The landscape of indie publishing in the age of the internet is a fascinating thing to observe. It's constantly shifting, evolving and taking a different form every year. Lots of players come, lots of players go. It's not a stable environment. Craig T. McNeely, head honcho of the Double Life Press, the latest player to join the game strikes me as different from the typical drifting character of contemporary indie publishing.
How does Craig stand out from the pack? Well, first off, he uses Double Life Press to publish whatever he feels should be published, no matter the genre, mixture of genres or absence of genres. This passion and the lack of fucks he's giving about what everybody else thinks strike me as a healthy way to approach the tough landscape of indie publishing. Enough talking though, Craig was kind enough to drop by for a chat so I'll let him explain to you in his own word what kind of man he is and what Double Life Press is all about.
Welcome to Dead End Follies, Craig T. McNeely and thank you for taking the time. Indie publishing is a Sisyphean landscape. There are as many guys rolling the rock uphill as there are guys falling down the mountain . What motivated you to start Double Life Press and what does it do differently?
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sure that I could talk about this stuff all day long.
As to your question, I suppose you could draw a direct line from my beginning the magazine Dark Corners in the fall of last year to the creation of Double Life Press this January. Some of the writers I am publishing (Will Viharo, Andrew Hilbert) I met when putting together that first issue of Dark Corners.
Opening submissions to the magazine was like opening the floodgates. The first two issues featured more than twenty authors each and I have always had (and still do) so many accepted submissions that I'm thinking many issues ahead. There is such a wealth of great work out there waiting, begging, to be read. From the very beginning, Dark Corners has been a place where you can read the weird, wonderful little stories that you don't see as much in other places. The response has been incredibly positive and I think its because Dark Corners is recognized as a place where we can all go down and dip into the river of Story. The water is pure and undiluted with concerns over content and genre restrictions. You can pick up an issue and find stuff that appeals instantly to you and, I think, read other things and open yourself up to infinite literary possibilities.
I've encountered some of my very favorite writers through the magazine. I'm a passionate and voracious reader and supporter of the authors I enjoy. Anyone who knows me knows the books I like because I try to throw those books at people every chance I get. I suppose part of the motivation behind Double Life was doing that in a professional capacity and to see these books get the release I know they deserve, to the best of my ability to give that to them. I'll defend the books we release with all of my being.
The indie scene is bursting with publishers like Broken River Books, Two Dollar Radio, Lazy Fascist, and All Due Respect Books who are honest-to-God crusaders for the kind of independent literature that intelligent, discerning readers deserve. There are wonderful books coming out from the Big 5 but that is increasingly a coincidence, a stroke of luck. The indies are where its at. As a matter of fact, I read J. David Osborne's article on blue collar publishing and I believe that Double Life was born immediately after that, though it took me a little while to realize it.
So, after all of that, you are correct in asking: why Double Life? Because we are in a very important transitional period. I give this speech to my authors when I send them a contract and I believe every word of it down to my bones. There are two common modes of thought when it comes to independent small press publishing. Some people believe that the small presses are where you toil away while waiting for your big shot with a suit in a NYC office. I know that some folks in the indies see it this way because it shows in their work. They are like someone whose shoes don't fit but they're too embarrassed to admit it so they just stumble around and hope no one notices. That's fine.
However, if we want to really survive in this changing industry then I believe you have to see it another way. I believe if you're bold and you're brave enough you have to be ready to put your heart and soul and blood and sweat in independent publishing and commit yourself to doing it better than the Big 5 could ever dare to for fear of what it would do to their bottom line. You won't get a big advance with me or land your book in your local B&N, but go down there sometime. Look at the new books on the shelves. They're boring.
Double Life's motto is "no boundaries" and I live by it. There are no genres here. We can't afford to think in those terms anymore, not while books like David James Keaton's THE LAST PROJECTOR and Jeremy Robert Johnson's SKULLCRACK CITY exist. It wouldn't be fair. Its time to take off the training wheels and throw them in the fire.
When you say that there is no genre to Double Life, do you mean that you publish every genre or that you're looking for genre-bending material, such as SKULLCRACK CITY and THE LAST PROJECTOR? What is the typical type of work you would want to put forward? You can't name any title you're already publishing!
I mean both that I publish every genre and that I am looking for genre-bending material. I mentioned THE LAST PROJECTOR and SKULLCRACK CITY because when you open those books it becomes clear that the classifications in literature that you've been taught aren't relevant anymore. I think there's a serious argument to be made that Keaton's book isn't even a novel. I'm not really sure what it is but it doesn't matter. It transcends any expectation you have for what a book can be.
What I'm interested in are great books, written with passion. Passion is a funny thing because it doesn't involve your head. You do things in the heat of passion and later you look back and say "What the hell was I thinking?" I want artists who write books in the heat of passion and I want to lift those books up to readers and say "What the hell do you think they were thinking?" That question doesn't have an answer -- not even the author can give you one if they're really being honest -- but, man, that's the kind of question that really opens minds and changes things.
It doesn't answer the question, sir! Let's pry it open a little. You can name me three archetypes novel Double Life Press is looking for. The kind of stuff you'd be super proud to publish. You can't name what you're already going to publish.
Three novels that I'd put the Double Life Press stamp of approval on would be:
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
ALL-MONSTER ACTION! by Cody Goodfellow
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ARKANSAS OZARKS by Donald Harington
Then I'd break the rules and add in THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER by Daniel Woodrell and hope you didn't notice.
Did I noti- What? Where? Huh? Nevermind. What do you think breeds great fiction? I have my own opinion on this, but I'm curious about what YOU think. Also, what do you think are the biggest creativity killers?
I believe what breeds great fiction is the just-right blend of despair and bravery. Writers, like all artists, are uniquely tuned in to the world including how screwed up the world is. They're tuned in to this screwed-upness in a way that, I think, non-artists are only marginally aware of. This generally makes non-artists happier, more well-adjusted people but it is the artists that make this world worth living in.
As for creativity killers, the biggest is dishonesty. Not that writers tell the truth, they don't. Writers lie for a living. That said, if they're doing it right, beneath the lie is the truest thing ever told. I believe that there is no such thing as a bad story. There are many bad storytellers, though. You've gotta tap into your story and see through the ten thousand different permutations of where the story COULD go and figure out where the story DOES go. Becoming a slave to your own preconceived notions of your story is dishonest and will kill your creativity in an instant. As one of my old professors used to say, "If the way it happened isn't any good, change the way it happened."
I'm not sure I understand ''preconceived notions of your story''. Could you give an example?
Tropes and clichés. I'll provide an example based on manuscripts I've rejected. This isn't one real manuscript I've received but an amalgamation of several different ones. Regardless, I think I can illustrate my point this way.
The novel is a crime story exposing the seedy underbelly of
Around the end of the first act, he discovers things-are-not-as-they-seem. What's more, the corruption goes straight to the top. Being something of an unreliable drunken/druggy bastard, no one will believe him so he has to race-against-the-clock-to-get-down-to-the-bottom-of-things.
There's nothing wrong with any of the things I've mentioned so far. Sure, it follows all the beats that you'd expect but there's a reason we see them so much -- they WORK! Books are not about what they're about so much as they're about HOW they're about it.
Only John D. MacDonald could have written Travis McGee. Only Robert E. Howard could have written Conan. To reference an earlier statement, you need to dust off that old manuscript, take a good and hard look, and sincerely ask yourself, "What the hell was I thinking?"
Small presses come and go every few years. What do you think it is so? Have you come yet across a task you dread to do over and over again?
I think that there are probably many reasons why some small presses make it and some don't. The path of the independent is not an easy one to take and the market is crowded with quite a lot of quality work. However, it seems to me that there is a basic set of rules to follow that will put you in the right direction.
1) Pay for quality cover art (unless you happen to be an amazing artist yourself) and make your stuff look better than the other guy's. This is HUGE because the Big 5 generally have cover art that is safe and boring. The indies aren't safe or boring. Bad cover art should piss you off.
2) Pay your authors. This is simple and shouldn't have to be said but I hear stories of small presses who haven't paid out royalties in years. Inexcusable.
3) Your authors don't pay you. Again, simple. That's not how this arrangement works.
I think if you keep those three things in mind, you might just be okay.
As for a task that I dread doing, I dread rejecting manuscripts. Some editors and publishers talk about being "mean" or "tough" and I don't get that. I think that I'm very author-friendly and that's how I want it to be.
I want to accept your manuscript. That's really the best result for everyone. I said before that I think there's no such thing as a bad story, only bad storytellers. However, I think its possibly more accurate to say "bad storytelling". I like to work with authors and pull away all the extra fat in their manuscript that's getting in the way of the story, or sometimes the story is too lean and I need to get the author to flesh it out. There is no greater joy than the creative process. Whatever the case, a rejection means that there's really no way for the author and I to see eye to eye, and that makes me sad.
Interesting that you mention you're author-friendly. I don't hear that often. Are there some authors in particular you'd love to publish to Double Life that haven't submitted to you, yet?
Gabino Iglesias. This guy is doing really interesting things and I would love to see what would happen if he went through the Double Life machine.
Brian Keene
David James Keaton (is it clear yet that I'm a fan of his work?)
Chris Irvin
Jessica McHugh (kinda fudging the rules a little on that one but I could argue a technicality. I won't though because that news isn't out yet and I'd have to kill you)
Max Booth III
Chris Leek
I'm sure there are others but this gives you an idea. More than that, though, I'm really interested in new voices. Writers that are hungry and maybe a little insane. I want that writer who comes home every night and types away on a manuscript wondering if they're the only ones who will ever read it. I want the writer who is too old-fashioned or too strange or too stubborn, the one that keeps doing what they're doing even though sometimes it seems like they're all alone.
They're not alone. Not anymore.
How do you see the future of publishing pan out, regarding the slow and methodical rise of Amazon and the new golden age of indie literature?
That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Amazon has revolutionized the book industry. It has changed how people get their books, in both good and bad ways. I rest firmly in the middle on the Amazon debate. I won't ignore the wonderful things that are now possible because of Amazon but I also won't ignore things like what happened with Broken River and Red Hammond's XXX SHAMUS.
That said, I think the future of publishing will look quite different. I think it will have to. I'd like to see authors and publishers work together to create a close, intimate relationship with readers and bring the books directly to them. I'd like to see readers take a more active role in seeking out books. I believe they want to. Some readers are happy with just using Amazon for all their book needs but I believe there are many others who would love a more interactive experience.
So, do you think it would be possible under the dominion of Amazon? Could the future of publishing look like a collection of independent feudal kingdoms gathered under the reign of the Amazon king?
This reminds me of a dream I once had in which the various indie presses were engaged in an underground MMA tournament. I was there fighting for Double Life and Cameron Pierce was giving me advice for the tournament. One piece of advice was that J. David Osborne is a biter. I don't know if that's true or what any of it has to do with this question, but I know that I think of it whenever I talk to Osborne now.
I think it would be foolish to put all your eggs in the Amazon basket. Your feudal analogy works. We're all a bunch of crazy, unwashed barbarians in faraway lands. The roads that the empire built for us are damn useful but we should never forget that ultimately we have to take care of ourselves.
Before leaving, tell us what Double Life has cooking for the next couple months? What can readers expect from you?
You can expect our first batch of books, including...
A masterpiece of existential noir in the form of Pablo D'Stair's Trevor English.
Three omnibus volumes collecting all of Will Viharo's non-series work entitled The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection
A brilliantly demented horror novella by Andrew Hilbert entitled DEATH THING.
I absolutely adore every single one of these books and I believe you will too. Readers can expect to be entertained. There isn't anyone else like Double Life out there right now so readers can be assured that when they pick up a Double Life book, its not going to be just like what everyone else is doing.
You might like it, you might not. You won't forget it.
Thank you, Craig T. McNeely and good luck with Double Life Press. I have no doubt it is bound to succeed.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sure that I could talk about this stuff all day long.
As to your question, I suppose you could draw a direct line from my beginning the magazine Dark Corners in the fall of last year to the creation of Double Life Press this January. Some of the writers I am publishing (Will Viharo, Andrew Hilbert) I met when putting together that first issue of Dark Corners.
Opening submissions to the magazine was like opening the floodgates. The first two issues featured more than twenty authors each and I have always had (and still do) so many accepted submissions that I'm thinking many issues ahead. There is such a wealth of great work out there waiting, begging, to be read. From the very beginning, Dark Corners has been a place where you can read the weird, wonderful little stories that you don't see as much in other places. The response has been incredibly positive and I think its because Dark Corners is recognized as a place where we can all go down and dip into the river of Story. The water is pure and undiluted with concerns over content and genre restrictions. You can pick up an issue and find stuff that appeals instantly to you and, I think, read other things and open yourself up to infinite literary possibilities.
I've encountered some of my very favorite writers through the magazine. I'm a passionate and voracious reader and supporter of the authors I enjoy. Anyone who knows me knows the books I like because I try to throw those books at people every chance I get. I suppose part of the motivation behind Double Life was doing that in a professional capacity and to see these books get the release I know they deserve, to the best of my ability to give that to them. I'll defend the books we release with all of my being.
The indie scene is bursting with publishers like Broken River Books, Two Dollar Radio, Lazy Fascist, and All Due Respect Books who are honest-to-God crusaders for the kind of independent literature that intelligent, discerning readers deserve. There are wonderful books coming out from the Big 5 but that is increasingly a coincidence, a stroke of luck. The indies are where its at. As a matter of fact, I read J. David Osborne's article on blue collar publishing and I believe that Double Life was born immediately after that, though it took me a little while to realize it.
So, after all of that, you are correct in asking: why Double Life? Because we are in a very important transitional period. I give this speech to my authors when I send them a contract and I believe every word of it down to my bones. There are two common modes of thought when it comes to independent small press publishing. Some people believe that the small presses are where you toil away while waiting for your big shot with a suit in a NYC office. I know that some folks in the indies see it this way because it shows in their work. They are like someone whose shoes don't fit but they're too embarrassed to admit it so they just stumble around and hope no one notices. That's fine.
However, if we want to really survive in this changing industry then I believe you have to see it another way. I believe if you're bold and you're brave enough you have to be ready to put your heart and soul and blood and sweat in independent publishing and commit yourself to doing it better than the Big 5 could ever dare to for fear of what it would do to their bottom line. You won't get a big advance with me or land your book in your local B&N, but go down there sometime. Look at the new books on the shelves. They're boring.
Double Life's motto is "no boundaries" and I live by it. There are no genres here. We can't afford to think in those terms anymore, not while books like David James Keaton's THE LAST PROJECTOR and Jeremy Robert Johnson's SKULLCRACK CITY exist. It wouldn't be fair. Its time to take off the training wheels and throw them in the fire.
When you say that there is no genre to Double Life, do you mean that you publish every genre or that you're looking for genre-bending material, such as SKULLCRACK CITY and THE LAST PROJECTOR? What is the typical type of work you would want to put forward? You can't name any title you're already publishing!
I mean both that I publish every genre and that I am looking for genre-bending material. I mentioned THE LAST PROJECTOR and SKULLCRACK CITY because when you open those books it becomes clear that the classifications in literature that you've been taught aren't relevant anymore. I think there's a serious argument to be made that Keaton's book isn't even a novel. I'm not really sure what it is but it doesn't matter. It transcends any expectation you have for what a book can be.
What I'm interested in are great books, written with passion. Passion is a funny thing because it doesn't involve your head. You do things in the heat of passion and later you look back and say "What the hell was I thinking?" I want artists who write books in the heat of passion and I want to lift those books up to readers and say "What the hell do you think they were thinking?" That question doesn't have an answer -- not even the author can give you one if they're really being honest -- but, man, that's the kind of question that really opens minds and changes things.
It doesn't answer the question, sir! Let's pry it open a little. You can name me three archetypes novel Double Life Press is looking for. The kind of stuff you'd be super proud to publish. You can't name what you're already going to publish.
Three novels that I'd put the Double Life Press stamp of approval on would be:
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
ALL-MONSTER ACTION! by Cody Goodfellow
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ARKANSAS OZARKS by Donald Harington
Then I'd break the rules and add in THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER by Daniel Woodrell and hope you didn't notice.
Did I noti- What? Where? Huh? Nevermind. What do you think breeds great fiction? I have my own opinion on this, but I'm curious about what YOU think. Also, what do you think are the biggest creativity killers?
I believe what breeds great fiction is the just-right blend of despair and bravery. Writers, like all artists, are uniquely tuned in to the world including how screwed up the world is. They're tuned in to this screwed-upness in a way that, I think, non-artists are only marginally aware of. This generally makes non-artists happier, more well-adjusted people but it is the artists that make this world worth living in.
As for creativity killers, the biggest is dishonesty. Not that writers tell the truth, they don't. Writers lie for a living. That said, if they're doing it right, beneath the lie is the truest thing ever told. I believe that there is no such thing as a bad story. There are many bad storytellers, though. You've gotta tap into your story and see through the ten thousand different permutations of where the story COULD go and figure out where the story DOES go. Becoming a slave to your own preconceived notions of your story is dishonest and will kill your creativity in an instant. As one of my old professors used to say, "If the way it happened isn't any good, change the way it happened."
I'm not sure I understand ''preconceived notions of your story''. Could you give an example?
Tropes and clichés. I'll provide an example based on manuscripts I've rejected. This isn't one real manuscript I've received but an amalgamation of several different ones. Regardless, I think I can illustrate my point this way.
The novel is a crime story exposing the seedy underbelly of
Around the end of the first act, he discovers things-are-not-as-they-seem. What's more, the corruption goes straight to the top. Being something of an unreliable drunken/druggy bastard, no one will believe him so he has to race-against-the-clock-to-get-down-to-the-bottom-of-things.
There's nothing wrong with any of the things I've mentioned so far. Sure, it follows all the beats that you'd expect but there's a reason we see them so much -- they WORK! Books are not about what they're about so much as they're about HOW they're about it.
Only John D. MacDonald could have written Travis McGee. Only Robert E. Howard could have written Conan. To reference an earlier statement, you need to dust off that old manuscript, take a good and hard look, and sincerely ask yourself, "What the hell was I thinking?"
Small presses come and go every few years. What do you think it is so? Have you come yet across a task you dread to do over and over again?
I think that there are probably many reasons why some small presses make it and some don't. The path of the independent is not an easy one to take and the market is crowded with quite a lot of quality work. However, it seems to me that there is a basic set of rules to follow that will put you in the right direction.
1) Pay for quality cover art (unless you happen to be an amazing artist yourself) and make your stuff look better than the other guy's. This is HUGE because the Big 5 generally have cover art that is safe and boring. The indies aren't safe or boring. Bad cover art should piss you off.
2) Pay your authors. This is simple and shouldn't have to be said but I hear stories of small presses who haven't paid out royalties in years. Inexcusable.
3) Your authors don't pay you. Again, simple. That's not how this arrangement works.
I think if you keep those three things in mind, you might just be okay.
As for a task that I dread doing, I dread rejecting manuscripts. Some editors and publishers talk about being "mean" or "tough" and I don't get that. I think that I'm very author-friendly and that's how I want it to be.
I want to accept your manuscript. That's really the best result for everyone. I said before that I think there's no such thing as a bad story, only bad storytellers. However, I think its possibly more accurate to say "bad storytelling". I like to work with authors and pull away all the extra fat in their manuscript that's getting in the way of the story, or sometimes the story is too lean and I need to get the author to flesh it out. There is no greater joy than the creative process. Whatever the case, a rejection means that there's really no way for the author and I to see eye to eye, and that makes me sad.
Interesting that you mention you're author-friendly. I don't hear that often. Are there some authors in particular you'd love to publish to Double Life that haven't submitted to you, yet?
Gabino Iglesias. This guy is doing really interesting things and I would love to see what would happen if he went through the Double Life machine.
Brian Keene
David James Keaton (is it clear yet that I'm a fan of his work?)
Chris Irvin
Jessica McHugh (kinda fudging the rules a little on that one but I could argue a technicality. I won't though because that news isn't out yet and I'd have to kill you)
Max Booth III
Chris Leek
I'm sure there are others but this gives you an idea. More than that, though, I'm really interested in new voices. Writers that are hungry and maybe a little insane. I want that writer who comes home every night and types away on a manuscript wondering if they're the only ones who will ever read it. I want the writer who is too old-fashioned or too strange or too stubborn, the one that keeps doing what they're doing even though sometimes it seems like they're all alone.
They're not alone. Not anymore.
How do you see the future of publishing pan out, regarding the slow and methodical rise of Amazon and the new golden age of indie literature?
That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Amazon has revolutionized the book industry. It has changed how people get their books, in both good and bad ways. I rest firmly in the middle on the Amazon debate. I won't ignore the wonderful things that are now possible because of Amazon but I also won't ignore things like what happened with Broken River and Red Hammond's XXX SHAMUS.
That said, I think the future of publishing will look quite different. I think it will have to. I'd like to see authors and publishers work together to create a close, intimate relationship with readers and bring the books directly to them. I'd like to see readers take a more active role in seeking out books. I believe they want to. Some readers are happy with just using Amazon for all their book needs but I believe there are many others who would love a more interactive experience.
So, do you think it would be possible under the dominion of Amazon? Could the future of publishing look like a collection of independent feudal kingdoms gathered under the reign of the Amazon king?
This reminds me of a dream I once had in which the various indie presses were engaged in an underground MMA tournament. I was there fighting for Double Life and Cameron Pierce was giving me advice for the tournament. One piece of advice was that J. David Osborne is a biter. I don't know if that's true or what any of it has to do with this question, but I know that I think of it whenever I talk to Osborne now.
I think it would be foolish to put all your eggs in the Amazon basket. Your feudal analogy works. We're all a bunch of crazy, unwashed barbarians in faraway lands. The roads that the empire built for us are damn useful but we should never forget that ultimately we have to take care of ourselves.
Before leaving, tell us what Double Life has cooking for the next couple months? What can readers expect from you?
You can expect our first batch of books, including...
A masterpiece of existential noir in the form of Pablo D'Stair's Trevor English.
Three omnibus volumes collecting all of Will Viharo's non-series work entitled The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection
A brilliantly demented horror novella by Andrew Hilbert entitled DEATH THING.
I absolutely adore every single one of these books and I believe you will too. Readers can expect to be entertained. There isn't anyone else like Double Life out there right now so readers can be assured that when they pick up a Double Life book, its not going to be just like what everyone else is doing.
You might like it, you might not. You won't forget it.
Thank you, Craig T. McNeely and good luck with Double Life Press. I have no doubt it is bound to succeed.
