Speculation Publications published our first book, The Dancing Plague: a collection of utter speculation, three years ago. As co-founder and executive editor, I don’t know just what I expected. I’m not sure I expected anything. When River, Susan, Dan and I published our first collection of utter speculation, The Lost Colony of Roanoke, in 2018, the goal was to collaborate, to challenge ourselves, to put something unique out into the world. When I proposed turning our collective project into an actual publishing company I think what I really wanted was to push those goals further. Particularly putting unique work out into the world.
Indie presses always have a bit of an uphill battle. Both lauded as fresh, new, exciting, a place for new ideas and authors and disparaged as out there, cheap, poor quality, a place for weird shit and authors. They are, of course, all those things and more and that is why they are an important part of the publishing ecosystem. But all that is a bit of a side note to my point that this journey has been hard, but it also has been really really rewarding.
Because I get to publish weird shit and new authors with voices that I have never heard before.
What a privilege.
We’ve grown a lot over these past three years, and we’ve learn so much. Just this past year we met with titans in the industry, published our first “big name” author, sat on panels and workshops with bestsellers, worked with award winners, and saw some of the authors we published earlier hit huge milestones in their careers. We also refined our vision, our goals moving forward, and our expectations for Speculation Publications.
It is hard work. Sometimes, when the world is scary and you hear the hate blasting around you, it feels fruitless. But damn, I am proud of our books. I am proud to be part of putting these stories out into the world. I don’t know how long we’ll be doing this. Indie publishing hasn’t started paying very well yet. But we’re setting up our catalogue for next year, and I’m excited to see what happens.
If you are interested in what we’re putting out, consider signing up for the Speculation Publication Newsletter. It has a our latest calls for submissions, information on our books and projects and this upcoming one will have sales for the holiday.
And if you want to help Speculation Publications keep putting out great books, consider backing our Kickstarter for the upcoming historical speculative fantasy novella, Pay the Piper by Sarah Connell. Three dollars gets your name in the acknowledgements, and there are bigger, cooler rewards as well (You could be a character in the book!)
And finally, if you want to discover and keep up with more indie presses, join the Indie Press Exchange Newsletter, that I put together for some really great small presses, such as Neon Hemlock, Shortwave, Ghost Orchid and Duck Prints.
Indie Press Exchange Newsletter
Take Care and read Indie.
LC W. Allingham 
Leave a comment