Does anyone know of any folk music publishing companies that are willing to publish new compositions? I've written about 50 (jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, airs, and slipjigs) and want to get them out there. I wrote The Bus Ride, which is on this website. I live in the UK. Any help, adresses, contacts, 'phone numbers etc. would be very much appreciated. Thanx!
Jonathan, why don't you self-publish it? Any good print shop (not a copy place, an actual print shop, look for some small mom-and-pop operation) could help you with that. Even a copy shop can help you with it if you like, although it'll likely be more expensive if you want a big run rather than a small one. Ask for a spiral wire binding so the thing will lie flat when people use it, and use heavy cover stock for the cover.
Just get a program like ABC, put all the music in it, print out all the pages and do up some covers, then take it to them and say, can you copy this and bind it for me, please? This is how many copies I want. What's the cheapest way to do it for as few copies as possible? (Assuming you don't want a run of thousands of copies.)
Then sell 'em on the Internet and to your friends and doting family.
Thanks for your suggestion, Zina, but I was thinking about publishing on a larger scale, i.e. nationally.
I've tried internet searches to find the information I need, but it seems there is to much information on the web to find the relevant stuff, and I ended up just getting fed up.
You could try looking up Ossian Publications in Cork , I'm not sure if they have a website, but there is a related site in USA, which might be a start. It's at http://www.ossianusa.com/about.html . Ossian publish lots of this type of music, and may suit your requirements. However, I have to say that It's probably not the most efficient way to spread your message, or your tunes. You might be beter off recording them ( or having someone else record them ) and publish the music as a companion book to the CD, Most trad musicians like to hear, feel and taste the music before they will spend their precious pennies! The best of luck to you though.
Well, there's a difference between getting your music published and getting it distributed. It's easy to distribute on a national level, actually, the main trouble is getting the money to pay for the first run. I do like Backer's input as to recording first.
I own several different tunebooks that were done by single parties on small presses that are currently being distributed all over the world through the Net. The last one the guy doesn't even usually keep copies around; he waits til he has about 25 orders and then has his printer print 'em all and he sends 'em out. It's also fairly easy to contact stores like Custy's in Ennis and see if they'd like to carry them. (You're going to have the same issues of your name needing to be sellable regardless of whether you're doing the distribution or if a company is doing it for you -- it's just that a company will want to know that they're saleable before they print, whereas you can print them up and market them yourself.)
Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Does anyone know of any folk music publishing companies that are willing to publish new compositions? I've written about 50 (jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, airs, and slipjigs) and want to get them out there. I wrote The Bus Ride, which is on this website. I live in the UK. Any help, adresses, contacts, 'phone numbers etc. would be very much appreciated. Thanx!
Jonathan
# Posted on October 2nd 2001 by Jonathan
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Jonathan, why don't you self-publish it? Any good print shop (not a copy place, an actual print shop, look for some small mom-and-pop operation) could help you with that. Even a copy shop can help you with it if you like, although it'll likely be more expensive if you want a big run rather than a small one. Ask for a spiral wire binding so the thing will lie flat when people use it, and use heavy cover stock for the cover.
Just get a program like ABC, put all the music in it, print out all the pages and do up some covers, then take it to them and say, can you copy this and bind it for me, please? This is how many copies I want. What's the cheapest way to do it for as few copies as possible? (Assuming you don't want a run of thousands of copies.)
Then sell 'em on the Internet and to your friends and doting family.
Zina
# Posted on October 2nd 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Thanks for your suggestion, Zina, but I was thinking about publishing on a larger scale, i.e. nationally.
I've tried internet searches to find the information I need, but it seems there is to much information on the web to find the relevant stuff, and I ended up just getting fed up.
Jonathan
# Posted on October 2nd 2001 by Jonathan
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
You could try looking up Ossian Publications in Cork , I'm not sure if they have a website, but there is a related site in USA, which might be a start. It's at http://www.ossianusa.com/about.html . Ossian publish lots of this type of music, and may suit your requirements. However, I have to say that It's probably not the most efficient way to spread your message, or your tunes. You might be beter off recording them ( or having someone else record them ) and publish the music as a companion book to the CD, Most trad musicians like to hear, feel and taste the music before they will spend their precious pennies! The best of luck to you though.
# Posted on October 2nd 2001 by Backer
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Hi again Jonathan:
Well, there's a difference between getting your music published and getting it distributed. It's easy to distribute on a national level, actually, the main trouble is getting the money to pay for the first run. I do like Backer's input as to recording first.
I own several different tunebooks that were done by single parties on small presses that are currently being distributed all over the world through the Net. The last one the guy doesn't even usually keep copies around; he waits til he has about 25 orders and then has his printer print 'em all and he sends 'em out. It's also fairly easy to contact stores like Custy's in Ennis and see if they'd like to carry them. (You're going to have the same issues of your name needing to be sellable regardless of whether you're doing the distribution or if a company is doing it for you -- it's just that a company will want to know that they're saleable before they print, whereas you can print them up and market them yourself.)
Good luck!
Zina
# Posted on October 2nd 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Hello Jonathan.
Ossian's Irish site: www.thelivingtradition.com.
Like The Bus Ride very much.
Good luck to you,
Ger.
# Posted on October 7th 2001 by Emerald BT
Re: Seeking folk music publishers . . .
Thanx for all your help, you friendly people!
Jonathan
# Posted on October 8th 2001 by Jonathan