Scenes: C&R Press an interview with Chad Prevost

Would you briefly describe C&R Press's history?

C&R Press logo

C&R Press began in 2006 as a literary press committed to publishing books from new and emerging writers whose work might otherwise be ignored by commercial publishers. Ryan Van Cleave and I were interested in supporting authors whose thoughtful and imaginative contribution to contemporary literature deserved recognition and support. We thought long and hard about how best to start things up, and while we understood the vicissitudes of beginning without a strong financial backing, we decided to go for it anyway, and because of our backgrounds (writers of, and PhDs in, poetry) and the learning curve, we began working first with poetry. Hence, the current plenitude of poetry titles, though it was always the dream to grow.

In 2008, C&R made the move to becoming a green company. We now require all submissions—including contest submissions—to be submitted via email. We choose to be responsible about our environmental impact on the planet and are open to suggestions and new ideas on how we can improve on this commitment. In 2009, C&R discontinued the Open Series and began a free open reading period (Feb. 1-Dec. 1). As part of our growing interest in supporting the best work we could find, we began considering fiction and nonfiction submissions for the first time.

From our inception, C&R has been active in the community. We currently offer free community writing workshops on publishing, literary editing, business writing, and creative writing in Sarasota and Chattanooga. In the near future, we hope to expand our commitment by offering workshops in Atlanta, Tampa, and throughout the Southeast. We're open to partnering with other people and/or organizations to help make these (and other worthy events) happen.

How would you characterize the fiction you publish?

You know, now that we've generated a bit more buzz and are beginning to attract many outstanding manuscripts, I've been reflecting on this very thing. We seek innovative work from ambitious writers. We're ambitious writers ourselves and have big dreams for our press as well. We want work that is far-reaching, boundary-pushing, and will be taken seriously even in a generation removed from now. These are ideals; a press can dream!

Who is your audience, and in what ways are you trying to reach them?

Until small/indie presses can compete on the same (or similar) level as the mega-places (and there are increasing chances that we will be able to compete at higher and higher levels), we'll have to pick and choose. We send out Advanced Reading Copies for our fiction titles, but how many places actually give them a shot? Not many, not yet. We also understand that places tend to favor a hardcover for serious pre-press reviews, but if you're basically unheard of in the publishing scene, the chances are scant they'll pick you up and review you in the big places even with ARCs and hardcovers.

We run our titles through our own website (we like to push the free shipping because we make more per unit this way than via distribution), Amazon, Small Press Distribution (whom we really like and have found we don't miss a beat in terms of what they offer as compared to an Ingram, which often forces small presses to work through Lightning Source in order to be carried by them), and recently we've begun to run our titles through Kindle. This all helps. We send out to a standard set of review places, as well as ones where the author may have contacts. Other than that and pre-press flyers and sometimes advertising on blogs like HTMLGIANT, we also have our social media site on Facebook. But how to go viral? Maybe we should generate something controversial? Someone want to get naked? Get some bad press? Call someone famous a liar? Ideas? Anyone?

What is your role in the publishing scene?

Like any small press, we're pushing to enhance and develop literary culture, I...