The Akron Beacon Journal reports on Rager Media, a fledgling Ohio-based publishing house started by three thirty-somethings that’s attracting serious notice. Only seven books have been published so far but the company is booked solid till 2009, going at the rate of one book published per month. With low overhead and no debt, Rager can offer bigger royalties than many of the big publishers. (Although CEO Chris White does most of his editing functions in Akron, Rager Media ships and receives, distributes and handles administrative tasks from an office in Medina.)
One author who is particularly impressed with Rager’s approach is Floyd Skloot, whose latest novel is published with them. “The conventional wisdom… is if you go with a smaller independent publisher, you won’t be reviewed widely, you won’t get prizes, and you won’t sell a lot of works,” author Skloot said. “That is utterly incorrect.” And apparently impressed by a Rager-published book translating a Chinese poet, The Atlanta Review has approached the company about publishing translated works of Iraqi poets on the subject of the war. He also has inked deals with agents from Switzerland to Australia. “We want to develop an identity, and that can include (publishing works from) overseas,” White said.