About North Ink Books

by Beth MacDonald

I have the fortune from a fortune cookie stuck to the upper corner of my computer screen. It says: Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupy. That statement may not be fact—I am not a scientist or a philosopher—but from my experiences I would say that it rings true.

In a past life (as in a quarter century ago) I was a craft designer. I designed and wrote instructions for projects for home crafters—things like knitted baby booties, rolled washcloth bunnies, and scherenschnitte Valentine’s Day cards. One thing that I discovered during my design career was that I couldn’t think about an idea for too long without physically starting on the project. If I did, I answered all the design questions in my head and the project was as good as finished for me—the idea never made it out of my brain. Writing can be like that for me, too. I can think about a story for so long that I’ve solved all my protagonist’s problems before my fingers hit the keyboard. There is nothing left for her to say. She has no decisions to make. Her life has become a memory for me before it’s had a chance to come alive on paper. I’m guessing that other writers have had the same experience.

But, I’ve found that there’s another problem for authors. This one is even sadder, because these writers have done the work. They have taken the time to finish their stories, but can’t use traditional publishing to get their words to readers. Their ideas never get to become bigger than the space they occupy on their laptops. 

To get a book published in the traditional way, a writer must find an agent. After that, the agent must sell the manuscript to a publisher. Neither is an easy task and they both take time (often years). I heard recently that to find an agent a new fiction writer needs to be willing to send out at least one-hundred to two-hundred query letters. Those letters are to be targeted to the agents to whom they are being sent—which means doing research, setting-up a filing system, and writing and re-writing queries. Aspiring authors might just as well forget about writing other novels in the near future—they’ve just become full-time researchers and pitchmen!

Well, I’ve decided that I’m too old to play that game. I want to write fiction. As a sixty-four year old cancer survivor, I don’t have time to mess around searching for an agent. And, while I would love to be published by an established press, I don’t see that in my cards (or my tea leaves). 

That’s why North Ink Books was born. It’s a way to couple my ideas with actions. I write because I enjoy writing. Like most authors, I would like to share my work. North Ink Books lets me share what I have written with the world. Not that it’s not a scary undertaking to self publish—it’s very scary! I can’t pass the buck and I can’t hide. When I make mistakes (and I HATE to make mistakes) they are all mine. I can’t blame agents, editors, cover designers, or publishers—that’s scary. And, yet, it’s all very exciting, too. If I’m proud of the final product, I can be proud of my choices and, by extension, of myself. I like that idea.

I hope you like my books.