My Experience with Small Presses

Often when I hear people talking about publishing, I hear about “The Big 5” and then self-publishing.

There are so many levels in between.

You have the medium presses (so many of these)… I think of Coffee House Press as an example.

Of course, there are the university presses (they likely will find themselves cash-strapped if not shuttered as a result of universities rethinking their budgets as they face the fall-out of reduced enrollment—and the reduction of other revenue-generating sources—due to Covid-19)

Of course, some university presses are endowed and not part of the general budget.

And then (and there are many!)… the small presses.

All of my books have come out from small presses: March Street Press, Bottom Dog Press, Untreed Reads, and Whistling Shade Press.

For myself, I had a specific reason to pursue small presses for my work. Bear in mind, this came after pursuing agents who politely said, “Thank you for contacting us. Please don’t do it again.”

I’m in academia. While just beginning to take myself seriously as a writer, I was also hired by Delta College (a community college in Michigan) to teach English. I was facing a decade-long promotion process to move from instructor to assistant professor to associate professor to full professor (not to mention earning tenure). If I had self-published my books, the publications wouldn’t have counted toward promotion. That only makes sense since self-publishing is not juried.

At a community college, publication doesn’t play a huge part in promotion, but it sure doesn’t hurt. And as a result of my publications and my films, I teach fiction writing, screenwriting, and cinematography (a pretty rare combo of classes for a community college English instructor).

So, what has my experience been with small presses? (I can only speak for the presses that I’ve dealt with).

Well first, obviously, I had to submit my manuscript. The publisher has to believe in your work and want to publish it. I find that small presses are more driven by the quality and distinction of the work rather than the profit potential. In my experience, small presses have been one or two person operations (they have help here and there, but if the person in question decided to quit, the press would likely end).

I’ve found that small presses tend to have faster response times (usually 3 months for a full manuscript) and if they accept, at least in my case, the book came out 6 months to a year later.

Typically with small presses, there is no advance. My pay is usually 10 to 20 free copies of the book. That’s it. The rest is earned on royalties, which is about $1 to $3 a book. Also, I can order additional copies from the press at a 40% discount. So, I make my best money at readings. If I sell the book at full price at a reading (say $14) and I bought the book for $8.40, I’m making $5.60 a book.

Pre Covid-19, I hustled for readings rather than online sales. Now readings/signings at bookstores are different because the bookstore wants a 40% discount from the publisher. The publisher makes less on these sales, so I make less.

What else do I see as a benefit of small presses? Well, in the case of Whistling Shade Press, I get the service of a great editor. Joel Van Valin works as a technical writer by day, so he knows his stuff. I don’t pay a dime for the multiple times that he reads through my manuscript and makes suggestions and catches errors. I also don’t pay for his work on the layout, the cover, the ISBN and all the work he does to get the book available on Amazon.

He was also very collaborative on the cover. We went back and forth over fonts, the look, the cover art… etc. He was determined to make sure I was happy with the way my book looked (which I am!)

Like other small presses, Whistling Shade Press is willing to send out review copies… within reason. With Joel, if he sees that the review copies are generating reviews in reputable places, he’ll keep sending out review copies. If he’s sending out review copies, and no reviews materialize as a result, he’ll stop (likely around 10 to 12 copies).

I’ve never lost money working with small presses, but I’m far from rich. As much as Joel is willing to do, like with self-publishers, the bulk of the marketing falls on me.

Could I be making more per book if I had self-published? That I don’t know because I don’t know the costs to self-published authors regarding editing, layout, etc. Professionally, I couldn’t self-publish (I mean, I could, but as I said, I wanted the publications to count toward promotion).

I enjoy that a lot of the heavy lifting that comes with creating a book falls on someone else. I also love that small presses are driven by putting out what they see as significant literature rather than books that are guaranteed to sell. Small presses are important for keeping $$ out of the equation when they choose to publish a book.

If you’re interested in supporting a small press—Whistling Shade Press specifically—you can purchase my new collection of short stories, The Neighborhood Division: Stories…

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