I have started my own publishing company in Norway! Rainy City Publishing is a small publishing house focused on books about life, culture, and transition. Or whatever I want. It’s my publishing company. Our first book is out now! Why did I create a publishing company?
Recently I feel like my life has had a sort of upside down, topsy turvy, somersaulting experience. Since January I’ve been doing what I would describe as a rather necessary therapeutic experience to try and transform myself as a person who was focused on the past into someone who embraced the present. As part of this I have done an insane amount of writing. This includes posts on lowimpactfruit.com like “when I quit my PhD” but it also includes private writings in my journal, other stories I have not shared, and poetry that I shared with a select few people. I realized I had written an enormous amount averaging about 1000-2000 words a day not including my academic writing. So I thought maybe I should compile some of this into a book. Out of a lot of things too private to share I selected a small subset. This book became my first publication “Selected Works ‘26 vol. 1”. Creative title I know.
When I quit my PhD
I woke up, somewhat nervous. It was a warm, April Saturday. Typically my PhD adviser had not invited me for meeting outside of work. Much less on a Saturday. I decided to wear a grey button down shirt, black jeans, and suspenders. I had recently had some idea that I should start wearing suspenders, that suspenders would some how establish my hipster ide…
The book itself is about connection, loneliness, change, and relationships. It includes an updated version of the “When I quit my PhD” story. To publish it I considered a variety of options.
At first I looked into various online print shops that would allow whoever wanted to buy an on demand printed copy of the book. Talking with someone, I realized that Norway actually provides the perfect distribution and archiving mechanism.
Norway used to have thousands of public red phone booths scattered around the country. As of now there are about 100 left around the country. Twenty of these are in Oslo. Why am I telling you about phone booths? These phone booths have been converted to leave one take one neighborhood libraries! So I figured, print some copies of my book and put them in every phone booth in Oslo. So I spent a day walking around Oslo depositing these books in these telephone booths. I also put some in bars and coffee shops around Oslo that have libraries.
So now that distribution was solved what about archiving? The National Library of Norway allows anyone to create, for free, their own publishing house assuming they have a mailing address in Norway. This allows you to create ISBN numbers for any book you publish. Apparently, every edition of a book whether is paperback or hardback or even electronic has its own ISBN number. Now you know. Additionally, they require you to send three print copies to the national library so it can be archived and an additional digital copy. This allows books to be archived forever, or at least until Norway goes away.
So what if you are not in Oslo? You can buy a copy of the book on Amazon! It will be printed on demand for you and delivered through the mail.
I hope you enjoy this book if you choose to read it. It’s a very personal book to me. I think of it kind of like a tattoo. It’s a snapshot of me in the moment I wrote it, I won’t always be that person, but I wanted to capture the moment because it seemed like an important pivot point. It’s about meeting new people, loss, connection, and making decisions for yourself.
And last but not least, since it is Rainy City Publishing there is a new building in Rainy City! The Rainy City Library. Rainy City Library is where Lisa the Librarian works. Lisa is a bit shy but loves books and can usually be found reading one when she isn’t helping Rainy City citizens find books on the shelf.
