“How do you pronounce Vocamus?” the Ontarion questioned Jeremy Luke Hill, founder of Vocamus Press. “If you’re doing this the real Latin way, the emphAsis would be on the second syllAble,” Hill responded. “You would say vocAmus – but nobody does it because you can’t make English speakers do that. So people say vOcamus or vAHcamus, the emphasis being on the first syllable.”
The word itself comes from “the Latin-root voca, which is ‘to call’ – the amus is the ‘we’ – we call, we utter, we vocalize,” said Hill. The word reflects well, as the organization is currently working on making their voice heard within the Guelph community.
Vocamus began when Hill wanted to write a book for his kids: “I didn’t want it published, but I wanted it to be pretty…I wanted to make Christmas gifts and stuff with it.” He discovered an online publishing site called Lulu, and (essentially) published his book for free, then made a decent cut of the profits. Afterwards, he kept running into people who would say, “I need to do this,” and together they discussed the idea of forming a collective where they would provide support for each other in publishing.
Vocamus was then set in-motion, especially because Hill brought up the point that “unless you’re a big name, you don’t get a lot of publicity behind your name anymore [and] money available to promote the book is almost zero.” This begged the question, “Why do I go with a publisher at all if I’m not going to get any benefit from it?” said Hill. Vocamus began to fill that much-needed void.
People then approached him saying that they wanted exposure, and Vocamus began thinking up ways to promote Guelph authors to a Guelph audience. They began attending writer’s fairs, advertising, putting out a monthly newsletter – anything they could do to create a presence.
Their present goal includes building connections between readers, writers and publishers in Guelph and the surrounding area. Authors who are already published are offered a bio and links to their work on the Vocamus website, table space at festivals, and publicity for book launches and events. Alternatively, authors looking to publish their work are offered creative and technical support. Vocamus’ ultimate goal is to “…be able to have a place where you go and find Guelph writers; here’s what they do, here are links to all their things, kind of a one-stop-shop,” said Hill.
Another goal of Vocamus is to build the public in Guelph, because there is a divide between the bestsellers, and “people selling a couple hundred copies thinking they are doing well.”
Hill spoke of the type of “reading public” we have at the moment – with books being driven by viral marketing, and “not necessarily because it’s good,” said Hill. They are currently trying to establish a public who have other reasons to read – a public that makes recommendations based on something other than what is the biggest book out there.
“If we can get people saying, ‘Hey, this guy lives down the street from me,’” said Hill, “…that is a reason to read him.” He then drew comparisons between this method, and people buying food specifically because it is grown just outside of town. “[It’s] the 100 mile diet, but for books,” commented Hill.
This year, Vocamus plans to publish three books of poetry. On the promotional side, they want to attend all the local festivals, have an online sales vehicle for people to participate in, and to develop a more established presence in local bookstores.
“Our nebulous long-term goal is to be the place where people go to look for Guelph lit. Not necessarily that we’re publishing it, but that if I want to know what Guelph author’s doing what, that we’re the place you come,” concluded Hill.