The publishing world tends to move very slowly. It takes a while to develop the skills. Submit your work everywhere. Read winning entries in contests and things that are published in your favourite magazine. Pay attention to what those authors are doing to create engaging content and try to emulate it. After years of frustration, there will come a time when your work suddenly starts being short-listed or receiving honorable mentions or wins and you’ll know you’ve reached a professional level of skill. That’s something to be proud of! Wait. That’s more than one. Let’s boil it down: Read. Write. Repeat.
Bonus question: Have you ever taken a picture of a weird bird?
I won a prize in a photography contest for a photo of a tussle at the bird feeder. And here are some other weird bird pictures I’ve taken.
Shawn L. Bird can be found on the web here and Lintusen Press can be found here.
Finnian Burnett 