“Small press” is one of those phrases that sounds self-explanatory until you realize everyone is quietly defining it differently.
- Some hear small and think temporary.
- Some hear indie and think amateur.
- Some assume it’s just a stepping stone to something “real.”
So let’s clear up a few things. Here are five things people often get wrong about small presses.
1. Small Press Does Not Mean Hobby Press
A small press is not a side project run in spare evenings.
It’s a business; with schedules, systems, contracts, production pipelines, and long-term planning. The scale may be different from a multinational publisher, but the intent is the same: to produce professional books and get them into readers’ hands.
Small does not mean casual.
2. Indie Does Not Mean Inexperienced
Many small presses are run by people who have been in publishing for decades, as editors, authors, designers, marketers, or all of the above.
Indie publishing didn’t emerge because people didn’t know how traditional publishing worked.
It emerged because they did.
3. Distribution Is a Strategy, Not a Checkbox
Being “available everywhere” is easy to say and harder to do well. Good distribution is intentional. It considers:
- where readers actually buy,
- which formats make sense,
- and how to balance reach with sustainability.
A thoughtful small press doesn’t chase every outlet. It chooses the right ones.
4. Authors Are Partners, Not Inventory
At a small press, authors are not interchangeable units in a catalog. They’re collaborators.
That means clearer communication, shared goals, and decisions made with careers in mind, not just individual titles. When an author succeeds, the press succeeds. The relationship is built on alignment, not volume.
5. Growth Is Deliberate — Not Accidental
Small presses don’t scale by throwing books at the market and hoping something sticks.
They grow carefully:
- expanding catalogs with intention,
- refining processes,
- and building reader trust over time.
The goal isn’t to be big fast. It’s to be solid for the long haul.
A good small press knows who it serves: its readers, its authors, and the stories themselves.
Size isn’t the point. Care is.
–Mark
Mark Posey
SRP Author and thriller writer.
Mark writes thrillers for readers who don’t mind a little dirt under the nails — stories with emotional weight, lean prose, and characters who rarely do the right thing for the right reason. His work lives somewhere between noir, revenge fantasy, and literary grit, though he avoids calling it any of those because that sounds like marketing.
When he’s not writing fiction, Mark also works as a professional editor and story consultant. His editing blog offers straight talk for indie and traditionally published authors alike — especially the ones who are tired of being told to “find their voice” by people who can’t define what voice is.
He believes in clarity over cleverness, clean narrative over trend-chasing, and that semicolons are fine, but you probably don’t need as many as you think.
He lives in Canada, which explains the politeness, but not the sarcasm.
You can find him online at MarkPoseyAuthor.com, where he blogs about writing, editing, story structure, and whatever else is on fire this week. His books are published through Stories Rule Press, an independent publisher of genre fiction with strong characters and sharp writing.
