Hey guys, I run a small record label, some of you may know us, some have even picked up a few of our releases, but most of you probably not. Anyway, I'm not here to talk to you about that. I'm here to talk to you about a new side project we're working on that I think you'd all be interested in.
Sometime within the next year we are planning on getting into indie book publishing. At first we're going to focus on digital ebook publishing and small print runs.
Our goal is to create exciting fiction for people who are into our type of music (indie, punk, hardcore, alternative). Our goal is NOT to publish books like the non-fiction classic "Get in the Van". While we love that book, we want to be much more subtle with our influences and not have books 100% about music/being in a band.
What we want to do is get books out there that in some very subtle way listeners of our small sub-genre of music can get into and really feel like the characters are relatable to them.
I'm an avid reader and it's always bugged me that when a "punk" character is in a story, it is always a hyperbole of what people in our circle are really like. They are often described as cutters, drug users, squatters, anarchists etc. And as we all know, that's not really who we are.
I once read the novel "Magic City" by Drew Lerman, a story about a teen who is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a hurricane hits his house and how that even changed how he handled everything in his life. Not only did the characters in the book feel real and relatable to me at that point in my life, but the book also name dropped The Lawrence Arms which made that connection even stronger. That is the type of story we hope to publish.
So that is why I am here. I want to ask you all about what you think of the idea and also ask that you would ask around to any interested friends/relatives/colleagues whether they may be interested in submitting a draft to us.
Again, I just want to stress that the submissions DO NOT have to be directly about punk, hardcore, metal, etc but in some way it should be relatable to listeners of our genre of music in some subtle way.
Here are a few examples:
- A 22 year old gets out of college, needs to figure out what's next. Goes on adventure.
- Cancer patient relives her golden days to her 16 year old grandson.
- A teen is struggling with the divorce of his parents, turns to music and finds himself.
- A murder mystery that revolves around a death at a local show. We meet all of these "suspects" and kind of get their personal backstories.
*These are just ideas, I'm in no way a writer or have good ideas
We are also looking into publishing fictional novels that will be written by some of the staples in the genre. i.e. Greg Gaffin writing a political thriller - just not that because we're not cool enough to pull that one off just yet.
Please discuss and send submissions to:
indiewritersrecs @ gmail.com
