Small Press – Advantages 3 – Free Choice

Because we are less bound by commercial pressures - see Small Press Advantages 1. We can publish what we like. That doesn’t mean what we publish can afford to be badly written and naturally what we publish goes through three stages of editing: structural edit, line edit and copy edit and is then proof read as well. But it does mean if we are delighted by something we can publish. We can also decide to take a story we like but that is not too well written and work with the author to improve it. Or if someone writes beautifully but has a story that doesn’t quite work, again we may be willing to work with them on that.

We’re not too worried if a writer is a one-hit wonder. Neither are we too worried if one book flops. We know the book is good and it appeals where it appeals. Why should readers who have unusual tastes that we happen to share be deprived of what they enjoy?

As we are small our editors often also work on marketing and publicity. There is therefore no argument about the balance of how good a book is and how commercial it is. Occasionally, if we can only publish one book and we have two on offer we might take account of how proactive an author might be in helping to promote the book or if one would attract more sales than the other.  However, this situation is rare. Almost always one book will outshine all others by quite a lot.

We’re going into a period of three months of open submissions. We shall take on any book we consider to have merit within that time. We’re hoping for about three. But if we find half a dozen, we’ll publish half a dozen. We’ll stagger the publication and leave a longer gap until the next open call. We may find one or none. In which case the next open call will come sooner.