Mud Luscious Press

Micropresses, small presses, indie presses, we are invaluable.

Ken Sparling was with Knopf. Ken Sparling released a book with much indie acclaim but no real press backing. Ken Sparling then made his own book, out of the hardback casing of discarded library books. And now Ken Sparling has re-released a ten-year anniversary edition of that self-published book with a micropress. Where was the love for Ken Sparling? From the big-box presses? From the university publishing industry? From the agencies and the Pulitzer committee and the press associations? No. The love was with the readers, with the writers, and with the editors of small presses.

Norman Lock has a book with FC2. Norman Lock won the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the Paris Review. And now Norman Lock has novels with Calamari Press, Ravenna Press, and Ellipsis Press, all micropresses run by writers, for writers, with the best intention of readers at their very core. What did the bigger press publication give Norman Lock? Wider distribution, heavier run-amounts, more thorough line edits. Sure. But what did the small presses give Norman Lock? Readers. Wonderful, thoughtful, engaged, willing-to-follow-Norman-Lock-on-his-next-venture-anywhere readers.

Blake Butler. His first book was with a micropress, his second, too. And his third and fourth? Harper Perennial. Would Blake Butler have found the support and visibility and publicity and passion necessary to snag the bigger presses if he had not found the love with the small presses first? Maybe, in time, but here he is now rising up quickly. The world deserves his lit, and his lit started in the micropress world.

Shane Jones. His first book was with a small press, as was his second. And now his third will be first-looked by the folks at Penguin. But would his first novel have been optioned by filmmaker Spike Jonze if it wasn't first released by a passionate and driven indie press? Again, perhaps, but the love and attention and care it received at the micropress level was because of the small size, the individual attention, and the one-on-one support available from the micropress, all of which has led Jones's magnificent writing to more and more readers.

These are examples. This is a list. But the micropresses aren't lists. They aren't a catalogue that grows by dozens each year. They aren't a team of people always working multiple projects at once. Micropresses, small presses, indie presses, these are other words for lit-love, passion, editors working one book and one book only from start to finish, from top to bottom, budgets dedicated entirely to the publicity and production of a single text or few texts at a time, until the next beautiful mash-up of words unveils itself from an always read slush pile.

Do we need the big presses, the university presses, the agencies, etc.? Yes.

But do we also need the small presses, the micropresses, the indie presses to continue unearthing the big time writers from the small time stacks? Undeniably, absolutely, without flinching, yes.