Self-publishing author succeeds on own unusual terms | Arts & Culture

"I'm integrating the author into the community," says Brett Dean McGibbon, who has been selling his hand-tooled leather bound books of poetry and novels (The Fisherman and the Mermaid, Lucifer's Redemption) outside of Steve's Broadway News in between E Mercer and E Roy for a large chunk of the past eight years. Indeed, as he and I are talking, a pedestrian who has purchased McGibbon's work before tells me, "He does things his on his own terms. It's the American way."

Ten years ago, when McGibbon still lived in Alaska, a friend asked him, "Ideally, how would you like to see your first book come out?" McGibbon replied that in a perfect world, each copy of his upcoming tome would be individually handbound in leather. The next day his friend arrived at McGibbon's home with a cache of leather jackets he'd purchased from a nearby thrift store. The two commenced learning how to bind books by hand.

McGibbon's operation has been solo the eight years he's lived in Seattle and he's proud that his ingenuity and the community's support allow him to make a living off his wares. "For the first time in human history, we have the press in our own home," he says. "No bookstore would carry my books because they're self-published and so they don't have the ISPN number stores use to track sales. So I started selling in front of Steve's Broadway News and in mom and pop coffee shops around the city. And I'm able to support myself doing this now."

With over 16,000 copies sold, McGibbon is one of the best-selling living poets in Washington State. And his mastery of the binding craft has grown so that he can now create a book from start to finish in six minutes. As such, he has also successfully begun selling hand-tooled journals.

For those who don't frequently amble past McGibbon's stand, you can order or learn more about his work at:

http://www.differentfish.com/index.php?osCsid=mr6dkp7j47ebbfefr4aptn7ij4