High Prairie Press - if you have wanted to write a book, this is for you

Today I'm talking with Annie at High Prairie Press. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
Did you know that Muck Boots all started with a universal problem? Muck? And did you know that it's their 25th anniversary this year?  Neither did I. But I do know that when you buy boots that don't last, it's really frustrating to have to replace them every couple of months.  So check out Muck Boots. The link is in the show notes. The very first thing that got hung in my beautiful kitchen when we moved in here four and a half years ago was a Calendars.com  Lang calendar.

00:26
because I needed something familiar in my new house. My mom loves them. We love them. Go check them out. The link is in the show notes. You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free to use farm to table platform, emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.

00:56
You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Annie Toro Lopez again. I just put out the episode with Annie from a week or two ago,  sometime in the last six days. can't remember when.  And  Annie talked to me about her Seeds to Savor page and stuff on the last episode.

01:25
And today she's going to walk us through her process  of how she publishes books at High Prairie Press. So welcome back, Annie. How are you? Wonderful. I am well. Thank you so much, Mary, for having me back.  I'm very excited about this conversation. I am too, because that got to me like this bug has been kicking me for a week since we talked about doing this episode.  You're in Colorado, right?

01:53
That's correct. I'm in  Elizabeth, Colorado, and we are  at 6,300 feet. That's  High Prairie. We're on the Colorado High Prairie, and that was the name for my publishing company, High Prairie Press. Beautiful.  the weather nice in Colorado today? Oh my goodness, not today. Everything's covered in ice. How about you up there?  It's gray.

02:22
It's gray, it's probably 45 degrees and  we actually had kind of nasty thunderstorms yesterday. I believe it. There were tornadoes all across the country. saw,  I'm originally from Nebraska. I was born in New Jersey, raised in Nebraska  and in  an agricultural land,  lots of tornadoes across Nebraska. saw a video of someone in their house and all of their windows all the way around them were breaking with hail. Yeah.

02:50
So it was, yeah, it was a rough day yesterday. I'm glad you guys are all okay. Yep. We're fine here. No broken windows. No, no cars got ding. No, no dogs got clunked in the head with hail. We're good. Um, and we're making a very small talk here, but I was, I was also born in New Jersey. I was also born in New Jersey. Where? Fort Dix. Wow. I was born in Plainfield.

03:19
Yeah, I think Fort Dix is in New Jersey. So yeah, we have that in common too. Really weird. Yes, Wonderful. Okay. So what I want to ask you first is you had said back in the other interview,

03:39
that it's always been your dream to be a publisher, but you have also written a cookbook. So were you a publisher before you wrote the cookbook or were you an author before you were a publisher?  So  I had published three books.  I published before my most recent cookbook. So I published four different books. One is a writer's handbook.  That was the first book I wrote. It taught me a lot about the process of publishing

04:09
Um,  it was something just, just did.  I taught my degree is in English and I taught literacy, reading and writing for about 15 years. So  professionally and more before that, but  I,  um,  wanted to capture what  I had taught  as a literacy instructor.  so I made,  I spent like, I don't know.

04:39
days, just listing words, like words that would come like metaphor and simile and antagonist and protagonist and  plot and resolution and  just words.  so this book is the death,  the writer's handbook defines those words and it's, it's  people who have it, I think find it valuable. It hasn't sold to many people, but writers, especially for  fiction,  memoir,

05:08
anything you would have learned in like English 101 is all there and just really concise. So that's that book. Then I did a project in Southern Colorado around green chili because it's an iconic native indigenous, my husband is indigenous and so green chili was just always a part of his life. And so this was a way to capture stories and recipes.

05:38
So that was the second real book that I published. And then I also published a small journal that's like available on Amazon.

05:51
Journal of Memories and Food Connections and Traditions. And I used it to write the Green Chili Cookbook. And it ended up being kind of its own little thing. And it's a nice little thing. It's nice on people like it. But it's, again, it was never commercial, for commercial, really. So the Green Chili Cookbook is called Wharf and I was happy hard. it was a...

06:18
kind of a passion project and I did it with a grant through  the age friendly initiative, which is something that Colorado has put money into.  and then I, so about a year after I published that cookbook,  uh,  my life changed a lot and I lost my best friend and my sister like six days apart.  And then three weeks later when I was in first place in a

06:48
Cookie competition, was diagnosed with celiac disease and that really just derailed my life  at that point. So I did publish  the Simply Gluten Free,  Real Ingredients for Everyday Life almost by accident.  Because at that point I was really ready to go off  on a more published,  to be a publisher. That's what I wanted to do. I had published three books and I was like, okay, I kind of know that.

07:16
You know, I know, and I'm going to learn more and  attending conferences and  workshops and professional development things. And I learned a lot  and was ready to write that I was actually approached by a chef here in Denver who wanted me to publish his cookbook. And literally on the way to that meeting, my brother-in-law called and said, you need to come home now. Yeah. Because my sister was dying. So,  um,

07:45
But I didn't lose that. And then I published my gluten-free cookbook because I really felt like it could benefit the Celiac community. And I just received a review on Amazon that just so nailed what I was trying to do, what I was trying to accomplish, and that it felt really good. Because I want to help people who live a gluten-free lifestyle, or their family does, or they cook for someone.

08:15
to navigate that world because it's rough.  But I didn't lose that. And so what I realized, I think, just even a couple of months ago, a few months ago at a big, there's a huge publishing conference that takes place in March. And in talking to colleagues,  I felt like I was kind of having an identity crisis because  I really want to be a publisher, but I'm out there marketing a book. So you have just doing both the...

08:44
Marketing is ongoing, so it's always going to be there and that's part of the world.  So,  yes, that's the long answer. Publishing  is  truly my passion. love  getting other people's voice out there  to support them and have them have that voice. Okay, cool.

09:11
So the reason that I wanted Annie to come back and talk to me is because she had said that she was interested in publishing books by people who are homesteaders and who are doing the homesteading things. And most homesteaders don't know how to approach a publisher. They don't know how it works. And Annie was kind enough to come back and she's going to tell us kind of the ins and outs, nuts and bolts of her process on how this works. we're going to use

09:41
We're going to use me as an example because I have an idea for a book and I probably will never do it. But I figure  I'm here. I might as well tell you the idea. Yeah. Yeah. So the idea for my book that I keep talking about and I keep saying, I'm going to write a cookbook too, but I just haven't gotten there. That's not the same as writing a book book. My book book idea  is basically a simple book about how to get started learning.

10:10
to cook because I've had so many people tell me I don't cook or I don't know how to cook or I don't have time to learn how to cook. And  I didn't either. And then in my  20s,  I was like, I need to make food at home. I don't want to keep eating out. I'm to be as big as a house. This is ridiculous.  And so I learned how to make a few things that come from a box, you know, add water, add butter, whatever.

10:36
And then I was like, there's gotta be a better way. And I learned how to cook, you know, things from actual ingredients. And it's not hard. It takes, it takes the, the want to do it. And it takes being able to follow directions and it takes having the right tools. So basically in my book would, would be about introducing the idea of you can do this and the right tools, like how to, how to kit out your kitchen simply to start with.

11:05
You know, do you need plastic measuring cups that are a quarter, a third, a half, and a one cup? Or do you need like fancy measuring cups? That kind of stuff. So if I was gonna come to you and be like, Annie, I have this idea for a book. And I run the idea by you and you go, that's a great idea, let's talk. What's the next step? Well, awesome. That was perfect, Mary, because

11:35
The first step is to pitch your idea and that's what you just did. So you gave me the perfect pitch, right? This is  my idea, this is what I wanna do, this is what I wanna look like  and  that's the first step. So you would pitch your idea. If you have a manuscript already, that's fine and you  can accompany your pitch with your manuscript. But not having a manuscript

12:03
is fine and  sometimes preferred.  So don't be afraid that, oh, well, I don't have anything  to show.  Just pitch your idea, just like you just did. Then the next step  is going to be  to,  so  if we accept it, if we say, you know, this is, we like this, I would want to see a copy of your writing, so a sample of your writing.

12:32
and a sample of photos  where, you know, we, I would like, we  focus on beautiful books.  make beautiful books. Then if we would talk about, so what's your vision for the book? Do you want it to be fully illustrated? Do you want to have little stories in there in between?

12:59
Do you want some full page illustrations or do you would you like to keep it? You know, so we talk about that.  Then we would talk about your goals for publication. So are you looking  to to have a bestseller? Are you? Do you want something that's just regional like a,  know, something just for your area? How to grow?  Crops that  are for your area.

13:29
Um,  we were talking the other day about peony farms in Alaska and, uh, you know, like regional, that kind of thing.  Or are you looking for like a family keepsake? You know, you don't necessarily want to even  market it. So we would talk about that and your goals because that would inform. And then a timeline for the project. We would talk about  what's realistic, where you are in the  process.

13:59
Uh, what your writing style, what we would, you know, if how much work we need to do there. Um, sometimes none at all, sometimes a lot.  And  so, uh, that we can  obviously make a plan and then we would talk about your budget because there are different  ways to publish  and  publishing is expensive. Like there's just.

14:29
around it  and we would talk about the different types of publishing available. So I kind of want to talk a little bit about that because I think there's a lot of confusion.

14:47
about  the difference between  a vanity press, a hybrid press, a traditional press,  and  self-publishing. So those are all different things.  And then there's even just like coaching, right? That isn't necessarily gonna take you, they're not gonna publish you, but they'll get you to the door.

15:16
Then so a vanity press, vanity presses get a lot of bad  press and there's part  of that is because they deserve it in a way. Some do,  not all. A vanity press could be as simple as going to your local

15:39
you know,  Minute Man, I don't know what you might have in your region, we have Minute Man press and they just publish whatever. They don't have any  criticism. There's no, you know, it's just I'm going to bring here and I'm going to get it published.  I'm going to print it basically.  And you know, they serve a purpose. So vanity presses get a lot of,  sometimes they miss the problem with vanity presses is they can misrepresent.

16:13
They are something to be cautious of if you're really looking to publish a book and you want, know, okay, we're going to put that they don't offer any support. They don't offer any marketing. They don't offer any editing. They don't offer. So  it's literally just whatever you have, you can get printed.  Um,

16:35
hybrid press is more  where is hybrid between,  me explain a traditional press first because then we could talk about hybrid. A traditional press would be  like one of the big five or a big publishing company that they're going to do  all of the work. They're going to own the rights to the book. They're going to do everything in house.

17:03
you have less control, you have input for sure, but less control over things like cover design or  paperweight or whatever.  A lot of people get confused with traditional press because they get excited because you get an advance, right? So for one, those are going away. Like you just don't see that much anymore, other than the big five, obviously the big huge houses.

17:33
But the royalty split generally with a traditional press is going to be 10 % to the author and 90 % to the house.  They do all the work.  get, you know, on the back end, they get  a bigger royalty split.

18:01
hybrid press. Usually there's a  more  equitable royalty split is one of the things.

18:15
but they're not also not they're not going to do all of that all of the

18:27
upfront work and you're not going to get anything like a

18:36
advanced because it comes out of that royalty later. it's  writing a book is always an investment, right? Like you're always investing in the future.

18:48
With  an advance, what some people don't realize is that it's kind of like a loan. If your book  doesn't sell enough to cover the advance, you are responsible to pay back to that house. And most people don't realize that.  So that's  kind of the, you know,

19:13
different, so those are sort of different paths to publishing  or the, then they're self publishing. So you do all, you know, you do the legwork, you do that. So it's always kind of up to the author how you want to approach it. But there's a lot of confusion, I think, out there about what those different entities  are. Yeah. far as paths to publishing. So what would you call your publishing house?  Hybrid.

19:42
Yeah, hybrid press. Yeah, yeah. And so, so yeah, so then what we would, what we offer  and,  is,  once we, we agree that on, you know,  we want to work together and we can fit your budget and all of the things,  um, then we'll, we're going, we'd create a general, if you have a, so for, for your cookbook, we would create like a general outline for,

20:12
you know, what topics do you want to cover? Like you were talking about the different, you know, like kitchen equipment, right? Like basic kitchen equipment, do you really need? So that would be one of our, that would be one section.  And so we would really, you know, create a skeleton of whatever you want to cover.  And then the next step would be, you know, let's put, put meat on the bones. So we would meet about,

20:41
once a week  and  or if that doesn't fit in your budget we could meet every other week so we can work on whatever whatever works for you as the author.  About halfway through a book it is time to start applying for awards,  submitting for reviews,

21:11
We would hire our cover designer  and  shout out to Tammy and Wood who's an amazing cover designer.  And work on  those sorts of things like starting to create buzz, get the word out there, do this, like podcast interviews, right?  And all of that, you want to do that early.  When you're about halfway through.

21:41
A lot of awards have publication  deadlines, so you want to get that in. And  they open and close, so you want to get that in  pretty early. we're always,  of course, striving for excellence here, absolutely.  Then we would be working on things like  the

22:09
basic metadata for the book, which are things like your ISBN number and those we get through Boker. Boker is the only official distributor of ISBN in the United States. Their website is my identifiers.com. are a lot, there are a lot of

22:41
Predatory websites. don't know if predatory is the right word. That's probably not the right word. Third party. Let's just say that's a better word. There are a lot of third party websites that are that are.

22:58
It's confusing because Boker is the name of  the company or the entity and their website is My Identifier. So there are like My Boker and you'll see things, but they're not official. Okay. So if you are self-publishing, if you do want to self-publish, you have to get your own  ISBN number.

23:25
Amazon will give you an ISBN and so will Barnes & Noble.

23:31
They, if your ISBN is through Amazon or Barnes and Noble, that is the only distributor. You cannot have global distribution. I highly recommend you buy and own your own ISBN.  Yep. Yeah. I learned about this back many years ago when I was doing, a friend wanted to write a book and she didn't know how to do it. She wanted to self-publish and I was like,  I can help you.

24:01
I can learn this really quick and we can get it done. But do you want  an actual ISBN  number for your book?"  And she was like, I don't know. So we had to learn all that too.  And what I discovered is you can actually buy like 50 ISBN numbers or a hundred at a shot and it actually makes them less expensive. And I was like, I'm not going to be in this long enough to do that. So.  Yeah. Yeah.

24:30
Yeah, I understand.  And you do want though.

24:36
It's depending on how so each  each version of your book requires its own.  Is being  or is been, which is in the industry, what we call it.  If your ebook. Your paperback, your hardback, an audio book,  all those require so it is good to buy like five at a time. If that, especially if that I think they offer.

25:06
And they don't expire. Right. So if you do want to, if you think you want to write another book, you know, that's like five Isbans a shot. I want to say, and I could be wrong here, but I want to say that the price break starts at 10. So like 10, 25, 50, a hundred. So buying 10, if you want to write more than one book, buying 10 isn't an under the question.

25:36
And you do save a lot of money. And how much are they going for these days? Ma'am? Oh, was afraid you were going to ask that. I want to say $120, but I could be wrong. can look it up here. Per number? Mm-hmm. Well, but unless you bundle them and then they really are cheaper. And then you don't have to pay. Don't pay for your barcodes. I'm just going to look it up. Huh?

26:07
Barcodes  are not are free you you can get a free barcode  when I bought a bundle from

26:20
my identifiers at that time, they gave like five free barcodes. So that's fine if they want to. Let's see.

26:35
So yeah, that's.

26:39
I'm just looking here. I want to tell you, so  I'll try to get that for you. Okay. And we can even put, yeah, put it up later or whatever.  the other,  you're also, so at that point, we're also going to apply for your Library of Congress identifier.  You want to be in the Library of Congress, right?  And we'll also start.

27:08
the  copyright process at that point.  when you're, again, so we're talking about halfway to,  you know, three quarters of the way through the book.

27:21
was starting to do all of that paperwork and all of that legwork. You want it?  Go ahead.  All right. So we're getting into a lot of the nitty gritty and I wanted to do that. I think that anyone who's not really committed to the idea of writing a book at this point has just enough to know that it's going to be a process and that you need to have  your ducks in order to get it started.

27:51
So I would love to spend the next 10 or so minutes if you have that to spend with me.  Talking about what kind of books you're looking for that you would like to publish from people.  Oh, absolutely.

28:07
I would like to see manuscripts and ideas  around  homesteading in general.

28:19
specifically all  food production  so  Can't  and food preservation cookbooks  seed preservation  Maybe you make pressed oils  People do like lati. I in our neighborhood. There's someone who has a lavender farm and she makes pressed oils  So  anything that  really has to do with

28:49
food security,  your ideas.  I also am open to memoir. Memoirs are very, very different process. Memoir is its own  special genre.  But a lot of people like to write,  want to write a memoir. think a lot of it's one of the fastest growing  genres.  So I'm definitely open to that.

29:16
Just so you know, if you do want to write a memoir,  like again, it has its own, it's its very own genre. There are very, very much rules  that you need to follow.  It  should read like fiction.  So if you have,  if you have a farm or a backyard farm or you...

29:41
you know, grow certain vegetables. I mean, that's really,  really where  I would love to see submissions from  your homesteaders and the tattoos and beautiful, like illustrated.  We can work, if you're not a photographer,  there are,  we can work with what you have.  you know, and today's cameras really are high definition photos. So,

30:11
You don't have to like have any kind of fancy equipment or anything like that. And Canva is amazing.  It's amazing. And we can  actually.

30:24
One of the issues with photographs has been  for me anyway, for years, is always, you you can't scale up.  You can, yeah, you can scale down, but you can never scale up. Well, that's not true anymore, because, partly because of AI.  But you can, and you can also  convert files into like PNGs or whatever that translate better when we print. So it's,

30:53
Don't worry if you're like, oh, I don't know if I have photos. It does help if you're a picture taker though. It does help if you like to take pictures of your process. That will help. Yeah. And it doesn't matter whether you have an iPhone or an Android because my husband has like the three generations back from new Samsung something.

31:19
And  he took the most beautiful sunrise picture a week ago.  I swear to you, Annie, it looks like a painting. is so  gorgeous. it doesn't matter what kind of cell phone you have, whether it's Android or iPhone, you can do pretty much anything. Yeah, absolutely. And nowadays cameras, I just got a new Samsung because I  had a five year old phone and I think I dropped it to one too many times. So

31:47
I had to get a new phone, which is just a whole like switch over, right? But anyways, but the camera is amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, absolutely.  Absolutely. Yeah.  And if you,  we would work, you know, for in design together. So with all your photos  that you want.  Very nice.

32:13
The other thing that I want to throw in here really quick is that lots of people think that they're not writers. And  this may be true. There are a lot of people out there who cannot string words together and make it a good sentence. I understand that they weren't born with the talent to do it and  they haven't taken a class to learn how to do it. That's fine. Not everyone has to be a writer. Not everyone has to be a singer. I'm all good with that.  But  what is really nice these days  is

32:40
There are all kinds of transcription services available online and you can literally tell your story out loud. The transcription  software  will put it into words for you and then you can edit it from there. So you don't even have to sit at the  keyboard for hours typing. can just talk into your phone, record your ideas.

33:08
get it transcribed and then sit down and edit it from there. And  I learned this because of my podcast, because  the platform I use has a transcription function so that I can have the transcriptions in the show notes.  And I was like,  oh my God, I could be doing dishes, have my earbuds in, get ideas down, recorded, know, audially, and then have them transcribed and literally be able to sit down for four hours and edit them.

33:37
I was so excited to discover this. So  even if you're not technically a sit down and type the words person, if you're a storyteller, you can jump on that and go from there. Yeah, absolutely.  Absolutely. That's a great point.  Isn't that amazing? Oh, I'm so glad because  I'm getting older  and I'm starting to get a little bit of arthritis in my joints and my fingers.

34:06
So sitting and typing for hours is really not comfy, you know? That's excellent point. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, absolutely. I guess I'm thinking of the work that I did too, like, you know, through  our age-friendly initiative in a senior center, right? Like that was some, you know, I heard that as a concern. I don't, can't, you know, it's hard to write now. Yeah. Yeah,  yeah. And I'm so out of practice writing actual.

34:33
actual longhand like with a pen or a pencil on paper because I never do it.  Who in the world actually writes on paper these days with a manual word processor?  do.  do.  I keep my notebooks. I have notebooks everywhere and I keep my notebooks. I was so proud of myself last year. had my notebook. I had my notebook from my business and I started it in January, I edited it in December and I had one page left.  Wow. I was very proud.

35:01
Yeah, I write in notebooks. I write longhand a lot. helps  my brain to process what I'm writing. So  it's just something I prefer. I transcribe a lot from longhand, but I do write longhand, especially plans and that kind of thing. So yeah,  I do.  My husband brought me a box of pencils yesterday.  And can I just say it was like the sweetest thing ever.

35:30
Uh-huh. He brought me my favorite Thai Khandro-Roga pencils. I was very touched.  That is really sweet. And I get it.  Back  when I wasn't so computer driven, I used to love a store called St. Paul Book and Stationery in Minnesota. And they had  every freaking thing under the sun for writing. And it had this, this smell.

36:00
of paper and ink and  I don't know what it was but every time I went there I'd be here. Yes, Dixon Paper Company here in Denver. was the equivalent I think of what you're talking about. I know I was, oh I'd forgotten about Dixon until just now.  yes, that smell.  I understand your excitement about getting your favorite pencils because

36:25
Um, years ago, um, one of the locations that my husband worked at, they were closing out one of their buildings and  he, he came across, he was helping clean it up and get stuff out and he came across a,  box and he opened the box, which is a really pretty little blue box and it had a gorgeous fountain pen  and,  a container of ink that went with it. And it was supposed to be like a gift to someone that just never got given out.

36:53
And he asked the person in charge  if he could have it. And the guy was like, yeah, all this is going to the trash. Whatever you think is saveable and you have used for, have at it. He brought this home to me. I used that pen for five years. That's awesome. I love that pen. awesome.  Oh, that's, yeah, they're beautiful to write with, aren't they? Yeah. My favorite pen is the Uniball Vision. Just saying. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

37:22
I wish I knew what I need to do is I need to start keeping a journal a small journal again and actually writing it longhand because my handwriting used to be beautiful and I used to really enjoy the act of writing, you know, actual physical act. And then I got busy with other stuff and I just don't write anything on paper anymore. So I need I'm going to make a resolution right now. I'm going to find a book I'm going to start just writing the weather every day like

37:49
like three or four sentences about the weather every morning.  that's a great start. I love the weather. I can be very weather obsessed. used to be a storm chaser in one of my previous lifetimes. It was a lot of fun, but I have to tell you that I posted a picture on Facebook in fact in January because  I bought two notebooks and  a package of pencils and for my business  notebooks for the year. And one was purple and the other one has  purple and pink unicorns and, and

38:19
and my pencils were sparkles and I said, yes, they match and yes, they sparkle.  Yes, it helps when your tools make you happy. Right,  yes.  And it's sitting right here.  that's very, very, very nice.  We could geek out for days,  Definitely. I enjoy you, Mary. This was  so much fun. I really thank you so much for this because it really

38:48
gives me an opportunity  to describe to your listeners  what we offer and  I really appreciate it.  I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about this because  most people do not know the steps. There's so much.  Yeah. It's a deep topic. It's a wide topic. It has a lot of moving parts, a lot of cogs, a lot of wheels. It's a huge topic.

39:17
And we just  basically touched on the top of the ice or the tip of the iceberg today. Yeah. So  for the listeners, if anyone has a book idea percolating and they want to talk to  Annie,  how to contact her, be in the show notes, but it's, it's it's high prairie press.org, right? Correct. And my email is editor  at high prairie press.org. So feel free to reach out.

39:44
Yes, because Annie needs books. She needs book ideas so she can publish them.  Yes.  All right. Awesome.  Thank you. All  right. Have a great afternoon. Thanks. You too. Bye. If you like this podcast, you would probably love Amy Fagan's Grounded in Maine podcast.  You can find her on  all the platforms, groundedinmaine.com.