Here at 4 Points Press most of our combined professional lives have been spent in other industries, "big time" industries, not "big book" publishing or even "small book" publishing --

I started I my career in the fashion industry and have just recently quit to live a happy and peaceful life as a freelance writer, editor and ghostwriter for dozens of other authors, some of them successful and some not. But those are the gambles "small publishers" such as we are taking on. In short, all of our staff were once members of the main stream until each of us banded together to do what we had all thought about doing one time or another -- try out our wings in the literary field -- 4pointspress.com is our venture into that field.

Even we are but a trickle in the huge river of "big time" publishers. (There are fewer than ten majors left in this country, a few of those headed now by a huge, world wide German publisher based in one of their country's small towns) We negotiate "small deals" (the acquisitions of content material, be it articles to full fledged novels, be it electronic media to pulp format), administrate a "small budget", go to marketing and sales seminars, puzzle over website designs (a part of our publishing portfolio) agonize over content cover designs, general media presentations and advertising.

We spend our days and nights in worry, bordering on depression, and, at the same time, exaltation when "something gels". We watch with growing dismay as mainstream publishing moves further and further from care and nourishment for individual books and writers toward the "blockbuster only" philosophy that predominates our field now. Ours is not only a "small press" but also a "happy press" our staffers say, so far providing the happiest working days of their lives.

But right now I want to talk about "big-time publishing", to tell you of the changes I saw taking place over the last thirty years, changes that are on the whole good news for you, the readers. We had then in our field moderate sized publishers whose goals were to publish three books a year concentrating on first-time American fiction writers, novelists and short story writers finding them by going to many literary agents. Although they did branch out into other formats, for the most part they adhered to their philosophy.

One such successful publisher, Delphinium, asked agents to send in the one book they most loved that they were unable to sell to the then major publishers, offering a three thousand dollar advance against standard royalties never negotiating for more or less. First printings were invariably 3,000 copies using freelance art directors, cheap pulp and inexpensive printers. There was no advertising but they did hire a publicist on a per-book basis to make sure their books got reviewed in as many places as possible and to drum up any off-the-book-page publicity they could, which was not much.

From that "small publishing" model, the industry grew into its "mammoth blockbuster" type publishing house of gargantuan proportions, with the motto, "If it doesn't have a potential sale of 25,000 copies on premier, then it can't earn its keep."

Here at 4 Points Press, thanks to the advent of the internet, digital technology and "desk top publishing tools", we have retuned to that time tested publishing model developed by Delphinium. Our bench mark for a "best seller' is 5,000 downloads of anything and 3,000 copies of POD (Print On Demand), a format we will be previewing soon.

So far, we have made a profit. God knows it's a small profit but a profit nevertheless. And the "small publisher's model" has been so far satisfying for us. We are not forced to try to acquire "big any things" in order to exist and its only now, one year later, we can afford to ignite our publishing blood by being experimental and new, and nurturing "unknowns" into developing "real content".

So far we have been in real luck with our fledgling projects making their dents in this highly competitive world of publishing.

Come join us as an "Independent Reader". Take a look at our original books and short stories. We would love to have your feedback and suggestions about everything offered on at 4pointspress.com.