Michael Snyder From the Prairie Publications
South Bend, IN
By Donavan Barrier
South Bend resident Michael Snyder hopes to help authors of all genres get their work published and help build a significant artistic community in the Michiana region with his publication company, From the Prairie Publications, Inc. With his background in editing and music, he wants to help writers publish beautiful pieces.
Born and raised in South Bend, Snyder left the Midwest to study at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., pursuing a degree in music. For almost 25 years, he lived there, using his talent in singing to perform in various venues. Adjacent to his music career, he worked as an administrator at the Catholic University and Georgetown University and as a journalist, writing predominantly about the transportation and hospitality industries.
Snyder said he moved into the publication industry while taking a continuing education program at Georgetown. Though he did not finish the program, he said a teacher helped him secure a temporary editing position in Washington, D.C., where he could continue developing his skills.
He would eventually secure proofreading and editing jobs with various companies nationwide, such as the National Academy of Sciences, as a proofreader, a copy editor, and a staff writer for a law
firm with offices worldwide. After a while, he said editing jobs were becoming much harder.
“They started to want you to do more than just edit,” said Snyder, “and they were less picky about editing.”
He came back to South Bend because he said the Midwest was a great place to start a business with minimal overhead issues. He began his publishing company, From the Prairie Publications, Inc., in 2015, with a brick-and-mortar building. After realizing he could run his business from home, he said they closed down the building and went predominantly digital.
Snyder said that when a work is published, authors receive royalties and commissions from a portion of the book sales, with another portion or royalties are negotiated between author and publisher.
The genre of literature his company publishes, he said, is not limited and can vary from cookbooks, translations, children’s books, and poetry. He stated that vulgar language such as swearing is also not prohibited provided it’s handled well within the work it’s presented in and is not repulsive or discriminatory.
Regarding his editing process, Snyder said he takes a multi-viewed approach. He states he must first discern the demographic the piece presented will be marketed towards. He then said he would work out the different grammatical errors.
“The trick to being a good editor is not sounding like yourself,” Snyder said, “But like the writer in the best way.”
Aside from his experiences proofreading for various publications, Snyder said he also relied on another skill set he acquired: singing. While studying for his music degree, Snyder said the various musical compositions he had to read and perform, which included works from Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, helped him build a literary background to reference when it came to format and composition.
“You’re always dealing with words,” Snyder said.
Snyder said he felt that with this publishing company, he was helping people in the Michiana region be recognized for their talents. By having a publisher in the area, he said he hoped this would help writers come out of their shells and take the chance of getting their work published and marketed.
He said he also wanted to help stop the brain drain in the region, a phenomenon where artists leave their hometowns to find better opportunities to network and distribute their work.
“If you’re not going to write a bestselling novel and make millions,” he said, “most won’t give you the time of day. That doesn’t mean your book isn’t any good. Anyone who has talent, who has a storytelling ability deserves to be recognized.”
Michael Snyder