INDIE PUBLISHING
and small publishing houses.
I meet on a regular basis with Dead Rabbits writers.
I talk to them about how their manuscripts or edits
are coming along, or how they’re lives are coming
along—what sorts of experiences they’re contend-
ing with or filtering through their work. I give
detailed feedback on as many submissions as pos-
sible, knowing how frustrating it can be to receive
form rejections that don’t give much room for growth
through constructive criticism.What has surprised you most about the process of
launching a press?
On the business end of the press, we were surprised
to learn that for emerging writers as compared to
more established writers, investing time and resources
into publicity is not quite as effective as allocating
resources into marketing. So we’ve learned a lot about
digital marketing, which will pay dividends with both
Emerald City and all future Dead Rabbits titles.
On the community side of things, we were surprised
at how much excitement surrounds independent
publishing. Of course, as literary writers and readers
ourselves, we’d always been excited about this space.
However, we were pleasantly surprised at the reaction
from not only our reading series communities but
from people across the country—if not the world—who
have already found our press and fallen in love with
our mission.
With the sheer volume of publishing in our world,
it was very encouraging to find that people are always
looking for a press or book that matches their tastes
and, more importantly, a press or a book that parallels
their core values. ■Our sense of community
and its importance dates back
to our founding. We were born
from a desire to bring literary
people together in a com-
munity whose literaries didn’t
have many spaces in which
to meet, let alone thrive.
PUBLISHING
IN THE
PALM OF
YOUR HAND.
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