ESTEVAN — Approximately 20 years ago, Dave Elliott self-published The Nephalim: The Fight for Earth, his first and only foray into the world of publishing.
He wasn’t happy with the end result, and has self-deprecatingly called it “the worst book ever written in Estevan”. Until recently, he had a large box filled with unsold copies of the book.
A member of Estevan city council and the Estevan Public Library board, Elliott decided to donate all of the unsold copies of his book to the library as a fundraiser.
Elliott describes The Nephalim as a story of good versus evil. Characters from another dimension come to the planet. One group wants to control the planet, while another wants to stop them.
As for The Nephalim, Elliott said the character development was poor and the plot went in directions that didn't make sense.
“But buying this book is a great way to support the library programs. I don’t promise anyone’s going to enjoy it,” he said with a laugh, “but I promise the money is going to be put to good use.”
He doesn’t know how many copies have been purchased, but in the first couple of years, he received royalty cheques for $1.50. And he's not sure how many copies were donated to the library, but he believes it's around 80-100.
“When I got the box, and I looked at the book, and I opened the book and read it again, I just closed the box back up and put it in the closet,” said Elliott.
When he recently moved to a condo, he wondered what he would do with the box of unsold books. He thought about tossing them into a recycling bin, but then he decided the library could use the books for a fundraiser.
Elliott has no desire to write another book, but his one foray into the publishing world gave him a better appreciation for those who write for a living.
“Storytelling, when you’re putting it on paper, there’s an art to it. You’re building something. And that’s the important thing, especially if you’re writing a story that’s got a number of characters, you can’t just build the one main character. You have to build all of the characters a little bit … and I missed out on that.”
Elliott lamented that the company he turned to for self-publishing didn’t have anyone to help him, whether it be for proofreading or story development. He said they took what he sent, fixed the punctuation, sent it to print and shipped out the books.
He said he still gets calls from companies, asking him to publish another book, which he declines.
The library appreciates his gesture, thanking him for the donation in a Facebook post, although Elliott was quick to respond online that anyone who buys the novel will be getting the worst book ever written in Estevan.
