I’m influenced by people long dead.
I’ve heard that New York publishers can take 18 to 24 months to get your book out to Barnes & Noble. I’m tired of waiting for my novel Marc Antony’s Best Wife to be out in the world. It must be like how a pregnant elephant feels before she gives birth after 22 months.
When I thought about publishing on my own, I thought about Mary Katharine Goddard.
Mary Katharine Goddard’s name is at the bottom of the Declaration.
You may not have heard of her. I hadn’t either until a friend called my attention to an article about Goddard.
Goddard was one of America’s first female publishers. She published the Maryland Journal in 1774, taking it over from her brother. Goddard printed newspaper scoops on the battles of the Revolutionary War at her own personal risk. Her newspaper office was raided twice and her life was threatened by irate readers. That didn’t stop her.
When she was hired by Congress to print copies of the Declaration of Independence, she included her name at the bottom.
Here’s her name, right along with John Hancock
Yes, she’s the only woman on the document, and there it is today, among all those male signatures.
She’s shown me that I can be my own publisher.
Many thanks, Mary Katharine Goddard.
And thanks for the head’s up from my friend Laura Swan, author of the great book The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement
For more information about Goddard, check out the Washington Post article.
