
American Literature Needs Indie Presses - samclemens
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/why-american-publishing-needs-indie-presses/491618/?single_page=true
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Finnucane
I've been involved in small-press publishing, and it can be an interesting way
to lose a lot of money. It might be a little easier now with the interwebs to
do direct sales and marketing, because I presume distributors are still no
better at paying their bills. I mean, everything this article says was already
true 20 or 30 years ago--it's just a little worse now.

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yolesaber
There is a pretty healthy grant ecosystem which sustains a lot of small
presses. SPD, a distributor, also does a lot to help alleviate costs involved
with getting books to stores and handling reviews / promotions. Book fairs,
such as the Brooklyn Book Fest, also can make the difference between being in
the red and being able to reprint.

I would disagree that it is worse now. If anything, you lose less money these
days. I run a small press myself and while I wouldn't say we are rolling in
the dough we are still able to keep the lights on. My strategy has been to
make really unique-looking titles - both design-wise and content-wise - in
small limited print runs (less than 200). This helps build the buzz about the
author / work and then I sell the PDF for about half the price. I've been
running it for about three years this way. Small presses are slow burners.
Ugly Duckling Presse, perhaps one of the biggest "small presses" in NYC, has
been ongoing twenty years and are just starting to get mainstream recognition.

It's a really great scene. I've worked in publishing (one of the big five) and
I honestly find the culture and taste toxic. Small presses are very much their
own community, still a distinct lifestyle and scene. I know people who sleep
in their workshops next to their letterpress. I've held some of the most
gorgeous books I've ever seen, designed by my friends, only one copy, made
just for fun in the middle of the night. Losing money is worth it for that.

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vinceguidry
We're seeing this everywhere. The major beer distributors are snapping up
indie breweries and cultivating their own. Hollywood is fragmenting into
numerous smaller production shops, the big 5 can't hold on to as much of the
gross. Advertising has long fragmented into countless small channels, each
with their own rules and their own players. Porn used to be dominated by a few
shops, they got sucker punched by video uploading.

The Internet has leveled the playing field everywhere, democratizing access to
the market and lowering barriers to entry, not just in production, but also
marketing too.

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cwmma
Side note: the picture at the top of the article is the Brattle Book Shop, or
more accurately the empty lot next door where they have carts of used books
for super cheap, it's an amazing place.

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_rpd
The barriers to entry seem lower than ever. Small, high quality print runs are
relatively cheap. Amazon to distribute for you. Social media for marketing.
Indie presses should be sprouting up all over the place.

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yolesaber
They are. Entropy, the sci fi and literary magazine, keeps a running interview
series of old and new small presses. There are a lot and they all do different
niches: [http://entropymag.org/category/small-
press/](http://entropymag.org/category/small-press/)

~~~
drabiega
I was excited at first when I read your comment because it seemed like exactly
what I was looking for, having read the above article.

... Then I followed the link and discovered that the text of the website was
too faint for me to easily read. Is this a colorblindness thing? Anyone else
have this problem?

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yolesaber
That's unfortunate :( What browser are you using? I'm using chrome and it
looks readable to me, but I have decent eyesight. Entropy using a thin font
that might render poorly on other browsers. Plus their quote font is gray,
which is hard to read even for me

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SilasX
Does No Starch Press count? They have some very good technical publications,
including _Hacking: The Art of Exploitation_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Starch_Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Starch_Press)

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paulsutter
> Each of these books is between 400 and 1,000 pages long, costs around $30
> for a hardcover

Wait people are still thinking about paper books?

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superuser2
You can own a paper book in perpetuity. You can lend it, gift it, and read it
in 40 years when the tech giants at the time of its publishing are long dead
and their standards long forgotten. No one needs to know you have it or what
page you're on, it doesn't need network, it doesn't have naturally degrading
rechargeable batteries, doesn't need a charge at all. It strikes a reasonable
balance between freedom for its user and renumeration for its creator.

I love reading on my Kindle, but ebook-exclusive publications are going to
have evaporated in a few decades, and hardbacks will still be here.

~~~
costcopizza
Not to mention people have a tendency to read deeper when its a paper book
rather than an e-book.

[http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-18/your-paper-brain-
and-y...](http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-18/your-paper-brain-and-your-
kindle-brain-arent-same-thing)

