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Location: west virginia | As everyone is aware, one after another of our magazines have gone under. Look around -- there used to be small bookstores on every other street corner, news stands, and even drug stores sold paperbacks for fifty cents. Now, it is the era of small press decline. With eBooks, although not researched, it appears that a new company pops up today and then is gone tomorrow, leaving us authors wondering about rights that we have contracted out. This happened to me with my first novel. I spent a lot of time checking out the company, albeit new, and the admins. were highly credible. One week after my novel was released, the company's link no longer worked. Sure, I got a few dollars of conciliatory proceeds. Since TOR only accepts agent submissions, it took me almost six years to find another small press to reprint my novel in 2012, not because of weaknesses in the novel, but because small presses were dying.
Small presses are a short half-step from self-publishing. They have small advertising budgets and, so, promotion falls upon the author. One tremendous advantage, however, is that small presses tend to have the best of all in the industry of editors -- they know the competition with Big Houses and have a point to prove. This happened with my novel and its May 18, 2015, review that found it to be the most enjoyable SF that the retired editor of Reader's Digest had read in several years. Still, small consolidation given the likely reality that few others will find out about the story, or about the great quality of works produced by small presses.
Do you think that we will see the demise of small press publications in our lifetimes? (My lifetime is likely much shorter than yours. But, then again, I never thought that I would see same sex marriage take off; or, the likely legalization of marijuana nation-wide. These are both causes that I support, but never in my imagination....)
If small presses die, I guess that we can all settle for reading John Scalzi's products from his 3.4 million dollar advance into our foreseeable futures.
Edited by robert eggleton 2015-06-03 3:41 PM
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Location: Sacramento, California | I just noticed this post, and it's an interesting topic, so I'm sorry it didn't gain any traction.
I think that within our lifetimes, small presses will indeed be all but gone. There might be one or two in larger cities that hang on, but I think the self-publication route offered by such sites as Amazon are just too easy for some people. Plus, there have been success stories from self-publishing now, which makes it more attractive.
The Martian by Andy Wier, and Seventh Son by J.C. Higgins as a much earlier example, these were self-published works that made it big. In the case of The Martian, mega-huge. Of course, for every The Martian, there is ten thousand dollar romance and pulp books self-published on Amazon, so that it's hard to find anything worth reading. Heck, my mom is getting ready to post a novel to Amazon that she's been writing for something like ten years.
But I'll make you a prediction. After all the small press houses are all but dead, they will make a comeback, as people tend to re-vamp these kind of things as art. They will see the art in the work that goes into editing, cover art, binding, and distributing novels, and they will find a new home somewhere where folks appreciate that kind of effort. | |
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Location: west virginia | Thanks for the reply. I hope that you are correct about small presses and the resurgence. I wonder about the inside story of The Martian. Do you know it? I've been working twelve hours a day minimum to tell people about my novel with some success, but sales still suck. There just has to be some magic on something that Andy Wier spelled, and its not in the literary realm (certainly not a criticism). "Looking Inside" of novels on Amazon, sure most of it should have never been published. But, there's some really good stuff out there that has received much less attention than my novel. | |
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| Just saw this thread and thought I'd post my comment.
I think some small presses will survive. Some might even thrive. I believe they'll do so by offering things to authors and readers that can't be had through self-publishing or going traditional. Those things can be publishing works in specific sub-genres; unusual themed anthologies; or marketing to a small but devoted small-press fanbase. I don't think it's enough to be open to anything the publisher likes and just releasing books or magazines. They'll have to have a focus that appeals to authors and readers, and the ability to bring authors and readers together in ways that self- or traditional publishing can't.
That's just my two cents. We'll see how it all shakes out, I suppose. | |
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Location: west virginia | I hope that you are correct. The future would be very different, I suppose, for a small presses that has substantial financial backing vs. ones that doesn't. Dog Horn Publishing, in Leeds, the one that published Rarity from the Hollow, has cut way back on new titles. After publishing some high quality avant garde stuff, the owner recently side-commented to me about how expensive that publishing has become. He is also the Editor of a magazine, Vada, which targets the GLBTQ community, so I'm sure that there are competing interests besides costs which have influenced its behavior as a small press. | |
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Location: Sacramento, California | You mentioned a sub-genre which very well might help small presses (or one small press house) survive. If one chose to focus on publishing LGBTQ related fiction, and then focused their marketing to that end (related magazines, websites, etc.), not only would the marketing budget be able to be smaller, but those in that community might consciously decide to support authors and press houses that support them.
I'm only using that as an example because you mentioned it. As another example, I am a member of Dieselpunks. In case you don't know, think steampunk, but the retro-future focuses on the 1920s-40s, instead of the Victorian/Old West era. People in that community post their writings, and many choose to read and support them, both because they're supporting someone in their community, and because quite frankly they WANT to read a story of a guy in 1937 traveling by airship and wielding a ray gun.
This is more interesting now, because I could see that, hyper-focusing on specific communities or lifestyles, as a way that small presses could thrive. It would be a balance, though, because if the community is too small, it may not be large enough to support the press house. Hmm. | |
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Location: west virginia | Rarity from the Hollow presents a dilemma when marketing. It's genre bending with a sf backdrop and elements of fantasy, magical realism, romance, horror and wrapped up in a literary blanket. It's gotten rave reviews by book reviewers and three critics, but getting consumers to notice it is an entirely different proposition. A strict genre subgenre reader, the type that you mentioned with steampunk and dieselpunk (thanks), would not find enough of a particular element to form an allegiance, not the way that you envision with your group.
Personally, I read all over the map. But, whenever I write it goes wild into more Vonnegut, Adams, or Robins.... Do you have a recommendation on dieselpunk? I'm checking out cli fi now. It's apocalyptic with climate change the theme. Dan Bloom coined the term. He wrote a review of Rarity from the Hollow, so he also reads outside of his major interest. He's an environmental journalism in Taiwan.
Take care. | |
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| I have started collecting books from Arkham House. They have been struggling for years and I think they have gone under. August Derleth was putting his own money into it for a while. A very cool little press in a cool little town.
I recently got a German bound copy of Le Guinn's " Those Who Walk Away From Omelas " from a small press in Oregon called No Reply.
It's printed on mold made paper, with original artwork by Clive Knight. This may be the future of small presses. | |
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