Ragged Sky is a small, highly selective cooperative press. We work with our authors closely. Authors retain copyright and we use our experience and professional resources to support the author’s work through the editing, production, and marketing process.
It’s one thing—an important, vital thing—to read stories from other lives and get to know them, and it’s another—also vital thing—to read stories about experiences and emotions and situations you or your friends have lived, to feel those things as deeply as it can be felt because you are linked to them.
I like that the chapbook is flimsy, cheap, and limitless. I like that the chapbook is easy, and that it comes with possibilities. You can read it in a single sitting, you can share it with your friends, you can keep in on your bookshelf forever, you can toss it in the recycling bin.
Website Submission Guidelines Interview with Mary Ann Rivers and Ruthie Knox, Publishers How did Brain Mill Press start? We founded Brain Mill Press in 2013 with a year of research and…
Underground Voices started as an online literary magazine showcasing writing that was hard-hitting and raw. I didn’t see any magazine that embraced that style of fiction and poetry so I wanted to fill the gap and offer a platform to those kinds of writers: a space where their work could be seen and read. I love books, though, so I slowly moved Underground Voices in the direction of a small press: first publishing annual short story collections and finally publishing novels, which is where it’s at now.
The mission is embodied in our tagline: “Publishing the Best Literature of the American Jewish Experience.” We’ve attempted to take the best practices observed throughout the book-publishing business and adapt them to our particular style. We only publish a small number of books so we’re highly selective in our acquisitions. We’re looking for manuscripts that tell a story (whether via fiction or non-fiction) in a compelling, unique way that all readers will learn from and enjoy.
We must ask questions and work together—not just publishers, but authors and agents and readers and booksellers and everyone who has a stake in the literary community, in this era of content, content, content. Is the traditional publishing distribution model sustainable on a smaller scale, i.e. fewer than six to twelve titles per year? Why aren’t major awards moving the sales needle to a significant degree? If debut authors want independent presses to open more slots in our catalogs, then how can they help support our growth? How can we get everyday readers—people who aren’t industry stakeholders—reading more fiction?
When I was seeking a publisher for my story collection and later my novel, I would come across small presses that had been started by one person, working on a very modest scale but still putting out quality work, as far away from the corporate publishing world as it’s possible to get. I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, maybe I could do that too.” I started the process in 2013, with our first two titles released in 2014.
I love beauty beauty beauty in writing. Updike, Nabokov. Also songwriters like Neko Case, Fiona Apple, Sufjan Stevens…people who write about both ordinary and strange things in gorgeous, heartbreaking ways. That’s what we’re going for at WhiskeyPaper. Also, we want anyone/everyone to be able to read and enjoy—from people who teach writing to people who may not even read more than one book a year.
What’s more important: voice or story? I guess that depends but if the writer’s beautiful phrasings don’t stir a reader’s soul or itch a remote corner of his or her skull, then it’s fallen short of its objective and a missed opportunity.
If we’re looking to break new ground, it’s not only the inventive technique of the writing, or even the fine quality of the prose, that distinguishes one writer or press from the next. It’s more likely the ability of the writer to: (1) see past his or her navel (or to at least navigate the navel in an altogether illuminating fashion—e.g., The Shimmering Go-Between); (2) engage the reader; and (3) help the world heal.
We work for our authors. There are no qualms on our end about doing all we can in order to get a book the attention we feel it deserves, costs included. We have our limits, as does anyone else, and we try to make up for them by pricing our own books fairly and consistently. What others in the industry do to offset their own costs is their prerogative, and its to prerogative of writers to choose where their work appears with those costs in mind.
We wanted to design the books to make them visually striking and desirable as objects, because that’s how we believe books will survive in the new media age. It’s difficult enough to sell books, and good design makes you stand out from the crowd. With this in mind, each book is published as a paperback original with French flaps, using a custom serif typeface (called Fitzcarraldo) drawn by Ray O’Meara.