Update
Friends: Last time, I asked you to suggest small-press titles you’ve read and love and want more recognition for . . . because here at David’s Lists 2.0 we love good books that have fallen through the cracks, and because we’re sad that all the light gets thrown on a handful of titles each season.
I thought this was a swell idea. Some of you do, too, which is great. The not-great part is that, in this case, “some” means two percent of you—i.e. three subscribers.
Kinda underwhelming, gotta say.
In a few weeks, I’ll post a list of two or three dozen small-press prose works that readers admire/gush over/etc. You can be those readers . . . or I can glean them from cyberspace.
https://the3rdthing.press/product/sift/
Hi David, what about self-published books, or as we who engage in such activity prefer to call them, independently published books? I see the spirit of your request for small press books as being that the old gatekeepers--agents, big publishers, even many literary journals--are long past being the oracles of the best in contemporary literature. Many small presses are far more adventurous than any of those dinosaurs I just mentioned. But more and more authors are opting for independent publication, 100% controlled by them. Yes, there is a lot of poorly edited formulaic self-published junk (as opposed to slightly better edited formulaic junk preferred by major publishers), but some of the most genre-busting, adventurous, and entertaining writing these days comes from those who publish their own work, kind of reverting to pre-publishing industry days when authors like Thoreau and Beatrix Potter funded their own books. I'd like to see more attention drawn to the true literary pioneers of our time: the independent authors who boldly forsake the very outdated and crumbling publishing paradigm of agents, commissioning editors, corporate publishers, and chain book stores.
Small press you might not know: https://invisiblepublishing.com/
Small press book I have read and liked: A Killer in King’s Cove https://www.touchwoodeditions.com/book/a-killer-in-kings-cove/