Dear human-based peoples of all shapes, shades, sexes and sizes —
HI! I’m Skipp, editor-in-chief of Fungasm Press. I publish a handful of books a year. I only publish books that I absolutely love, which generally means they’re so abnormally formed that no existing traditional genre would know what to do with them.
This is, of course, why the Bizarro genre came into being in the first place: to create a home for unique, unfettered visions. And Fungasm is where I pick the ones that mean the most to me, working with authors I respect and adore, because I want other people to get the chance to read, respect and adore them, too.
I bring this up for two reasons.
This weekend, Eraserhead Press and Deadite Press — my publishing siblings, under the Eraserhead umbrella — announced that they’re doing an open call for submissions, April through June. This has resulted in people asking me if Fungasm is also doing an open call.
And the answer is: NO, FUNGASM IS NOT. I’m not looking to fill my 2019 slate. But Eraserhead and Deadite are fantastic, and you should totally send your coolest, weirdest shit there!
Also this weekend, yet another anthology or magazine or something came out with what appeared to be nothing but white heterosexual male authors (as it turns out, there were a couple of women who used sexually-ambiguous pseudonyms or something to get past the gate).
This naturally resulted in a chorus of, “What the FUCK, you guys? No women? No people of color? No non-straight authors? Are you KIDDING?” In the resultant foofaraw, a lot of people discovered they didn’t like a lot of other people, or at least were really mad at them.
As I observed all this, it occurred to me that I never really laid out my position on diversity. Since I’m not out actively soliciting authors — with very few exceptions, they come to me — I hadn’t really felt the need.
Of the eleven books I’ve published over the last four years, seven of them were written by women. Laura Lee Bahr, Violet LeVoit, Autumn Christian and Devora Gray are all brilliant, badass writers who I’m honored to work with. Soon, I’ll be adding Jennifer Robin and Heather Drain to the list. (Not to mention equally badass white dudes Danger Slater, Cody Goodfellow, S.G. Murphy and John Boden.)
What I DON’T have on the roster are people of colors other than whiteness. And I would love to be able to rectify that. But since I’m not out combing the indie hinterlands for new authors — I honest-to-God don’t have time for that shit — I rely on a) thoughtful recommendations from others, and b) authors stepping up and introducing themselves to me.
So while I’m not issuing an “open call”, my door is always open for the types of singular weirdos who confound the normal publishing world by being their distinctive, unmitigated selves. If you think you’re one of them, LEMME KNOW, okay?
Hope that clears everything up! Have a beautiful day!