March 30th, 2011 / 1:26 pm
 Behind the Scenes & I Like __ A Lot

Hey Small Press!


I’m excited about Hey Small Press! an organization focused on getting small press books into libraries. They are the next thing in the new literary movement, which is focused not on publishing a journal or a book, but on providing a useful and specific service to the literature that is already being produced.

Hey Small Press! was founded by Don Antenen, a library employee in Kentucky, and Kate Hensley, a literature student at Harvard (and, er, editor of her own beautiful-looking Monolith Magazine). Together, they will select ten new books every month and send their curated list to libraries across the country, with info and ordering instructions. Here’s some copy from their press release:

Year after year, independent presses publish the most exciting books but lack the marketing budgets to get noticed by public libraries. The lack of marketing leads to under-representation on library shelves and lack of access for readers.  HSP! exists to pick up the publicity slack and push hard to get these books noticed. Every month.  Free of charge.  Because amazing books should be available to everyone.

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14 Comments

  1. March 30th, 2011 / 6:28 pm herocious—

      i’m for this.

  2. March 30th, 2011 / 6:29 pm Frank Greasestain—

      I bow to folks like these. Kudos.

  3. March 30th, 2011 / 6:34 pm ben spivey—

      I like this.

  4. March 30th, 2011 / 7:23 pm Marian May Kaufman—

      This is an awesome idea! I applaud it! Glad to know HTMLGiant is putting the word out on a great program (can I call it that?) like this.

  5. March 30th, 2011 / 7:36 pm JScap—

      Yes!

  6. March 30th, 2011 / 8:42 pm Russ—

      This is dope as fuck. I’m a librarian and sometimes order small press books, and I definitely think a lot of librarians I know (even the ones not aware of the indie lit world) would be on board with this if it got around.

  7. March 30th, 2011 / 10:22 pm Mike Meginnis—

      Like!

  8. March 31st, 2011 / 12:34 am Dawn.—

      Hell yeah. I immediately love these people.

  9. March 31st, 2011 / 1:55 am christopher.—

      This is awesome. I’ve actually thought before about buying an extra copy of each title I carry on the Vouched table to donate to the public library here, and this just reminded me of that idea, so I’m going to do that.

      I hope perhaps sometime in the future they can also develop programs and work with libraries to help promote these small press titles in the various libraries. Having the book on the library shelf is truly a victory, but it’s a victory only as large as the number of times the book is checked out and read.

  10. March 31st, 2011 / 1:58 am christopher.—

      That sounds more prickish than I meant, and I also should’ve taken the time to check out their mission statement, too. I’m really glad to see they’re thinking of future promotions and such to encourage readership. Kick ass. I’m going to contact them about working here in Indy.

  11. March 31st, 2011 / 3:19 am jesusangelgarcia—

      Damn right, man. The next piece of machinery to get this rocket to the moon.

  12. March 31st, 2011 / 6:04 am Elixir—

      Great idea! Hope it spreads.

  13. April 10th, 2011 / 2:47 pm Don—

      This is a little late, but our April book list was posted on the site, along with a short interview with Joshua Cohen. We’re putting together our May list, and it’s going to be even better than April.

  14. April 10th, 2011 / 2:47 pm Don—

      This is a little late, but our April book list was posted on the site, along with a short interview with Joshua Cohen. We’re putting together our May list, and it’s going to be even better than April.