Be it small press or micro press or indie press or teenie tiny press, the poetry publishing landscape is an ever-growing, overwhelming, and yet inspiring realm of possibility. These mostly volunteer presses have come into being both out of a passion for a poetry and a desire to re-imagine how poetry is published and marketed.

For the first of many discussions with poetry publishers I hope to undertake for the Constant Conversation that both explore their approaches to the current publishing climate and highlight their unique contributions, I corresponded with Ben Spivey who edits Warm Milk Press, a publisher of handmade chapbooks, with Jen and Kyle Whitley.

Tell us a little about the history of your press and where the idea came from.

There were a lot of factors and chemical processes that went into creating this press, but one of the key ingredients was other presses that I look up to. Fugue State Press, Calamari Press, Mud Luscious Press, and Greying Ghost Press are some of the publishers that influenced me the most. I like them because they make books that not only are experimental, but have literary value as well, and that is something that can be lost in the vast realm of the experimental.

What are your thoughts on the accusation that the rise of MFA programs and the relative affordability of starting a small press or a journal are creating a glut of poetry—that there are more people writing poetry and seeking a publisher than actually reading poems?

I can see this. An Online journal costs next to nothing to create, and a chapbook press has only a small overhead, so anyone can do it, but writers who read less than they write are handicapping themselves.

What is the role or place of the small press in the larger publishing world? Is it hurt or helped by the current publishing and bookselling climate?

The small press plays a couple of roles in the larger picture. It can be a harbor for beautiful words that larger publishers can’t publish for whatever reasons. Maybe they can’t promote it, maybe it won’t sell and they can’t risk that, but those are the sorts of risks that small presses can take. Those are things small presses don’t have to think about. The small press has an outstanding community of supporters, readers, and bloggers (HTMLGIANT, Big Other, Outside Writer’s Collective, Emerging Writers Network). But I don’t know if I would consider Warm Milk Press a small press, I would classify us as a micro press, smaller still. Maybe that sort of distinguishing isn’t required, but when I think of “small press” I don’t think of chapbook presses, I think of places like Publishing Genius and Dzanc.

What is your feeling on e-books versus the printed book as an object?

I like having the book object in my hands. I like putting books on my bookshelf.

It’s a given that small presses don’t necessarily have the marketing budget or the name recognition of larger presses, so what is your approach to getting the word out there?

We’ve done some cross promotion with Mud Luscious Press and we’re putting together some stuff for Greying Ghost Press, but word of mouth is probably the best way the name gets around. Producing quality work will eventually yield results. I once read an interview with James Chapman in which he talked about books finding their audience in their own time, I think that’s true. Words will find their place. I don’t think that anyone really knows how to market books, even bigger publishers.

What do you look for in a poem or a {chap}book as a whole?

I want my eyes to bleed when I’m finished reading it. What I prefer is a cohesive narrative, tone, theme, etc. I’m not sure the word cohesive is the best choice. I want something that’s held together, but that can be as loosely interpreted as you want, it can be by rope or by thread. That being said, I do lean toward something that looks less like a poem, or a poem in the traditional sense.

Additional thoughts?

Our first chapbook (Museum of Fucked by David Peak) is almost sold out. We have about six left of a limited printing. I’m really happy to have been a part of that book, and David Peak is such a powerful writer. Our next chapbook is an interesting project from J.A. Tyler that spans a total of 4 chapbook presses (Greying Ghost Press, NewLights Press, and Pangur Ban Party) it will simultaneously be released early 2011. Our part of the project is called ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ [ the stars ]. I’m looking forward to opening chapbook submissions in January, probably will read from the beginning of January to the end of February. That will be the first time we’ve had open submissions for chapbooks. We read submissions for out Online journal (Spilt Milk) year round. Unrelated to Warm Milk Press I’m looking forward to the release of a novel that I wrote called Flowing in the Gossamer Fold, it should be out sometime around August of this year. I’m looking forward to Sasha Fletcher’s When All Our Days Are Numbered. I wish I could give Alejandro Jodorowsky enough money to make another movie.