Small But Mighty

Why small presses might be the perfect home for your book.

- BY JORDAN ROSENFELD

As traditional publishing has condensed down into an ever-larger monolith, known as The Big Five (Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan) publishing channels may start to feel narrower than ever.

While authors often chase the historically larger advances, clout, and name recognition of deals with these big publishers, smaller, independent publishers are filling in the gaps and offering newer writers with smaller platforms a home.

Here are some of the benefits and innovations of small publishers and why authors who feel discouraged on the path to a Big Five might consider a smaller “home” for their book instead.

Types of Small Presses

The term small press can be a little confusing in an era where there are more vanity presses and hybrid presses than ever before, which often require the author to “pay to play”—and are a glorified form of self-publishing. Some hybrid presses still have a vetting process and aim to publish books that could pass traditional muster, but the author still pays a significant amount for a publishing package up front with no guarantees of sales.

The definition of a traditional small press varies, but they typically follow standard publishing models and use distributors like Publishers Group West and Independent Publishing Group. However, limited budgets may restrict their title output, publicity resources, and staff, sometimes relying on volunteers. A university press may see itself as small in comparison to the Big Five but may have the infrastructure (and bank account) of the university at its disposal, while a truly small press may be run by a couple of people with a passion for books, and many variations in between.

Laura Stanfill, publisher of the Oregon-based Forest Avenue Press and author of the novel