Up in Ontario

The Up in Ontario Store: Opening Soon!

I want to create an Up in Ontario store. What will I sell? Well, not books.

I'll sell t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, sweatshirts, underwear. Anything pretty much offered by white-label storefront operations like Zazzle and Cafepress that I'd buy or that someone tells me they'd buy.

Why am I doing this?

Partially out of interest. I want to see what will happen. I want to experiment with web-based stores to see how they work and if they're a viable business. I sometimes recommend them to clients through my consulting practice, Work Industies, and I ought to know what they should expect.

Partially also out of a promotional desire to extend the life of Up in Ontario, both time-wise - can you believe it was released almost 3 years ago! - and scope-wise - trying to see if my ideas about books being about storytelling and not about paper hold any water. I'm starting to think of publishers as commercializers of storytelling - for fiction publishers - and ideas - for non-fiction publishers. Part of this theory is that as commercializers they do themselves a disservice by limiting themselves to only one type of commercial product.

And lastly, I want an Up in Ontario t-shirt for myself. I'll wear it. I'm a keen t-shirt collector and would love to have a small slice of my novel on white 100% cotton on my back. I imagine myself standing and waiting in line at a restaurant and people reading the back, immersed in a story in a surprising place.

So here's the part I need help with. Do you have a part of the novel that you think will work well on a t-shirt? I always thought I'd do the opening page of the opening chapter ('First'), but I'm open to other suggestions. I also considered the scene where Wade catches the bass, and the short chapter entitled 'Kenora' but neither seemed as strong or an self-contained and self-explanatory.

What do you think?

(Oh, and if you haven't read the book, what are you waiting for? I finished writing it and shipped it to my publisher over 3 years ago! Some reliable people have said nice things about it, after reading it. You need stories, it lets you imagine and make sense of the world. Contact me and I'll hook you up with a copy.)