Make money doing the work you believe in
Also, just FYI, I encourage poets to look into the history of small press and self-published works that existed pre-internet. I’m no archivist, and many folks know much more than i do, but there is some very cool stuff to be found in the links below.
Part of what Dead Mall Press is trying to do is tap into some of the qualities of the mimeograph era of approx. 1965-1985, which was a stripped down, DIY form of poetry publishing that existed among relatively underground poets. This era marked a time before non-profits, grad programs, and computers/internet changed everything. (Of course, there is overlap here with zine culture too, but there are significant divergences here as well.)
I also encourage people to look into Spiral Editions, Wry Press, Hiding Press, Topos Press, Boxx Press, Creative Writing Department, Community Mausoleum, and all the others i’m inexplicably forgetting.
Oh, and here is an essay pf mine that goes a bit more into depth on this: woodenbrain.substack.co…
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