Receipts for donation, lower prices, and more

As always, after a pre-order period ends, I provide an account of sales as well as receipts for donations. This one will cover late November 2023 through March 18th 2024. In addition, there’s some info about small changes to policy and prices.

DONATION TO SAMIDOUN

During this period, sales from the press’s books have raised $268.75 for Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. We are proud to support their work on behalf of the Palestinian resistance. And I am especially thankful to stevie redwood for suggesting this org and for generously setting aside income from their own book to help boost this amount!

Adding that amount to the $535 raised last fall, the press has now contributed a total of $803.75 to Palestinian advocacy and support. This amount is more than twice our current operating budget. Thank you to all who helped make this contribution, and my gratitude to—and solidarity with—all those who continue to stand and fight for Palestinian freedom and an end to occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

Currently, Samidoun is not accepting online donations. As a result, I can’t provide a screen-shotted receipt as I normally do. For now, I can only share these images from their website and of the check I am sending them, and later on I will try to provide further confirmation:

BOOKKEEPING & POLICY CHANGES(LOWER PRICES!)

Since the previous accounting in November of 2023, the press has sold 57 booklets, including titles from across the entire catalogue, new and old. Some of these were titles on sale, in which 100% of the income went to the writers, not the press. Altogether, after calculation the press now has a surplus of $382, up $67 from last November’s account. This surplus money will eventually go to the press’s two main expenses: toner ($120, 1-2 times per year) and a Squarespace subscription ($192/year). In sum, I think the press is in good shape right now.

Also, I’m going to lower prices. Despite the fact that Media Mail pricing keeps going up, I now have a cheaper packaging method and can bring shipping back down to the original $4.50. I’m also going to lower book prices from $12 to $10 for other authors, and $5 for any book of my own. That means most books will now cost $14.50, shipping included — a 15% decrease. This will affect how much money is raised for donation, of course, but I have a plan for this which I will describe in a separate post.

Lastly, a small but significant (to me) policy change: I have decided to keep private the sales numbers for individual titles. I give this info to the writers, of course—including those who are in talks with me prior to publishing—but giving it out on the website has begun to bother me. I began doing this in the name of transparency, but as more titles accrue in the catalogue, such numbers begin to suggest an unfair ranking (identifying “best-sellers,” etc). I don’t like this, so I’ve decided to discontinue it. The press still remains transparent in several other ways (such as providing sales numbers at all).

As always, thank you to everyone who supported the press during this time (and in the past)! And thank you for reading!

-RM Haines