Hello world, we’re small
The Dark Woods
June 12, 2024
Publishing is dying. The Big 4 or 5 are collapsing in on each other. They are laying off top people, and the bottom people are running away to jobs that pay living wages. This is the worst time ever to start a new publishing company. Or is it?
This may be the best time to start a new publishing company based on a new idea. Keep it small. Treat humans like humans. Find the people who the former systems missed and invite them in. Many people have been ignored or denied and told to self-publish, but it’s expensive to self-publish if you do it right.
Where are the costs in self publishing that create a barrier? We can create electronic copies or print on demand and don’t have to worry about inventory or deliveries. Our physical product costs are nothing. I know a group of stellar editors and artists. For publicity we can use the same model as everyone else – where everyone pitches in a little.
I’m not expecting to make piles of money. I am expecting to eventually be able to pay everyone who is working here because they believe in me. It stops my heart to think that these people believe in me that much. I think one day we’ll run in the black. Maybe be able to hire a few more people.
Our first project is a collection of poetry called Lost at 27: Musicians, Artists, Mortals, edited by Mona Mehas. If you have a poem about an artist who died at 27, send it to her at mona@cicadasongpress.com. I’m excited, I have a couple of poems in there myself.
From there we have a collection of prose planned,, but we’re still deciding the theme. I’ll let you know as soon as I know. After that a book of poems by a single author. Then, who knows. I’d love to see a novella come our way. If you’ve got one, that you know is hella good, send it to me at johanna@cicadasongpress.com.
If you want to keep up with me more often than I post here, I invite you to follow my SubStack. I publish silly poems on Tuesdays and whatever I’m thinking about on Fridays. Follow me at: https://johannahaas.substack.com