Great News, and Big Changes Coming to Engine Books

If you’re a fan or friend of Engine Books, you probably know its origin story: In 2010, I decided I wanted to help bring more wonderful books into the world. I knew so many writers whose excellent work wasn’t making it into readers’ hands, at least in book form, because of contraction in the big press world, pressures for publishers to turn increasingly implausible profits on every book they released, sexism, ageism, racism, etc, etc. Andrew Scott and I had been publishing our online lit mag Freight Stories for a while, and editing seemed, to me, to be my life’s calling, perhaps even more than writing. So I spent about a year doing research about how publishing did, and could, work, and in January of 2011, I launched Engine Books.

That night I got nine terrific queries from writers I like and respect.

What followed has been, and continues to be, a daily amazement. But it’s also been a tremendous financial burden and has demanded far more of my time than I planned for. For seven years I have worked sometimes full-time without pay. I have, as you probably know, struggled mightily with the intense demands of this work I deeply love.

Enter the BIG NEWS: Yesterday, the IRS approved tax exempt status for a new nonprofit organization, Engine Books Literary Works, which will take over the operations of Engine Books later this summer, and will add educational programs both locally and online. The application and efforts surrounding it began more than a year ago and have comprised hundreds of hours of work, so this is an exciting development.

What will this mean? First, a boatload more work, starting with fundraising, getting the operations established, and (hopefully) hiring a staff (including myself).

But the big picture is this: Engine Books deserves to be fully funded and staffed, and though nonprofit organizations are not always efficient or perfect, this is the best way to accomplish that goal. The authors we publish deserve to work with a dedicated, full-time editor and publicity director. The people in the community who come to us for guidance deserve a structure within which to be educated about publishing. The interns deserve an actual program that coordinates with their academic institutions and programs. The world deserves more Engine Books and, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, is about to get it.

The fulfilled dream looks like this: Twelve or more titles per year. An office that isn’t in my house. More funding for publicity. More funding for printing gorgeous books. Quite possibly even funding for author advances. A staff with an executive director overseeing operations and programs, an editor and publisher (yup, that’s still me!), and a publicity director. More, if we can! More great people working together to make great books. Professionalized everything. An office. Interns. Online and local classes to support people who want to better understand the publishing world and their possible role in it as writers. Programs, events, all of it.

You’ve noticed, perhaps, that this post began with a whole lot of first-person pronouns and then they kind of fell away, yes? Here’s a thing I’ve been thinking about for a long time: Engine Books, in its founding and successes, has been too closely tied to me as an individual. This was wonderful at first: Look at all this work I’ve done! Look how it reflects on me! And then, another phase: Do I shut this down if it’s weighing too heavily on me? What will that do to the books, and the goals, and the dreams? What about the authors we’ll never get to publish if we shut down?

And now, a realization: It’s not good for Engine Books, or for me, to be so closely married. When I grieved the loss of my first pregnancy, the press suffered. When I had kids, the press suffered. And when I reflect honestly on the whole process, though Engine Books has been a great joy to me, my writing and reading life have been essentially dismantled by it. I never intended to keep teaching full-time and running the press. I hoped from the start that it could be my job. But the publishing world is extraordinarily expensive for small presses (thanks, economies of scale!), and instead of allowing me a chance to have a real professional life doing this work, I have dumped tens of thousands of dollars and countless unpaid hours into EB’s operation. I thought for a long time that the stress of the money and the work and the time were necessary to making this thing successful, because it was so closely tied to me and my identity.

But now, it’s time for Engine Books to grow beyond me. Not without me. (God willing. Board members, please don’t fire me!) But around and past me. So the vision, now, is to continue the wonderful publishing work Engine Books has already done, and to grow and grow, with a little bit (okay a lot) of help from the community.

What’s next? In the coming months, I’ll continue to serve unpaid as Board President, setting up infrastructure and working on raising funds. My former work as development director of a large arts organization will pave the way for the effort, at least from the inside. We’ll be seeking approximately $75,000 in startup/seed funds for infrastructure development, then an annual budget to establish sustainability for the organization and its programs. With luck, most of these funds will come from organizations that support the arts through grant-making, though gifts from individuals are always welcome.

So what can you do to help? First, as always, BUY MORE BOOKS! And while you’re in the Engine Books store, if you’d like to support the seed funding effort, you can make a tax-deductible donation. You can also like our FB page, follow us on Twitter, and generally help promote news about the press and its titles. And stay tuned for updates! With luck, there will be lots to report going forward.