Thin Places: The Ottawan Anthology ebook

ARISE©: The Rise of the Indie-Author's core concept has always been the nurturing, promotion, support and encouragement of our local literary talent.

With the slow demise of traditional publishers and the rise of independent, self-published authors, we are entering a brand new literary landscape. Alongside this phenomena of the rise of the indie-author, unfortunately, is also a rise of a predatory shadow-industry, which expects the novice independent author to front an unfair amount of money upfront, invests nothing themselves, and thus runs no risk and incurs no responsibility, often times taking up-and-coming authors to the cleaners.

This has always been a challenge for Broken Keys Publishing, desiring and navigating a path somehow between these two extremes. Broken Keys Publishing is NOT a traditional publisher, nor was it built with intent nor resources to properly publish in traditional ways. However, neither do we desire it to function in any sort of predatory way.

Our ambition is to support and nurture local literary talents, but also allow them to do the work and lifting to their own degree of comfort. The middle ground is what is planned with Thin Places: The Ottawan Anthology.

For those whose submissions are accepted into this anthology the equation is simple. Once this book goes to the printers, each and every author who has contributed will be allowed to purchase copies at slightly over cost. (We are estimating approximately $6-7). It is our hope it will retail for approximately $19.99. (These final numbers and figures will become much more concrete once we have a final page count, all submissions are in, etc.)

The idea is simple. If a contributing local author desires to pedal their wares, they will be able to do so, and at a profit. Not only will this benefit them, all other contributing authors will benefit from this as well. Also, Broken Keys Publishing (and its primary author, Michel Weatherall) will also do the same.

The contributing authors' all retain copyright and ownership of their works, with the exception of Broken Keys Publishing's permission to print, reprint and publish (including ebooks). It is also our intent to connect to the City of Ottawa through the Deputy Mayor and several Councillors in order to promote this Ottawa treasure of local homegrown talent. Broken Keys Publishing will also be promoting this collection on local TV and radio. (Not to mention our very own Jewel 98.5 FM's Codi Jeffreys will be writing this anthology's foreword/introduction!)

This is the plan and remains so. However, in light of the current COVID-19 outbreak, quarantines and closure of non-essential services, bringing this book to print necessitates a delay. We plan, in the interim, to publish Thin Places as an ebook, if for no other reason than to keep momentum going and hopefully get the people of Ottawa (and beyond!) engaged, interested, and looking forward to its print edition release. The ebook release will likely be only a partial of the final product, as I suspect we will be extending the submission deadline, allowing for a larger print edition.

If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach out to us via email, FB messenger, or through our website.

Thank you all! Stay safe! Stay creative! Keep writing!

Michel Weatherall

Editor-in-Chief