It has been a somewhat quiet period for the press this summer, and this has been perfectly fine with me. Since the pre-order and release of the first three chapbooks on April 4th of this year, the only real development at the press has been the release of digital editions of these three original books. Releasing these during the summer, when people are out enjoying life instead of trapped in the data mines of social media, kept sales relatively slow. However, during this time we still managed to raise $106 for New Leaf New Life, an amount I am matching in a donation to the Hoosier Abortion Fund.

Here are the receipts for both donations:

Detailed Breakdown

Altogether, from the first week of April until now (July 19), 17 print chapbooks and 3 digital chapbooks were sold; this number, along with some kind donations, means that the total income of the press in this period was $135. Of this, 40% (or $54.20) is kept by the press. The remaining 60%, plus a generous $25 that was given specifically for donation, results in $106 given to NLNL. And as promised, I personally matched that amount with a donation to the Hoosier Abortion Fund.

Despite the press’s net income of $383.60 (40% of our total sales), we are currently operating at a deficit of $113.40. This is due to 1) paying off the original investment in materials for the press and 2) the new costs of improvements made to equipment (primarily the costly replacement of an ink drum). However, this ink should hold out for some time, and when new booklets are announced, new sales should put us back over the top.

Of course, if any kind souls would like to help us offset these costs with a donation directly to the press, please feel free! Money can be given to my Venmo (@Matt-Haines-28) or PayPal (matthaines79@gmail.com).

Future Prospects

In coming months, I plan to release at least one new set of poems (late summer or early fall). I am also working on a variety of other projects and plans for future releases including more poems, translations of public domain poetry (Rilke, Brecht, Rimbaud, and Tzara are on my mind), cut-up poetry, and more essays. I am very excited about these projects!

Additionally, I have been in contact with a handful of other poets about publishing their work, and intend to widen my search in coming months. This is still a learning process, but I'm getting there, and I am confident that the press can fulfill both goals of raising funds as well as paying writers for their work. As mentioned before, the press will offer a 50/50 split on sales with writers, and then the press will only keep 40% of its portion [Ed. note: This ended up being 50%]—the rest will be donated. This means others' books will cost a bit more, but will still be reasonably priced (approx. $12).

As always, thank you for your interest, and thank you for supporting Dead Mall Press!

-RM