> December 11, 2003 > News > Cover Story

BY GREGORY M. KNEPP

This is the story of three Pittsburgh writers who, rather than rely on the whims of established publishing houses, with their sweepstake-sized odds against taking notice of young talent, decided to forge their own success by different means.

After initially attempting the standard, send-your-manuscript-to-a-major-publisher-and-hope-to-be-discovered-overnight route, local authors Wayne Wise, Eric Sisak and boice-Terrel Allen each decided to fashion their own fate in a variety of manners -- and all have seen their fiction become a reality on the printed page. These novelists accomplished the dream of every writer via three separate means: one turned to digital publishing, one to an independent press, while the third chose to create his own publishing house.

Surrounded and no doubt inspired by the graphic novels and comic books that occupy Oakland's Phantom of the Attic bookshop, assistant manager Wayne Wise found a publishing outlet for his book, King of Summer. A coming-of-age novel published last spring, Summer involves three boys, a vision of a drowned girl and the resurrection of an ancient evil being.

"It was a combination of a lot of things, lots of themes," says Wise. "The legend of King Arthur and the Lady in the Lake, a fondness for listening to Appalachian hill ballads about girls in a well or lake -- there seems to be a lot of them. Trying to put the Arthurian myth into a modern context. An American folktale within the classic legend."

In relation to the multiple "women submerged" references, Wise mentions "Jungian ties" -- evidence of his degrees psychology and history.

Though Summer was Wise's first foray into novel-length fiction, the author has busied himself with comic book work for several years. In 1992, he was the co-recipient of one of the first Xeric Foundations grants and a year later self-published a magazine-sized comic book title Grey Legacy. He is also a freelance music journalist.

Initially, King of Summer was rejected by Tor Books, a leading New York-based publisher specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature -- and one of a handful of publishers that will read a manuscript without a literary agent. However, Wise struck gold with only the second company he approached: the digital publisher, PublishAmerica. In all, there were only 18 months between Summer's creation and its sale.

PublishAmerica makes the book available to all the big distributors that bookstores use, including Ingram and Baker & Taylor. That means his can be ordered throughout the U.S. and in 15 European nations.

Publicity, however, rests solely on the author's doorstep. Acknowledging that he needs to promote King of Summer more, he has approached the problem for most unrecognized authors: press releases to local daily and weekly publications and book signings. Wise has even listed the release of his book in his university alumni's publication. "Even with the biggest press behind you, a book can get lost out there. Getting it out there; that's the hard part," he says.

Meanwhile, with readers comparing his first book, the book of spiral, to the work of Kurt Vonnegut and Albert Camus, Pittsburgher Eric Sisak has reason to enjoy the celebrity and support of local publishing house Incredibly Thin.

Graphic in its nature, stark in its realism, spiral captures the fast-paced feel of the hunt as a psyche-scarred investigative reporter specializing in cults probes a string of murdered pedophiles.

Sisak's desire to experience the world first-hand took him away from Pittsburgh to dozens of places and jobs, from Wholey's to the set of a New York City television show. Finally he returned, broke and exhausted, but with an idea for a story based on first-hand knowledge.

"I worked three years in Western Psychiatric [Institute and Clinic] and also helped a friend win a criminal child abuse case, during which I met detectives and testified. All these experiences formed the book of spiral," says Sisak, who now works as the night supervisor at Carnegie Mellon's Hunt Library.

Sisak say the book was a six-year project. "It took two years to complete the first manuscript, then two years to complete first draft, then two years to edit," he says. So far he has been pleased not only with the local response to the book but with the work of Incredibly Thin and its founder, David Cherry.

Sisak met Cherry while the spiral author was working at a restaurant in Monroeville. "He was doing some writing on his own and I was writing at the time, too," Sisak recalled. "It was very fortuitous to meet him. We have a good synchronicity, and we always have." Cherry, along with "outside support editor" and Incredibly Thin collaborator Jordan Weeks, helped the author fine-tune the manuscript.

Placing your trust in an editor is a tremendous act of faith. Yet submitting his manuscript to the editorial scalpels of Cherry and Weeks was not a painful experience. "The book turned out perfectly, and people love it, which is exciting beyond belief," Sisak says. "Lots of humble people are producing great things here, they're sticking it out here, and I'm very impressed with what I found. I'm very happy with where I am."

Incredibly Thin, a collective that produces art locally, is not limited to book publishing. The mission statement on the group's Web site reads like a poem:

Incredibly Thin is a framework, a sort-of glue.

We are a collective, hoping to produce, publish, inspire and expose the work of Pittsburgh artists,

to help translate things of the mind into things of the hand.

efficiently, beautifully.

Our contributors and influences are many. Some of you don't even know it, yet.

And we like laughter.

Regarding Pittsburgh as a cultural center, Sisak is upbeat yet cautionary: "There's a lot of people producing in the arts and I'd like to encourage them, but it'll probably beat you first. You'll have to get your ass kicked to accomplish what you want. It's tremendous work."

While many local authors produce good work and never receive adequate recognition, Pittsburgh's past is chock full of those who have been celebrated for their literary work. Most successful Pittsburgh writers, however, only honed their talents here -- living, studying and practicing their craft -- then left. Playwright August Wilson. Poet Randall Jarrell. Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather and Annie Dillard, to name a few. And, lest one forget, novelist Michael Chabon.

The shadow of Chabon. Many authors, creative writing grad students and wannabes cite this former University of Pittsburgh student as an inspiration -- he is the proverbial someone who "made it." A student during the 1980s, Chabon was lauded as one of America's hot young authors after the publication of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, in 1989. With its $155,000 advance, a six-figure first printing, a movie deal and a perch upon the bestseller lists, the success of Chabon's first novel served as proof that a writer could achieve something with Pittsburgh as his subject. The book not only referenced sites throughout the Steel City but perhaps conveyed to outsiders -- if not to locals, as well -- a cosmopolitan feel that citizens have long considered a local secret.

Chabon's second novel, 1995's Wonder Boys, was also set here. Based on his experiences and acquaintances at Pitt, the book led to a grade-A Hollywood movie starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire, with some scenes lensed here. His third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000), would win the 2000 New York Society Library Book Award for fiction, the 2000 Gold Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2001, the novel won Chabon a Pulitzer Prize.

The work of local author boice-Terrel Allen echoes Chabon's infatuation with Pittsburgh, referencing such sites as Kaufmann's and Shadyside with his own inimitable style.

Allen completed his first manuscript that he felt worthy to print, Daughters of a Mother, in 1998. After receiving no offers for it, he decided to print the book himself. Instead of sending it to a vanity press, the author created his own publishing house, Rattlecat Press.

Earlier this year, Allen was busy promoting his second novel, Janet Hurst. The Pittsburgh-based novel's title character has finally bottomed out in a suicide ward. Initially accusatory and blaming everyone but herself, she undergoes an epiphany when she realizes only she can redeem herself. Now Allen is occupied with Rattlecat's latest release, an anthology of short works titled Coloring Book: An Eclectic Anthology of Fiction & Poetry by Multicultural Writers. The collection includes writing by 85 authors from around the world and all corners of the literary world: traditionalist, postmodern, transgressive -- any number of adjectives apply. Allen began his one-man publishing firm in response to the billion-dollar world of multinational media conglomerates that too often choose our literary fare for us.

"What led me to self-publishing was that after I finished the draft of Daughters of a Mother, I sent it out for two years and got a lot of rejections. The last two I got were like 'We like it, but it's not for our list,' or, 'Great writing, unique writing, but it's not right for us.' And then I sent it to all the small publishers and agents. Then I thought, 'Well, I don't know what else to do [but self-publish].'"

Starting Rattlecat involved a laundry list of details, from selecting printers and graphic designers to finding book distributors. While traveling to New York and Baltimore book fairs and learning the basics of self-publishing, the entrepreneur also found willing collaborators within Pittsburgh's arts community.

In 2002, at a book signing, Allen met Demetria Gibson, program associate for the Multicultural Arts Initiative of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Gibson told him about the Multicultural Arts Initiative, a fund for artists.

"They want Pittsburgh to be like other major cities where there's always different arts going on," Allen explains. "Once they saw 10 pages from Janet Hurst, they believed in the project." Allen received a $9,000 grant from the organization -- to allow for the completion of Janet Hurst and to partially fund the anthology, which Allen edited.

Well acquainted with professionals who knew about writing and its business aspects, Allen met his editor for Hurst in a more unconventional manner. While supplementing his income as a personal trainer at Ironworks, he met Steve Volk, then editor of the defunct weekly InPittsburgh, who assisted him with his manuscript. "He did the editing and he did what a good editor should do. They shouldn't try to change your writing, just make it better," says Allen.

Book signings, mailing lists and press releases. Self-promotion is another key to unlock the local readership, yet Allen found few closed doors, be they independent shops or the international titans such as Barnes & Noble or Borders Books.

Though initially he sought acceptance from established publishers, Allen soon discovered the value of being independent and thus having the final word on any of his projects, keeping them alive and promoting them.

"A lot of people don't know that major publishers will promote a book for six weeks, but if it doesn't sell after that, they move on to the next one, because they have thousands and thousands of books," Allen says. "Meanwhile, I promoted Daughters of a Mother for the entire two years up until Janet Hurst.

"Beside the money and the distribution, there's also the control side on the cover. With a lot of the major publishers you don't get a say. But [with self-publishing] you really do get to control that. And also, with the anthology, you're able to work with and give people the chance to publish."

But, aren't there times when he longs for like a big, fat check from a major publisher, and relief from the many duties that doing it yourself requires?

He laughs. "Yes, that would be nice. But, no -- slow and steady and just keep working at it," he says, reconsidering. "I want to be the Ani DiFranco of books," he adds, referring to the Buffalo folk singer who made it big by eschewing the majors and nurturing her own recording label, Righteous Babe Records. "It worked out pretty well for her."