Publishing on the Door Peninsula

Illustration by Grace Johnson

Door County is known for its thriving arts community. An array of talented and accomplished visual artists, musicians and thespians call this place home. Consider the many galleries, art schools, theaters and stages. The peninsula is bursting with creativity, and one medium that was once under the radar is truly starting to soar: writing.

As Ann Heyse of Sand Beach Press in Baileys Harbor said, “Door County is starting to be recognized for more than visual arts, theater and music. People are saying, ‘Let’s read and write, too!’”

Thomas Davis of Four Windows Press in Sturgeon Bay echoed Heyse’s observation when he said, “The Dickinson Poetry Series; Write On, Door County; the writing groups up here — [Door County] has become one of the most important literary centers of the Midwest. I don’t think people understand just how important Door County has become in the writing world.”

Both local publishers work to turn writers into authors. It’s hard work. It’s expensive. And it’s a lot trickier than you might think, as Heyse learned when she set out to publish her children’s book, Good Morning, Door County.

“I self-published my book and learned so much in the process: finding the right printer, securing the ISBN, cover design. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” Heyse explained. After her experience, she helped a friend who wanted to publish, then another, then a friend of an acquaintance — and Sand Beach Press was born. Her services include prepress offerings such as editing and finding an illustrator or book designer — services for which she charges by the hour.

“Some writers are almost done and just want some help with grammar. Others are not done at all and want a lot of help,” she said.

With clients putting up the cost, Heyse can get books off to the printer, ISBN and all. It’s a small operation and sometimes tedious work, but as a retired English teacher, she relishes the broader goal of helping writers achieve their dreams.

“I love encouraging people, being a coach,” she said. “It’s very joyful to get a book in print.”

Many Door County residents — more than you may realize — have experienced that joy. They are writers of novels, memoirs, historical fiction, romance, poetry. They’ve done it: They’ve published their work, whether through a publishing house after submitting a manuscript, or working with a press such as Heyse’s, or simply printing on demand. 

However they do it, it’s a big deal. There’s something about seeing one’s words in print — crisp and neat and officially finished — for others to read and hopefully find meaningful in some way, large or small. 

“Every writer, artist, musician, actor, singer, sculptor wants an audience to read, hear, see their work,” said Dan Powers of Sturgeon Bay, who recently self-published How Long a Shadow, a work of fiction he spent six years creating. 

“At first, because the story was based on family genealogy, I thought of it as writing for nephews and cousins and wanted to be able to give them a copy. By the end, it seemed a waste of time to write a novel no one knows about or reads.” 

Age ultimately pushed Powers toward self-publishing: “I felt I am too old to go the traditional route of finding an agent and waiting months and months for rejections.” 

So he turned to his friends to edit the manuscript; attended workshops facilitated by Door County Learning in Retirement and Write On, Door County; did some online research; and found the right fit.

Judy DuCharme of Ellison Bay found the right fit with traditional publishing. Her first book, The Cheesehead Devotional — Kickoff Edition, was published in 2012 after she took another seasoned writer’s advice: “Get to a [writing] conference. That’s where you meet publishers, agents and editors.” 

Indeed, that’s where she met her first publisher and found great success: Wayne Larrivee, among others in the Packers’ sphere, endorsed the book. DuCharme has since released six more books with two other publishers, her latest a work of historical fiction set in Door County: Lainey of the Door Islands. 

J.P. Jordan of Sister Bay also found luck at a writing conference. He began his quest to publish his book — a mystery thriller called Men of God — as you might expect a writer is supposed to: He sent pages and query letters to publishers.

“It was a frustratingly slow process, with most publishers never responding,” he said. 

Once Jordan had attended a conference, he learned more about writing and preparing a manuscript before finally finding his publisher in a process he compares to speed dating. 

“Writers get roughly 10-15 minutes to make their pitch [to a publisher] and answer questions,” Jordan said. “If you have a good day, you get to send some pages off for evaluation.”

Finally, a publisher offered him a contract, and Men of God was released last September.

Author Katherine Hastings of Sister Bay has gone multiple routes when it came to publishing the nearly dozen books she has penned, but becoming an author happened almost by accident. Her first manuscript, a romance novel called A War Within, sat on her computer for years.

“I wasn’t a writer,” she said. “I was just someone who wrote a book. That was a big difference in my mind. Still completely unsure if it was total garbage, I found an editor who agreed to take a look.” That editor soon told Hastings that her book was worthy of publishing.

She wrote query letters, sent them off to agents and publishers, and “got very lucky,” she said. “I received an offer on my book relatively quickly.” But the model of traditional publishing didn’t work for her. 

“My expectation … was that I could just write books,” Hastings said, “and the publisher would handle everything else, especially marketing.” But she soon discovered — as many authors will tell you — that a lot of the marketing falls solely on the author.

“Marketing is a different skill set than writing,” DuCharme said. “So for many writers, marketing is tough.”

Jordan agreed, saying, “You can have the best story and characters, have the best cover, be the best writer, but if you don’t have a credible marketing plan, your book will be lost in a sea of competition.”

The control that authors have when they self-publish their work intrigued Hastings — who also happens to be a social-media marketing manager — so she took the process into her own hands and has created Flyte Publishing to release her work. And with her marketing savvy, “My self-published books have vastly outperformed my traditionally published one,” she said.

When Hastings was feeling stuck or confused, she did what more and more writers in Door County and across the country are doing: She turned to Write On, Door County. 

“Without [Write On, Door County], I’d probably still have a book on my computer and no books published,” she said.

Jerod Santek, artistic director of Write On, Door County, is happy to answer questions and point writers toward classes, resources and individuals who might help. But he encourages those interested in publishing to continue to work on their craft.

“Sometimes it feels more people are interested in learning how to get published than learning to write better,” he said. “First learn to write really well; then worry about getting published.” And DuCharme agreed: “No matter how good you are, you need to improve.”

“The more time you spend on writing, the better you get,” Jordan said. His advice to aspiring authors is to attend workshops and conferences, and invest in yourself — even, he said, “if it means taking a refresher course in basic English.”

Door County authors also encourage the public to invest in and support local writing: to buy books by local writers or check them out from a library, attend poetry readings and author talks, and buy books released by local press operators such as Thomas and Ethel Davis of Four Windows Press in Sturgeon Bay, who are doing their part to get writers published. 

The couple recently published Halfway to the North Pole, a collection of poems by the Door County Poets Collective; as well as No More Can Fit Into the Evening, a collection of poems by 39 poets from around the world.

Both Thomas and Ethel are accomplished, published writers — among many other things. Thomas was a provost at Navajo Technical University who has multiple degrees, and Ethel is a fine artist whose paintings have received many accolades and grace the covers of many books.

“It’s not easy to get published,” Thomas said. “We’ve been lucky in a lot of ways. We’ve been able to have books published by other publishers. As we’ve gotten more published, it gets easier.” Together, they release four or five books a year. 

“It takes a lot of effort,” said Thomas, who does most of the editing; and Ethel helps primarily with design, formatting and a bit of editing. 

“We’re getting to our mid- to older 70s,” Thomas said. “[I] don’t know how many more years we can do it.” But for now, they spend their retirement time painting, writing and publishing.

And according to Heyse of Sand Beach Press, there are so many stories waiting to be told and shared on this peninsula. 

“We have an untapped older population up here who should write memoirs,” Heyse said. “Write these stories down!”

“Every single bestselling writer in the world started right where we did: with an idea for a book and absolutely no idea what they were doing,” Hastings said. “You never know until you try.”