Bookish Bits: Small Press Publishers
I give a disturbing amount of money to Subterranean Press and Night Shade Books for some of their fine editions. They seem to print a lot of stuff that I want to have–hitting both my tastes in literature, in that they print books I want to read and own, and my tastes as a frankly insane collector type in that they print fine editions in small runs.
I keep my eye on lots of other small presses, notably including Small Beer, Golden Gryphon, PS Publishing, and just lately Payseur and Schmidt and Centipede. I also keep an eye on Wyrm, Monkeybrain, Tachyon, Tartarus, Gauntlet, Cemetary Dance, and a whole bunch of others in a less intense way. And then there are what I think of as the “single project” publishers like Conlan and Incunabunla as well.1 Essentially if you’re a small press genre publisher, I’ve heard of you, there’s some overlap between your line and my tastes, and you have a website or email list, I’m trying to keep an eye on you, and probably giving you at least some money (or, in some cases, an amount that probably qualifies as a symptom).
And this week I’m hearing for the first time about Humdruming (because I want the new Tim Lebbon novela with the Micheal Marshall Smith introduction) and Darkside Press (because I am seriously thinking about buying their Cthulhuian Singularity collection–primarily on the reported strength of Ken MacLeod’s piece).
Two more publishers to track. Now, I’m not complaining but just keeping up with the small presses is getting to be a part-time job on it’s own! I guess it’s nice to see quality small press action flourishing, rather than the alternative, though.
Any small press publishers I should be watching, that you know of?
- Read what you will into the fact that I am not mentioning Hill House.(back)
Tags: Books,micheal marshall smith,night shade books,small press publishers,subterranean press


April 27th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I publish a sci-fi/fantasy lit zine, if that counts for anything.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am
It certainly counts for something, although I think I could even more easily do another “I am drowning in the good stuff” post about the thousand blooming flowers of the ‘zine scene (both print and online) for short genre fiction.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This is true. I often have trouble figuring out if I picked the absolute best or absolute worst time to get into zine publishing.