Bill Holland, born and raised in Tacoma, was a teacher for 18 years. Guiding students from fifth grade to community college, he spent most of his years in middle school classrooms teaching history, science, and creative writing.
“I’d moved around a little because of teaching,” he says. “I taught a year in Alaska and two years in Oregon, but for the most part I’ve been in Olympia for the last 20 years.”
Holland retired a year ago and decided to do what he really wanted: to write.
Three years ago, he began what would become his first, complete novel. “I finished it in about six months, and I’ve been fine-tuning it for the last two and a half years.”
Holland eventually felt it was the time to see if he could get it published.
“Nobody wanted it,” he says with a laugh.
After 30 rejection slips, Holland had to decide whether to continue submitting the manuscript to publishers, or go out on his own.
“The process of getting published is difficult for would-be writers,” says Holland. “In today’s economy most publishing houses and agents aren’t touching new writers, and I completely understand that.”
Holland knew the reality of publishing for an unheard-of writer. “I seriously doubt if Harper Lee could have gotten published in today’s literary climate,” he says.
He decided to self-publish.
“My goal was just to publish, and anything above that is just gravy. I don’t have to sell it to live,” he says.
The 12/59 Shuttle From Yesterday To Today became available on October 1st, 2011 and can currently be found at the official website.
Holland, with help from a former student who does computer work, has taken a modern approach to book marketing, using the web and social media to spread the word.
“We took a rather odd route,” Holland admits.
With no advertising budget and upfront costs of about $600 to self-publish the first 100 copies, Holland decided to focus on social media. He took the characters from the book and set up Facebook pages for each of them.
“Then we started flooding Facebook with references to the book,” he explains.
Holland is also going the traditional route, traveling around to independent bookstores to get his tome on traditional shelves. Orca Books and Last Word Books in Olympia both have copies for sale.
“And of course, there’s also family and friends who will buy anything if you tell them you love them,” Holland says, laughing.
Another prong of the book’s marketing attack is a company started by Holland and his fiancé, Beverly King. Mutare Enterprises makes and sells lavender headbands, necklaces, and bracelets like those worn by the novel’s characters.
“Lavender played a big part in the book, so we started making lavender-filled products,” says Holland. “Between the Mutare Enterprises and the book, we’re getting our name out there as much as possible.”
Holland’s gives his fiancé credit for jump-starting his work on the book.
She gave him a novel by Tom Robbins, whom he’d never read before.
“It was the most bizarre thing I’d ever read and it was so fun to read,” says Holland. “It looked like it was just a disaster in his mind that got onto the piece of paper, and it looked like he’d had fun writing it.”
Inspired, Holland tried a writing exercise. “I thought, ‘I’ll try that. I’ll try to be as strange as I possibly can.’”
“I got about three pages into it, and then the next morning an outline for a book just came to me,” Holland explains. He begins to laugh. “I don’t want to make it sound transcendental – I’m not that in tune with my soul – I just happened to come up with a story idea based on this drivel I’d written the day before.”
Holland found it incredibly easy to write the book, which hadn’t been the case in his previous 30 years of writing for fun.
“I’ve always had to work hard [at writing],” he says. “I’d tried before to write a novel and I’d always get stuck about a third of the way through and just give up.”
The 12/59 Shuttle From Yesterday To Today is based on Holland’s interest in the environment.
“It’s a fantasy based on re-birth and re-incarnation, all set in Olympia,” he explains further.
“It’s set in a stage where the environment is out of control and this group of raised-from-the-dead saviors is going to help humanity get through the environmental catastrophe,” Holland continues. A pause. “Did you follow that?” he says, laughing.
“I have a sense of humor and that’s so clear in the book,” Holland says. “It’s meant to laugh with and still, hopefully, you’ll give some thought about the environmental problems as you’re reading it.
