Small presses have a long history in Philly. In fact, publishing is one of the oldest industries in the city. Just three years After establishing, the city already had His first printing press. AND At the end of the 18th centuryPhiladelphia has become the center of printing and publishing books throughout the country, exceeding New York and Boston.
Today, centuries later, miniature and independent presses still play an vital role in the literary and intellectual landscape of the city.
Just like publishers who helped shape political discourse, when ideas such as freedom of speech were central in conception of independence from Great Britain, today’s publishing house is increasingly involved in a socially engaged mission provoking thinking.
For them, the mission does not threaten the quality of content, but rather define it again, the priority of the votes that have long been unusual and ensuring that publishing will remain a place for significant meetings and dialogue.
Billy Penn talked to several miniature, independent publishers to find out how they transform this heritage, each with their own approach, but a joint involvement in promoting diversity, creativity and sustainable development.
We share our conversations with them as a series of articles. Until now, we talked with Josh O’Neill (Beehive Books), Linda Gallant (The Head and the Hand) and Doug Gordon (New Door Books).
So start the presses!
Tell us a bit about the history of common concepts.
Joint concepts began about 10 years ago as a way to really create a project that can take seriously and learn from social movements. It was a time when social movements appeared not only in the United States, but really all over the world, and I think that the ways in which they produced not only compelling forms of the organization, but also the analysis of the world, and even a vision of a more worthy, democratic and free society, I thought that it would be really vital to devote a publishing house to knowledge that comes out of these experiences.
Such common concepts have really accepted this approach. It comes from our own political activism and experience of the social movement and the desire to build bridges also in movements, so create some means so that the movements can communicate with each other.
Where was the idea invented?
It was in Brooklyn. Me and others who were part of the press were involved in various social experiments and social meetings and maintained the spaces of the community.
When did it move to Philly?
When I and one other member of joint concepts at that time moved to Philadelphia, about seven years ago. We worked and sat in both places, but above all in Brooklyn. And with the appearance of our second sister project, Making Worlds Cooperative Bookstore, then we founded our office in Philadelphia and our home in the bookstore in West Philadelphia.
Is there a specific date that resonates more with common concepts such as a miniature press or independent publisher?
An independent publisher would be costly. We operate in book trading. We have representation and distribution in all sales channels in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and international arena. Because we operate through the full channel, all routes in which books circulate in our society, but also from this perspective, we are not only independently owned and we lead together, but our distributor is not a corporate distributor. It is also a distributor who is devoted to an independent publishing house.
What are you publishing?
Authorized texts together, quite a lot of them, but also individually are the author. And then memories. There were several memories that we published to people who are political prisoners. We did several anthologies … and this was also fun with mixing different species in one anthology. Essay and original story and poetry, as well as with graphics. We published some really stunning, full -color books that present many graphics and visual culture of social movements. And especially in these cases, but all the time, we always work in cooperation with other collectives and publishers
How do you support all this job?
Part of what animals our publishing house is to learn and maintain a sense of inspiration and a sense of possibilities arising from the imagination that the current order of things is not the only way to organize or structure of society … that we can change this arrangement and find a much more humanitarian way of interaction with each other and a much more balanced way to be part of this planet and a good relationship with all the other living creatures with this. planets. And this sense of imagination is not confined to political writing, which can be found in essays or in a more analytical and non -photite, but also of course the sense of imagination also appears in our novels.
What about your business model?
First of all, we are animated, so the idea is to be as close to self -sufficiency as possible and be as diverse in our stream of income, if possible. But the reason we publish our books is that ideas really matter to us, so our business model really tries to make as many true connections as possible with our readers, which we consider to be part of a wide community to which we want to turn and contribute.
This means that people find our books because of our direct communication in our newsletters and our social media, because our reputation is a publishing house that is really very related, adapted to social movements in the USA and around the world, which will receive a novel perspective of things that you will not find in too many other publishing houses. But then we also do a lot of work, because we are an independent publishing house, but we are a miniature press, and as a miniature press there is certainly a lot of discoveries.
Common topics, such as inspiration, creativity and possibilities, are of key importance in the history of miniature presses and independent publications, which focuses on creating novel opportunities. What are your thoughts on this subject?
You will probably find all these mixed topics consistently in many different miniature press, regardless of whether they are clearly political, like us or not, because there is a general feeling that life is worth living when there is a sense of collective and creativity, a sense of imagination. These are valuable topics that life should not be reduced to transactions and profits, certainly because most of us do not gain from current agreements in society. That our dreams and our desires should not be reduced to simply see if we can somehow climb the ladder of social prestige or wealth that there are other values ​​in the world.
I think a different way of interaction is possible. And this kind of culture or many, many cultures that allow this depend on many different projects that are miniature publishing, but there are many others. And I think that if we think about our cultural work as part of the ecosystem, I think it can be one way to push this kind of growing sense of privatization and individualization.
Why is this particularly vital in a context that goes beyond individuality? Why is it current now?
In some respects, it shows the power of alternative collective imagination, because I think it is [book] The bans are really resistant to. It is a feeling that people can learn and learn and learn from each other, and thanks to these activities it is better to feel where their stories are. And where, in their stories, there were moments such as those that are the opportunity to rely this type of capture, control, domination and exploitation. It becomes a kind of common sense, because again it is not only romantic or heroic to be part of these resistance movements. It is also a way to maintain dignity. I think it is during an attack, a feeling that people can be free and can offer themselves a greater sense of freedom that is shared. And this is probably the biggest threat.
