13 Aug 2008, Written by Laura Pearson in literary
Preserving Our Independents: Akashic Books
Akashic Books is not a press that can adequately be described in just a few words. The small Brooklyn-based publishing house succinctly defines its mission:
“reverse-gentrification of the literary world.” But what exactly do these reverse-gentrifiers publish? And how are they doing their own awesome thing at a time when small presses face the challenge of promoting and distributing books to a dwindling readership in an increasingly corporate-dominated climate, among other pressures?
I knew a bit about Akashic via its Punk Planet imprint and wildly successful noir series, but in an effort to learn more, I spoke with founder Johnny Temple about his free-spirited, wholly independent Little Press That Could.
Temple’s first foray into indie publishing happened in the late nineties when his band, Girls Against Boys, signed to Geffen Records, and he decided—on a whim—to use some of the money from his music career to publish a book. The adventure went well. His debut title, Arthur Nersesian’s The Fuck-Up, was picked up by MTV Books/Simon & Schuster, eventually achieving cult classic status. Following the resounding success of The Fuck-Up, Temple established Akashic Books. Now the press puts out an impressive array of titles, including an urban noir series beginning with the award-winning anthology Brooklyn Noir. Akashic also prints literary fiction from the Caribbean Islands and political nonfiction.
I spoke with Temple about the origins of Akashic, his involvement in the independent publishing community, and this thing called the Internet. How do I adequately describe his creative and collaborative efforts? Two words to start with are inspiring and unrelenting.
Laura Pearson: When you started the press in ’97, did you anticipate it becoming this productive and eventually being your full-time job?
Johnny Temple: Not at all.
LP: It was just kind of an experiment?
JT: Yeah. It was an experiment.
LP: So how many books are you publishing a year now? Do you have a full-time staff?
JT: About 25 or 26 books per year. We have a paid staff of five people, and we also have two interns.
LP: I know each small press does this differently, but how do you decide what to publish? Are you soliciting submissions from authors you like or are you taking some unsolicited submissions?
JT: We get them from all different directions. We also have areas that we’re particularly interested in—really dark fiction, for example—so we have a certain taste in terms of the stuff that we’re looking for.
What I’m really looking for is a book that, when I read it, it moves my stomach. Or I have some sort of visceral response to it. A book that stays with me and resonates with me. So we’re not marketing-driven in terms of what we’re looking for. Books from the Caribbean, fiction from Jamaica—these are areas of specialty for us, and that’s not some “trendy” angle.
LP: Right. That leads me to a question about the noir anthologies. Because while this series seems like something very in line with your interests, it also has, incidentally, turned into something that readers really gravitate towards. Do you start by picking the cities for these books or do you first find great writers covering particular cities?
JT: It’s a combination. There are some cities where there will be a writer who I know who should absolutely edit the anthology, no doubt about it. A good example of this is George Pelecanos in Washington, DC. He is one of the best crime fiction writers living today, and he’s totally associated with Washington, DC and knows the city inside and out. I was born and raised in DC, so I know the city quite well, and his representation of [it] is one that I’ve always loved and admired. So I approached him and said, “Please give this serious consideration.” I convinced him to do it, and he did an amazing job. So that’s one way that we get the people.
The other way is every single day I’m receiving proposals from people all over the world [asking to edit] the anthology in their respective cities. Now, we work vigorously to maintain our high editorial standards. Our books have to be tight; they have to be sharp; they have to be easy to read and fun to read, and I think we’ve done a good job of that. So most of the people approaching us I have to politely turn away, because we’re looking for the books to be as strong and great as possible. It’s very important to us that we pick the right person to edit a particular city—one of the most important decisions that we make.
LP: Speaking of decision-making, something that has come up a lot in writing this column is: how do small presses decide what role the Internet should play in publishing? It no longer seems like a question of if it should play a role, just to what degree.
JT: Almost every aspect of our business now has a relationship with the online world, whether it’s production, interactions with authors, promotion, or the actual selling of books…. Publishers have to stay up-to-date. Things are changing fast; books are becoming more digitized. And that’s all fine…but I love books in their print form. Still, it would be foolish of me to ignore the digital revolution that’s taking place. So I’m not leading the publishing digital revolution, but I’m following it closely.
LP: I think you can’t really help but participate on some level. And with distribution being such a huge challenge for small presses—I think in that sense, in getting the word out, it’s a useful tool.
I was reading in an interview about some collaboration you’ve done with other small presses, like Seven Stories. Do you have plans for more collaboration in the future?
JT: Sure, yeah. I’m part of the independent publishing community. I’m an active member of it, and I do all sorts of collaborations with my colleagues—fellow publishers. They’re wonderful people, and we help each other out a lot. And sometimes we endeavor yet more formal projects, like when Akashic and Seven Stories actually co-published a book, which was very involved. But there are other things: the Brooklyn Book Festival, for example—our country’s most exciting new book festival, now in its third year. I’m very involved with that, as are a lot of other Brooklyn publishers.
Also, the Brooklyn Public Library has started a program called Brooklyn Independents, which is a collaboration between Akashic and a bunch of other independent publishers. We program a series of events once every month at the Brooklyn Public Library.
LP: Very awesome. When you started Akashic were there certain presses you looked to for inspiration?
JT: Definitely. Presses such as 2.13.61, which was a press run by Henry Rollins, They helped us a lot getting started. There are also presses like Seven Stories Press and Soft Skull Press, both in New York, which started before Akashic and were always an inspiration. And there’s a great British publishing company called Serpent’s Tail. Their list is so strong, and they’re really great people.
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