A List of Small Press Publishers

Hello! Here’s a few small press publishers for you to explore. Some horror, some bizarro, some literary, stick your face in their sites and see which you prefer. I also advise searching websites Duotrope, Dark Markets, The Horror Tree and The Erotica Readers and Writers Association, if you like that sort of thing. Some of those below do poetry too. The list isn’t exhaustive, there are plenty more out there.

Raw Dog Screaming (RDSPress) – “fiction that foams at the mouth.”

Burning Bulb Publishing – all kinds of oddities.

The Strange Edge – absurdist, bizarro, weird horror and other oddities. Currently a website but branching out as a magazine

Kraken Press – horror and general darkness

Forbidden Fiction – paying erotica website

Shock Totem Magazine – horror

Eraserhead Press – strictly Bizarro

Starcherone Books – “independent innovative fiction”

Belladonna Publishing – “preferred genres are dark fantasy, urban fantasy, gothic, steampunk and fairytales.” They also do comics/graphic novels.

Weird Year – erm…weird stuff

Strange House Books  – horror, horror porn and everything gross in between

LegumeMan Books – absurdist and strange

Coffee House Press – “non-profit literary publisher”

The Dalkey Archive – literary

Dzanc Books – literary

Jaded Ibis Productions – literary and ‘narrative arts’

Les Figues – literary and ‘narrative arts’

Spuyten Dyvil – literary

The Chelmsford Fling festival

Where can you make things out of clay, or sew your own toy, watch a two person short play and a monologue about the Marquis De Sade before toddling off to the Cabaret tent to watch burlesque? The Chelmsford Fling in Essex, that’s where! Have a look online here. And the best part? No children!

In the cabaret tent Desmond O Connor (who’s popped up as MC for Bizarre Magazine’s Ball more than once) serenaded us with increasingly rude songs on the ukelele and Ginger Blush engaged the crowds in burlesque bingo (like normal bingo but with corsets), all punctuated with lovely ladies dancing about and removing items of clothing. Oh, and one man, he was quite nice too.

Elsewhere in the Make Do And Mend tent you could create your own toy, or watch two professional actors in a short play in the Storytime tent. If that’s not enough you can make things out of clay or your own hat if you don’t mind looking really stupid, or watch experimental films whilst drinking refreshing smoothies in the Psychedelic Film tent. Oh yeah, and somewhere there was some live music playing.

Obviously it’s already happened this year, but make sure you get to the next if you can and buy advance tickets as the price goes up considerably on the door. Now here are some pictures to highlight the experience:

It’s me on a bench!

A play in a tent

Make Do And Mend!

The view from the screen in the Psychedelic Movie tent

The tent in action

Member of local burlesque troupe Hell’s Belles

A lovely lady who had apparently been on Britain’s Got Talent

A man on stilts – I liked him, he reminded me of a Neverwhere character

Putting off work (again)

The other day I again found myself in the situation of avoiding work. It happens when I have more to do than usual. At a point in the afternoon I suddenly think, ‘maybe looking through twitter isn’t the thing I ought to be doing right now,’ and then I hopefully get on with things. Most of the time.

Sometimes doing a bit of excercise helps, sometimes telling yourself off helps, and sometimes doing it all tomorrow works just as well.

Everyone who does arty things involving self-discipline, whether they work freelance or do it on their own time, recognises this feeling.

This animation by Levni Yilmaz, from his ‘Tales of Mere Existence’ series, outlines the whole thing perfectly:

Other writers will certainly recognise this situation: