INDIE COMMUNITY
Can you talk about the important role
independent publishers play in sup-
porting and raising diverse literary
voices?
We don’t ever want to do anything performative
when it comes to social justice. We can’t speak for
independent publishers as a whole, but we aim to
engage our readers in difficult subjects, such as
race, gender, class, health, or religion, through
the guise of pleasure and humor—that’s always
helped me with my issues, anyway!
There’re logistical things we’ve pledged to ensure
we’re serving a wide range of people, including
committing to equal pay for all writers, regardless
of notoriety, which will be reviewed on a biannual
basis, and not requiring use of an agent for our
submissions page.In what ways do you feel that traditional
publishing may not be meeting the
moment for today’s aspiring authors?
I hate to say this, and I want to be explicit that
this is my personal sentiment and not necessar-
ily the shared statement of my cofounders, but,
as an avid reader, I feel somewhat disconnected
from the majority of books that are published
today. I think the publishing industry—while often
well-intentioned—has a bottom line that requires
distilling and flattening work so it can appeal to
the masses in our simulated environment.
For many of us who are compelled to write, the
system has failed us in general—whether it’s health
care, housing, or incarceration. Reading books
that we feel have been heavily edited by massive
companies to sustain the economy can be kind
of jarring. It’s a reminder of how commercial
media doesn’t necessarily aim to speak to us or
for us.What sort of creative control do authors
maintain by publishing with Pravum?
At the moment, that remains to be seen, as we’ll
be doing our next set of titles in 2021. However,
one thing that will always be important to us is
the way we help authors develop the story line.
If there’s anything they feel must absolutely
remain in the book, even if we find it stylistically
off-putting or unusual, we’d aim to respect their
wishes as an artist and give them the final
authority. ■
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