Unknown author of bestsellers

The poet broods, strings words together in the isolation of his den, forever hoping that he will one day be able to present his work to a large public. If the fruit of his solitary efforts is a volume of poetry, the only readers he will ever be likely to reach are friends or next of kin, like for instance his children who surely love to devour poems (ha, ha!). But if the product is a whodunit garnished with plenty of suspense, there may be a small chance that a publisher can be snared. If he is lucky, his mystery novel will one day find ist way into the shelves of a bookstore. Looking at the publishing world realistically, it is clear that those authors who write well-qualified non-fiction stand the best chance to see their work in print.

Andreas Maeckler has successfully published works in all named disciplines, though his poems were much the product of his idealistic youth. The works that brought Andreas Maeckler success galore bear such rather profane titles as "What is Art? 1080 Quotations give 1080 Answers" (DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2000, 4th. ed.) These hybrids, part non-fiction, part entertainment, are well known and in demand. However, they are not made of the stuff that will bring their author fame. Yet for many authors fame is essential. Maeckler, however, does not seem to care about it at all. He studied art history in Marburg. The small university town was also the place where his first work was published: an artwork calender with poetry, paid with money from his own pocket. After taking his PHD-degree, the poet and painter transformed into a multimedia-specialist. Apart from writing various guides, he published books on anthroposophic art, books about Bettina von Arnim and about the painter Gottfried Helnwein whose work held cult status in the Eighties (in the meantime, Helnwein was discovered to be a Scientologist which did considerable damage to his reputation. He has since moved to the U.S. ans Ireland) Other publications include such titles as "Unknown Bavaria", guides brimming with handy information compiled by the mulit-talented enterpreneur.

Meanwhile, Andreas Maeckler has moved to Munich where he works both as an author and as a screenwriter for documentaries. His pet project is an ingenious designer-whodunit titled "Lethaly Creative", put out by avedition, a publishing house that normally specializes in architecture. Allthough the list of houses that have printed his works includes such major players as Ullstein, C.H.Beck and ADAC, Andreas Maeckler has none of the usual contempt that authors tend to show towards those colleagues who are not published and resort to publishing their books themselves. Quite on the contrary: two of his most outstanding non-fictional books are manuals for do-it-yourself publishing. Andreas Maeckler's "SelbstVerlag" (Sequenz Media Productions, Munich) offers a practical guideline for all those who are willing to invest money into putting out their own books, but fear that this may lead to some financial desaster. His second book on the topic "Books on Demand" (Sequenz) gives an overview how authors can use the internet and new printing technology for their purposes.

Klaus J. Frahm, in: Fritz – Das Magazin, Januar 2001, Seite 67