Pay no attention to the "small press."
When I first got some success as a writer of crime fiction, members of the “small press” community started circling me like hungry sharks. They all wanted a little piece of what I had to offer. Could you read my manuscript? Would you blurb my book? Can you tell me I’m a good writer?
It was never-ending.
Eventually, I severed relations with those folks as I cut myself off from everyone else. It was another dispassionate calculus because I realized they added nothing to my life but stress.
But they’re still out there and still bothersome. I recently read a savage character assassination of the renowned publisher and editor, Otto Penzler, penned by one of these “small press” people. In it, the little-accomplished writer accused Penzler of being a sexist and a racist and showed his maturity by dropping F-bombs every third word.
I’d have responded to him, but the top reply said it all: “You seem like a bad person.”
Publishing yourself, publishing your friends, and being published by your friends are not ways to further your career. They aren’t a sign of integrity or superiority, and scoffing at “the industry” doesn’t convey virtue.
Otto Penzler has done more than this libelous clown has ever done. And he’ll probably continue doing more until he’s a hundred years old. He’s almost there.
If you want to succeed in the business, spend more effort on your writing and less on sharpening your poisoned quill.