If you have been following along here, you may have recognized a trend — I believe in the power of handmade and artisan editions. I submit work to places that push themselves to do more with their productions, and I support presses that take on projects designed to fill in the gaps that exist in publishing. There are tons of under-served readers whose appetites are wildly different than the prevailing winds from big publishing, and more and more those readers are looking to the smaller, independent presses.
It makes perfect sense: these are the only presses where the stakes are manageable enough to truly take risks. If you follow along here, then you already know the usual suspects: X-Ray Book Co., Tangerine Press, Bottle of Smoke Press…but now East London Press is joining the fight. Ibiza, a limited edition beauty from your friend and mine, Joseph Ridgwell continues in the tradition of travel yarns. Like Cuba, Mexico, the drunken hijinxs are sure to be punctuated by the eternal search for elation, and production-wise looks to share the same sensibility than those fine offerings from Pig Ear Press.
The small press is like small batch distillers, local farmers, and auteur filmmakers in that all have fewer hands in the jar and fewer compromises to navigate. The whole damned enterprise is just more self-contained. Chances can be taken. And gorgeous, handmade touches can not only be part of a release, they can be the reason for a new project.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
