Here’s a story. A wee while ago, Chris Bell, a NZ-based writer, got Really Fed Up. He had written a great book, Liquidambar, but couldn’t get it published. He had already published an anthology of 20 short stories, The Bumper Book of Lies which received widespread critical acclaim: one of them, The Cruel Countess was selected for publication in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, appearing alongside stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Tanith Lee. But nobody wanted Liquidambar.

He heard, through a friend (united by their love of Russell Hoban’s writing, but more about that later) that a self-publishing company in the UK, PABD (Publish And Be Damned) was running a competition; the winner would have their book published and marketed by UKA, an English publishing company.

There were 400 entries from all over the world, but a few weeks ago, on the first of November, you guessed it, Chris found out he’d won. Since then, his book has been edited and designed and is set to hit the shops in the UK and the net through Amazon and the PABD website, and press releases are being distributed all over the place.

It’s a great story, it’s garnered both him and PABD some publicity, and he’s realised his dream. Great, I hear you bleat, it’s all very well for some people to win a publisher but what about the rest of us who are Really Fed Up and are desperate to unleash our creative talents on the world? Well, that’s where the aforementioned PABD comes in.

PABD is the one of the first web-based services in the UK to offer a very cost-effective set of automated tools that allow writers to independently publish their own book, and then sell it. The name comes from a quote by the Duke of Wellington who, when faced with blackmail by a courtesan, said ‘Publish and be damned’, knowing full well his influence was such that she would not find a publisher for his loveletters.

It’s free, to a point, and includes such nice little touches as a selection of cover designs, the ability to set your own selling price, and your own personal on-line book store. For a small fee they also supply extras such as custom designed covers, and services such as proofreading, editing and marketing.

It’s their belief that the subjective tastes of publishers should not act as a barrier. Is this going to flood the market with, well, utter crap, given the equally subjective, not to mention rather biased tastes of the self-publisher? Possibly, and it’s not the only self-publishing company out there online; there’s Lulu, which does any kind of publishing at all including music, images, calendars etc, or Book Surge Publishing in the States. Their tagline (is it one? or many?) – ‘It’s not about waiting. Wondering. Hoping. It’s about you. A published author. Today.’ – says it all really.

But ultimately, it’s all about technology enabling Print On Demand – the book isn’t published until it’s paid for. Which is what makes Joe Public able to become the subject of the tagline above, because there’s no huge outlay for a large print run that may not be bought. And why not? If the people don’t want it, hell, they don’t have to buy it, right? And this way, the market won’t be flooded, because it’s supply on demand.

But back to Chris Bell: ’The story of a struggling freelance journalist who meets a mysterious stranger on public transport and falls into the world of Edward Hopper’s paintings… Liquidambar is ‘art deco magic surrealism’ - suitably laced with the absurd,’ says Chris, who is currently working on a screenplay adaptation of his winning book and also a new novel, Saccade. A couple of NZ publishers have expressed interest in Liquidambar, but if you’re keen to get a copy you can contact Chris through his website.

It was weird really – just as I finished reading a story online about Chris’s win, I got an email from him asking me to mention that Russell Hoban’s 80th birthday is coming up and there’s this whopping convention happening in London to mark it and the man’s huge body of work. To which we are all invited, by ‘The Kraken’, the worldwide community of Russell Hoban fans!

So I have. Mentioned it. Even though he’s not a NZ author… there’s enough of a twisted link I think. And for those of you who don’t (OK, I confess, like myself) know Mr Hoban’s writing, check him out. He sounds like a combination of JG Ballard and Iain Banks, which has got to be good and mad. Chris Bell is, as previously mentioned, a huge fan, even wrote a rather compelling (but ouch! wish you’d drop the yellow, Chris) piece on him on the Hoban fansite, which is called The Head of Orpheus.

Wow. Don’t you get the feeling sometimes that there’s just so much very strange stuff happening out there that you have no idea of? But that’s what it’s all about I guess – getting it out there, whether it’s via spooky old Russell Hoban or PABD.