You can now read me on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahfalkner/p/the-tldr-is-that-animal-sanctuary?r=bf2n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
And if you don’t want to go to Substack, here’s the text of the post:
The tl:dr is that my 2011 genre-defying novel Animal Sanctuary is back in print! Along with some other amazing Starcherone Press books! But hopefully you actually like to read—so, here’s some backstory.
A couple of years after Animal Sanctuary won the Starcherone Prize and was published, earning a starred review in Booklist, Starcherone Press went through an acrimonious divorce. Starcherone had previously entered into what, on paper, seemed like it would be a happy marriage with a larger independent publisher, under whose aegis Starcherone would be a subsidiary imprint. Small-press literary fiction publishing rarely having been a highly profitable or easy venture, the goal was for Starcherone’s editorial team to be able to continue to present innovative, risk-taking literature while matters such as distribution could be more efficient as part of a larger outfit. But suddenly the larger independent publisher stopped making royalty payments owed, and began making irrational and punitive demands, and generally not honoring the terms of any agreements and being in breach of contract. Legal action would have been appropriate—but funding was beyond the small team’s resources.
So I’m delighted to report that Starcherone Books has recently landed in a happy relationship with Calamari Press, who “welcomes Starcherone Books to the archive. Founded by Ted Pelton, Starcherone Books (2000–15) was among the leading U.S. publishers of innovative prose fiction, both debuting new talents and supporting audiences of established avant-garde authors. These Starcherone titles are now available thru Calamari, via Asterism or Amazon, with more to come.calamaripress.com/Starcherone.htm
While I have your attention—as a Starcherone author, as a Truppe Fledermaus author, and also as a current editor for both Fence Magazine and Books and Sky Press Books, I also want to very bluntly say that if you truly value innovative writing, writers, and presses that don't obey the dictates or political (non)positions of lowest-common-denominator corporate-shareholder-driven publishing--and even more generally, if you value workers' rights, and also the potential for human multimedia cultural production to continue to exist beyond regurgitative robots, sinister algorithms, and investor profits--then please actually support it in deed as well as word, by buying some books or materially supporting the maker in some way (this also applies to: music, the visual and performative arts, etc etc). Obtain work directly from the source (whether that’s an object, downloads, or through Substack or Patreon) or from an independent retailer/distributor. Because that's actually necessary for it all to be even remotely sustainable as a continuing activity for anyone! Publishing and distribution for all manner of writing as well as music and arts gets more precarious and exploitative every year for the majority of cultural workers. I’m super-happy for folks figuring out how to earn a living from their art via channels alternative to the increasingly-extractive conglomerate media whose executives would be delighted to replace us all with AI, but your support for I believe most of us usually helps defray costs long-ago spent, staunches an emergency money hemorrhage, or maybe permits a brief hiatus from a dayjob in order to focus on a creative project.
I know that right now on planet Earth there's a gazillion urgent and worthy causes to support—and your available resources may already all be spoken for, well-prioritized for critical life-and-death causes and situations. In any case, whatever or whomever you most support, remember it/they need material support, as well as solidarity and energetic and ideological support, in order to survive, exist, or succeed.
Also—as a result of peer pressure, I’ve started a Substack. Not sure what I’ll be doing with it yet but here it is
