With a mixture of genuine admiration and mean-spirited schadenfreude we’ve been following Cory Doctorow’s monthly journal tracking the progress of his self-published book With a Little Help. Doctorow set out to show publishers he could do what they do as well as they do it but at a fraction of the cost.  We’ve cheered his adept management of challenges that have daunted many a publishing behemoth. And we’ve clucked “I told you so” when he stumbled, smugly rejoicing to see an upstart put in his place.

His latest report mixes failure and triumph, but his unflinching candor in describing both is truly touching and he’s quite winning the cynics over, making it hard to wish him ill. Even the crustiest curmudgeon among us is trudging to the finish line to cheer him on.

First, the bad news. “When I launched this column,” he writes, “the plan was to have copies of With a Little Help into final production by October 2009, and to have it for sale by Christmas. Instead, I find myself in the final throes of production in early May, with a likely pub date of June or July 2010. How’d that happen?”

Here’s how. Doctorow discovered that publishing a book is a complex process that heavily relies on other people. This is a bedrock fact that any tyro who has worked even one day at a publisher understands. The problem is, Cory Doctorow has not worked one day at a publisher, though he has certainly been involved with enough social enterprises that he should not be surprised at how difficult it is to organize tasks efficiently. We hold with the proverb that he travels fastest who travels alone.  Conversely, he travels slowest who travels with companions.  And to publish a book is to travel with companions. Even one companion creates complexities, unpredictability and delays.

“It turns out,” he declares, “that a few tasks were dependent on earlier stages. And Murphy’s Law being what it is, this meant delays. Specifically, as I wrote in March, typesetting delays meant that I couldn’t get into final cover designs and proofing, nor could I get into prototyping for the limited edition hardcovers. The sound editing couldn’t be done until the sound recording was done, and some of my readers had other priorities that took precedence (such as paying work!). In hindsight, I should have taken notice that the two tasks with the largest number of dependencies were also the tasks that required the most work from my collaborators.”

But there’s plenty of good news, too.  For one thing, he’s almost finished the book. It’s a matter of a few months, and we’ll look forward to seeing it in midsummer.

Even better, he’s brought his book in on a budget that would scarcely fill the petty cash box at Simon & Schuster:

• Cover art: $1,000.
• Postage: $200 (for SASEs for people who donated paper ephemera).
• Scanning: $627.30 (paid an assistant to scan the ephemera).
• Recording studio: $250 (one of my readers needed help with studio rental).
• Fonts: $120 (per my typesetter’s recommendation).
• Galleys: $58.90 (four galleys, one for each cover, plus shipping, from Lulu).

Total expense: $2,256.20

But he’s not out of the woods. For in Doctorow’s case even a publishing company of one (himself) can be a problem if the publisher is also an author. “Now there is another snag,” he reports. “I’m on the road for my next book tour, going out with my YA novel For the Win, for Tor. I’ll be hitting Chicago; Austin, Tex.; Boston; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; San Francisco; New York; and Toronto. I’ll be on the road from May 10 to June 6—which means I won’t be able to really get into hardcover prototyping until I return to London, mid-June. The handmade hardcovers are the kind of thing that I have to be in town to oversee. Unlike a real publisher, I don’t have someone who keeps the project moving while I’m preoccupied or on the road.”

Why Doctorow characterizes himself as not “a real publisher” is hard to say. He is every bit a real publisher.  He just happens to have discovered along the way that he can’t do it all himself.

Read the latest installment of our Cory Watch, Closing In.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by Publishers Weekly.