(A cross-post, beginning an irregular series of words to the wise from Bapton Books, who have made many mistakes so that other indie authors and small presses can learn from the experience without paying the fiddler.)

No, it’s not about grammar. Or your grendfether, either. Or even spelling, a subject upon which I am something of a hidebound Tory. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist the gag.)

Item: You presumably have a decent cover on your Work of Deathless Prose. Wouldn’t it look good on a tee-shirt or a carry-all or a wall hanging for your legions of fans? Of course it would. Even if the book is nonfiction, or not fiction.

Item: Assuming you have any fiction out, it (again, presumably, and I sure-God hope, for your sake) has characters and places and scenes which appeal to your adoring fans. (Both of them.)

Let me take a Bapton Books example* – G.M.W. Wemyss’, as I don’t have any fiction out. In the Village Tales series, Cross and Poppy: a village tale and Evensong: Tales from Beechbourne, Chickmarsh, & the Woolfonts: Omnibus Edition and those to come, there is the local Free School. There are three parishes – plus neighbo(u)ring parishes, the latter including Canon Judith’s “progressive” parishes. There is (is there ever!) the duke; and there is the Duke of Taunton’s Hunt. There is a pub, and a hotel which is really an excuse for a highly regarded restaurant. There are Village Fetes and Village Concerts; there is the heritage steam railway; there is the community-run real ale brewery. The duke, being in part a Stuart, has a castle in Perthshire … with a singlemalt whisky distillery attached; his cousin the earl of Maynooth, in County Kildare, has a chi-chi Irish whiskey distillery.

We would be utter fools not to take advantage of that. The duke’s more outrageously witty and Thatcherite pronouncements make a great poster. Every trendy Anglican will like a tee-shirt with Canon Judith’s quip, on women’s ordination, that “I need your approval like a fish needs a chasuble.” (Every traditionalist, orthodox Anglican will want gear from Father Paddick’s parishes.) In the books, Teddy Gates, the Hipsta Chef, got a gag birthday gift tee-shirt from his friends, with the West Country version of “Hipster, Please”: “’Ow Bist, Hipsterrrrrr.” By a truly startling coincidence, that tee-shirt can now be purchased online.... The brewery and the distilleries and the labels from the booze and the beers make superb hoodies or throw rugs or blankies or what the hell. (Who can resist a seasonal dark mild called “Otterhound,” after all: “The Mild With The Shaggy Coat?” Or a bitter called “Canons and Fuggles?”)

To take another example: my late father’s Western, Claymore: a story of Texas. If the real King Ranch can brand (heh) and license everything in sight right on down to your pickup truck, why in the Sam Hill would you not sell hats and caps and sweatshirts with the Claymore brand and logo? What’s more, that’s a peg to hang your Stetson on for other Good Ol’ Boy gear: the duck and duck-blind tee, “In case of emergency, DUCK and COVER,” or the one with the sixguns behind the Texas map infilled with the Lone Star Flag, reading, “Y’All Talkin’ Trash About TEXAS … Triggers Me.”

All right. The Big Boys do their spin-offs with million-dollar ad buys and franchise-and-licensing deals with burger joints. The indie author and the small press have to grind it out at places such as Cafe Press or what have you. But it can be done. It ought to be done. Call it shameless commerce, call it cross-marketing, call me anything you’ve a mind to for suggesting it and clouding the unmercenary purity of your artistic vision; but do it.

Writing is a craft and sometimes an art.

Selling it is a business.

And Jesus Christ and General Jackson, people, if you – or your authors (if you are a small publisher. I’m 5’6” myself) – have done the work, built the world, made a cover, you are dumber’n a mud fence not to find other ways of making money off your work.

And consider this. One of your fans – and maybe there’s not a right smart of those … yet – buys your bag or your tee-shirt or your umbrella; and goes forth into the streets and byways therewith. It’s a good design. It has flair. If it’s one of your covers, or the cover art, it likely proclaims the title and the author’s name. Or it’s an advert for or a label from a fictional whisky or beer. Someone looks. Someone, once in a while – an avid reader, a beer maven, a whisky snob –, stops your fan and asks about this unfamiliar thing. And your fan evangelizes. And once in a while, the missionee comes to the mourner’s bench and becomes a convert. Maybe she buys a similar canvas bag with one of your logos or characters or titles on it. Maybe he gets a golf shirt with the brewery logo or that of the Beechbourne Free School or something. And one day, someone new notices, and asks, and....

Get to work, people. You’re wasting an obvious opportunity and burning daylight here.
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* I am not linking our site here. That would be crass and improper and not the point of the exercise. I will of course let anyone interested know the link.