The SLUSHPILE Blog

My name is Rebecca Melvin and I am an author, publisher, and e-commerce experimenter. I’m the founder and CEO of both Double Edge Press (independant publisher - 2005) and Hummingbird World Media (artists and craftsmen - 2007).

The SLUSHPILE is designed to allow others to track my progress and learn from my mistakes and, hopefully, chime in with suggestions of your own that have worked for you. My vision is a clearinghouse, per se, where many smaller independents of both publishing and other medias may come to find and share information. Total honesty is the key, and a variety of approaches.

I intend to cover a lot of territory, and to bring you up to speed as to what I’ve already done and what has given me the best results. In the two years since I began publishing, I’ve worked hard and obtained much, but in the big picture I’ve only completed about ten percent of the work that needs done.

As my first passion is still the literary arts, I will also share with you what I’ve been reading, what I recommend and what I feel can be safely passed on. I intend to review mostly small press works and self-published works, as the big publishing houses are well able to market their own materials without any help from me. I will occasionally throw in the ‘main-stream’ title to give you an idea of what I find favorable or totally ridiculous. Is there any review more entertaining than one that completely pans the subject?

As you now understand my blog objective, allow me to give a brief objective of my business at large: a conglomeration of high-quality products and services, including my own publishing house, under one ’umbrella’. This umbrella consists of one web-site (already containing 5 vendors and over 3000 pages) which accomplishes two things. The first, and most importantly, it assures a customer that there is an overall entity that is accountable, ensuring that their payment information is secure and that their product is high-quality and will actually be shipped in a timely manner. In essence, this overall entity guarantees customer satisfaction - everytime - allowing customers to buy on the internet with confidence. If you are a vendor and wish more information on how this works, visit our Hummingbird World Media ‘About Us’ page.

The second, and possibly equally as important, accomplishment of the ‘umbrella’ is it provides a greater exposure for all the independents involved. Because of the number of web pages under one URL address it gets a greater presence in search engines. Because each vendor has their own web-address which forwards directly to that vendor’s portion of the site, it allows their customers to find them easily while still exposing them to the other products and services we host, providing a cross-pollination of audiences. I have absolutely no problem with a customer wishing to buy a book and deciding to buy a book and a picture. I even have no problem with a customer deciding to buy a book that is not my book, or even not a book by my publishing house. I just want them to come in and be aware of my book, and the other books by my publishing house. If they pass on them at that time, I can live with that. It’s when they are never even aware of it that breaks my heart.

So, the objective is: a large selection of quality products grouped together in a co-operative fashion to ensure better customer service, better customer confidence and better exposure of the products to consumers. 

I hope you continue with me through this journey and gain some useful information.

September 2007