Revolutionaries showcases the power of small publishing
That’s the power of a small publisher; anything is possible.
— Wallea Eaglehawk.
The CEO of Revolutionaries, Wallea Eaglehawk, joined The Tiny List Fest to discuss small publishers and launch I Am ARMY: It’s Time to Begin on December 9. Eaglehawk discussed how the independent Australian publishing company developed from the difficult experience she had in trying to publish a book that mixed literature and social theory, within the traditional publishing industry. Upon realizing that there were likely to be other people experiencing the same issue, she created a platform to help promote these unique voices.
The Brunei local literary festival featured a panel of three guests who took part in the How to: Small Publishers Panel and “I Am ARMY” Booklaunch event. Robert Wood from the Centre for Stories, Wallea Eaglehawk from Revolutionaries, and Amir Muhammad from Buku Fixi discussed the importance of small publishers, entering the industry, and maintaining relevance in a highly competitive field.
Wood explained that small publishing can be viewed in terms of both publishing a limited number of books and/or being virtually any publisher that exists alongside industry giants such as Penguin Random House. This notion of ‘small’ creates its own community of people that are often much more dedicated to seeing independent publishers and authors thrive.
“It allows for subcultures, lifestyles — niche aspects — and they may be in genre terms like horror, romance, or sci-fi or whatever to influence what gets published at the level of the art,” Wood said. “That’s enabled by the ecosystem.”
The support for small publishing brought up a focal point, which is knowing how far audience reach truly goes. Muhammad mentioned his disinterest in international markets because it typically angles for the Anglophone hegemony, or the Westernised white consumer. Instead, he looks to focus national markets; for his company Buku Fixi, that means keeping his sights on Malaysia and nearby countries, instead of Western markets.
“They’re not the only readers out there,” Muhammad said. “For example in Malaysia, and also in Brunei, we have Indonesia next door where the language is mostly similar…”
While analyzing the market, the panel discussed the print book versus ebook debate, a contentious topic frequently talked about in the publishing and reader community. They agreed that ebooks provide greater access due to the price, but print books are generally preferred for the format. Eaglehawk pointed out that ebooks could be made luxurious in the same way print books feel then it would be potentially more enticing to the reader.
The publications themselves were discussed as each panelist spoke about balancing editing work and the importance of keeping author voices as their own.
“If the work is written in first person voice, it is very important to maintain that voice,” Muhammad said.
These unique voices are often drastically changed in large publishing. Small publishing is much more open to maintaining POC languages and generational speaking patterns. Small publishing allows for less traditional styles, Woods added.
The work of Eaglehawk and Revolutionaries particularly applies to this category of less traditional style with the imprint Bulletproof. This imprint focuses on BTS, the South Korean boy group taking over the world. The staff, which is built by fans known as ARMY, work to retake their narrative through online articles on Medium and published works such as I Am ARMY.
During the book launch in the second half of the event, Eaglehawk discussed how she was inspired to publish I Am ARMY from her own journey in becoming an empowered fan. The book, published on September 13, features a collection of eight autoethnographic essays from nine ARMY spanning five countries. The overall message is that the ARMY experience is the human experience, and that the personal might just be political after all; everyone is connected, and no one is alone, ARMY or not.
Feminist scholar and contributor to I Am ARMY, Keryn Ibrahim, joined the discussion and added that BTS’ fandom is global and diverse, which allows for creativity to grow and coordinated efforts to develop organically.
“They serve as a platform sort of to get into other issues. This is because the fandom is so vast,” Ibrahim explained.
Mentioned were the ARMY subsets on Twitter dedicated to professional development, research, literary works, charity projects, and more. In explaining these, it shows the genuine community and experience created among fans.
A reading from I Am ARMY provoked thoughts on the value of sharing stories from fans that showcase these experiences. Ibrahim explained that there are two types of data: numbers and deep data. While numeral data shows things that can be quantified, deep data provides connections to others.
“Everybody has a unique experience. No two people have the same kind of story,” Ibrahim said.
But I think that even if everybody has their own unique experience, there’s always someone else out there who can relate to it.
There is beauty in how small publishing provides a unique experience to raise up voices that would otherwise not be heard and allow them to connect with like-minded individuals. Whether it be fandom or otherwise, small publishers are helping to change the publishing industry one voice at a time.
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Full panel replay can be found on the Young Entrepreneurs & Leaders Speaker Series Facebook Page.
