Help! For Small Press People

Robert J. Sawyer is a Toronto-based free-lance writer.

Help! is a booklet made of 8½ x 11 inch pages folded in half and centre-stapled. It’s amateurishly produced, which is appropriate for its subject matter: Help! is a reprint collection of question-and-answer columns from The Small Press Review. The columns cover such topics as distribution, printing, and mailing of self-published works of fiction and criticism. The answers to questions about word processing are somewhat dated. The book is aimed not at a general audience, but rather at those in the know — the tightly knit subculture of people engaged in amateur publishing. Indeed, Help! begins in the middle of an on-going argument between editor Clifton and one of the contributors to his small press offerings.

The writing is spirited and the insights into the mechanics of self-publishing are delightful.