I’m thrilled to announce the birth of my little imprint, passion project, labor of love, or whatever else you want to call it, but I call it SILVERBACKED PUNK:
The Origin Story
Over the last few years, I had two big epiphanies that led to this project. The first was a REALIZATION that some writing projects might not fit, belong, or find a home in the CONVENTIONAL literary world, but that is no measure of their beauty. This might not be profound, but it meant a lot to me. At the end of 2024, I read Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, by Michael Azerrad, and the passion of these artists blew me away. They understood that they were UNCONVENTIONAL. They COMMITTED (through blood, sweat, and tears) to do it the way they wanted to do it, and to get their work out in the world even if it meant they had to DO IT THEMSELVES.
In the summer of 2024, I embarked on a do-it-yourself writer retreat, boarding an Amtrak, heading west, and then setting up in a Spokane hotel for a few days of writing. I intended to write about it on this website, but the story I wanted to tell kept getting longer. I quickly realized the work was UNCONVENTIONAL. Was it a memoir? Was it travel writing? Was it writing craft? Strangely, it was all of those, but in the end, none of them. It was a weird book, and I loved it. I wanted to produce it. I wanted to punk rock it, do it myself. I also wanted to see what it would be like to produce the book on KDP. The result was T is for Train. I loved the whole experience. The quality of the paperback and cover matched my expectations. All royalties and pricing were completely transparent and reasonable. I could buy the book at printing cost and sell it myself directly, or I could list it on Amazon. There was no negative moment in the transactional parts of publishing. I know how rare that is. I saw the potential of using this engine to fill the weird niche that some of my writing projects landed in. I felt it was safe to assume other writers landed there, too.
The other epiphany happened on a party bus ride to the Iowa/Iowa State football game around my 55th birthday in September 2024. I mentioned to my brother that I was hitting a milestone birthday and “probably” could retire. We talked about some of the high-levels, and his reply was: If you can do it, why wait? Do it today. The ideas here felt both breakthrough and obvious. Why work if I didn’t have to? What if I could pick my own projects and decide what I wanted to give MY time to? After working out the details with the various advisers, I retired from IT after more than 30 years of SERVICE. Maybe this is why Azerrad’s stories hit at the right time for me. Saying “no thanks” to my job felt a little bit punk.
I drew up a TO DO list for my upcoming retirement. I knew it couldn’t be all writing. We need the same mixture from ourselves as we do from our employers. I had 6 items on my dream board, such as Novel writing, Flash Fiction/Short Story writing/publishing, Continuing DIY Craft Studies, Visual Art Projects, and writing a movie, something Kristy and I hope to do someday. The sixth item was Press/Journal/Website. I thought about starting my own literary journal, but it didn’t feel NEW enough. I had been an editor for New Flash Fiction Review. I wasn’t drawn to that kind of work anymore.
The press idea feels new to me, like there’s a need for it, and it’s a way that I can give back to the writing community that has done so much for me.
The Nuts and Bolts
Landing somewhere between conventional press and self-publishing, I consider this a HYBRID publishing effort, but I also don’t like that label because it’s often a costly model for the author. Silverbacked Punk is more indie-press like, because there is still curation. I can provide a similar service as the other small indie presses we know and love. The difference is that we will use a self-publishing engine. Some of them do that too, but we’ll get the business side in your name for the most efficient, optimal royalty format. I will help you execute all of that. The closest comparison I’ve come up with so far is Steve Albini, whose work led to some of my favorite albums. He refused to call himself a Producer, insisting instead on Recording Engineer. He felt this was an important distinction. Producers tried to CHANGE the band’s sound. Engineers tried to CAPTURE the band’s sound. I’ve got some skills I can share. I want to engineer some great books.
ME:
- I am Al Kratz. My writer website is alkratz.com. My email for this project is silverbackedpunk@gmail.com.
- I will select a limited number of projects per year that I’m passionate about and believe I can properly contribute to the spirit of the project. Projects that feel to me like a SILVERBACKED PUNK project.
- I will provide
- ISBN from my imprint
- Editorial Consultation
- Administrative Guidance through a self-publishing process
- Cover Design or Design Assistance
- As much promotion and marketing assistance as I can through Social Media, my Website, Book Release Zoom event, Hocking your book at local book fairs, etc.
- NO FEES. I’m not doing this for money. You have full control of your book. I help make it happen.
YOU:
- Write a kick ass book.
- Realize this kick ass book might not be for the Big 5 (whatever that is anymore), might not be for the small press, but it’s not meant for the hard drive, thumb drive, cloud drive wasteland.
- Get in touch with me to either learn more about this partnership or pitch your project to me and we both can find out if we have a special fit.
Elephants in the Room
- I use Amazon KDP as the engine. I realize this pushes the bounds of punk credibility, but I have two arguments: The first is fuck that, we do what we want, and the work is our credibility. The PASSION is the credibility. That is punk. My second argument is that the engine works. Let’s use it. There is full transparency of the costs, sales, and royalties. There is a reliable quality of production. The book will be under the Silverbacked Punk imprint. We are the press. YOU and ME.
- Books will be published under the individual author’s KDP account. All of the sales data and royalty flow between the author and Amazon. They provide high visibility and quality support. I’ve been through it on my own projects and can walk you through step-by-step.
- This project won’t be for everyone. It won’t be for every book. Even for my own work, it is a case-by-case decision.
- I’m just a guy. Silverbacked Punk is Al Kratz. The very first time I started sharing my writing in any public form was around 2007 on my Blogspot called Notes from A Silverbacked Gorilla. I’ve been “all in” with writing since 2013. I’ve been through several book publishing experiences, have several friends who have been, and I know the good times and the bad. I know we won’t take over the world, but I know what I’m offering competes with the good times, and I will fight to help you avoid the bad ones.
- There still will be rejection. I have to pick the projects that I have the right passion for, and I can only pick so many.
- This is a new EXPERIMENT. We’re going to make some of it up as we go.
- Selling books is hard. Publishing is hard. I want to help you make your passion project a little easier so we can focus on the good times: the passion of the written word; the joy of holding that book in your hands, offering it to a friend or stranger, and saying: Here’s my take on this crazy thing called life. Thanks for reading.
Al Kratz 