ENC (Emperor’s New
Clothes) Press was founded in 2003 by Olga
Gardner Galvin, a New York–based freelance writer
and book editor, with the help and moral support of California
writer and publicist Beth
Elliott, for the express purpose of publishing original,
unusual novels that most mainstream publishing behemoths
turn down on the grounds of their questionable appeal
“to the broadest possible audience” (“the
broadest possible audience” being whatever an acquisitions
editor who hasn’t left Manhattan in thirty years
thinks it is).
ENC Press is the intelligent alternative to fiction
publishers who target the broadest possible audience.
We are a small but completely independent boutique press
fascinated by unusual, unpredictable fiction — sharp,
well-plotted, entertaining, and driven by engaging characters.
If it happens to contain elements of social and political
satire or commentary, so much the better. We welcome and
promote genre-busting books and authors whose views may
be unpopular with some of the mainstream public.
ENC Press is the intelligent alternative to the
crassness of mainstream distribution and remaindering.
Good books are treasures, not “merchandise.”
Even if they don’t become bestsellers in the few
weeks that mainstream publishers and booksellers routinely
allow their titles to prove themselves or be relegated
to the compost heap, we stand by our books and our authors
for as long as it takes.
ENC Press is the intelligent alternative to outdated
publishing methods used to produce ever more dumbed-down
fare in the age of reality TV. We use 21st-century,
cutting-edge production technology to not only set new
standards of design and craftsmanship for books produced
by small presses, but to evoke the best of the Golden
Age of publishing, when publishers and editors nurtured
new authors and shaped and refined books hands-on. E-commerce
via our Web site, and mutually supportive partnerships
with our small local independent bookstores, allow us
to focus on our books rather than on the
law of the jungle, which rules the mainstream marketplace.
ENC Press is the intelligent alternative to publishing
serfdom for writers. We keep our overhead low
to make decent royalties a reality for our authors —
and to be able to publish books worth publishing even
if they aren’t potential blockbusters. Compared
to standard
big-publishing contracts, the contracts we
offer are extremely author-friendly. We do not cavalierly
promise to place our books in the front of huge brick-and-mortar
stores, nor do we pay mainstream online booksellers a
king’s ransom to add our titles to their vast databases,
but, through innovative marketing and PR strategies, we
plan to bring our books to the attention of the audiences
that are most likely to be interested in each particular
title.
ENC Press is the intelligent alternative
to the politically correct pabulum that dominates the
mainstream book scene. We publish books for the
steadily growing audience of independent thinkers who
hunger for more food for thought than they can find in
chain bookstores. And despite the opinion that “fiction
doesn’t sell,” which informs most mainstream
bookkeeping decisions, we are committed to publishing
only novels — the kind that offer enough substance,
arguments, and ideas to provide guilt-free entertainment
for thinking people.
