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Guest Post: Caleigh Minshall Talks About Porcupine’s Quill and Its Mission

Caleigh Minshall is our guest today, and she’ll be talking about Porcupine’s Quill, which is nestled in the town of Erin Village, Ontario, Canada.  She’s an intern over there and blogs as Porcupette.

It sounds like this press is really enthusiastic about its mission and helping out writers and poets alike.  I’m sure you can guess which part of that mission makes me happy, especially with National Poetry Month around the corner.

Happy Independent and Small Press Month! My name is Caleigh and I’m your guest blogger for today. I’m the intern at the Porcupine’s Quill, a unique literary publisher based in Erin Village, Ontario. On our website I also blog about my ventures in the publishing world as the Porcupette (which is, in case you didn’t know, a very young porcupine).

The Porcupine’s Quill is proud to be a small press (we have three full-time employees and an output of around 10-12 titles a year), but we consider our authors to have the same national and creative importance as those published by multinationals. Many popular Canadian authors today got their start with us: Jane Urquhart, Steven Heighton, Russell Smith, Gil Adamson, Michael Winter, Elizabeth Hay and Annabel Lyon, to name a few.

Of course, we don’t publish them anymore. In Serena’s call for guest posts, she suggested publishers write about “why the[y] continue to struggle against the mass market producers.” The fact is, at the Quill, we don’t have a choice.

Our fiction editors (once John Metcalf, now Doris Cowan) have always had a good eye for new writers. And this is what inevitably happens: we take a chance on a first-time writer, a chance no other publisher would take, and the book – often a collection of short stories – happily receives a lot of praise. In the early years of the Quill, publisher Tim Inkster thought that this new writer would grow alongside the press, finish a novel or two, and together they could make money. In reality, this almost never happens. Those commercial publishers dangle their large advances in front of our new writers, and the Quill’s budget just can’t compete.

Really, we can’t (and don’t!) blame the writers for jumping at the larger advances. Every good writer deserves the opportunity to make a living off their work, if they can, and their chances of making a living increase when they have the big budgets and distribution power of a major publisher. In another way, too, this constant reshuffling of our author stable forces us to constantly seek out new, exciting, innovative talent. We don’t have the luxury of relying on the growth of an author’s backlist or skills. Perhaps this reshuffling makes us stronger as publishers, as editors, as critical readers. It certainly makes the work more challenging! Regardless, we’ve been operating this way for over thirty-five years – it doesn’t get easier but we have managed to stay afloat, and to publish a lot of great books while we’re at it.

The Porcupine’s Quill isn’t limited to fiction. Our goal is and always has been to publish brilliant fiction by largely unknown Canadian authors, and brilliant poetry by well-known Canadian poets. These days, we’ve also added a cutting-edge wordless novel series, featuring young OCAD University artists and professors, which has received a lot of good press. The most recent is Book of Hours by George A. Walker, a provocative series of wood engravings depicting the lives of regular people in the twenty-four hours before the Twin Towers fell.

The unique thing – well, one of them – about the Quill is that we complete almost all of our production in-house. To us, the beauty of the physical book is as important as the beauty of the content. Publisher Tim Inkster uses twentieth-century offset printing technology – a twenty-five inch Heidelberg KORD – to replicate the quality, look and feel of a nineteenth-century letterpress product. If you’re interested in more details, we’ve uploaded a few videos to YouTube outlining the process. All of our books feature thick, creamy paper and colourful endpapers, and they’re all bound using a 1905 Model Smyth National Book sewing machine (instead of just flimsy glue). The shop is jam-packed with printing paraphernalia, most of which I have no idea how to use (that’s Tim’s job). It’s a very intricate and difficult process, and you’ll only find two other publishers in Canada that do the same sort of work that we do (those two being Coach House Press and Gaspereau).

Small presses are vital to a healthy literary culture. They have the courage and knowledge to take an unknown writer and help them create something great, something that challenges the norm. It might be difficult to make any money, but luckily that’s not what small presses are for – instead we dedicate ourselves, when no one else will, to finding and publishing the most excellent, daring and original literature around.

Risky business, sure, but we consider it an art.

Thanks, Caleigh, for contributing to the Celebration of Indie & Small Press Month.

Guest Post: Bancroft Press’ Harrison Demchick on Small Press

Bancroft Press has Harrison Demchick on the front lines, and his press is another local one, situated in Baltimore, Md.  We’re going to be taking another Literary Road Trip of sorts today, as Harrison talks about being a small press and what that entails in the day and age of publishing battles in the media and beyond.

Anything you read most anywhere about the present state of publishing will dwell on the industry’s ongoing war, or transformation, or whatever you want to call it. They’ll talk of the trend toward self-publishing and the inevitable impact on the long-standing dominance of the New York super-publishers. They’ll talk of the eBook, and the way it’s changed the price of big press hardcovers from standard to outrageous.

In this narrative, the war has two combatants: the major publishers and the self-publishers.

Everyone forgets about the rest of us.

Bancroft Press represents the element you don’t hear about—the forgotten combatant, if you will. Between the big press and the no press is the small press, comprised of groups operating more or less in the mold of traditional publishing, but with a narrowed list of titles and authors. And what does that mean?

Well, if you’re only going to publish four, maybe six books a year, they’d better be books you believe in. This should be less a novelty than it is, but with the big publishers more and more focused on commercial appeal above all other considerations, and the self-published authors pretty much a total crapshoot in terms of quality, there aren’t many places left simply publishing good books they like.

Or maybe there are. Maybe you’re just not hearing about them.

It’s certainly not easy to be a small press. The major publishers monopolize the bookstore shelves—hell, Borders’ stock is under their control outright. Barnes and Noble won’t stock your book if they don’t like the cover. Most newspapers won’t read your book if they can instead read a HarperCollins book they know has the budget behind it to be a hit. Most don’t care about the diamond in the rough.

It’s a funny thing, actually. The major publishers have a huge budget and focus on only what their marketing departments believe they can sell. We have hardly any budget and no marketing department, and publish what we believe in regardless of perceived popularity.

If eBooks and the rise of self-publishing are evening things out a little, then all the better from our point of view. But that doesn’t necessarily make the invisible publishers visible—certainly not with the dichotomy most seem to believe exists. It’s a tough road, but the small presses wouldn’t be in the game at all if they didn’t believe their books deserved to make it.

So that’s small presses in general—but what’s Bancroft Press?

Our slogan is “Books That Enlighten.” If that seems very broad, it is. We publish a huge variety of books, the only determination being belief in the material. Bancroft began in 1995, founded by its publisher, Bruce Bortz. We’ve published Alex Award winners (Jonathon Scott Fuqua’s The Reappearance of Sam Webber), Edgar finalists (Libby Sternberg’s Uncovering Sadie’s Secrets), Pulitzer nominees (Gus Russo’s Live by the Sword), and also really great, even critically acclaimed books that didn’t sell the way they could have, and should have (Fuqua’s In the Wake of the Boatman, Ron Cooper’s Hume’s Fork, Elizabeth Leinkes’s The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns).

Right now, we’re focused on three particular projects.

Purple Jesus, which we published in mid-October, is the one you may have heard of. Ron Cooper’s second novel, a terrific Southern Gothic masterpiece, was called “a literary achievement of the first magnitude” by The Washington Post.

A small press literary novel with a major newspaper review, by the way, is an incredibly rare thing, and comes as a result mainly of persistent obnoxiousness.

You’re less likely to have heard of The Naperville White House: How One Man’s Fantasy Changed Government’s Reality, an offbeat and hugely inventive novel we published at the end of 2010. Jerome Bartels’s book, written as a nonfiction account, tells of a terrorist crisis resolved not by the real government, but by a fantasy government—think live-action role-playing meets fantasy football—comprised of a librarian secretary of state, a gas station owner director of national security, a customer service representative chief of staff, an obsessive gamer secretary of defense, and an insurance adjustor president.

There’s nothing quite like it. That makes it very, very hard to sell. We knew that going in—in fact, one New York publisher, which otherwise loved it, rejected it for explicitly that reason—but we believe in this book and published it anyway. We’re still pushing it and hoping it catches on.

Finally, there’s our upcoming foray into young adult adventure, The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black, the first book in Eden Unger Bowditch’s Young Inventors Guild trilogy. It’s the story of five genius children in 1903 who seek to break free from their bizarre, black-clad kidnappers to find their missing parents, using the mysterious creation they have all, unbeknownst to one another, been inventing.

We see it as the scientific answer to Harry Potter, and we have high hopes for its release on March 15.

So this is Bancroft Press: a small publisher putting its minimal but determined weight behind some truly amazing books. The narrative of the industry’s transformation would render us nonexistent, but we’re here, and publishing books every bit as good as the larger publishers—and sometimes quite a bit better.

It’s all about what we believe in. How could it be anything else?

Thanks, Harrison, for sharing your thoughts on the publishing wars and on Bancroft Press’ mission.  You also catch Harrison at the Maryland Writers Conference on Saturday, April 2, 2011, at the University of Baltimore’s Thumel Business Center.

The Rorschach Factory by Valerie Fox

The Rorschach Factory by Valerie Fox is a collection of poems that are left up to the interpretation of the reader in many cases.  Much like the inkblot test, these poems provide snippets of color, image, and story to provide an outline for readers, and those readers are then tasked with filling in the blanks and interpreting what is there.  Some poems seem to carry a personal history in many of the lines, while others are whimsical in their interpretations of pop culture and real-life relationships.

From “This Is Not My Cousin” (page 9):
This is not the sensational human
condition.  God is not in the picture
just me and trees and my cousin’s shadow.
We like how I am standing on the high place
a smiling paperdoll propped up on the edge
about to step back, waving to Columbus.

From “You’re No Axl Rose” (page 43):

You’re no Axl Rose but your sentences are
as complex as your hair, in an unintended,
wiry, I will live forever way, the way Axl
swings his hips and smokes just enough
to achieve his pristine scratchy scream.
You’re no James Dean but when you can afford
to drive a Porsche I’ll let you drive me
to the Acme to buy aspirin or milk.

Fox’s writing style leaves room for the imagination of the reader so that each new audience can take their own journey.  In other poems, there is a clear tone that shines through the lines, like in “The Temple” (page 37) where the narrator talks about her time with a poet who thought of himself as upper class, but of her as much lower.  The poet was slumming it with the narrator, but you can tell from turns of certain phrases that this view was not accurate:  “He’s my essay.//Soon enough/he ran out of money./I’m a poet, and I’d squirreled a bit of currency away./This became my motto-//’I got mine.'” (page 38)

Broken down into four sections — Out of Time, The One Who Leaves You, Accomplice, and Unrest — the narrator has set up a collection of poems that would appear to be drenched in despair and regret, but readers will be surprised by the not only whimsical poems but also the humor with which she highlights pop culture and elements of the ridiculous in intimate relationships.  Overall, The Rorschach Factory by Valerie Fox is a collection that you can read in one sitting, piecemeal, and revisit over and over, finding nuances to each poem that may not have been as prominent upon first reading.

About the Poet:

Dr. Fox’s most recent book is Bundles of Letters, Including A, V and Epsilon (Texture Press), written with Arlene Ang. Previous books of poems are The Rorschach Factory (Straw Gate Books) and Amnesia, or, Ideas for Movies (Texture Press). Her work has appeared in many magazines, including Hanging Loose, The World, Feminist Studies, Siren, Phoebe, Watershed, sonaweb, and West Branch.

She was a founding co-editor of 6ix magazine (1990-2000), and currently edits Press 1, a journal featuring poetry, short fiction, opinion, and photography.  Very involved in collaborative writing, she and Arlene Ang have collaborated in the writing of poetry and fiction, publishing in magazines such as Admit 2, Origami Condom, Per Contra and Qarrtsiluni.  At Drexel, Dr. Fox teaches Freshman Writing, Creative Writing (poetry), and Readings in Poetry. She’s particularly interested in experimental poetics and online teaching/e-learning.

About the Indie/Small Press:

Straw Gate Books published Valerie Fox’s The Rorschach Factory and was founded in 2005 by poet and co-founding editor of 6ix magazine (1990-2000) Phyllis Wat in Philadelphia, Pa.  Here’s a snippet of their mission:

“We are particularly interested in works by women and non-polemical writing with an underlying social content. We also feature new authors and authors whose work is underserved.”

This is my 3rd book for the Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

 

This is my 9th book for the 2011 New Authors Reading Challenge.

 

 

Here’s a confession, I’ve had this book for a couple of years, and I believe it came from the author or her good friend Arlene Ang.  I’m just now getting around to it.  This is my 5th book for the 2011 Wish I’d Read That Challenge.

Guest Interview: Melanie Huber Speaks With New York Quarterly Editor Raymond Hammond

Today’s interview with The New York Quarterly‘s Editor Raymond Hammond is brought to you by the prose editor of Leaf Garden and her own blog, Melanie Huber.

New York Quarterly is a literary magazine I’ve read off and on for several years, but the organization also publishes books.

Without further ado, please enjoy Melanie’s interview with Raymond Hammond:

1. What made you first decide to venture out into the poetry book publishing game?

Our founding editor, William Packard, had always spoken of an NYQ Books and his wish to make that happen. Shortly after his death we found several proposals that he had written over the years and we knew books were in the original charter, so it was always something in the back of my mind as well.  With the onset of one off printing and the subsequent increased quality of that industry, it became viable to begin thinking about setting up an imprint. We bounced around several ideas for a couple of years and then when the 40th anniversary came around in 2009, it seemed like the perfect time to do something like this and a fitting gesture to both the magazine as well as Bill.  So beginning in the first weeks of January of 2009 I set about releasing the older ideas we had bounced around and just made the decision to go full steam ahead with a non-profit model.  Just to do it.  By June of 2009 we released our first book.

I would like to add that in addition to the nostalgic value, I think having a press is important because it allows you to provide another venue to the poets, and to publish more work of those poets than we ever could in a hundred issues of the magazine.  There has always been at times those submission packages where you read it and want to publish the entire packet, and everything else you can get your hands on by that person.  Now we can do that.

2. I know your stance on contests, you are doing this without requiring authors to submit to contests…

You are correct, we do not believe in or run contests.  We invite our authors to publish a book from the list of poets who have already been published or accepted for publication in the magazine.  This means the vetting has already been done and we already have an established relationship with the author before embarking upon the journey to book publication.  And more importantly, it did not cost the author a dime to get noticed.

About a year or so ago I was speaking with one of our authors who told me that their first book would have never been published if it had not been for a contest.  Really? I then began asking around.  It was then that I realized how accepted the practice of the book contest path to publication had become. I was astonished, and saddened, and deeply disheartened. I knew that contests had become prevalent, but what disheartened me was to think that the book contest route has seemingly replaced the editorial route to publication in the hearts and minds of so many people.  I mean I know the editorial route to publication was a bitch and certainly lamentable for many reasons.  But contests require the same amount of energy to get noticed, offer the same if not narrower opportunity (contest=1 winner, editorially we see hundreds of poet’s work a year), get you the same result if you are lucky (book publication) all while costing you tons and tons of money. And to be clear, if you enter a contest you either win or you might as well have not entered—it is all or nothing.  Whereas with the editorial process you may not “win publication” the first or even the tenth time around, but you got noticed one way or the other—you are in the back of someone’s mind that makes the decisions, not just a guest judge.

I just do not believe in solely passing the plate in the choir loft, others have to want to keep the church doors open or there is no point in having a preacher or a choir.

3. How are you managing to stay viable?

K.I.S.S. – we keep it simple.  We are an all-volunteer non-profit.  We keep overhead to a minimum, there is no office space to rent, no salaries to pay, every dime that we get goes to publishing either the magazine or the books, and every dime we receive from the sale of those books gets returned into the upfront costs of producing another book.  The money just rolls right back into the program.  Because we use print-on-demand, we do not have large press run costs, we do not have to warehouse the books once they are printed—we simply print what we need at the moment.  We also do not sell the books directly, we only sell them through our distributors, so again, no press run, no warehousing, no fulfillment, no shipping.  And when you think about this even further, no direct sales means sales tax is kept to a minimum, accounting is kept to a minimum, everything is simpler and more manageable; therefore, cheaper; therefore, viable.

4. Contests seem to be the bread and butter of most small presses, it’s how they are able to publish what small amount they do publish and keep going, so what hopes and goals do you have for 2011?

The plan is to keep building our catalog. Build as large a catalog as quickly as possible to build the name of NYQ Books and so that the books all work together for sales—so that there is a unit of NYQ Books to promote, not just a few books.

Since January we have released 3 books, with a fourth coming out this week, then 2 more in the immediate weeks after that.  Plus we have 3 more ready and waiting to be released over the next several months.  And then for the remainder of the year we are probably looking at about a dozen in the hopper at minimum. We should end the year with approximately 20 new books all total.

5. How are you able to publish so many books?

It is simply a matter of perseverance. To this point I have done the bulk of the work on most of the books. A few books have been laid out and designed by some friends of the poets, but under our direction.  We have a wonderful cover designer who steps in on the covers that give me pause to do, and we just got another computer outfitted so that one of our other editors can assume a majority of the layout work.  Another key ingredient is organization. We have a 25+ page reference manual that each author is given at the beginning when the book is accepted for publication.  This manual takes them through everything from our philosophy, to legalities, to how to proof, to what happens after the proof is accepted–start to finish.  The more organized the author is in preparing the manuscript and the more they know what to expect along the way, the more efficient our production time can be.

The last reason we can publish so many books lies in the simplicity and economics of it all.  Again, low overhead, print on demand technology, no warehousing, no shipping, simplified accounting, etc.  The simpler one keeps all the ancillary things, the more one can get done.

6. How does the long tradition/philosophy behind the NYQ factor into your decision making regarding book publishing?

One of the philosophies of NYQ, to publish regardless of status in the literary community, contest winnings, school of thought, station in life, accomplishments, sex, race, religion, etc., provides us a great base from which to draw.  It also keeps the book series as eclectic as the magazine of which I am very proud.

And the simplicity and economics of it all allows us to publish a book that might now sell many copies right alongside a book that will sell hundreds if not thousands of copies. To be able to choose the book based upon the quality of the poetry rather than a forecast of sales, and keep it in print, is paramount to running the book program in the spirit of the magazine – the poetry first, always.

Thanks to Melanie for conducting the interview with Raymond Hammond and for Raymond for participating. Both of you rock for participating in the Indie & Small Press Celebration! You’ll be seeing more from Melanie later this month, so stay tuned.

Raymond Hammond; Copyright Amanda J. Bradley

About Raymond Hammond (from NYQ):

Raymond P. Hammond is a poet and critic who, originally from Virginia, now resides in Brooklyn and works at the Statue of Liberty NM as a law enforcement officer half of the week and as editor-in-chief of The New York Quarterly the other half. He holds an MA from New York University where most of his classes were intense studies of poetics with William Packard at the Chelsea Gallery Diner over a hamburger.

Guest Review: Confederate Streets by Erin E. Tocknell

Today’s guest review of Confederate Streets by Erin E. Tocknell comes from a new-to-me blogger, Sara from Wordy Evidence of the Fact.  She was one of the first to respond for my call for guest posts this month, and I’m thrilled to host her and her review.  I hope you enjoy it and visit Sara’s blog soon.

 

Title: Confederate Streets

Author: Erin E. Tocknell

Publisher: Benu Press

Publication Date: 2011

Full disclosure: This book was written by a good friend of mine.  See more below.

We had just started clearing the Thanksgiving dishes when my friend Erin called.  I thought she was just calling to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving or some other friendly formality.  Instead, I hear this: “I’m getting published.  My book won and is going to be published.” You can easily imagine the general jubilance and squealing and hopping that took place.  My family thought I had gone around the bend.  But all of you writers with maybe-someday hopes for publication out there understand just how momentous a first book is.  It is a watershed achievement, and I am proud of my friend.  Now that I’ve had the chance to read it, I can confidently say I am also proud of her book, Confederate Streets.

The competition she entered is held annually by Benu Press.  Benu Press is an independent publisher that focuses on issues of social justice and equity.  They see their work as a means of activism, and those of us who recognize the inherent power of words understand just what a mighty tool for change this work can be.  The award Erin won is called The Social Justice and Equity Award in Creative Non-Fiction. As a genre, Creative Nonfiction is most certainly undervalued.  It is different from autobiography, distinct from memoir, and not exactly journalism.  Perhaps it combines elements of all three; done well, it can produce some highly enjoyable and informative work.

Confederate Streets is a collection of interconnected pieces, each exploring Nashville, its history, Tocknell’s family, her past, and the issues of race and class that have so shaped all of these elements.  Tocknell skillfully relates various life experiences without coming across as self-absorbed; she imparts the knowledge gleaned from her research with a seemingly effortless touch, informing and inspiring at the same time; she asks hard questions of herself and of the reader and expects a thoughtful answer; and perhaps most importantly, she entertains.

One of my favorite chapters comes late in the book and is called “Leave the Driving to Us.” In this piece, Tocknell manages to overlap narratives about her tour of UVA (and other colleges) as a prospective student, her travels on a Greyhound bus, and the magnet school system / busing system in her hometown, Nashville, TN.  The highlight of the chapter comes during her brief stay in Norfolk, VA and involves a breakfast with her Uncle David at the Cozy Home Diner.  The details she provides are spot on, and what happens there can only be described as life-changing.  I don’t mean life-changing in the way a death or a birth or even a career change can be; I refer to those still, small moments when you realize that everything you once knew has shifted slightly on its axis.  It is a gift – one she was given, certainly, and one she has now given to each of her readers.  Here are her concluding thoughts on the subject:

    Though I didn’t realize it until later, the Cozy Home Diner also revealed that a great deal of my trip was a sham. I had bounced, blithely and eagerly, between a world full of choices and a world full of limitations.  My bus mates, the men and women in the cafe, the tired faces in the stations and towns along the way – most of them couldn’t decide whether or not they’d like to wear J. Crew and go to a school with a crew team or Honor Code, because that was not an option for them.  I had reveled in the simplicity of bus travel, never considering that was I saw as simple was, for others, either a dead end or an immensely complex web to navigate. (120)

Though it would be easy to dismiss Tocknell as just another privileged White kid coming to terms with her Whiteness, the complexity of her situation should not be ignored.  There was no reason for her to not consider college as the logical next step; there was no reason for her to have considered the Greyhound bus anything but a convenient and inexpensive mode of transportation; she had done nothing wrong.  Yet, an encounter, or the absence of one, in a diner changed her ability to see things so clearly.  It muddied her waters as happens to each of us when we realize that doing “nothing wrong” might also equate simply to doing nothing.  By writing this book, Tocknell has made sure she has done something to speak up about the issues of race and inequity that still exist.  She believes in the power of story to change lives, and she offers us stories that will go on changing lives through her telling of them.

Lest you think I am merely a friend blinded by loyalty, I must offer a word of critique – which Erin has already heard from me.  I believe the final chapter unbalances the collection. “Rowing Through the Ruins” is a gorgeous, award-winning essay on rowing and place and architecture and selfhood; however, it does not provide adequate closure to the lessons and history (personal and regional) she has worked to intertwine so beautifully throughout the rest of the book.

***If you want to read this fascinating book, you can get it as a kindle edition from amazon.com or from the publisher.  If you want to know more about Erin Tocknell and her work, you can read this interview with her on my blog.  And if you’d like enter to win a signed copy of this book, go to the interview, leave a comment, and cross your fingers.  I’ll choose a winner on Friday.***

Thanks, Sara, for providing a review for the Indie & Small Press Celebration! You’ll see more from Sara later in the month.

An Interview With Dan Cafaro, Publisher of Atticus Books in Maryland

Today we’re kicking off Savvy Verse & Wit’s First Annual Indie & Small Press Month Celebration with Dan Cafaro from Maryland’s very own Atticus Books.  He was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his business, books, and some more personal matters, like obsessions.

Rather than provide you with all the connection details at the end of the interview, please check out their Facebook page, the Independent Book Sellers That Rock Our World Page, and Book Blogger Central (you may even find a picture of Dan on one of these pages).

1.  As founding publisher of Atticus Books in Maryland, how long has it taken to make a name for the publishing house in the industry, and what frustrations have you overcome to make it such a local success?

We haven’t yet made a name for ourselves, but writers, damn good writers, continue to find us and that’s more than half the battle for a small press in its infancy. We began in earnest less than a year ago when we signed our first novelist (Alex Kudera) to a book contract. I had just hung our shingle in Kensington when Alex took a leap of faith in me (and I in him).  I was a solo act with no staff support in sight. He was a former adjunct from Philly with a bitterly funny academic satire to sell.  I had worked in print media for 20 years and I had just ended a publishing consulting contract with an aerospace society; trade publishing was a far cry from rocket science; it was a whole new animal and I was elated to be in position to give it a whirl.

When the entrepreneurial muse came calling, little did I know what she had in store.  After exploring every conceivable hybrid book business model known to man and industry insiders—complete with storefront, café, antiques, wine, and/or an espresso book machine (to print books on site and on demand), I elected to conserve my capital, minimize the overhead, mitigate the out-of-pocket risk, and focus my energies on the writing.  My goal became an all-consuming, wildly passionate ambition—to find the greatest writers out there who simply are not getting the attention they deserve. I wake up equally frustrated and intrinsically rewarded every day, knowing in my old-school bohemian bones that I’m driven by a desire that defies all monetary-minded rationale.  If I somehow can make a living at doing what I love by 1.) forming micro-literary villages of likeminded souls online, and 2.) helping innovate a long established (some say, struggling if not dying) profession, then I’ll be the happiest working man-child alive.

2.  What’s the breakdown of books you publish (i.e. how many poetry books, fiction, etc.)?  How many are written by local authors?

We currently have produced three titles of fiction, including two novels and one novella (The Absent Traveler & Other Stories).  In 2011, we have five titles of fiction planned for release, all novels, with other book proposals pending and in development.  We’re taking a serious look at publishing more collections of short stories (a terrific weakness of mine) as I truly admire those who can say more with less, and I believe that the short story form is due a cultural revival. Short stories often provide a taste of better things to come from developing writers, so it excites me to think that I’m supporting a fertile mind from the beginning of its artistic bell curve.  Not that all writers follow this path, but those who have mastered the short form sometimes go on to use those same characters and charming turn-of-phrase aptitude in longer, more fully layered works of magnificence.

Our writers, more than half of whom are college English professors, scatter the map, from Massachusetts, New York (3), and Maryland to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Eric D. Goodman, whose debut novel, Tracks, comes out in the summer, resides in Baltimore. Tracks contains a thread of stories told by characters traveling on a train from Baltimore to Chicago. It’s richly laced with colorful descriptions and insights of the city of Baltimore. Eric is heavily involved in Baltimore’s literary scene and supports the arts regionally through his participation in DelMarVa events, readings on NPR-Baltimore, and his blog.  His dedication to the area and involvement with the Maryland Writers’ Association, the CityLit Project in Baltimore, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference in Rockville, Md., factored in my wanting him in our camp.

3.  From the list of authors, online contributors, editors, etc. listed on Atticus Books Website, it seems as though the working environment at the publishing house is very collaborative, almost like a large family.  Was this environment intentional, and how well does it work when deadlines arise?

In an effort to keep this answer short, let’s just say, we’re one happy, dysfunctional family—and the dysfunction comes from none other than the patriarch.  One rule, besides unceremoniously leaving the seat down in the bathroom for Libby and Lindsey (my part-time, guardian angels), is to not take ourselves (and myself) too seriously.  As a former daily news schlep, I work better under deadline, particularly when that deadline is self-imposed and I get to revise it.  Once you’ve survived the pressure of filing stories on time, within length constraints, and without typos under the watchful eye of a half-crazed editor breathing down your neck in a noisy newsroom, a mostly quiet and serene book publishing environment is a piece of cake (filled with buttercream and surprise).

4.  Atticus also has an aggressive environmental policy against using paper from endangered forests, using at least 30 percent recycled fiber, and more.  Some publishers have said adopting an aggressive stance will increase costs so much that making a profit is nearly impossible.  What prompted your decision to adopt the policy, how did you justify it, and has it been as costly as other publishers have indicated it would be?

To be honest, I’m not sure we currently print enough books to know how much impact this is having (or will inevitably have) on our bottom line.  Our books are printed on recycled paper; we’re living in environmentally conscious (and limited natural resource-sensitive, i.e., tree-hugging) times and that practice doesn’t seem to be too much to ask of any business or individual, no matter how cynical or mercenary.  Perhaps if I pinched nickels and was hyper vigilant about economies of scale, I might care to calculate the loss of margin, but that’s not how I operate.  In poetic step and verse with Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, I’ve never set out to be a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.  That statement someday may spell my financial ruin, but for now, it’s part of how Atticus Books says grace and carries on.

5.  In these tough economic times, do you think small publishers can make their mark on literature and the book selling market?  How best can small presses accomplish their goals?

If I didn’t think small presses and indie booksellers could make a mark on literature—I mean a real whale of a red-wine, dark chocolate-stain doozy, then I wouldn’t be in this Goethe-forsaken business.  I chose this vocation and lifestyle, partly because my selfless, well-compensated wife and a string of lucky breaks have afforded me the opportunity.  I believe in giving back to society when your circumstances grant you the luxury.  Will I always be in this fortuitous position?  Hell, if I know.  Will I fight the noble fight to the last breath to preserve the legacy of my authors?  You bet your life.

Small presses possess the opportunity to upset the landscape, upend the apple cart, tilt the paradigm, cloud the prism, and spoil the harvest of large publishers just by being.  Existing.  Resisting.  Insisting.  This is a game of Darwinian perseverance and as the inimitable Billie Holiday sang in “God Bless the Child”: “The strong survive while the weak ones fade.”  What makes the strong, strong and the weak, weak?  Beats the Oliver Twist out of me.  I’d rather leave that to sideline prognosticators and armchair quarterbacks.  Small presses need to rattle the right cages and make enough noise or create stirring silence to demand attention.  It won’t be easy, but there’s no such thing as impossible.

6.  Online reviewers, such as book bloggers, have gained additional recognition at Book Expo America and with publishers and PR staff.  Has Atticus Books tapped this market of reviewers to spread the word about its books and how formal or informal and/or important are these relationships?

We (staff aides Lindsey, Libby & I) love bloggers and I say that as a fan of anyone who has the wherewithal to post religiously without monetizing their effort.  Book Blogger Central, a page that we created on Facebook, is a service to those who blog and is a tribute to the work that book bloggers tirelessly perform.  And I say that not in the “brown-nosing, gosh, we need you to like us” sort of way, but more in the respectful, compassionate way that only a blogger (a fellow writer with far more faults and insecurities than time or patience) could understand.

I write (inconsistently).  I blog (just as inconsistently).  And I publish (consistently, I hope, though that’s a relative measurement).  What separates me, besides discipline, from those who do the first two things, but not the third?  Not much, really.  Do I have a pedigree in marketing or a Ph.D. in public relations?  No.  What I do have is instincts that I trust, authors whose abilities I believe in enough to invest hard-earned cash, and relations with individual media of which I’m just beginning to form.  Do I consider the opinion of bloggers as vital as the third rail of publishing (e.g., the New York Times Book Review section, Publishers Weekly, and/or Kirkus Reviews)?  Yes, without hesitation or fear of retribution, I can say I do.  Bloggers have their fingers pressed firmly on the pulse of contemporary culture as much as—if not more than—the establishment. In sum, bloggers, on the whole, are thoughtful, voracious readers who immeasurably influence their loyal, fast growing flock of followers as much as—and increasingly more than—those who represent the view of far-reaching institutions.

Now for a couple of fun questions:

7.  You’ve become a publisher to sift new writers into the market.  Who helped guide you to where you are today and has writing or reading  been a driving force in your own life?

Not to sound cliché  or patronizing, but I’ve been guided mostly by my parents to work hard and believe in myself, and I’ve been guided creatively by my friends and peers, particularly my best friend and contemporary—my beacon of a wife, to follow my dream.  I’ve also been guided by countless teachers, writers, artists, and people of unmistakable (though sometimes misunderstood) honor to pursue an honest living.

As an undisciplined writer and reader with undiagnosed ADD and an aversion to truthiness (vs. truth), I am driven by the responsibility of raising the clout and visibility of this generation’s unrecognized seers—i.e., the distinct, undiscovered voices of meaningful prose and poetry with unpublished works tucked away in the recesses of their underwear drawer.  My hope is that I forever keep in mind the indelible impressions left by those who’ve suffered for art and justice, the proverbial (but oft times, literal) starving artist, who personifies our best-in-class and highest-in-integrity ancestors.

8.  Do you have any particular obsessions, literary or otherwise, that help reduce your stress levels or ensure you remain on track?

My main obsessions are the Mets, Jets, pasta, single-malt scotch, and the security and well-being of my family, not necessarily in that order. These all prove to consume my time, passion, and addictions, usually more so than any Anne Sexton stanza or Edward Abbey diatribe, though I have to admit I’m affected daily by the things I haphazardly pick up to read.  One of the benefits of dropping out of the corporate world is being able to justify just about any casual reading or new literary discovery with research.

9.  When you were a young man, what was your dream job?  What’s your dream job now?

Heavy question, but definitely fun to consider.  I dreamed of being a baseball player and a doctor, but mostly, I dreamed of being a writer because it was the only vocation I thought suited me.  Writers (those who prefer words to just about anything else) are traditionally ill-suited for most conventional careers, not to mention situations.  As I grow older and make compromises (not of integrity, but age- and lifestyle-related), I realize now I’d probably make a good government worker (e.g., contract consultant) who happens to own both a funky small press and a minor league baseball franchise that barely make a profit between them.  As long as I can keep the two businesses in the black, afford to buy a round of hot dogs with relish, and support the career of the next John Steinbeck, then I’m not only living the dream, I’m creating it, too.  And that’s a dream worth pursuing.

10.  If you could give new and local writers one piece of advice about finding a publisher, particularly a small press, to publish their work, what would that be and why?

Explore and loiter on websites and blogs that speak your language; travel in the same circles as the writers and indie presses you admire.  There’s little good in being a lone wolf; run with the pack.  Find a community, a tribe that’s rightfully yours, and claim your stake in it.  Read works (and reviews of books) by small presses of kindred spirits and burrow in their collective skulls a while; plant your thoughts there; read between the lines of their fictional characters; see if you’re cut out of the same tapered cloth.  Then introduce yourself.  Howl at the yellow moon.  Play nice and bare your crooked smile.  Compliment your peer’s efforts.  (We’re all in need of a hug.)  Think of the publishing world as one large playground and the kindergartners have turned it upside down.  The runts of the litter are beginning to twist the upturned noses of the intellectually stunted bullies.  Take part in this leveling of the landscape.  Celebrate the renaissance.  Join the indie movement.

Instead of closing with a shameless plug about Atticus, let’s close with this piece of advice from E.B. White whose writing has inspired me a great deal over the years: “Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays:  don’t write about Man, write about ‘a’ man.”

Read E.B. White.   There’s more wisdom in that man’s one pinkie (on his writing hand, of course) than I have in my entire body.

So, what did we learn today from this interview?

I can tell you what I learned:  First and foremost that there is a Indie/Small Press publisher in my own backyard!  How fantastic is that! And this big publisher (at least in my mind because of its ideals) loves bloggers.  What else do we need to know?!

I hope you enjoyed the first stop as we celebrate Indie and Small Press this month, and if you couldn’t have guessed, this was another stop on the Literary Road Trip.

Celebrate! Indie & Small Press Month Schedule

March begins tomorrow, and my celebration of Indie & Small Presses begins as well. I thought that I would post a schedule of the events for the month, so everyone could refer to it.

Think of all the diversity you’ll miss if you don’t check out the fiction, poetry, and other publishers here in the United States and Canada.  There will be guest reviews of independently published books and interviews and naturally some regular features that you’re used to here on the blog.

I’ll update the post links as the month goes along, but be sure to check back every day in March for the latest celebratory post.  Sundays will be reserved for Mailbox Mondays or simply a break from the celebration.

Please ignore the strike-through in the links; I’ve tried to eliminate it to no avail.

March 1:  Interview with Atticus Books’ Dan Cafaro

March 2:  Guest Review of Confederate Streets by Erin Tocknell

March 3:  TLC Book Tours Stop for The Other Life by Ellen Meister

March 4:  Guest Interview:  Melanie Huber Speaks with New York Quarterly Editor Raymond Hammond

March 5:  Virtual Poetry Circle #87

March 6:  Mailbox Monday

March 7:  32 Poems Interview With Joseph Milford

March 8:  Review of The Rorschach Factory by Valerie Fox

March 9:  Guest Post:  Bancroft Press’s Harrison Demchick

March 10:  Guest Post:  Caleigh Minshall from Porcupine’s Quill

March 11:  Interview With Margaret Sullivan, Author of The Jane Austen Handbook from Quirk Books

March 12:  Virtual Poetry Circle #88

March 13:  Breaking News . . .

March 14:  Guest Post:  Loving Healing Press’s Victor Volkman Talks About Small Press in the Modern Era

March 15:  Guest Post:  Story Plant’s Lou Aronica on Running a Small vs. Big Press

March 16:  Review of The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

March 17:  Guest Post:  Istoria Books’ Libby Sternberg

March 18:  Guest Review:  Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser

March 19:  Virtual Poetry Circle #89

March 20:  Mailbox Monday

March 21:  Guest Interview:  Jennifer Flescher Talks With Cooper Dillon Books’ Editor Adam Deutsch

March 22:  Guest Review: 200 Nights and One Day by Margaret Rozga

March 23:  Guest Post:  Candlemark & Gleam’s Kate Sullivan Talks About Different Distribution and Payment Models

March 24:  32 Poems Interview With Andrew Kozma

March 25:  Guest Post: Adrienne Odasso Talks About Her Experiences With Small Presses

March 26:  Virtual Poetry Circle #90

March 27:  April’s National Poetry Month Celebration Announcement

March 28:  Interview with Unbridled Books’ Fred Ramey

March 29: Announcing the 2011 Indie Lit Awards

March 30:  Guest Post:  Tightrope Books Halli Villegas

March 31:  Guest Post: Vanilla Heart Books’ Kimberlee Williams on the Changing Face of Publishing

Not all of these links will be live.  Links will become active on the date of posting.

If you’re interested in filing in any of the blank dates with a guest review of an indie or small press published book, please let me know what date via email and what book you’ll be reviewing.

Reviews should contain publisher information as well.

March 2011 Independent and Small Press Month

As many of you know, I will be pre-occupied with the new bundle of joy for the next month or so, but in my absence, I’ve got a great line-up of small and independent press owners and publishers, some guest reviews, and other goodies coming in March.

I dubbed this event a Celebration of Independent and Small Press Month.  Lucky for me, I was able to “twist” the arm of another blogger, Shellie from Layers of Thought, to make me some fantastic buttons and a banner for everyone to use in March who wants to jump on the bandwagon.  Check out these cool buttons and banner she created:

The banner:

buttercups with white banner 3

The two badges:

buttercups with white badge b3

buttercups with white badge 3

What do you think?

For those of you still interested in writing up guest reviews of small and indie press published books, please contact me or send in your reviews by Feb. 25 with all the graphics, links, and personal information you would like included.

Call for Guest Posts…

Good afternoon everyone!

As many of you already know, March will be a challenging month for me in terms of reading and blogging since the little one will soon be with us, so I wanted to get prepared.

As a result of brainstorming, I came up with an idea to feature independent publishers on Savvy Verse & Wit in March.  March is going to be Independent and Small Press Month here at the blog.

What I’m looking for:

1.  Guest posts either from the publishers and/or their publicists about their small presses and why the continue to struggle against the mass market producers (i.e. is it a passion for a particular book, local authors, or something more).

2.  Guest reviews from book bloggers about a great book from an independent publisher or small press, including information about the press and whether they’ve read other books by that publisher.

While it would be great to feature some poetry book reviews and publishers, I will be more open minded!  If you want to review some poetry or know a small press that publishes poetry and wants to contribute, please have them contact me.

OK, that’s it.  What do you think?  Are you game?  I want to fill up every day in March, so please send in your date requests early.

***Also, if anyone has ideas about linkable buttons/banners for the month-long event, please email me. ***