Why did a woman at retirement age start a publishing company?
I went to a bank to ask for a loan so I could take a year off and write. The bank said no. I was persistent. I went back a second time, and a third. Finally, they said they would provide a small loan that would allow me to publish another writer's work, and I began publishing in 1990.
Was it that simple?
Oh, of course not. I had to do some research. I had to find out what I needed to do about contracts, fees, registrations, copyrights. And I had to learn about layout, and printing and binding. And I had to select a name. I chose one that had a very personal meaning, and that didn't appear to have been used before—Mayhaven Publishing.
How did you select your first manuscript?
That was the easy part. No one was sending manuscripts, then. It had taken about a year to get everything set up and ready to go, and I was eager to get the first book on the market. One day I was having breakfast with a group of friends in a cafe and a woman at the end of the table was regaling us with her stories of "going online" with their small but bustling family business. I leaned across the table and said, "If I would publish your book, would you write it?" Yvonne "Bonnie" Hannah said she would, and I did. The title was Computers! We'll Assume You Know Nothing, and as far as I know, it was the first book to take a down-to-earth approach to computers for a small business. In fact, a regional newspaper (Bloomington Pantagraph) wrote: "At last, a book in English, not DOS." It predated Dos for Dummies.
Did it sell?
Oh, the author and I thought it sold spendidly for our first book. It did go into a second printing and a couple of library distributors picked it up, despite the poor production qualities. I think I was using a Macintosh Plus to layout and edit, then, and the book had little cartoon drawings (which my son Cullen and I drew), but the information was pragmatic and very helpful. The best part of the whole experience was that it was fun. The author and I became great friends, and she often said publishing the book changed her life. It changed mine, too.
Do you still worry about getting manuscripts?
Oh, no. We get several manuscripts or queries a day, but I will always remember the thrill of that first publication.
That was a nonfiction title—a business book. Do you publish other kinds of books?
Absolutely! We have always done well with nonfiction, especially history. I have a special interest in history. As an undergrad student, I won the Richter Fellowship (North Central College) to research and write on Mary Todd Lincoln.
Have you published a book on Mary Todd Lincoln?
No, but I will one day. Actually, when I reserached Mary Lincoln, I decided to do something a little different with the material. I wrote a footnoted play, and North Central College produced it. In the lobby of the theater, we displayed the photos I had taken during the research, and a mock up of the stage sets. That was in 1981, and I was a non-traditional student, common now, but not so much so then. This past winter, the University of Illinois displayed my original hand-written play, the photos and other materials, for two months in the Rare Book Library. By the way, from the time I had the idea to write a play on Mary Todd Lincoln until I did was 25 years.
Have you written other things?
A few years ago, a gentleman from downstate IL contacted me. He said I had written a story about him that was published in the Charleston Courier (IL) when I was about twelve or thirteen or so. He sent it along for me to see. I had forgotten all about it until then.
I have had many articles published in newspapers, magazines, and journals, but the most difficult thing I ever wrote was a chapter for Ten Sisters, A True Story. We published the book in 1997. It was about my nine sisters, two brothers and me. We had been separated in 1942 when I was two years old. The two brothers were serving in World War II, my sister Audrey and I were adopted (by different families in the same town), one sister stayed with our maternal grandparents, five went to an orphanage (Cunningham Home in Urbana, IL) and some were sent to homes to work for their room and board. The oldest of us, Virginia, was not quite 16. The photo on the cover of the book was taken at the Coles County courthouse in Charleston, IL that day by an unknown photographer.
Did you write the entire book?
No, as I said, I wrote my chapter. Each of the sisters wrote their own chapter. The book is now in its fourth printing and we have published a children's book, Ten Little Sisters, that is wonderfully illustrated by Lana Hill. Ten Little Sisters deals with our lives before we were separarted.
Those are all nonfiction books. Do you publish fiction?
We certainly do! In fact, we have from the beginning. The first one was a book of short stories and poems, Long Story Short, by Nancy Easter Shick. Since that time we have published poems, short stories, novels, children's books, humor, mysteries. You name it, we've done it.
And you established an Award for Fiction?
Yes. In 1997, I felt we needed to concentrate a bit more on fiction, so we established Mayhaven Publishing's Awards for Fiction. Actually, we give out two awards a year, one for adult fiction and one for chilcren's fiction.
How does one apply?
The application is on our website and in our catalog, and a writer can ask for a brochure we produce. There is an application fee, but the winners in each category receive publication of the work and royalties. It is an important award, but is still not well known. We announce the winners in May, and publication follows a few months or a year or so later. It depends on the work needed to complete the project.
Are you a traditional publisher?
If you mean do we pay royalties and store and market the books, yes we do. Mayhaven is small and we are limited in the number of titles we publish in any given year. If we are committed in a category, we do publish some books through our co-op option. Through the co-op, there is a charge for the first printing, but the author receives greater royalties and is not responsible for subsequent printings, for which they continue to receive traditional royalties. This allows us to publish a few more worthy titles. The criteria for any book is the same, though. We also edit and layout a few books for private publishing, but very few.
Are you a hands on publisher"
Oh yes! Though I have never met a good number of the authors, I do virtaully all of the editing, most of the layout, much of the marketing, the financial end of the business, and sometimes I even place the books in the package and mail them. I have, though, in the last couple of years shifted more of the work to others.
Do you have a favorite title.
I do, but it wouldn't be prudent to say which title, would it? I can tell you that I like a variety of topics, perspectives, and styles of writing. Few things bore me, and I am activley curious about many things. I do like to laugh, I like good mysteries, and I appreciate learning something new or from a different vantage.
Did you have mentors?
I most certainly did, and do. Teachers were the first. I had wonderful teachers, and not the least among them was Helen Harrington. I was a freshman in high school when she introduced me to poetry, short stories and essays. She is still a good friend. Dr. Richard Eastman, whose book of short stories, Tangled Tassels, Mayhaven eventually published, was my professor for novels class at North Central College in Naperville, IL. He kept me on my toes, refusing to allow me into class when I was late, but also suggested I apply for the Richter Fellowship, and then played a role in the play. He had studied at Yale and was a wonderful actor.
Jo Schroeder was a true eccentric, but one of the two best-read persons I've ever known. She accidently ran me down with her bicycle when I was a graduate student at Illinois State University, had my tooth repaired, and talked books. She predicted that I would be a writer or a publisher. I had never thought of publishing at that time.
Dr. Wayne C. Temple is still a mentor. He was wonderfully helpful in assisting me with the research for Mary Todd Lincoln and has, over the past ten years, authored three books on Lincoln for Mayhaven. Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet was selected in the top 160 or so (of 10,000 volumes) of essential books on Lincoln. And there have been other mentors, of course.
I can't forget Lila Heston. She was Charleton Heston's sister and she was still teaching at Northwestern University in the fall of 1982. I was twenty-five years older than the other students, but she brought me in as a grad student at the 11th hour and arranged an assistantship. She, Frank Galatti, and Carol Simpson Stern were among my professors. I was going through a divorce, then, and left to deal with matters at home, but I remember those brief, but wonderful days at Northwestern
And, as I said, there have been other mentors. In that regard, I have been very lucky.
Do you have a muse?
A muse? Well, in a way I guess I do. I mentioned there were two people I consider the best read of anyone I have ever met. The first was Jo Schroeder. The second is my friend Georgia Howe. At 97, her Christmas list is still made up of the books she wants to read. I think her favorite book from Mayhaven is Vienna Kisses by Wilfried G. Lippmann. She read the galley and called right away to say she loved it. Her reading habits began in a hospital when, as a young woman in her twenties, she sat beside her husband's hospital bed for two years, reading to him while he recovered from severe burns. She inspires and challenges me.
Is there anything new you would like to attempt?
Yes. I would like to convert many of our titles into audio books and I would like to see some of our titles adapted to television or film drama or documentaries.
Do you have suggestions for the unpublished writer?
Years ago I joined a writers group in Wheaton, IL. The group was made up of a journalist, a judge, a homemaker, a waitress, a teacher, a student, and an older woman who knitted. We read our work aloud and no one ever said it was good or bad. We just reported what we heard. (i. e. I saw an unhappy woman walking down the street...I heard anquish in the conversation...I laughed at the examples....etc. etc.). Anyway, I think all of us published that year, and the first to have a book published was the woman who knitted. I still think about those informative and specific evenings when we all learned something about writing.