Poll: Would you buy an inexpensive ISBN from a small press?

Based on your responses so far, we have started offering this service for independent authors and small presses. Purchase single ISBNs for $15 or less, or a block of numbers to save even more at store.egjpress.org/isbn.

We’d still love for you to complete our poll to give us ideas for better meeting your individual needs.

As part of our ongoing mission to find new ways to support writers, we’re exploring the idea of providing a low-cost ISBN option to U.S. authors and poets—both as a way to reduce costs for the ISBNs we use, and as a way to pass along a savings opportunity to the people we support and admire: you!

While Bowker is the only agency that can administer ISBNs to U.S. publishers, we have the ability to manage both the assignment and the imprint for the numbers we purchase.

If you are an independent author or poet, or a small press, we’d love to get some feedback from you to help us determine whether to proceed with this offering!

Press Release

Download this press release in PDF format.

“SPARK: A CREATIVE ANTHOLOGY” PROVIDES A PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR EMERGING AUTHORS & POETS

November 13, 2012 – For Immediate Release

Spark: A Creative Anthology is a quarterly anthology accepting fiction, poetry, and cover art from emerging and established writers.

In a bold move that seems contrary to the trend of online- or eBook-only magazines, each volume of Spark will be published in both print and electronic formats. The intent behind this decision was to underscore the lasting value of the anthology’s featured content.

“My goal was to establish a high-quality, paying market where emerging authors and poets are published alongside respected and established writers,” said Brian Lewis, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Spark.

Lewis continued, “While Spark actively encourages submissions from new writers, regardless of age, we are looking for quality writing and artwork across all genres—from professionals and amateurs alike. We set the bar high to encourage young writers to excel, and to maintain a publication to which established professionals are excited to submit.”

And writers are, in fact, excited to submit their work for consideration. Spark allowed its first unsolicited manuscripts in September, 2012; in sixty days, the editors have received nearly 250 submissions across varied genres and skill levels.

Spark has confirmed contributions from Todd Walton, author of Inside Moves, and John Stocks, a Mariner-award-winning poet from the UK. Traci Gourdine, the well-known poet from Davis, CA, currently chairs the Creative Writing Department at the California State Summer School for the Arts and will write the introduction to the inaugural volume. Margaret Dilloway, an alumna of CSSSA and author of How To Be an American Housewife and The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns, is currently completing a solicited short story for inclusion in the anthology.

Besides these established authors and poets, Spark has accepted work from several talented writers whose work has never been professionally published.

Spark: A Creative Anthology invites global participation in the ongoing project in any or all of the following ways:

  1. Share! The most direct path to the project’s success is to make sure the authors and readers who will benefit most are aware of the opportunity.
  2. Support! Be a partner in the endeavor and support talented writers by backing the project at http://SparkAnthology.org/support. Great rewards from art prints to personal critiques on fiction & poetry are available to patrons of Spark: A Creative Anthology.
  3.  Contribute! Spark welcomes fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and cover art proposals. Detailed submission guidelines can be found at http://SparkAnthology.org.

About Brian Lewis

Brian Lewis is an active member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, an alumnus of the California State Summer School for the Arts in Creative Writing, and a Senior Software Engineer working on a Master of Science degree in Information Security and Assurance.

About Spark

Spark: A Creative Anthology is administered and published by the Empire & Great Jones Creative Arts Foundation, a registered non-profit corporation with pending 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Additional details are online at http://SparkAnthology.org/about.