Hello! I’m Kelsye, the founder of Avasta Press and the subject of this thread. I have been watching the conversation and think it best if I participate to answer some questions that have come up.
About Avasta Press:
Avasta is a very new independent publishing company. We’re based out of Seattle, Washington - though I personally recently moved to Port Townsend, WA. Our first catalog launched just this past fall. We publish literature, poetry, short stories and non-fiction, selecting books we feel enrich our experience on earth and our understanding of one another.
As we are a small press, our resources for things like our website are very limited. You are right! The current launch site was meant to be temporary while our official site was being built. There is much we could do to improve our website, but honestly it is low on our priority list right now. We don’t want to lure you into anything, except maybe buying our books, which is what we are supposed to do! Yes! Buy our books!
As we are a small press, we only have the capacity to put out a few titles a year. That is why you do not see information on how to submit to the press. We are not accepting submissions at this time. This does not seem to deter some resourceful writers from finding a way to send us something anyway, and it’s heartbreaking to not have the capacity to fully consider their work.
As for job applicants being required to submit an email address with their application.... well... of course! How else would we contact them?
About me:
The comment where someone imagined that I have a lot of money made me laugh out loud. Oh how I wish this was the case! As it is, I am a single mom who works many jobs to support the press, as well as my little family. And yes, I work other jobs to financially support the press. My experience in publishing came from my degree in writing, the graduate work I did in publishing arts with Antioch, my years teaching English, my 5+ years in the publishing industry, my work with Hedgebrook, my job as instructor of the Business of Digital Publishing program at the University of Washington, the numerous publishing/writing conventions I have attended or spoken at and all the many, many authors and publishing professionals I have learned from over the years. And STILL I have much to learn about publishing - isn’t life amazing that way?
Yes, I have been a CEO. My former company Writer.ly made a positive impact on the lives of many writers. We build a wonderful, supportive community, enhanced technologies for publishing, shared resources and activity advocated for indie writers. The company ran three years, but could not generate enough revenue to sustain. While shutting it down was a terrible blow personally and to the authors we worked so long to serve, this does not discount what we did or the positive impact we made. This does not erase my title. It is one I earned through hard work and experience. I am proud to have it on my resume.
I do believe that entrepreneurs (and artists!) benefit from self-care - such as healthy habits, reflection and exercise. I wish that was all that I did to recover from the obstacles I faced, but that’s not the case. I have never been financially supported and always worked to take care of my family. What you did not get to read about was all the freelancing I did, both while bootstrapping my company and after. Staying up late to finish deliverables for one client, waking up early to work on my business, taking kids to school, then getting right back to work. When I ran Writer.ly, I don’t think I stopped working for almost three years straight. This turned out to be a liability, rather than a strength. So yes, while I still work very hard, I also advocate self-care. It’s not the overwork that helped me recover from traumatic setbacks, it’s the time I took to slow down and take care of myself.
About all of us here:
I am not quite sure what I (or my little press) did to receive such personal criticism here on the forum aside from having a website in need of updates. We are publishing books we believe in to the best of our ability and not soliciting writers to sell some sort of service or con. I am the same as many of you. I am also a writer and someone who long dreamed of publishing my own books and was confused and disheartened by the world of publishing. Now I have the opportunity to use my skills to publish the books of authors I respect. I feel so lucky.
What if we supported each other? What if we believed in the best of each other? What if we offered encouragement or resources for small presses that grow our publishing ecosystem? Imagine how we might lift each other up if we approached what we did not know or understand with a positive angle or open curiosity. What if we assumed we were all on the same team? My perspective is that we would all benefit.
I hurt for the writers who have been taken advantage of by scams or incompetent providers. I hope these experiences do not lead us to poison our industry with distrust and derision.
Writing this makes me vulnerable. Now I have opened the field for more personal attacks. If you look hard enough, you will certainly find something to criticize. I’m far from perfect. But as Brené Brown says, I’m "in the arena". I working towards my dreams. I will still endeavor to publish the books that enrich our experiences. I will still strive to build my press. I will still keep my heart open and hold on to the belief that we all rise together.
Kelsye Nelson, founder of Avasta Press
You may email me directly at Kelsye @ AvastaPress . com
