Who’s publishing the books you read? Do you know? Does it make a difference to you?

March is Small Press Month, which may or may not mean anything to you unless you notice who publishes the books you read. Usually, small presses are defined as those publishing ten or less books by one or more authors. As technology makes it easier, and a bit cheaper, to publish books, it’s harder to come up with an exact definition. Many types of publishers call themselves small presses, or independent publishers, no matter if they fit the definition or not. I like the tongue-in-cheek definition given by Bill Warner of GLB Publishers (www.glbpubs.com): “Shops for day-old bread and year-old manuscripts.”

Why does it matter if a book is published by a small-press publisher, large publisher or subsidy or vanity publisher, or self-published? If you look at book review pages in a newspaper or magazine, about 95% of the reviews are for books from large publishers. The media pretty much ignores any other publishers unless they hit the big time, like the originally self-published The One Minute Manager, or The Christmas Box. Same thing for bookstores: most of their books come from large publishers. If newspapers, magazines or bookstores are the only places you look for books and reviews, you’re missing a whole lot of books out there.

Online, it’s a different story. If you’re looking for a book on a particular topic, you could happen upon a small press book in your Google search, or in your search at Amazon.com. If you go to a book review web site like this one, you’ll probably find reviews for a variety of books (although the really large sites usually only have book reviews for books from really large publishers).

I don’t really pay attention to who publishes the book, at least initially. If I read a couple of stinkers, and they come from the same publisher, I’ll avoid that publisher. Some of my favorite fiction and nonfiction books come from small presses and self-publishers. Then again, some are from the large publishers. I find the small presses tend to publish fiction that defies niches and marketing slots. Nonfiction tends to cover areas that aren’t necessarily trendy, but necessary to a specific group of people. Of course, there are those exactly like books from large publishers.

If I’m trying to decide between a couple of books, I’ll go with a publisher I’m familiar with, one I trust to deliver what I look for in a book – no matter what type of publisher it is. I use the publisher as a type of branding.

So, who’s publishing the books you read? Do you know? Does it make a difference to you? Leave your feedback in Open Mic.