Dear Friends of Alan Squire Publishing,
Rose Solari here, co-founder of ASP. I write to say that the press will be going on hiatus, effective August 2. We are not closing. But we will not be publishing any new titles in 2024 or the first half of 2025. Our online literary magazine, The ASP Bulletin, will also be on hiatus during this time.
As many of you know, indie publishing — actually, all publishing — is currently facing unprecedented challenges. We had already decided to seek a new distributor for ASP before the big distribution crisis of this past spring that left hundreds of indie presses without a means of getting their titles into the world. This, plus the significant losses we faced during COVID, mean that we need to take a step back and re-strategize. After all, the current literary landscape has changed radically since 2009, when my partner, James J. Patterson and I, decided to start ASP.
We still believe, passionately, that independent presses are absolutely essential to the health of literary culture, and we are deeply proud of the titles we’ve produced. All of our titles will remain available for purchase on our website, and we’ll be posting various sales, as well as updates on our authors, here as well. Our former distributor has also kept enough titles in stock to fulfill immediate and near future needs from the big online stores. And we’re ready to fulfill orders from book stores and individuals hosting events for our authors.
I’ll be spending the next several months investigating and looking for new options, both for distribution and for press-to-press collaborations, in the US, Canada, and the UK. We’re also investigating other media, including podcasts and video. What we’re not going to do is sacrifice our commitment to books that are as beautifully made as they are written. One of our wonderful team members recently commented that many of the books they see available for purchase today are the equivalent of fast fashion — poorly edited, cheaply printed, easily disposable. We’re in it to make books that will last, in your hands, on your shelf, and in your mind and heart.
We are grateful to all the writers who have entrusted us with their work, and to all the readers like you who have supported them and us. We’ll be back.
Sincerely,
Rose Solari
Co-founder of Alan Squire Publishing: A Small Press With Big Ideas