PRESS RELEASES
Mean Martin Manning
$everance
Junk
The Amadeus Net
Mother’s Milk
Cherry Whip
Exit Only
Devil Jazz I
Devil Jazz II
Season of Ash

ENC Press 21 April 2005
ENC Press 10 January 2004
ENC Press 15 October 2003
ENC Press 4 July 2003

NEW! $everance in Chicago’s WGN9, 1 June 2007
NEW! $everance in Chicago Radio Spotlight, 13 May 2007
NEW! $everance in Chicago Sun Times, 10 May 2007
NEW! Richard Kaempfer in podcast interview on Cara’s Basement
NEW! Richard Kaempfer on The Stan & Terry Show on WCKG
NEW! Richard Kaempfer on The Ministry of Truth radio show on WHPK 88.5 FM
ExecTV in the Connecticut’s Day, 9 December 2005
The Writing Show: Olga Gardner Galvin Interview 26 September 2005
The Writing Show: Christopher Largen Interview 29 August 2005
Time Out Chicago 21-28 July 2005
FoxNews 20 April 2004
FrontPage Magazine 12 November 2003

PRESS RELEASES: ENC Press

BOUTIQUE FICTION HOUSE ENC PRESS
MAKING INTERNATIONAL WAVES, PROFITS

Independent Press With “Intelligent Alternative”
to Mass Market Standardization Trend Has
Profitable First Year of Business

Novelists From U.S., Canada and Britain
Writing About South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Middle England
and Rural Japan Defy Industry Doldrums

April 21, 2005, NEW YORK— In an era of media consolidation in which venerable fiction publishing houses are bought up by conglomerates, struggle to remain profitable, and skew their editorial decisions to accommodate the demands of retailers, one feisty little start-up finished its first year of operations in the black by thumbing its nose at mainstream publishing industry conventional wisdom at every turn.

Publisher Olga Gardner Galvin launched ENC Press (for “Emperor’s New Clothes”), which bypasses the usual retail book-industry channels, whether brick and mortar or online, in favor of direct sales at its Web site, www.encpress.com. It specializes in genre-busting books and authors who communicate alternative points of view clearly and unequivocally, regardless of whether some readers and establishment critics might choose to take offense. It ignores New York literary taste-makers’ ideas of who and what will sell and who and what won’t. Its international roster of authors offers tales set in such supposedly “unmarketable” locales as South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Middle England, and rural Japan. The result? ENC Press turned a small profit in its first year, with the Russian-born Galvin having as much fun as she did reading forbidden literature on public transit in Moscow as a teenager.

An experienced New York writer and editor, Galvin figured she could easily start her own boutique fiction house with the excellent novels that mainstream houses were turning down for neither fitting a commercial genre nor being aimed at the broadest possible audience. After ENC Press was launched with four titles in mid-2003, a stream of gems from all over the English-speaking world began floating over her e-mail transom. Her 2004 list was full by the end of that year, the 2005 list filled just as quickly, and she only recently resumed accepting new queries for possible publication in 2006.

ENC Press defines itself as a small, completely independent boutique press whose audience is the emerging independent-thinker counterculture. It is becoming known for sharp, entertaining fiction driven by engaging characters and likely to contain elements of social and political satire—offbeat, well-written novels too quirky and irreverent for mass-market publishers.

ENC Press’s self-chosen boutique designation involves more than house size and the high level of attention given to the editing, design, and production of each release. It is a deliberately selected business model as well. With the exception of a few independent bookstores, ENC Press bypasses the usual retail book industry channels, whether brick and mortar or online, in favor of selling books exclusively through its Web site. Galvin says only her small run/direct sales model makes it possible for her to take real editorial risks and remain open to submissions of witty, perceptive, irreverent books that have a strong element of humor and tip a few sacred cows along the way.

This model also allows Galvin to keep all her titles in print indefinitely. While her editorial stance continues to be “alternative,” her practice of using Web pages in the place of bookstore shelf space to display titles and make them available permanently is being gradually picked up by mainstream giants such as Penguin and Random House. The difference is that Galvin bypasses the mass market by design, making Internet sales only through her ENC Press Web site where readers get discounts, same as they would at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, without Galvin’s having to accept such a low wholesale price that she’d be forced to play it safe, the way mainstream houses do.

Galvin’s concept has proven sound, if only on a small scale so far. While ENC Press finished its first year in the black, Random House and Barnes & Noble have both experienced flat revenues for the past two years, despite their marketing partnership, with many of 2004’s best sellers, including The Da Vinci Code, The South Beach Diet, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, having been actually published in 2003, and Random House, to Barnes & Noble’s dismay, is planning to start selling its books from its own Web site. This lack of growth is set against the background of the average age of book “consumers” continuing to climb.

In keeping with the ENC Press motto, “Tipping Sacred Cows Since 2003,” Galvin has turned on its head mainstream editors’ and publishers’ self-concept as guardians of the important social tradition of advocating and nurturing “underrepresented” and “alternative” voices. What Galvin considers “underrepresented” and “alternative” are novels too complex and nuanced for the mass market, too multidimensional to be assigned to one particular genre, and too fun and readable to be classified as “literary.” “Some of the best fiction being written today has completely unprecedented points of view,” she says, “so the usual publishing suspects don’t recognize any of it as a ‘real book.’”

“I started out thinking we were ‘alternative’ because our authors saw and discussed more than one side of any question and issue and did so with wit and humor, which is ‘alternative’ in today’s book industry,” says Galvin. “But then we realized that in pursuit of such novels we came up with some intelligent alternatives to limited editorial decisions, the hideous practice of printing books only to remainder and pulp them, and serfdom for writers in the form of low royalties. We certainly provide an intelligent alternative to the touchy-feely groupthink of the mainstream book scene, simply by publishing guilt-free, topical entertainment for independently thinking people.”

Capsule summaries and samples are available at www.encpress.com—and so are a few of the wickedest, funniest, and most thought-provoking novels the mainstream publishing business doesn’t know how to handle.

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PUBLISHER’S “NOVEL” USE OF THE INTERNET
TO FIGHT CULTURAL CONFORMISM

Boutique Fiction House ENC Press
Pioneers Use of E-Commerce to Bypass Distribution Bottlenecks

Bucking Mass-Market Standardization Trend
Means A Full List Of Fresh, Irreverent Novels For 2004

January 10, 2004, NEW YORK — Experienced New York writer and editor Olga Gardner Galvin figured she could easily start her own boutique fiction house with the fine literature that mainstream houses were turning down for neither fitting a commercial genre nor being aimed at the broadest possible audience. As an added incentive, she viewed literature as an important component of the movement to stand up to a creeping nanny state and the group-identity culture. What good would it do to have alternative nonfiction alone when liberal conformism decides what cultural expressions reach the market?

Galvin looks primarily for fictional treatment of socio-politically relevant issues, which heretofore have been the domain of nonfiction and, of course, of leftist novelists. “It’s guilt-free entertainment for thinking people, who don’t have to feel like they’re wasting their time and being self-indulgent by reading fiction,” Galvin says. “This fiction offers informed arguments and food for thought.”

With the help and support of California writer and publicist Beth Elliott, Galvin’s ENC Press opened for business at www.encpress.com in mid-2003, with four titles, and a stream of gems began floating over her e mail transom. She’s signed enough contracts to fill her 2004 list, and is considering several more for 2005. In the process, she’s having as much fun as she did reading forbidden literature on public transit as a Moscow teenager.

Galvin has watched mainstream publishing frustrate its most dedicated audience’s passion for challenging new books and authors. More bookstores open across the country every day, yet publishing houses keep trimming and simplifying their catalogs, eliminating anything they can’t mass-market like a commodity to the broadest possible audience. This means the pool of available novels in the stores has shrunk to just five or six that keep getting published over and over, under different titles, always more of the same. Meanwhile, a lot of excellent and quirky works — especially those out of step with conventional liberal groupthink — never become available to the public.

And so, Galvin’s ENC Press uses the Internet to do for literature what libertarians and conservatives have used it to do for news and commentary: run roughshod over the liberal-media gatekeepers with fiction that defies the politically correct, bland conventions of mainstream publishing — and market it directly to readers online.

In keeping with the motto “Tipping Sacred Cows Since 2003,” Galvin searches out genre-busting books and authors whose views may be unpopular with some readers and establishment critics. She notes that many mainstream editors and publishers like to position themselves as guardians of an important social tradition: advocating and nurturing “underrepresented” and “alternative” voices. What Galvin considers “underrepresented” and “alternative” are novels too complex and nuanced for the mass market, too multidimensional to be assigned to one particular genre, and too fun and readable to be classified as “literary.”

“Mainstream publishing decisions are informed by a very insular, urban-elite conventional wisdom,” she says. “Some of the best fiction being written today has completely unprecedented points of view, so the usual publishing suspects don’t recognize any of it as a ‘real book.’”

“It boggles the mind how many astonishingly talented writers are out there, in the huge universe of fiction that mainstream publishing takes such great pains to keep out,” says Galvin. “I can’t believe how many brilliant authors have turned up on my virtual doorstep since ENC Press opened for business in July 2003. I feel like a kid in a candy store — I just can’t deny myself any novel that really gets my attention. I’ll find the time, I’ll make the time to slot it in and get it out somehow.”

As a publisher, Galvin strives to be open-minded and even-handed, to publish books that see and discuss more than one side of any question or issue, and do so with wit and humor. ENC Press books communicate alternative points of view clearly and unequivocally, regardless of who might choose to take offense. And that, in today’s book industry, is an “alternative” and “underrepresented” point of view, says Galvin.

The self-chosen “boutique” designation involves more than house size and the high level of attention given to the editing, design, and production of each release. Galvin has deliberately chosen to distribute primarily through her Web site, www.encpress.com, instead of through the retail book industry, whether brick-and-mortar or online. “The traditional, wasteful route of wholesale print runs, distribution, and remaindering would essentially kill my ability to take risks,” she says. “I’d rather take my chances and try communicating directly with my readers. Hey, it’s worked for Dell and Gateway for computers — why not for books? My audience is readers who crave something new and original, and they see Amazon for what it is: just another mainstream bookseller. Besides, I put so much hands-on work into editing and designing every book, I couldn’t bear to have a single copy returned to me destroyed, with its covers torn off, executed for the crime of being unsold within its allotted time frame.”

Other publishers, whether inspired by ENC Press or not, are beginning to see the wisdom of keeping titles available through direct e commerce as well. The long-established Penguin house recently announced that it would keep its back catalog available by selling directly to readers through its Web site. Coming from a stalwart of an industry that has looked upon selling through the Internet as the hallmark of a vanity press, this is undeniably iron-clad validation for the entrepreneur who wasn’t afraid to hitch the traditional book-crafting wagon to a 21st-century high-tech star.

Capsule summaries and sample tastings of ENC Press books are available at www.encpress.com — and so are a few of the wickedest, funniest, and most thought-provoking novels the mainstream publishing business doesn’t know how to handle.

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Bucking Mass-Market Standardization Trend
Means aFull List of Fresh, Irreverent Novels for 2004

New York Editor-Turned-Publisher Nurtures Quirky
Quality Novels the Way the Giants of Publishing Used to Do

October 15, 2003. NEW YORK — Experienced New York writer and editor Olga Gardner Galvin figured she could easily start her own boutique fiction house with the fine literature that mainstream houses were turning down for neither fitting a commercial genre nor being aimed at the broadest possible audience. After her Emperor's New Clothes Press launched with four titles in mid-2003, a stream of gems began floating over her e mail transom. She’s signed enough contracts to fill her 2004 list, and she’s having as much fun as she did reading forbidden literature on public transit as a Moscow teenager.

“It boggles the mind how many astonishingly talented writers are out there, in the huge universe of fiction that mainstream publishing takes such great pains to keep out,” says Galvin. “I can't believe how many brilliant authors have turned up on my virtual doorstep since Emperor's New Clothes Press opened for business in July 2003. I feel like a kid in a candy store — I can't deny myself any novel that really gets my attention. I'll find the time, I'll make the time to slot it in and get it out somehow.”

Galvin’s ENC Press is a small, completely independent boutique press that uses e-commerce to connect directly with the emerging independent-thinker counterculture. Its specialty is sharp, entertaining fiction driven by engaging characters and likely to contain elements of social and political satire — offbeat, well-written novels too quirky and irreverent for mass-market publishers because they do not fit any mold.

The self-chosen “boutique” designation involves more than house size and the high level of attention given to the editing, design, and production of each release. Galvin has deliberately chosen to distribute primarily through her Web site at www.encpress.com instead of through the retail book industry, whether brick and mortar or online. “The traditional, wasteful route of wholesale print runs, distribution, and remaindering would hamper my ability to take risks,” she says. “Keeping my overhead low through a series of small runs means I can take risks, and make decent author royalties a reality. While I’d love my books to be searchable on sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, with them it’s either go the traditional, deep-discount wholesale route, or list there without being in their database. I’d rather split that margin with my authors and use the Internet on my own for niche marketing.”

In keeping with the ENC Press motto, “Tipping Sacred Cows Since 2003,” Galvin searches out genre-busting books and authors whose views may be unpopular with some readers and establishment critics. She notes that many mainstream editors and publishers like to position themselves as guardians of an important social tradition: advocating and nurturing “underrepresented” and “alternative” voices. What Galvin considers “underrepresented” and “alternative” are novels too complex and nuanced for the mass market, too multidimensional to be assigned to one particular genre, and too fun and readable to be classified as “literary.” “Mainstream publishing decisions are informed by a very insular, urban-elite conventional wisdom,” she says. “Some of the best fiction being written today has completely unprecedented points of view, so the usual publishing suspects don’t recognize any of it as a ‘real book.’”

As a publisher, Galvin strives to be open-minded and even-handed, to publish books that see and discuss more than one side of any question and issue and do so with wit and humor. ENC Press books communicate alternative points of view clearly and unequivocally, regardless of who might choose to take offense. And that, in today’s book industry, is an “alternative” and “underrepresented” point of view, says Galvin.

Capsule summaries and sample tastings of ENC Press books are available at www.encpress.com — and so are a few of the wickedest, funniest, and most thought-provoking novels the mainstream publishing business doesn’t know how to handle.

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ENC Press Bucks Trend Toward Mass Market Standardization of Culture, Entertainment, Literature

Boutique Fiction House Launches With Fresh, Irreverent Novels
Definitely Not For The “Broadest Possible Audience”

July 4, 2003. NEW YORK–SAN FRANCISCO — Hearings on proposed FCC regulations allowing media conglomerates to own more outlets in individual markets have raised concerns that news, entertainment, and culture will become more standardized — and even more dumbed down for the mass market. Television and radio stations owned by conglomerates are often programmed from afar with one of a small number of preselected formats. “Newspapers and electronic media can now be run the way book publishing is run,” says editor-turned-publisher Olga Gardner Galvin. “A ‘property’ has to fit a genre and be aimed at the broadest possible audience. This means a lot of excellent and quirky books are left orphaned — and unavailable to the public.”

But Galvin has seen thinking individuals dissatisfied with the establishment media’s insipid coverage of current events send hard-hitting, contrarian nonfiction works up the best-seller lists. And now, she’s helping novelists whose books are not informed by mainstream publisher–mandated political correctness get into the act with genre-defying tales sure to give conniptions to the sensitive, compassionate, and imagination-challenged fans of erstwhile Oprah’s Book Club. ENC Press has now kicked off its sacred-cow tipping with a list of fresh, irreverent, unique fiction aimed at the independent-thinking audience — not the “broadest possible audience” of a mainstream publisher’s dreams.

ENC Press is a small, completely independent boutique press that uses e-commerce to connect directly with the emerging independent-thinker counterculture. Its specialty is sharp, entertaining fiction driven by engaging characters and likely to contain elements of social and political satire — offbeat, well-written novels too quirky and irreverent for mass-market publishers because they do not fit any mold. In particular, ENC Press searches out genre-busting books and authors whose views may be unpopular with some readers and establishment critics.

Many mainstream editors and publishers like to position themselves as guardians of an important social tradition: advocating and nurturing “underrepresented” and “alternative” voices. ENC Press, too, has “underrepresented” and “alternative” voices on its Summer 2003 list, but with a serious twist:

Yevgheniy Zamyatin’s We, the classic Russian 20th century dystopia that inspired and influenced George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Ayn Rand’s Anthem, returns in a new translation, its questions about individuals, collectives, and progress more relevant than ever.

Northern California countercultures get put through the satirical wringer in Beth Elliott’s Don’t Call It “Virtual,” as a coven of time-traveling lesbian activists find themselves in the Alta California Republic in 2064 and realize that the future ain’t what it used to be.

New York can turn anything into a business—like the big business of organized professional compassion, which has too much caring to do to care much for the amateur individualists in Olga Gardner Galvin’s cautionary social satire The Alphabet Challenge.

An ex-KGB company man leads a seemingly decent immigrant’s life of quiet desperation in New York in David Gurevich’s Vodka for Breakfast, a tale of love, friendship, life, drugs, and opportunities almost lost.

What ENC Press considers “underrepresented” and “alternative” are novels too complex and nuanced for the mass market, too multidimensional to be assigned to one particular genre, and too fun and readable to be classified as “literary.” These are novels out of step with the urban elite conventional wisdom that informs mainstream publishing decisions, or with the very “progressive” insistence that feeling trumps thinking. ENC Press strives to be open-minded and even-handed, to see and discuss more than one side of any question and issue, and to see them all with wit and humor. Its books communicate alternative points of view clearly and unequivocally, regardless of who might choose to take offense. And that, in today’s book industry, is an “alternative” and “underrepresented” point of view.

In between fiction releases, ENC Press intends to experiment with occasional commentary and satirical content on its Web site. One purpose will be to build an affinity-based relationship with its readers. Another will be to provide its writers with an outlet for impromptu pieces and “riffs” and an opportunity for conversation with their readers, in the ever-important quest to have fun with other thinking people whose politically incorrect pronouncements drive friends and family to apoplexy. Too many alternative Web sites and listservs cater to grim, determined, true-believer ideologues; the ENC Press Web site is meant to be fun and engaging for content providers and audience alike.

Capsule summaries and sample tastings of ENC Press books are now available at http://www.encpress.com — and so are a few of the most wicked, most funny, and most thought-provoking novels the mainstream publishing business doesn’t know how to handle.

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