FAQ
Some background on the press’s history, practices, and principles. This is part of our commitment to transparency and education regarding the material aspects of small press publishing.
What is Dead Mall Press?
DMP is a micro-press that launched in spring of 2022 in Bloomington IN and is presently located in the Dayton OH area. It publishes chapbooks and donates half of its own income to mutual aid, anti-carceral, and social justice organizations. It is run by me, RM Haines, and stands against the pursuit of prizes and prestige in the literary world. It is anti-capitalist and believes more writers should embrace an anti-establishment, countercultural approach to publishing poetry. More writing on these concerns can be found here and here.
Do you only publish overtly political, anti-capitalist poetry?
No. Although I do publish politically charged work from the left, the press’s catalogue shows a wide variety of interests, voices, and subject matter. Some of it is explicitly political, some of it isn’t. In asserting an anti-capitalist position, my primary concern is with how the press itself is run: its material practices and its position outside of institutional cultures and financial ties. I take care of those things on my end as publisher, and the poetry itself is free to be whatever it wants. For more detailed thoughts about capitalism, publishing, and poetry-as-counterculture, see my writing here and here.
What does "handmade chapbooks" mean?
Although I use a laser printer, not letterpress, I do print the books myself at home. I also edit, design, assemble, fold, staple, and trim the booklets myself. While these services are offered by printers and big stores like Staples, I prefer to do it on my own. It costs nothing and gives me more control, allowing me to adjust and fine-tune the design with greater ease.
Do your books have ISBN’s?
No. These cost money, and they serve very little purpose for a press at this scale. Any store that will sell a micro-press chapbook or zine will most likely not worry about an ISBN. Until I see the practical value of ISBN for the press or its authors, I’m not going to worry about it.
Do your books appear in bookstores?
In May of 2024, a few of our books will be appearing at New Materials Books in Kansas City, MO. In fall 2023, Irvington Vinyl and Books near Indianapolis placed our books on their shelves. In the future, I intend to do more to place the books in bookstores wherever I can. If you have any suggestions or contacts that might be helpful, please reach out at deadmallpress@gmail.com.
How much do your books actually sell?
We have sold a total of 521 booklets in two years of operation, with an adjusted average of 35 copies per booklet. This also means that each writer has earned (on average) $210 from the press (Note: I have since lowered prices slightly, and the average expectation for a book going forward is $175). These numbers are in addition to the copies sold individually by the writers from among their 20 complimentary copies. Writers keep all proceeds from those individual sales, allowing them to boost their earnings considerably.
Why do you insist on transparency about all this?
In my experience, many writers simply do not understand much of how publishing works—at any level. This can lead to some very distorted ideas about the significance of getting published at all: it creates a desperate need to have one’s work “accepted” and validated by others, while having no clear sense of what that will actually achieve. All this can lead to confusion, delusion, misplaced hope, and wasted money (to say nothing of vulnerability to grifts). My hope is that by being totally open about this stuff, I can partly demystify how publishing works at this scale, while also (hopefully) educating others on how they can publish their own work.
How do the donations work?
Prior to launching a new book, I pick an organization to donate to, and I announce it publicly so that people know where the money will go. As of March 2024, we’ve managed to donate $2460 to orgs such as the Transgender Education Network of Texas; New Leaf New Life (in Bloomington, IN); the Guantanamo Survivors’ Fund; Confluence HRKC (in Kansas City, MO); the Urban Youth Collaborative (NYC); Community Action Relief Project (CARP in Philly); Middle East Children's Alliance; Medical Aid for Palestinians; and Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network.
When publishing my own books, I simply split it 50/50: half goes to donation, I keep the rest. When publishing other writers, it gets a bit trickier because I split the income equally with the writer as well. For example, another writer's book selling at $10 means the writer and the press each get $5. However, the press's $5 is then split in half: $2.50 is donated and $2.50 is kept for the press. Altho the press is technically giving away half of its own income, it amounts to 25% of the total sale when publishing a writer other than myself. These thinner margins are compensated for by publishing two writers at once and pooling all the money to the same org.
Do you provide receipts for these donations?
Yes. After each book's initial pre-order period, I post all receipts for donation on the website.
How have you funded the press?
Detailed descriptions of the press's ongoing finances can be found in the receipt posts made on the blog. Regarding the press’s founding, however, the short version is this: I put approx. $1000 of my own money into getting materials and equipment and putting out the first books. This amount was greater than necessary because much of it was spent on materials I needed just for practicing book-making and learning what I liked. Plus, I needed to buy a printer ($235). Had I started with a full understanding of what I wanted to do and how to do it — and with an adequate printer — I could’ve managed spending less than half of that. Regardless, I have since recouped these costs through sales, and a very generous, no-strings-attached $500 donation from a friend of mine has further secured the press for the time being.
What are the main ongoing costs of running the press?
The most costly aspect of the operation is the yearly subscription to Squarespace: $192/year (or $16/month). This is not ideal, and may eventually become too costly, but 1) I do not know how to build a website on my own, 2) Wordpress drives me nuts, and 3) aesthetic issues or other limits came up with other free options. It’s the press’s one extravagance, and it’s like paying rent, so I have quite mixed feelings.
The second major cost is toner for my printer: this runs approx. $120/year, depending on how much I print. I tried discount ink and it was a mistake: it looked bad and would not hold on the cardstock covers. Unless I have a guarantee that a discount ink will work with my printer and stick on cardstock, I’m sticking with brand name.
The materials for the books themselves cost very little. On average, it costs approx. $1.25 to produce a single booklet. That includes cardstock, paper, ink, and staples. Shipping costs fluctuate, but on average this comes out to approx. $4.50 (including label printing, taping, and Media Mail pricing ). Added to the materials, we also have the costs of obtaining and maintaining equipment: paper, staples, stapler, X-acto knife and blades, safety ruler, cutting mat, etc. Many of these costs have been recouped, but some (such as blades and paper) are ongoing.
What plans do you have for the press?
Going forward, I want to grow the press by making more people aware of it. However, I intend to stay small and DIY both for political and ethical reasons and to keep costs low. Were I to start doing perfect-bound books, larger print runs, and wider distribution, costs would go up considerably, and—as I am not independently wealthy—I would need to start securing donations and applying for grants, and this would completely change the nature of the operation. I’m not out to advance my career, and I’m certainly not trying to profit. The goal is simply to break even while getting poetry into the world while paying writers and raising funds.
Why "Dead Mall"? What is behind the name?
First, dead malls are real, so it's not just a poetical phrase. In the most obvious sense, the image of failing commerce especially apt for anyone involved in the small press world.
Second, the name is an homage to Walter Benjamin, whose great, unfinished Arcades Project is about the dead proto-malls of 19th century Paris. He saw something potentially revolutionary in the ruins of these temples to capital. Hidden in their architecture, unknown even to their builders, were dream-traces of a communal existence where imagination and reality intermingled, and these became exposed as the buildings were abandoned.
More personally, in the mid-1990s, my own first encounters with literature happened at malls. I grew up in a very small town with a bad library and no bookstores nearby, and our household didn't have the internet (most didn't then). With no other real options, I would drive an hour to Dayton or Cincinnati (or be driven by one of my parents) and search bookstores at the mall. Sometimes I would spend hours there, treating the store like a library, knowing no one, buying nothing. And yet, there among perfume counters, mall cops, and bogus pop music, I found books that showed me another world was possible.
In sum, the name Dead Mall Press captures all this for me: Walter Benjamin's search for revolutionary imagination amid ruins and debris; my own young imagination living amid the traps of circumstance; the haunting overlaps between different historical moments and the materials that capture them; and the intensification of the book as commodity in the era of Amazon. All these come together for me in Dead Mall Press.