Self Definition
We are not a traditional, profit-centered business but a union of artists, writers and musicians operating under the aegis of the magazine 96thofOctober.com. Our primary purpose is to promulge the work of those creators’ work we represent.
Rights and Control
All authors retain rights to and control over their work, and receive profits therefrom directly. As a service to our authors, we may also list on our site by our authors published by other presses, depending on their suitability for our list.
Conditions for Acceptance are as follows:
1) The 96th of October editorial staff approves the work.
2) The author’s work has appeared in 96th of October. This is easily managed, retroactively, since a book we accept can have an excerpt appear in the magazine.
Advantages
Since the Internet, and the waning of print as a primary entertainment medium, “success” on the old terms, measured in sales, is not possible for really good books. What is attainable and worth attaining is the esteem of those one can esteem.
We are not a David, nor do we compete with the Goliaths of commercial publishing, whose narrow profit margin and bottom-line criteria precludes their interest in our sort of titles . Nor do longer established small presses have any advantage over us. With extinction of small bookstores, distribution is a dead letter: the vast preponderance of books are bought online. 96th of October gives our authors recognition and our books visibility. Through Amazon, we sell books every day from America to Australia.
The problem now posed for all of the arts is how to be found in the vast everyone talk/no one listen of the Internet. An enterprise such as 96th of October, which is not concerned with profit, is a new bohemia for the ingathering of creators and connecting them with the audience they have earned and who deserve them in turn.
96th of October is financially independent, does not accept advertising, and all profits from our books go directly to the authors. There are assuredly bigger publishers, but none that can match us for cultural credibility or disinterested dedication to those we represent.
The Collective
Mildred Faintly: editor for all manner of fictions
Justin Brumby: poetry editor
Jocelyn Beckett: classics and ancient world editor
Ottilee O’Malley: East Asian editor
Seraphina Powell: LGBTQ and Eastern Europe editor:
Jacob Rabinowitz: Non-Fiction and Memoir editor