Saying . . . YES!

Somehow this whole author-turned-author-AND-publisher thing has worked out over the years. Worked out well. It all had to do with taking leaps.

And I’m not keen on taking leaps.

I’m not great at saying . . . Yes.

Years ago, I did step away from a long-time position as newspaper columnist, Eight years later, I left my position as a magazine editor. The first move had been brutally tough — it had taken me a year to first get my finances in order — but necessary. The second I also found necessary, but it was less tough.

I had somewhere to jump.

Writing books wouldn’t be enough, in other words. I needed something else. Turned out that would be publishing. My long relationship with an excellent North Carolina publishing house turned sour when it wanted to redo our contract . . . which, true, had been unduly beneficial to me. I decided to publish myself. How? Our oldest daughter, Lindsay, had started Beach Glass Books years before to publish her children’s books. Otherwise, the company was sitting idle. So she said, here, use it.

She, like most of the world, was better at jumping into new ventures than I. I always wanted to be sure. I wanted some sort of guarantee that this all would work out.

Uh, right, buddy. That’s not how things work. There are no guarantees.

So I published that next book. Later, when many of the principals at the old publishing house moved into retirement, I was able to retrieve the rights to my earlier books. I republished them in larger, updated editions.

MEANWHILE, BEACH GLASS BOOKS was being approached by other writers. We ended up publishing a number of their books. Many had a North Carolina coastal theme, along the lines of most of mine. They were good books that attracted a following. (By the way, the absolute hardest part of publishing, by far, is having to turn down a book. You are rejecting a person’s deeply meaningful hard work. It is soul-crushing — both for writer and publisher. I hate-hate-hate having to do it.)

We’re up to about a dozen published writers now, with two dozen books. Many have appeared in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audio formats, too. I’m proud of the books and glad to have helped deserving writers.

Virtually all are non-fiction, with the exception of Lindsay’s children’s books — and just one novel. It was a good novel, well-plotted and -written. But we weren’t able to market it as well as it deserved So I’ve stayed away from novels.

Until this year.

Author Sheryl Cornett submitted a novel primarily set on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. My wife, Vicki, was the first to read the manuscript — and declared it interesting, well-written, and likely to sell well. (That final criterion is not essential but we sure don’t want to lose money.) It was Sheryl’s first novel. But she was an award-winning writer in other genres and had taught creative writing at N.C. State on top of it. And the book was good.

I said yes.

NO SECRETS IN THIS HOUSE came out in May and has done well, thanks to its quality and to its promotion by Sheryl and OBX bookstores. Just 20 days after publication, we had to order a second printing. Never happened before.

But the biggest Yes was to come.

In late January, the owner of an Outer Banks bookstore, Gee Gee Rosell, passed away unexpectedly. She was an indefatigable human being and, it would turn out, a quietly giving person on so many levels. She was also a friend, truly, to almost everyone who walked in her doors. (An extra connection: We were born on the same day.)

Within a few days — we’re talking early February now — I began to think there needed to be some sort of tribute, some sort of telling of her life. True, I’m a writer. But I only knew the smallest portion of her life. Plus, I would have to shelve that other project. I began wondering: could I ask others who knew her to submit something? Maybe if we got enough to make a book, we could give a portion of the proceeds to the scholarship fund set up in her name. Her siblings loved the idea and fellow bookstore owners signed off, too.

Still, it seemed a longshot plus I was working on another book project. I had to stop in the middle.

And would anyone even respond to the Gee Gee Book?

Did they ever.

THE GEE GEE BOOK published on May 21 for the Outer Banks. By the time of its official publication five days later, a second printing had to be ordered. It turned out to be both a book of giving back and inspiration. Social media soon filled with postings about this remarkable woman who ran Buxton Village Books on Hatteras Island for more than four decades.

She had been their friend — and they were in tears now.

Or they had never know her — and they were in tears now.

Whether they knew her or not, she turned out to be much more than they could have imagined. As one of the book’s contributors had written, “On paper Gee Gee was a small business owner who ran a bookstore. That was just her cover. What she really did was connect with people, build community, inspire, educate, heal support.”

Indeed. She quietly reached an entire island and beyond. She helped readers, of course, and authors and bookstore people. And other businesses and non-profits, And the causes of forestry and nature and conservation. And cats. And health concerns. And women’s issues. And education. And on and on.

THE GEE GEE CELEBRATION. Swelled by people who never even knew the subject, sales of The Gee Gee Book have exceeded expectations. A donation from partial proceeds will be presented to The Gee Gee Rosell Memorial Scholarship during an outdoor public ceremony at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Cape Hatteras Secondary School. Then as the second part of the day’s Gee Gee Celebration, 10 of the book’s authors will meet at Buxton Village Books to sign copies of the book from 10 a.m. to noon — and to share stories of Gee Gee.

It’s only fitting to be honoring a woman who never found a worthwhile project to which she couldn’t say yes.