The upshot of all this information is a statement of ethics.
We would like to be able to pay writers. If all goes well (a big if in the tiny-press world) we will be able to, sometime in the next five years—if we make it that long. We do pay in copies, but acknowledge that a copy of your chapbook/a literary journal won’t buy groceries or pay the heat bill.
But as much as we would like to pay for the real work of writing (learning, reading, writing, revising, submitting, etc.), at the moment, we cannot afford to pay. Why? Math.
The chapbooks are generally a better balance. We pay chapbook authors in copies. Our first books paid for themselves (in part because we don’t pay ourselves for binding, editorial work, bookkeeping, admin, post-office runs). Our second set of books paid for themselves.
111O is another story. The two issues of 111O in 2012 did not pay for themselves (they are more expensive to print, and fewer people purchase them than purchase books). We had a grant from Arts Council England that helped make up the shortfall and cover some printing. Technically it should have paid us for our work as well, but in the end it made more sense just to use it all for production—a kind of bet on future books.
The grant money is gone now; we are floating, suspended by the small cushion of pre-orders. The last of the grant money (paid to our account for book design—paid out of our account for printing 111O/5) is gone. Printing 111O/5 cost about £400. That’s not too bad in terms of return (and this issue is selling much more briskly than normal—it looks like we will actually cover printing; that would be a first). But then here we are in Belgium, with the obscene costs of the Belgian postal service. Mailing our contributors’ copies ended up costing almost €400. Yes. €400. Poof. There are 45 contributors in 111O/5, plus me (one of my drawings is in the issue). That’s just under €10/person for shipping, plus let’s say the €2/copy. Note also that the shipping doesn’t include packing supplies, and it certainly doesn’t include payment for time (which is okay; it’s a fact of the matter that I accept. I do the work gladly. But it should be out there that it’s unwaged). That is the reason we don’t—can’t—pay right now. Maybe a thing to do would be to say contributors could have either a copy (and the implied shipping) or €10. I hope people would prefer the copy, especially as we move away from the book-only model. (In any case I think the way the business is set up making payments would be very difficult—we’d have to get an invoice from each contributor.)
All that said—this is only in the interest of transparency. We knew this press would likely never be a source of (real, dependable) income. We knew it would likely require (as it has) each of us to use our own money from time to time. In one way I think of that as a gift we can offer writers & artists who trust us with their work—our own smallish sacrifices and labor. I don’t feel bad about the fact that the press is money-poor, because it has definitely been beauty-rich. But I do want to put it out there that we also value the work of our contributors and want to be able to pay them—and that one day we will.
Upcoming issues of 111O: /6 will be a collection of broadsides packaged in an illustrated envelope. /7 will take an as-yet-undecided form, but will contain only writers whose names or pseudonyms begin with A. Submit here.
And we are still raising money—only a few days left—for our writers’ retreat scholarships campaign. Please consider helping or sharing if you can.