Ron Placone Interviews Independent Publisher V. Vale

V. Vale is, to put it simply, a true staple in independent publishing. For nearly three decades he has been operating RE/Search Publications, a San Francisco-based publisher focused on counter-culture and underground literature and ideas.

Ron Placone Interviews Justin Hocking, Director of The Independent Publishing Resource Center

In the world of independent publishing, a world wrought with twists, turns, confusion, ambiguity, and uncertainty at EVERY angle, the idea of having some sort of outlet, solid ground, a sanctuary, if you will, is immaculate.

Ron Placone Interviews Cameron McGee

There were a total of seven of us, we had a case of beer in the van, and we were still getting over the shock that we actually found this place.  My friend was the drummer, so I asked him if he wanted to go get a drink.  While we all knew that finding civilization was unlikely, we decided to humor ourselves.  We found a bar (after about 40 minutes of wondering around in the dark) and upon walking in we realized this might be the last night of our lives.  Let's just say I was thrilled I wasn't wearing any apparel via Fat Mike that criticized the President.  Surprisingly, a few rounds later we were embraced as locals, and the clientele was thrilled to have a real "band" in the bar.  I learned an old lesson again that night; don't judge a book by its cover.  Anyway, about 9:30 or so my friends had to get back to play.  We returned to the venue, none of us with high expectations, to see a room full of about 200 kids.  "Wow," I thought, "these kids have something very special going on out here."

Essay by Ron Placone

When I was 17-years-old I had about 130 pages of poetry and monologues along with a novella on my desk-top.  I had started writing when I was about 15.  I decided I wanted to publish this manuscript (at the time I thought was good.  Looking back, it wasn't too bad, I just keep in mind how old I was when I wrote it).   Anyway, I had no idea how the publishing industry worked, the whole thing was alien to me.  With the help of Google I immediately found tons of P.O.D. vanity publishers on the web.  I went to some of their web-sites and read what vanity publishing was all about, and, quite frankly, it didn't make any sense to me.  At the time, I was heavily involved in the music industry, so using that as a point of reference I came up with the following comparison:

Say you're a band, and a record label decides to sign you and put out your album(similar to how a publisher publishes a book), that label will front all of the money necessary to make the finished product a reality.  This of course includes the following: