So far, all Tenpenny books are really small–as small as the size of a standard trading card. The largest trim size is 5×7, which is a standard but somewhat narrow size for a paperback. They’re also short, no more than 24 pages long.
That’s pretty weird, right? An indie press with no actual books?
There are three main reasons for this:
- I can make these zines* by hand. Did you notice that the largest trim size is still smaller than a sheet of copy paper? Two of the covers were professionally printed by WonderPress, but everything else is printed on my little inkjet printer. I use a long-arm stapler to saddle-stitch the zines, then a guillotine trimmer to cut them down to size (and even up the edges–I can be a bit of a sloppy binder). This keeps costs down and allows us to pay a higher royalty to our authors.
- I can test a lot of different things with little to no risk. It’s expensive to print a perfect-bound book, and with no proven market, that’s a huge risk. Right now, the Tenpenny catalog includes an essay, short stories, poetry, and even songs. I think that’s pretty impressive for a press that’s been around for less than a year. That also means I’m usually pretty open to trying out new things–as long as it’s less than 24 pages!
- I really just love the size. We have one playing card size zine right now with two more planned. I would love to eventually sell these as a bundle–maybe in a cool playing card box! The larger 5×7 zines are the same size as NYRB books. They just really fit well in your hand…
There’s one more reason, but I don’t really know whether it’s working yet. I think this size of book, at the lower price point, will be more attractive to folks at events and markets, which is our primary sales channel right now. (It’s just really hard, and takes a lot of time, to build an online audience.) They have been popular, but I’ll put this business model to the test at the Burlaep Fall Market this Saturday 10/5 at 11–our first general-interest event. Hope to see you there!
I also have to shout out a few other publishers who influenced my decision to start with zines. First is Microcosm, which started out making and selling zines at punk shows. (Microcosm’s A People’s Guide to Publishing was the book that finally made me give this project a try.)
Second is Belle Point Press. They ran a prose chapbook series a while back that first made me see how independent publishing could work. These were very small, very short chapbooks containing just a few stories each. (We took it a step further by including just one story in some of our zines.)
Finally, Malarkey Books. I don’t really know how I first came across them, but they’re a great example of starting and running a small press out of pure love for the art. More specifically, they publish King Ludd’s Rag–which is literally just xeroxed and stapled copy paper but always with excellent writing.
Have a question about Tenpenny Books, or publishing in general? Get in touch!
*I’m not using the word “zine” completely accurately, but I don’t have a better word that describes our entire catalog. Zines are self-published, but, you know, I’m the publisher here… However, they are very small, handmade, and often include pictures, so I think that’s close enough!
Tenpenny Books 