Self-publication looks up?

 At the risk of repeating myself, Rosa Mira's new website is millimetres away. It's just a matter of the two busy people responsible (yours truly and sib) coordinating over the last few details.

Meanwhile (I wonder if that's my most frequently used paragraph starter), I read this article called 'Self-publishing matters' about the popularity and destigmatisation of DIY. What do you think? I think that, even so, not every writer wants to go it alone. Many value a publisher's editorial judgment and input, design capabilities, ebook production and marketing know-how ... and that's where Rosa Mira comes in — with traditional publishing values and an innovative, collaborative model.

I'm currently reading a promising manuscript, one author is making small structural changes to hers, and two are waiting for me to pull my editorial hat down hard and get started.

It's always a thrill to see Rosa Mira authors (possibly not how they describe themselves primarily, but I'm entitled) out doing beautiful things in the written world. In April Carolyn McCurdie is going to have her first (ridiculous that her work hasn't been in mass circulation for the last decade) book of poetry Bones in the Octagon published by Mākaro Press. More when I have one in my hand.

Sue Wootton recently won the 2015 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize for her poem 'Luthier'. I happen to know she's just completed her Masters (submitted — that's 'completed', right?) so we might see more of her poetry and fiction out on the streets in the near future.

There's more but my skin is coming of age and I shortly have an appointment with a flask of liquid nitrogen.

Meanwhile, carry on: Writing is its own reward, wrote Henry Miller.

Published: the now famous The (e)Book of Hat.

 Today's newsletter:

New dance steps: Rosa Mira Books is linking arms with Makaro Press to bring you the digital version of The Book of Hat, named runner-up this week in the Ashton Wylie Book Awards.

"This is the real The Fault In our Stars" — Auckland Libraries

At 17, Harriet Rowland — known as Hat — learned she had osteosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that began in her knee. At the time she was a student at Queen Margaret College in Wellington, New Zealand.

Going through treatment was often a lonely time, as friends — while supportive — didn’t always understand Hat’s new life. This was until she fell in love with the character Hazel Grace from John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars, a girl who talks honestly and openly about living with cancer. Like her, Hat found life changed in ways that were both good and bad: falling in love and hospital stays among them. And she was surprised by how much happiness there was still to find.

Throughout her journey, Hat kept a blog called My Experience of Walking the Dog, and this book is a collection of those posts edited with the author. Why the blog title? Her parents say cancer is like a dog — fine if it stays in its own yard. Hat’s dog got out. This is her unexpected story.

Rosa Mira Books is delighted to join with Mākaro Press in presenting the ebook version of Harriet’s story which, just this week won second place in the Ashton Wylie Book Awards (sandwiched between NZ’s famed Lloyd Geering and Joy Cowley). 

From its sell-out launch in February this year,  The Book of Hat hardcopy went on to become a surprise hit in NZ. With $1 from each sale going to CanTeen, the blue book with a hat made of stars on the cover was bought by students and grandparents alike, and made its way into CanTeen gift packs, hospices, adult book groups, school libraries and classrooms. A surprising burst of internet sales saw it fly off as far as Moscow, Prague and Wisconsin. —Mākaro press release

Along with heartache, an irrepressible joie de vivre and love spill from the pages Harriet wrote and her circle of influence goes on on widening. She would have turned 21 today.

The Book of Hat, the ebook, can be purchased here.

“Her writing is funny and truthful and wise, exactly like the Harriet we got to meet when she visited the set last year.” Peter Jackson, filmmaker