12 thoughts for aspiring do-it-yourself publishers.

Shook, David

In countries like Ethiopia without literary publishing houses, the writer's opportunity to engage with a wider audience is often dependent on her own production and distribution of books. After conversing with a writer friend in Bujumbura about the importance of do-it-yourself publishing, I compiled a few thoughts on the subject based on my own experience, both from publishing chapbooks and from running the not-for-profit publishing house Phoneme Media.

Chapbook: A handmade book of up to about forty pages, typically saddle-stitched (stapled at its spine). Chapbooks date back to the sixteenth century, as printed books first became affordable in Europe.

1--All publishing is do-it-yourself publishing. Some publishers just do it better than others.

2--Instructions for making a simple chapbook: print content on paper, fold paper in half, bind papers together. Adjust variables as desired. Repeat.

3--Resources for the DIY publisher often hide in unexpected places. Search out copiers, printers, paper that can be repurposed. One friend pays a church to use its copier. Another borrows her stapler from a school library. InDesign is great, but some of my favorite chapbooks were produced with refurbished typewriters.

4--Instructions for making a better chapbook: make every decision with intentionality. Consider your headings, your margins. Rub the paper over your cheek, practice turning pages. Experiment. Decide if a sans serif font better showcases your content. DIY publishing should liberate you to do more--to be in absolute control of book production--rather than limit you to do less.

5--Simple elegance is better than half-achieved complexity. Details make the difference. Bind your chapbooks with local string. Recycle unusual paper to make endsheets. Invent a name for your publishing house. The Internet is overflowing with resources for the DIY publisher--use it for ideas, instructions, conversation, and promotion.

6--Typographical errors are proof of human handiwork. Even the Bible has them. You can do better.

7--The contemporary book is not confined by ink and paper. Still, the book as object will endure for its value as a physical object. The physical book remains an important legitimizer for the writer, their private (invisible) work made public, and a practical necessity in areas where access to technology is limited.

8--The value of the physical book comes from its physicality, from the evocation of its time and origin. The chapbook should be a work of art. Limit and number your edition. Sign them.

9--Ninety percent of books were more beautiful as trees. Make beautiful books. Plant a tree.

10--Whitman sold his own books from his estate in New Jersey. Joyce's friends at the Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Co. published chapbooks of his poetry. The Russian Futurists published their work on surplus wallpaper to save money.

11--There is no innovation without translations. The world's library deserves Gertrude Stein in Amharic, George Orwell in Kirundi, Adonis in Burmese, Ngugi wa Thiong'o in Isthmus Zapotec.

12--Publishing in the twenty-first century does not belong to New York or London. It doesn't belong to the West. Publishing in the twenty-first century belongs to those who will reinvent it.

Los Angeles

David Shook is a poet, filmmaker, and translator in Los Angeles. His debut collection, Our Obsidian Tongues, long-listed for the 2013 Dylan Thomas Prize, is available from Eyewear Publishing. Find him online at davidshook.net.