Diary of a Mad Editor

At the time John Martin sold Black Sparrow Press and drifted off into retirement it took most people in the small press by surprise. That he sold his catalog of titles for a sum reputed to be in the eight figure range was nothing short of astounding for a small press operation Martin started in his garage. But Martin’s success was something of a fluke when one considers that most small press ventures are not successful at all and many don’t even last two years. Of course, by the time Black Sparrow was sold, it was no longer a such a small press. Indeed, while all small presses are independent, not all independent publishers are small, and the house that Bukowski built had ceased to be a nickle and dime operation long before it’s demise. Black Sparrow represented the dream many of us who run small presses have — to do well enough that we are able to make a living off of it and maybe launch a career or two in the process.

The problem is that most small press people aren’t very good at business. They are not very adept at cultivating their lists with authors who can actually write books that sell. They are not very good at the day-to-day stuff. Certainly, I would most definitely include myself in this group. I hate the administrative bullshit that goes along with publishing. I prefer to publish authors whose work I enjoy rather than publishing books that sell. I enjoy the creative challenge of being an editor and making a decent showcase for a writer’s art — but I hate being a “publisher”.

There is also the problem of infighting among the writers and publishers who inhabit the small press universe. The small press community is an association of petty incestuous little cliques. So many editors out there only publish their friends. Genuine creativity and merit is often lost in the machinery of the “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll- scratch-yours” mentality. And when that system of favoritism breaks down? Writer A get mad at Writer B and another clique forms from the ashes of that broken friendship. Over the years, I’ve lost count of how many feuds I’ve witnessed or heard about or read about in the pages of some publication or other.

Of course, there is also the fear of the Internet. Although, some progress has been made, there are still far too many small press people out there who want nothing to do with the World Wide Web.

There was a time when the small press was a breeding ground for great American writers. Almost every notable writer of the twentieth century was first published in the small press. But, what was once a birthing place in the twentieth century has become a graveyard in the twenty-first, and that isn’t likely to change until writers and publishers wake up.

And I’m not just talking about the small press print media either. The Internet literary scene has a lot to answer for too, for most of the Internet publishers are following the same paradigm as their print cousins. Though the Internet is a different medium than print, it should not remain separate. With the upsurge in new printing technologies, there is no good reason why an Internet publisher should not be engaged in print lit projects as well as electronic lit publishing. It’s going to take more than getting print writers over to the World Wide Web to make the Internet a respectable place. And if the small press print publishers don’t get online, they will die-out sooner or later as the audience for electronic media grows. It is both economically and creatively stupid to blind oneself to the reality. The electronic and print media must form a symbiotic relationship with one another to survive in the 21st century.