No, it's Not a Giving Day Request

Or, why we're not depending on gifts

Nobody wants to sound churlish—never mind be churlish—about the good will of others. There are so many good causes that deserve and require and depend on that good will expressed in donated funds. When organizations send out their November missives, followed often by year-end missives, asking for donations, they’re doing it for a good reason and turning those donations into good works.

At Galiot Press, yes, we will be asking for help with our start-up costs. (We will be launching a Kickstarter campaign in March.) And we are incredibly grateful for the gifts we’ve received so far, including paid subscriptions to this newsletter! They make a huge difference. Note that we’re saying gifts and not donations, because we will not be operating as a charity.

From the day our first books go on sale, we expect and plan to be running a business that earns its keep.

Some of you are now laughing—at the thought of a start-up that makes a profit right away. We’re not talking about right away. We’re talking about Year Three, by which time we expect to be earning enough to pay ourselves a salary.

For no reason at all, here is a picture of Anjali’s family’s hedgehog Asha, who most certainly would never laugh at Galiot Press.

When we came up with the idea for Galiot Press, we were very clear that we did not want to start a publishing company that would simply replicate what is being done now by many small indie presses. We wanted to do things differently, as those of you know who have been following our journey here so far. So, we have not tried to affiliate with a university. We have not planned to become a 501( c)3. Each of these approaches would make Galiot Press dependent on the largesse of patrons. If and when that largesse slowed or stopped (donations dry up; universities cut budgets), we would be in trouble, with no financial resilience built into our model.

Hence the Galiot Way. A business that finds economies at every stage of the publishing process, and that builds in environmental and financial sustainability. If we can’t sell books without making a profit from the sale of those books, then our business doesn’t work. We hate to think that publishing, as a business, can only work if

• it underpays its staff and authors

• it relies continuously on donated funds

• it subsidizes most of its product with a few strong sellers

• it can’t tolerate artistic risk.

In our minds, that’s not success at all.

We believe we can make a profit selling books—but by selling (and acquiring and producing them) in a new way. Bookselling today follows a particular model that has been in place for, say, 125 years. In the lifetime of the printed/written story, that’s not very long at all. Why, then, should we continue to adhere to a model as if times have not changed, readers have not changed, when the very possibilities of production, selling, marketing, and more have changed? Turns out, at Galiot Press, we’re not.

So, after our start-up costs have been raised, you won’t find us depending on donations. Yes, we may invite gifts. With gifts, we will certainly be able to do more: to publish more books each season, to support our authors more, to reach a greater audience, and make a bigger difference in our industry. But the whole plan is that we won’t need gifts. We believe we can make this happen. Stick around and see if we can pull it off—and you’ll get to buy some fantastic new Galiot Press books starting in the Fall of 2025.