New second major Deaf novel on the way!

After the MILAN novel, which was published back in 2003, I swore to myself that I would never write another major novel again.

Never say never, huh?

I'm going to write another one – this time for a new Leicester-based independent publisher s Action Deafness Books. The MILAN novel was self-published by a Canada-based self-publishing firm, Trafford Publishing. I practically wrote, designed and marketed the book myself and that was really a challenging experience.

But it was something that I would never venture into again. Don’t get me wrong, self-publishing isn’t all that bad. In fact, it’s quite good because you can publish your book your way. The revenue from the royalties is even greater than what the traditional publisher can offer, but the downside is that you have to pay for everything first to get your book published such as research and development, cover artwork, book layout (fortunately for me, I’m a semi-pro graphic designer, so I was able to do it myself), proof-reading services, marketing and, most of all, pay a large one-off fee to the self-publishing firm who would handle all the legal, printing, marketing and distribution. Apart from the complimentary and review copies, the printing of the book is not included in the package: it is done by on-demand publishing (you place an order, they print digitally, rather than from a shelf) in addition to the costs. It was a very expensive process for me back then. Fortunately for me, the sales was very good and it recouped all the production costs in about five months after the book’s launch, which was a huge relief.

Having your book published by a publisher, all of the above costs are paid for by them, however, they have to recoup all the production costs from the sales first before the author can even see a penny or receive slightly reduced royalties which can be anything between 5% and 15% from net gross compared to up to 60% from self-published books. Sometimes authors would receive an an advance lump sum payment and not receive any royalties until all the production costs have been paid up. There’s more to it, but will leave it as it is too complicated to explain. Now about my next book.

I have a story right here that’s screaming to be published and read by everyone. It’s called Innocents of Oppression. I spent about ten years – on and off – developing it. It’s too good a story not to be told. Even its protractile but meaningful title stands out like a sticky thorn.

So I contacted Steve Crump of Action Deafness Books, a new independent Leicester-based publishing and distribution firm specialising in Deaf books and BSL DVDs written and developed by Deaf people, to see if he was interested in publishing my next book and gave him the lowdown. He was most interested and there I am: back to the wonderful world of book publishing again.

As briefly described in my Innocents of Oppression webpage, it is a powerful, poignant and controversial coming of age story about two adolescent Deaf best friends in an oral boarding school in the 1970s and beyond.

I’m keeping the plot details under lock and key, however, what I can say is that it is a bold departure from my MILAN novel and also my current TALES FROM SIGNTOWN ebook series for Deaf children. It will certainly turn heads 360 degrees. It’s not something you would expect from your average Deaf book.

Although I have the story in place, it still needs more details in which I will begin doing extensive research from this September to cover many areas, including history in relation to Deaf education. I have set up a dedicated Innocents of Oppression Facebook page for me to post questions to ask for accounts and experiences in the Deaf education as well to be kept updated on the progress towards the book’s launch which will take place in the autumn of 2011 and beyond. I will also send out questionnaires and also conduct face-to-face BSL interviews. The details will certainly make the novel very productive and nostalgic reading.

I’m really looking forward to this new challenge, so do wish me luck!