Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Small Presses to Keep an Eye On

I mentioned in my first Arisia Con post that I attended several interesting panels.  One of those was a panel focusing on the "Small Press."  The first thing I asked was for the panel to define "Small Press" since the term can be a bit gray.  From the point of view of the panel, there were a few shared traits amongst the small presses:
  • Carries fewer titles than larger presses, say 12-24 titles, or even less
  • Has print runs for their titles in the 100's to 1000's, not tens of thousands, or much more
  • Often focuses on a niche market or specific genre
  • Often run for little or no profit
  • Often staffed by volunteers or those paid a minimal sum, run by people who have additional employment
With these thoughts in mind, the panel named a number of small presses that they thought were good ones to keep an eye on.  These included:

Dark Quest Books
Crossroads Press
Entangled Publishing
Bards and Sages Publishing
Pink Narcissus Press
Crazy 8 Press
Spencer Hill Press
Crossed Genres Publications
Plus One Press
Merry Blacksmith Press

In addition, the panel also called out a handful of titles from these and other small presses that they believed deserved a read.  Note, some of these are young adult titles.

Jemma 7729 by Phoebe Wray
Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout
Rituals - Rhapsody of Blood (series) by Roz Kaveney
Touch of Death by Kelly Hashway
Red Sky Radio by Matt Howarth
Salsa Nocturna by Daniel Jose Older

Have you read any of these titles?  What did you think?  Are there other titles from small presses on your (e)bookshelf?  How about these small presses, themselves?  Which publishers are in your sites right now?

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