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ABQ PRESS
by Jan Girand
Two published authors from the Albuquerque area,
Judith Van Gieson and Don Bullis, have joined forces to found a
new publishing company, the ABQ Press.
Both have discovered being published by a New York
publishing house isn't all that great an advantage, and that New
Mexico just might be a more user-friendly place for southwest
writers, anyway.
The writing styles and personalities of Van Gieson
and Bullis are different but compatible.
Van Gieson has won writing awards and recognitions
in New Mexico and says her name gets her books into bookstores and
helps her with book signings. However, she was unhappy with New
York publishers remaindering her books after just one month's
exposure on retail book shelves. She wanted more control over her
work. Many times Bullis encountered problems with his publisher
not filing orders and not getting books to him in time for book
signings. It is devastating when an outside force--the publishing
company--takes indifferent control of the final product, the book,
after the author invested months, perhaps years, creating
it.
With most publishing houses, once you sign a
contract to sell your work to them, it is no longer yours. The
publisher, not the author, has the final say in the title, the
contents and the cover. If the author says he wants to approve the
cover, even be involved in its design, the publisher laughs at his
naiveté. What are the benefits of being published by a big
publishing house? An advance? Those seldom happen anymore.
Promotion of your book? These days, authors are expected to
promote their own.
Van Gieson and Bullis decided to take control of
the end results of their creative works by starting their own
small publishing company in January 2006 with the publication of
Bullis' Bull's Eye and the reissuing of Judith's Wolf
Path. They are beginning slowly; at this time, they only
consider fiction by established authors and reissuing out-of-print
books. Gloria Bullis, Don's wife, fills orders and keeps
bookstores stocked with their books.
Van Gieson and Bullis have found ABQ Press to be a
satisfactory solution to publishing their own works.
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