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see more attention drawn to the true literary pioneers of our time: the independent authors who boldly forsake the very outdated and crumbling publishing paradigm of agents, commissioning editors, corporate publishers, and chain book stores.
Larry: There's a lot meat in your comment. Somebody lauding somebody else's self-funded/self-produced book seems perfectly legitimate . . . and the easy distinction between publisher published and vanity-press published that prevailed in the past is no longer truly valid--there are various models that exist somewhere in the gray area between those two. I'm not truly up on those, but it would be good to look into for a future post. Feel free to keep adding thoughts to this . . .
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.
Larry: There's a lot meat in your comment. Somebody lauding somebody else's self-funded/self-produced book seems perfectly legitimate . . . and the easy distinction between publisher published and vanity-press published that prevailed in the past is no longer truly valid--there are various models that exist somewhere in the gray area between those two. I'm not truly up on those, but it would be good to look into for a future post. Feel free to keep adding thoughts to this . . .
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/
Thanks, Heather. I've added your title, and I'll check out invisiblepublishing.