Getting your start with a small press?

John Grisham did it.
I think it depends greatly on the small press, its distribution and the marketing, by you and by the publisher. Your career goals are also an important consideration.
There are some very reputable small presses that have been around for ages and there are far too many new ones that crumble after a year or two. My agent has not yet considered small presses, but we have talked about it and we plan to be particular if we decide to go that route.
If you want to go with a small press in hopes of someday getting picked up by a big house then, from what I understand, the key is to outsell expectations. If you go with a big publisher who prints out a first run of 20,000 books and you sell only 5,000, your sales will appear to be disappointing and you might not get consideration for your next novel. But if you go with a small press that does a first run of 5,000 books and you sell 4,000, the larger houses will be more likely to take a chance on you. Those sales, if you look at the percentages, are pretty darned good.

Keep in mind, though, that I am by NO means an expert.

I imagine getting your start with a large press is even more impressive on queries

I would encourage you to make sure you know the definitions of "Small Press," "Micro Press," and "Indie Press." You may already know the differences, but some people don't and erroneously lump the three of them together. Although a micro-press is small and no doubt independent, the terms are not interchangeable.

Eg. Flux is a "small press" but they've had at least one of their titles on the NYT bestseller list. Flux would be a great credit on a query. There are LOADS of small presses that sell their titles by the thousands and tens of thousands. Those are great options

Holiday House is a "indie press," but they're not small. They've been around for the better part of a century and are probably one of the leading children's book publishers out there.

One of these days I'd like to have a discussion on AW about the problems with going with a small press. Because even with strong sales, great editing, design and distribution, there are other things to consider.

But to answer your question: Lots of authors go from small presses to finding an agent - lots of agents submit to small presses - and lots of authors make good money writing for small presses.

If by 'small press' you really meant 'micro press', the main problem is that it's almost a guarantee that your sales figures will be miniscule (in the low three digits), and this is a turn-off to bigger houses and agents. And yes, that can hurt you.

Also, what if your book was good enough to get a big deal from a big publisher, but because you started at the bottom, you got a dinky deal that results in few sales?

It's always best to start at the top and work your way down.

I'm a start-at-the-topper. Which might include certain small presses, depending on your genre and target audience.

Research and research and research will be your three best friends in deciding which presses to consider. If moving on to large presses is your goal, you will need to publish with small presses that have some prestige and success, or your credits won't impress. Indeed, I can imagine that in some cases, "virginity" would be more attractive.

My collection of short stories is small-press published. That is not to say the novel will go to the same house. Different places for different things. My sales are modest, but that is the nature of collections. I have excellent reviews, a generous contract and am happy, but the novel is genre and I hope for a genre house.

And of course, continued sales of the collection. You can read a current review here (scroll down.) I'm not just BSP-ing, I hope you will look at this review and others on this site to see what I think constitutes a very good review.


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It's always best to start at the top and work your way down, but John Grisham and Tom Clancy both got their starts with small presses.

So did JK Rowling. She had an agent at the time though.

This is an interesting thread. To be sure, I know nothing about small presses, micro presses, and indie presses. I have to wonder, though, if there's stigma attached to going with one of them or a POD type of place.

nwolverton said:

This is an interesting thread. To be sure, I know nothing about small presses, micro presses, and indie presses. I have to wonder, though, if there's stigma attached to going with one of them or a POD type of place.

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Just a quick point of clarification then:

"Small Press": is a term that has some variability country to country, but is generally used to describe a press that has less than 50 million in annual revenue and/or produces fewer than 10 titles a year. Again, there are some wonderful small presses out there that do all kinds of great things for their authors. You can find the top small presses by just going to a bookstore and searching the shelves.

"Micro Press": would encompass many of your eBook or POD publishers. Now, as technology advances, perhaps the definition of "small press" will change to include some of the eBook or POD presses out there, but presently all the "small press" definitions I've seen include a minimum print-run requirement.

Even still, that doesn't mean micro presses are all bad. Or, that they all have stigma attached. Terie touched on it in her post that most micro presses get paltry sales - often hovering somewhere in the three digits. BUT, I can think of a couple micro-presses that use POD technology for their list and manage to sell thousands, and indeed, tens of thousands of their titles. These micro-presses are rare and you need to be savvy to find them.

"Indie Press" - Is, quite simply, an independent press. That is, a press that is not part of one of the conglomerate presses. ROC, for example, is not an indie-press because it's part of Penguin. Sourcebooks on the other hand, is an indie press.

swhibs123 said:

So did JK Rowling. She had an agent at the time though.

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Bloomsbury might have been classed as a 'small press', but it's always been a prestigious publisher [they publish the Arden Shakespeare series.]

gothicangel said:

Bloomsbury might have been classed as a 'small press', but it's always been a prestigious publisher [they publish the Arden Shakespeare series.]

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There are lots of very well regarded small presses. I believe Bloomsbury was only 9 years old when they picked up JKR. I forget what her advance was, but it was certainly a small-press advance. FWIW, Bloomsbury is still an indie-press, but not small in the least.

swhibs123 said:

There are lots of very well regarded small presses. I believe Bloomsbury was only 9 years old when they picked up JKR. I forget what her advance was, but it was certainly a small-press advance. FWIW, Bloomsbury is still an indie-press, but not small in the least.

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About £3000 I believe.

Small presses can still be prestigious. Bloomsbury have always had that reputation in the UK.

gothicangel said:

About £3000 I believe.

Small presses can still be prestigious. Bloomsbury have always had that reputation in the UK.

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According to WIKI it was half that, but WIKI isn't exactly a reliable source.

Jamesaritchie said:

It's always best to start at the top and work your way down, but John Grisham and Tom Clancy both got their starts with small presses.

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I'm not 100% sure the Naval Institute Press is a small press. It's an academic press; Clancy's was the first novel they ever published.

James D. Macdonald said:

I'm not 100% sure the Naval Institute Press is a small press. It's an academic press; Clancy's was the first novel they ever published.

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True. I guess it depends on where you draw the line. But it was small enough they had to buy the novel back, didn't they? Mid-size, maybe?