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I OPE HOUSTON Texas … y rr l _f_l 0 ei Across from Texas Medical Center and Rice University, Of only 5 min. from Astrodome and Astro World, convenient to everything—downtown, zoo, golf . . . and luxurious comfort! Aga Meeting Rooms Color TV Vibrating Beds Bi-level Suites Room Service Free Parking CALL COLLECT is our business! rA t Fantastic Pool I Cabana Suites Glass Elevator Excellent Food Sauna Baths Nightly Entertainment MOTOR INN 6500 S. Main Houston 77005 MOTOR INN 6700 S. Main Houston 77005 A Writer Self-Publishing Austin Recently we reviewed Robert Heard’s book on the Killer Bees \(TO Now a note about Heard’s own publishing company, Honey Hill. After receiving a surprisingly small cut of the proceeds from the sale of his first book, which was brought out by a regular commercial publisher in Austin, Heard decided he’d publish his own books. The thought, “vanity press,” crossed his mind once or twice, but did not deter him. “It just doesn’t bother me at all, because frankly I know I do good work,” he says. He had been an AP reporter for 12 years, then editor of the Texas AFLCIO News, then press secretary in Joe Christie’s race for the U.S. Senate in 1978. From his experience with the contract arrangements concerning his first book, realized that 40% of a book’s price goes to the bookstore and usually another 10% to a book-jobber. In addition, a publisher may discount the sale price for a bookstore’s quantity orders. Even without discounts, Heard’s publisher paid him 10% of the 50% the publisher had left. That is, Heard, the writer of the book, got 5% of the sale price. “I wanted to be my own publisher,” he says. And, “If I’m gonna take the risk I want all the profit.” However, it’s expensive to mail out books; it helps to have a line of them so there are more combination mailings. Heard is now thinking over three novels he is working on and a revision of one of the books he brought out earlier through his own company. “Frankly,” he says, “I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to hang out there long enough.” At this point he’s using his savings to keep going. His is an interesting experiment, and I hope he makes it. R.D. Books Received We have received these books recently in our Austin offices: Writers at Work, the Paris Review Interview, Fifth Series, in this generic series on writers talking about their writing. Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Time of Change, by Shifra M. Goldman, illus., all black and white \(except one A Field Guide to the Atmosphere, by Vincent J. Schaefer and John A. Day, Houghton Mifflin, 1981, $13.95. Another in the Peterson field guide series. Southerners, a Journalist’s Odyssey, by Marshall Frady, New American Library, 1980, $13.95. A journalist’s collected profiles. Border Healing Woman, The Story of Jewel Babb as told to Pat Ellis Taylor, UT Press, 1981, $14.95. Babb is an 80-yearold Anglo healing woman in thedesert near El Paso. And Other Neighborly Names.’ Social Process and Cultural Image in Texas Folklore, eds. Richard Bauman and Roger D. Abrahams, UT Press, 1981, $25. Essays on varied aspects of the folk tradition in Texas; emphasis on reactions to pluralistic situations. Water and Stone, Poems by R. G. Vliet, Random House, chusetts novelist and poet whose work sometimes appears in the Observer. The University of Texas, A Pictorial Account of Its First Century, by Margaret C. Berry, UT Press, 1980, $25. A big coffeetable book for Texas exec. The Great American Chili Book, by Bill Bridges, Rawson, Wade, 1981, $7.95. A Texas writer and photographer living in California, Bill ought to know. Sun Reflections, Images for the New Solar Age, by John Unfinished Democracy, the American Political System, by Harrell R. Rodgers, Jr., and Michael Harrington, Scott, Foresman, 1981. a textbook. The Passion of Loreen Bright Weasel, by James Polk, Houghton Mifflin, 1981. $9.95. A novel. Tenderfeet and Ladyfingers, A Visceral Approach to Words and Their Origins, by Susan Sperling, Viking, 1981, $9.95. Bitter Harvest, a History ofCalifornia Farmworkers 18701941, by Cletus E. Daniel, Cornell U. Press, Ithaca, N.Y., $19.50. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, by Harry Ellis Dickson, Houghton Mifflin. Boston. $12.95. Lig hthorse Harry Lee, by Charles Royster, Knopf, N.Y., $15 Singled Out, by Richard Schickel, Viking, N.Y., $8.95. And novels: Sharpe’s Eagle, Bernard Cornwell, Viking. $12.95; The Ultimate Good Luck, Richard Ford, Houghton Mifflin, $9.95; Tennessee Blue, Patricia Browning Griffith. Potter, $10.95. Good books in every field JENKINS PUBLISHING CO. The Pemberton Press John H. Jenkins, Publisher Box 2085 6 Austin 78768 Personal Service Quality Insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE 808A E. 46th, Austin, Texas 459-6577 rommommilmoloommaiumumi PUT YOUR BELIEFS INTO ACTION…. Help fight racial segregation. Invest in a non-profit fund which finances affordable mortgages for minorities and whites making housing moves that foster racially diverse neighborhoods. For facts, clip and mail to: OB 1 Morris Milgram Fund for an OPEN Society 1901 East-West Highway, T-2 Silver Spring, MD 20910 Name . Address Zip . IThis is not an offer to sell these securities The Hering is made only by the Investment Description available I only in states where these securities may he offered 11Ii=limmommommommi Invest in Open I, HOLISMI 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23