Beginning a Good Thing
Brown Hound Press launched two months ago. To date, we have published nine stories by authors who hail from all over the world, including several regions within the United States (Pacific Northwest, Northeast, California, Indiana, and my home state of Kentucky), as well as other countries like Canada, Kenya, and India.
Some of our authors are reasonably well-known. Some have placed their first publication ever with Brown Hound.
The press started as a simple project, a testing of the waters to see if an appetite existed for the kind of short stories I hoped to publish. Well, 740 submissions and more than 30,000 website visits later, I think it’s safe to say readers and writers are hungry.
Our readership has grown fast. Already–just eight weeks in–we host thousands of readers on our website every week. Some come to read the work of others and some to submit their own stories. As I write this post, our Instagram has just crossed 1,600 followers and we have more than 1,000 subscribers to our weekly email.
I am overwhelmed and encouraged by the reception Brown Hound Press has received in the literary community. It is a great honor to learn that the stories I’ve curated have also impacted so many of you. And I know our writers appreciate your support. We all clearly have good taste!
Future Publication Schedule
Now that we know we’re onto something, it’s time to think about building a sustainable model that will last for years to come. To that end, we are developing a publication schedule that will work like television seasons. The plan is to publish twenty stories in our first season.
When the first season concludes, we will take a publication break for 6-8 weeks, after which we will come back for Season Two. The goal is to keep everything fresh for the readers (and for your friendly editor).
We have 17 of those 20 stories for Season One. In a few weeks, we will reopen to submissions and find three more stories to close out the first season.
Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email or follow us on social media to learn when submissions reopen. Thank you for reading and for supporting a small press that strives to 1) treat authors fairly, and 2) help readers find great stories. If you are so inclined, please share your favorite stories with your friends.
-Josh Boldt, Editor
PS. We recently had great coverage in the Kentucky Arts magazine Undermain. If you have a website, blog, or podcast, and would like to cover Brown Hound Press, give us a holler. We would love to collaborate.
