Reader Meet Author: Juliet Cook

The words "small press" are consistently changing in meaning. In my mind I relate the small press to the indie label in music. There is a higher level of care, artistic freedom or investment, and all around concern for the product. However, just like with most indie labels, the sales rarely equate to the effort. Many smaller presses rarely focus on sales though, it is about the process, the conversion 0f thought into realized physical product. Despite all of these good intentions, simply getting words into print will never pay the bills.

Juliet Cook runs a small press called Blood Pudding Press, and always seems to add a little something extra to her publications. From ribbons to interesting paper selection, Juliet runs a fine press, but is not even close to covering her costs. It really is a shame, but in addition to her press Juliet is an accomplished poet. In the last year she has had collections published by Trainwreck Press and Scantily Clad Press. She also had her first full-length collection, Horrific Confection, published by BlazeVOX.

With chaps forthcoming from Spooky Girlfriend Press and Wheelhouse chapbook series & press I thought it was the perfect time to ask Juliet about her writing and the fate of her press.

Orange Alert (OA): What first prompted you to start Blood Pudding Press and what was your original intention?
Juliet Cook (JC): I started Blood Pudding Press to publish one of my own poetry chapbooks, ‘The Laura Poems’, a series of poems based on the Laura Palmer character from David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’. I was and still am a huge fan of that show and I had written the first versions of those poems years & years ago. Those early versions were not that good, but I had never thrown them away, due to my abiding fondness for the impetus that catalyzed them. Up until about five years ago, I had a painstakingly slow writing process, but then somewhere in there, it became significantly easier for me to access my own creative powers and write more quickly and so in addition to writing new poetry, I revisited some old poetry, including those poems. I used my old versions as starting points, but revamped them into substantially different pieces and I was in one of my writing frenzies when I did so, so it didn’t take very long. I desired to present the resulting pieces as a series rather than submitting them individually. I wanted to do so within my own time frame instead of waiting for an indeterminate length of time for somebody else to accept the manuscript, so starting my own small press seemed like the best bet. I had considered starting my own small press before, but I’m kind of a late bloomer, a second guesser, and not very confident when it comes to trying something new. Even though I liked the idea of publishing the work of other poets I admired, I guess I was worried that I’d somehow screw it up. So it was almost like I had to publish a project of my own as a sort of pretty little guinea pig first and then after I received some positive feedback about that first chapbook, I started to branch out into publishing other poets’ stuff, too. I’m glad I did, because I feel good about giving something back to the small press poetry community.

I started Blood Pudding Press in late 2006 and now less than three years later, I’ve published ten different poetry chapbooks including self-publications, collaborations, and multi-writer projects.

OA: I really enjoy the extra care you put into your books in regards to the lace and packaging. Do you feel that presentation is an important part of your press?
JC: Thank you. I mostly just feel like different presses have their own styles and I do what I can do with my kind of style and hope it appeals to some people. I personally enjoy artsy, quirky, hand-designed little flourishes, so I try to incorporate that style of detailing into Blood Pudding Press chapbooks.

OA: You do a lot of business through etsy. Do you feel that more small presses should be looking at services like etsy as a viable solution for sales, as opposed to having a website and using a shopping cart software or paypal? What are the advantages to using etsy?
JC: Well, I wouldn’t say I do a LOT of business through etsy, especially not lately, perhaps in part due to the economy, perhaps because Blood Pudding Press is just not very popular. I don’t do a lot of business period. I trade more Blood Pudding Press chapbooks than I sell. On one hand, that’s lovely; on the other hand, I don’t tend to even recoup my art supply costs with the chapbooks and so sometimes I’m really not sure how much longer I’m going to do be able to afford to keep creating them. So I don’t feel like any kind of expert about viable solutions for sales.

One reason I set up an etsy shop for Blood Pudding Press to begin with is because I don’t have whiz bang HTML skills and I wanted to make the chapbooks available through an online forum without attempting to design my own website. I really enjoy etsy a lot, too, in terms of the variety of delightful indie goodies that are offered there, although one possible downfall to such a bounty is that the books & zines category might kind of get lost amidst all the others. Etsy is wonderful in many ways, but has no special slant towards poetry.

Speaking of the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop, I am currently offering a poetry chapbook sale through the end of May. Most chapbooks are half off, so you can acquire a one-of-a-kind, hand-designed poetry tome for as little as $5, $4, $3.50, or even $2.50. Check out the wares at www.BloodPuddingPress.etsy.com

I do have a website now, too, at www.JulietCook.weebly.com, which serves as a more consolidated informational resource for not only Blood Pudding Press, but all of my poetry projects.

OA: While we are talking about technology and those types of advances, have you thought of any creative ways to market your books through social networks like Twitter or Facebook? Do you feel that the small press can effectively use the services to sell or market their products?
JC: I do use social networking and other online sites to promote my creative projects, but it’s something I struggle with. I think it’s a good idea to use online forums to get the word out about new creative projects, bus as more & more individuals and business entities turn toward such networking tools, one can begin to feel increasingly inundated with advertisements that may or may not be at all pertinent to them and I think at some point it becomes easier to just ignore these advertisements instead of taking the time to sift through them all. I think some people take their advertising too far or are too blanket-like about it. I really don’t want to be obnoxious or overly repetitive about my own promo, but where’s the line? Oftentimes, I really have no idea if I’m under-promoting or over-promoting.

I think the line is at least partly based upon personal preferences, too. For me personally, I am perfectly fine with people using their own online sites to promote creative projects ( their own blog, their own Facebook page, their own page on some other kind of online community forum, etc…), but it tends to rub me the wrong way when people send mass emails posing as personal emails and suchlike. If I’m on a small press’s mailing list and receive occasional updates as part of that mailing list, that’s fine, but if I’m not on your mailing list and yet you’re sending me emails that are trying to sound like they’re personally catered to me even though 100 other people are getting the exact same email, that bugs me. Similarly, it bugs me when people do stuff like advertise in my Comments section on myspace. Basically, I think that people should use their own space to advertise/market/promote, not my space. Of course, I also understand these matters can be tricky, because we’re all looking for new ways to get the word out about our creative projects.

I primarily promote mine on my blogs, my own Facebook page, and my Blood Pudding Press email list. Anyone who wishes to be added to that mailing list may drop me a quick note to JulietX@Bust.com.

I’d like to work on developing more of a non-online presence for Blood Pudding Press, too, such as making the offerings available through poetry readings, at local bookstores, and through alternative arts & crafts fairs, but I haven’t gotten very far with that yet.

OA: HORRIFIC CONFECTION, how gratifying was it to see your full-length collection in print? Were you happy with the decision to release it as a free e-book? What are your thoughts on e-books in general given your flare for design and decoration?
JC: I like e-publications AND print publications. I prefer the personalization and artifact-like nature of print objects, but I prefer the immediacy, potential accessibility, convenience, and lack of clutter associated with online publication.

As far as ‘HORRIFIC CONFECTION’, I was very excited to have it accepted for publication by BlazeVOX. I had been submitting the manuscript in one incarnation or another for at least a couple years, although for some rather misguided reason, I was focusing on sending it to contests (complete with entry fees), until I realized the crapshoot-esque error of my ways. Initially, when BlazeVOX editor Geoffrey Gatza suggested that he wanted to publish it as an e-book, I felt torn, because I wanted my first full-length book to be an entity that I could show to people and trade with people and most of all physically possess and hold and turn the pages, etc… When Gatza said that he could coordinate a small print run for me as well as publish it as an e-book that sounded just about perfect to me, so that’s what we did. He was a delightful editor and I think it’s incredibly commendable all the time and energy he puts into formatting all these BlazeVOX e-books plus the print books he publishes plus his own writings.

I was also pleased to have a hand in designing my book in that I chose the cover art. I made use of a wonderful etsy feature called Alchemy that basically allows you to put out a detail-oriented description of a customized piece of artwork that you are seeking, as well as your price range and time frame—and then artists can bid on your custom offer and tell you about why they think they’re the best bet for the job—and then you can choose one of those artists to work with. Through that feature, I chose an artist named Christen Baer to design my cover, we collaborated regarding the kind of imagery I was looking for, and I really couldn’t have been more thrilled with her design. It’s a warped variation on the classic Venus on the Half Shell painting, except this Venus is standing atop a wormy cupcake and offering an oozing maraschino cherry and she’s all piecemeal and stitched together with dark thread. In addition to the darkly delectable cover art, the book is also glossy and slick looking. I like the kind of misfit-like, ribbon-bound tomes I make for Blood Pudding Press, but I also like glossy, slick, perfect bound books.

So I was highly excited about HORRIFIC CONFECTION, but then there was also a certain sense of deflation shortly thereafter, because I felt like I was the only one who was excited about it. I’ve only sold three copies. Granted, I’ve traded some and given some away and hopefully people are reading it online and it’s even received a few fabulous reviews. For me, being a small press poet seems to involve numerous small bursts of excitement and small bursts of deflation, sometimes in pretty short order. Which is fine, as long as my excitement doesn’t get cancelled out.

OA: What's next for Juliet Cook?
JC: I’m working on the next Blood Pudding Press chapbook—‘At night, the dead:’ by Lisa Ciccarello, one of the winners of the first Blood Pudding Press chapbook contest, to be published in mere weeks. The other winner, ‘spare room’ by Dana Guthrie Martin will be published later this summer.

I have a couple new chapbooks of my own poetry coming out soon from other small presses—an e-chapbook called ‘Tongue Like a Stinger’ through Wheelhouse and a print chapbook called ‘PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR’ through Spooky Girlfriend Press.

I recently started a blog-style publication as a kind of online manifestation of Blood Pudding Press. It’s called Thirteen Myna Birds and accepts submissions on an ongoing, rolling basis. You can partake of the semi-amorphous guidelines here.

I need to do more writing, write more reviews, try out my new pink fishing rod, dye my hair. I lost my longtime day job about six months ago and have not managed to acquire a new one yet, despite ongoing job search efforts. That’s been pretty stressful. I think I’ve gotten more than my fair share of gray hairs in those last six months, which is why I need to dye it. On a related note, I’m considering going back to school or trying to enact some other lifestyle adjustments. I sometimes feel like I’m not in the right place, not doing the right things or not doing enough.

Bonus Questions:

OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be?
JC: Someone alive.

OA: What type of music do you enjoy and who are a few of your favorites?
JC: I especially enjoy poetic music and angry music. Some favorites include Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Neko Case, Rasputina, Diamanda Galas, Kristin Hersh…

For more information on Juliet Cook please visit her website.