Small publishing companies must fundraise to stay alive: Fighting the good fight against the Big 6

March 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Brookings, SD - Dark Continents Publishing, a small press that publishes Horror and Speculative Fiction, announces its First Annual Fundraiser 2012. The company has set its goal to raise $2,500 in order to pay for marketing, advertising, and the graphic design services necessary to leverage the playing field against the “Big 6” publishers in today’s competitive marketplace.

Donations can be made at http://www.darkcontinents.com. Fundraising efforts to continue through the month of March 2012.

There is an old joke that distinguishes the budgets between the public school systems vs. Big Government. The basic premise of the joke depicts a playground full of children and the tagline “When was the last time the military had to have a bake sale to raise money to buy tanks?”

Now take that analogy and apply it to the “Big 6” publishing firms that currently dominate the market. Hatchett Book Group, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Group, Random House, and Simon & Schuster have endless budgets for advertising, marketing, author promotion etc. For small presses, there is a wide chasm between the author promotion they want to do and the actual author promotion which they can afford.

So, in order to take back some control and to allow Dark Continents Publishing to compete against the Big Boys, this small but hungry press needs to fundraise in order to be the little mouse that roared.

What is the definition of a “Small Press?”

A “small press” is independent of any of the major publishing conglomerates and generally focuses on a particular niche. These companies take the financial risk in the publication of a book, and pay for all the production costs. These costs include the editing, proofing, interior layout and design, cover design and printing. There is usually not a lot left over for advertising, as the profit margins can be very slim.

Dark Continents Publishing has only been in business for one year, but it has been a very successful year. The company was incorporated in the State of South Dakota in April 2011, and officially launched 13 original novels at the World Horror Convention 2011 in Austin, TX. Since then, the company has continued to publish high quality fiction by such internationally well known authors as Scott Nicholson, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Dave Jeffery, and Nerine Dorman. There have been successful book launches at the British FantasyCon 2011 and at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in Picadilly Circus, London. On January 2, 2012 Dark Continents premiered its signature Tales of Darkness and Dismay series, featuring 10 new e-titles written by 12 up-and-coming dark urban fiction writers. Darkness and Dismay is primed to become a biannual release, giving the company opportunities to spotlight the best and brightest of new authors working in the areas of horror, paranormal, dark steampunk, mythpunk, and other speculative fictions today. 2012 releases are scheduled and ready to be launched.

But, like most small presses, the profit margins are slender.

Sound the battle cry! Help fight the good fight against the “Big 6” publishers. Support independent small presses everywhere by buying their books. Not sure where to start? Here are a few recommendations to give you the power to take back the world of publishing from corporations and give it back to where it belongs - the authors and the readers who love them! Bad Moon Books, Entangled Romance Publishing, ChiZine, Innsmouth Free Press, Angry Robot, and of course Dark Continents Publishing.

To donate to Dark Continents, visit the site here: http://www.darkcontinents.com

For questions or comments, please contact media representative Stephanie Schmitz at stephanie@darkcontinents.com

Follow Dark Continents on twitter @dark_continents

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Dark Continents Publishing is an author-owned, author-driven corporation working to entrepreneur today's publishing opportunities and model tomorrow's writing businesses