Fiction_L Archives Small Press Prices Dates: 3/9/02,3:04 PM  through  3/11/02,9:42 AM  (2 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2009-current     2007-2008     1996-2006    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to March 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: DELPHIBKS@aol.com
REC'D: 3/9/02, 3:04 PM

It's true that some small presses do only runs of 500 or fewer, which can
drive up the price. Most small presses, however, are now doing initial print
runs of 2,000-3,000, aiming for quality in editing and binding as well as
long-term availability and reasonable pricing. The best example of the latter
is The Authors Studio, a consortium of small presses owned by commercially
successful authors. The highest priced book in their new catalog is $29.95
(for a 600 page book); the rest range from $8.50 (172 page children's sci-fi
softcover books) to $25.95 (336 page historical adventure hardcover with
specially commissioned artwork and Smythe sewn binding), with the average
price running around $14. And so far, none of their books have wound up in
the Publishers Hall of Shame!

Fran Baker
Novelist/Elementary School Librarian (volunteer)/Special Correspondent for
the "Military Times"

FROM: Dennis Lien <Dennis.K.Lien-1@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 3/11/02, 9:42 AM

At 04:00 PM 3/9/02 EST, you wrote:
>It's true that some small presses do only runs of 500 or fewer, which can
>drive up the price. Most small presses, however, are now doing initial print
>runs of 2,000-3,000, <snip>

There are, as it were, Large small presses and there are Small small
presses...I think you underestimate the number of Small (or Tiny) small
ones when you say "most," but most of the *really* small ones fly below
the radar of all of but the most industrious of fanatical collectors.

(I just read the first issue of THE FIX, for instance, a British
magazine that reviews short-story magazines and anthologies, mostly
but not solely sf/f/h, and found that at least a third of the presses
reviewed were ones I'd never consciously *heard* of, in spite of
spending entirely too much of my money and attention on collecting
in this area).

But you're right of course that some presses that are small by
industry standards but large by sp comparison (Chalker referred to
CD Publications as an "eight hundred pound gorilla" among sf/f/h
small presses, for instance) do routinely do printruns in the areas
you cite: Arkham House, Fedogan and Bremer, Donald Grant (I think)
come to mind.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien@tc.umn.edu

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