Last week I had the fortune to speak with Silence in the Library’s CEO Ronald Garner at Awesome Con DC Easter Sunday. He participated in the panel, “Social Media for Authors and Readers” along with authors Eliza Knight, Christi Barth, Gail Martin, and Ana Blaze. This is a summary of my talk with Mr. Garner.
Silence in the Library started with a conversation between Garner, his wife author Jeanine Spendlove, founding author Bryan Young and several writer friends including Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston.
“We were just talking about the state of the publishing industry and how in traditional publishing authors didn’t really have as much input into the production of the book after they submit it to the publishers,” said Garner. “Mike Stackpole looked at me (Garner), Jeanine and Bryan… We talked to Maggie Allen another friend of ours, and decided to form Silence of the Library.”
“The whole idea behind [it], was that we would use the resources available out there to flatten the playing field in the publishing industry, [creating] the kind of organization in which authors are full partners in the publishing process.” Which includes, according to Garner, the book cover, the final edit, and profits made from the sales of the book. “We believe that because they are our partners all the way through they should be compensated accordingly. We want to make it possible to get really good books out there.”
So how did the name come about? “We bandied about some names but they didn’t fit. One of our friends then [suggested] Silence of the Library,” said Garner. All of the founders liked the name, not realizing the major Doctor Who reference. “At the time none of us were fans of Doctor Who,” said Garner. “My wife and I were the first ones to pick it up, and as soon as we saw the episode Silence in the Library, we were like ‘Ohhhh.’ ”
For those that do not know Doctor Who is a TV series about an alien Timelord who calls himself “The Doctor.” He goes on adventures through space and time in a telephone box/spaceship called the Tardis (If you have not at least heard about it I feel sorry for you).
Garner and I go on to discuss books that he read during his childhood (he prepared a list!) which included Isaac’s Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, and more.
Take a listen to why Silence of the Library doesn’t want to publish books that fall “under just one category,” and how featuring artists on their website came about, as well as the importance of Kickstarter. I look forward to reading some authors published here!
The entire uncut interview here:
For more information and to purchase books visit: http://www.silenceinthelibrarypublishing.com/
