We began hearing about places eager to publish and promote books and stories. These are not vanity presses. Quality varies, they range from awesome to awful. The best are creative, innovative, ambitious and brave. They are a badly needed emerging force in a hidebound, greed-controlled industry.
Books published by the big conglomerate presses tend to have a much shorter lifespan.
And he wasn't kidding. If it doesn't sell in a couple of days, it's pulled, stripped and pulped. By contrast, my book of short fiction published by a so-called small press in 1992 is still in print and available. Because of tax laws and he exigencies of corporate life, books done by the big presses must succeed quickly or they are total failures. There are almost no large presses still in the hands of individual owners.