"I sent my manuscript to four or five publishers," says Gordon Wagner, "and everyone wanted me to delay. Well, when you're 73, you can't wait around." Wagner went to a Campbell River printer and self-published From My Window (Flying W. Publishing/ Soules distributing $12.95), a collection of personal Comox Valley short stories and reminiscences that quickly sold out a first printing of 1,700 copies. Now successfully marketing a much larger second printing, Wagner has an employee for marketing, 300 hardcover copies he's selling to libraries, representation in 40 Pharmasave stores, coverage from CTV News Hour and CBC's Early Edition and numerous other media outlets, a mention on the B.C. Bestseller List, and a memoir slated for Christmas titled How Papa Won The War. "All you have to do is get out there and push a little," he says, "But I'm kind of fed up with bookstores. You walk in to see them and they put their hands up and practically push you back out the door."

[BCBW Summer 1988]