Wednesday, August 31, 2011

If I Self Pub My Book, Do I Get To Keep Sam Shepard And The House In Vermont?


I was watching the movie Baby Boom recently....remember the one from 1987? Diane Keaton plays a Manhattan yuppie who "inherits" a long-lost baby, loses her high-powered job in NY, moves to Vermont and buys a dilapidated old house, meets Sam Shepard, starts her own baby food business, and then becomes a great success. Her old company in Manhattan offers to buy her out. There is a kick-ass scene where she returns, victorious, to New York and meets with her colleagues who are trying to convince her to turn over the baby food business to them. 

As I watched this scene, I saw parallels between little self-pubbers who are "making it work" and the big publishing houses who are offering them contracts after the fact. Some of the little self-pubbers are saying yes and selling their book rights to the big guns. And some of the little self-pubbers are not. 

Here's the line that clicked with me from the movie.....

"To be quite frank, if the Food Chain can put Country Baby on every supermarket shelf in America, so can I."

If the big kahuna publishing companies can do it, so can I. I'm every bit as smart and determined as JC Wiatt in this movie. I only wish I could get that apple orchard in Vermont and Sam Shepard thrown into the self-pubbing deal. Sigh.

Dreaming of shoulder pads and adorable Vermont country doctors,
Penelope