Applebeard Editions is a small,
independent Canadian publisher specializing in flash fiction/nonfiction and
prose poetry. It was formed by Nicole Haldoupis and Geoff Pevlin in late 2017.
Since then, Applebeard has published three books: Release Any Words
Stuck Inside of You (June 2018), Release Any Words Stuck
Inside of You II (December 2019), and U Is for Upside-Down
House (December 2019). The Release Any Words Stuck Inside of
You series is an annual anthology of Canadian flash (non)fiction and
prose poetry while U Is for Upside-Down House is a collection
of flash fiction by Ottawa writer and comedian Jordan Moffatt.
Nicole Haldoupis is a writer, editor, and designer from Toronto.
She’s editor and co-creator of untethered, editor of Grain,
and co-founder of Applebeard Editions. Her work can be found in Bad Dog
Review, The Feathertale Review, Bad Nudes, (parenthetical), Sewer
Lid, The Quilliad, antilang, and other places. Her debut book, Tiny
Ruins, is forthcoming with Radiant Press in Fall 2020.
Geoff Pevlin is a writer, designer, coder, publisher/editor at
Applebeard Editions, and an innkeeper at the Rendell Shea Manor. He’s from St.
John's, Newfoundland, and his fiction and poetry can be found in Arc, The
Fiddlehead, Riddle Fence, and other literary journals across
the land. More at GeoffPevlin.com.
1 – When did
Applebeard Editions first start? How have your original goals as a publisher
shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the
process?
We started in
late 2017 and released our first title (Release Any Words Stuck Inside of
You) in June 2018. Our goals have not shifted. It’s our aim to promote the
underserved genres of Canadian flash fiction/nonfiction and prose poetry. We
have learned that there is a tremendous amount of high-quality work in these
genres being produced every day in this country and that there are simply not
enough markets to help them see the light of day! We hope to expand that light
as much as we can.
2 – What first
brought you to publishing?
Nicole Haldoupis started untethered, a literary magazine based in
Toronto, in 2014 with Stephanie McKechnie and Sophie McCreesh. Before that, she
interned and volunteered (in editorial, production, and design roles) at
Toronto-based literary journals Descant and
Existere, where she discovered a
passion for making magazines and publishing new Canadian writing. She did an
MFA in writing program at the University of Saskatchewan from 2014 to 2016 and
wrote a collection of flash fiction as her thesis project (which will be published
as Tiny Ruins with Radiant Press in
Fall 2020), and while researching for this project had a really hard time
finding Canadian flash fiction anthologies.
Geoff was
brought into the fold while working on his MFA thesis. He realized, while
researching his own collection of prose poetry, that there is dearth of this
genre in Canada and figured there’s a gap in the market.
3 – What do
you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
We wouldn’t
want to impose our own arbitrary roles and responsibilities on any other small
publisher, but we see our role as simply giving a voice to a wide
variety of diverse writers from across the country. We are not here to publish
the next bestseller (although that would be nice!), but instead we hope to
highlight the tremendous work that’s out there in the Canadian literature
scene, screaming out to be read.
4 – What do
you see your press doing that no one else is?
We focus on
short prose forms such as flash fiction/nonfiction and prose poetry. As far as
we can tell, there is no other Canadian publisher whose mandate is to advance
these specific genres.
5 – What do
you see as the most effective way to get new books out into the world?
If only we
knew! This is the most difficult aspect of publishing for us—promotion and
sales. We really enjoy the processes of editing, design, and layout of a book.
But it’s another kettle of fish to convince people to part with their
hard-earned money and buy that book.
We’ve had
tremendous success at our book launches, but of course the problem with
launches is that they’re not scalable. At the moment, we’re resisting the
temptation to list our titles on Amazon, as we’d prefer not to contribute to
the success of a massive American corporation.
Truth be told,
though, Amazon probably is the most effective distribution method,
unfortunately. For us, appearing in brick and mortar bookshops has been lacklustre at best. We are working on finding a Canadian distributor but have had
issues since we are still quite new, our print runs are small, and our margins
are already razor thin without adding another middleman into the mix.
6 – How
involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer
more of a light touch?
That
completely depends on the piece we’re working on. We prefer to take a light
touch (considering that most of what we accept is already of publishable
quality), but sometimes issues arise that require a deeper examination.
Either way, we
think it’s critical to maintain the voice of the author and respect their
choices if they don’t agree with our suggestions. We have no desire to impose
our will. We want writers to be happy with what they’ve published with us, so
we take a balanced, respectful approach.
7 – How do
your books get distributed? What are your usual print runs?
At the moment,
we sell our books at launches and on our website (ApplebeardEditions.ca). Some independent bookstores stock our
titles as well, but it is difficult to get sales this way, in our experience.
Our print runs have been small (between 100-300 copies) but will hopefully grow
as our budget/distribution does.
8 – How many
other people are involved with editing or production? Do you work with other editors,
and if so, how effective do you find it? What are the benefits, drawbacks?
We (Nicole and
Geoff) are the only editors at the moment. We usually have one or two
proofreaders and have worked with two different cover artists. We do the layout
and cover designs ourselves. The main drawback of doing the vast majority of
the work ourselves is, of course, the tremendous amount of time it requires!
But it also eliminates the need for another level of coordination, which is
nice.
9 – How has
being an editor/publisher changed the way you think about your own writing?
Editing/publishing
other peoples’ work is effective in clarifying and becoming aware of certain
tendencies in your own writing that you may not have noticed. This could be the
overuse of adjectives, shifting verb tenses, wordiness, unrealistic
characterization, etc. Any hackneyed piece of traditional writing “advice”
becomes far less abstract and easier to apply to your writing when you begin to
notice it in others’ work that you are trying to improve and bring to a
publishable quality.
10 – How do
you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary Geddes
when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House Press’
editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press, including
Victor Coleman and bpNichol. What do you think of the arguments for or against,
or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?
We see it as a
personal choice. Personally, we do not (and likely never will) publish our own
work under the Applebeard Editions banner. We prefer to advance the work of
other authors and keep our publishing and writing worlds separate.
At the end of
the day, the publisher is the one who puts up the money and they have every
right to publish themselves if that’s how they want to spend their own
resources.
11 – How do
you see Applebeard Editions evolving?
Applebeard
Editions will likely stick to its mandate of publishing Canadian short
fiction/nonfiction and prose poetry. The biggest evolution will probably be in
the number of titles we produce. Our goal right now is to release two titles
per year (an anthology and a single-author collection). We both have jobs and
many other projects constantly on the go, but it would be nice—if the funding
is there—to commit more time to Applebeard and produce more titles.
We’ve also
discussed the possibility of one day creating an imprint which would focus on
other genres: most likely broader forms of poetry (allowing for line breaks)
and/or longer-form fiction/nonfiction (novels, book-length memoirs, etc.).
12 – What, as
a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing? What do you think people have
overlooked about your publications? What is your biggest frustration?
We’re proud
that we were once two idiots in a basement lamenting the fact that there were
no recent Canadian anthologies dealing strictly in contemporary, very short
prose forms. And suddenly we’ve produced two of them! It’s easy for us to still
think of ourselves as two idiots in a basement but the fact is that we’re
slowly advancing a very underserved genre in Canadian literature which makes a
difference in our contributors’ lives. It is indescribably wonderful for people
to come up, shake our hands, and thank us for what we’ve done. It’s all the
better knowing that we’ve been able to not only bring exposure to these writers
but pay them for their work as well. We’re also proud to provide platforms for the
work and voices of traditionally marginalized communities. We strive to highlight
the works of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis writers, writers of colour, new
Canadians, queer writers, and all underrepresented gender identities.
Promotion and sales
have been our biggest frustration. There are simply far too many competing
forms of entertainment/distraction out there (Netflix, smartphones, social
media, etc.) which yield promotional budgets in the millions of dollars. We’re
trying our best to raise readers’ awareness of us. It’s a constant struggle and
one that we’re sure every publisher/writer/artist feels every day. But it’s
fine. We knew it would be this way.
13 – Do you
hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you see
public readings and other events?
We’ve had five
book launches (in Saskatoon, Toronto(x2), and Ottawa(x2)). We are thinking
about starting a regular reading series, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Public readings are essential. Writing can be an isolating activity and
readings are a great way to meet other writers and hear what they’ve been up
to! CanLit is a small, often close-knit community and such face-to-face
interactions go a long way to keep that scene vibrant and active.
14 – How do
you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?
The internet
is critical for us. We use social media (@ApplebeardBooks) to promote our own
titles, the work of our contributors, and CanLit events in general. Our website
facilitates book sales, and we have a newsletter to keep our readers up-to-date
on everything Applebeard.
15 – Do you
take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?
We certainly
do! We’re currently open for submissions to our third annual anthology (Release
Any Words Stuck Inside of You III) and we’re also accepting book-length
flash fiction/nonfiction manuscripts! Full submission guidelines can be found
at ApplebeardEditions.ca/submit.
What are we not
looking for? Racism, misogyny, bigotry, intolerance, or anything else of
that ilk. Writers are free to write whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean
we will give this type of writing a voice.
What we are
looking for is flash fiction/nonfiction and prose poetry written by
Canadians/permanent residents of Canada. For our Release Any Words Stuck
Inside of You series, each piece must be 750 words or less and not contain
any line breaks. The same is generally true for individual pieces in a
single-author collection, although word counts can be more flexible.
16 – Tell me
about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.
Release Any
Words Stuck Inside of You (editions I
and II) is an annual anthology showcasing flash fiction/nonfiction and prose
poetry by emerging and established Canadian writers. Simply put, this series is
special because there’s nothing else like it being published in Canada (so long
as we’re aware). There are some single-author collections, sure, but we haven’t
come across a Canadian anthology published since the 1980s. And even that
collection only focused on flash fiction.
And speaking
of flash fiction, we recently published our first single-author collection. Ottawa
writer Jordan Moffatt’s U Is for Upside-Down House is a collection of
almost thirty (twenty-seven to be exact) flash fiction pieces. This book is
special simply because it’s hilarious. We find writing humour to be very
difficult and thus it’s hard to find. Moffatt’s stories are also straightforward,
quirky, and incredibly accessible. We may be biased, but U Is for
Upside-Down House is easily one of the funniest books we’ve ever read.
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