Greetings this Imolic Season! (Lammas for the Southern Hemispherers)
Imbolc highlights the first stages of spring. Time is potent with the rising energy of the Earth, and we can use this to bring forth our inner wisdom and inspiration to plant the seeds of our future growth. It is the season of continuing hibernation and restful winter days while exploring our inner landscapes and planning for the future.
In this year of my 33 solar return, I have BIG NEWS that may or may not be unknown to you. I heard the call to start a publishing company in the spring of 2022. While the idea resonated with me, it was a pretty scary goal, and I had no idea where to begin. Fast forward to today. I have received more clarity around the vision, and I'm ready to step in to start building the foundation.
Fire + Honey Press is a digital publishing company and creative studio that fosters community collaboration by publishing digital narratives in written, audio, and visual formats. The mission of Fire + Honey Press is to provide a platform for individuals to share their unique stories and voices, challenging existing genres and systems to create greater belonging and liberation for all. The company aims to create a brave and inclusive space for co-collaborators to share good medicine through all aspects of its platform.
A digital publishing honeycomb creating toward collective liberation.
What are my reasons for choosing to start transitioning out of traditional publishing and building my own formal creative space?
I have a few:
Most publishing companies, especially the big five, decide whether to take a title based heavily on profit. Does, in their eyes, the product have mass audience appeal? With certainty, I know that limitless amounts of brilliant creations get turned down or never even viewed because of the systemic nature of the industry. We must acknowledge that the current systems of any space and field are long overdue for critique and revamp. While there has been some change in terms of diversifying in the publishing industry, in terms of what is being published, the percentage terms of BIPOC offers and interest by traditional publishers has decreased even since 2020. This knowledge and the stats solidify the importance of doing something different in the industry.
Secondly, if you know my work, I have two children's books centered around the environment, being an eco-activist and an environmentalist. Most routes currently in the publishing industry aren't doing business centered around sustainable and regenerative environmental ideals, being centered on profit and ensuring that they produce in a way that generates the most income. While it hasn't been an easy feat, I have been working to move away from Amazon and companies that are doing business in ways that I don't believe in, and that's not to say that I don't slip up and make mistakes or take the easy route occasionally but in building my own creative space in my own publishing company I know that I can actively be producing literature and media in a way that is aligned with my belief of voting with your dollar. Again, while this isn't a perfect transition because I started my author career early now in a way that doesn't allow me to have that control, I hear the call clearly to make an active change in that way. Simple Switch and Grandma's Baby Apothecary have inspired me, along with all of the creators I follow doing small batch production and flourishing lean successfully in regenerative and sustainable production systems. I want to build chances in the community that existing spaces may not welcome redemption or be deemed unsafe due to mass market demands and appeal.
I want to build spaces that support and serve, creating, developing, designing, and making through decolonizing and indigenizing the community toward the liberation of all. I hear the call for community united in disrupting the creative industry through good trouble.
Though I am describing Fire + Honey Press as a publishing company and studio, I know it will be so much more than that. Literature and media are where its ground roots will begin.
For my birthday, I am requesting financial support towards this big dream that I am working to make a reality.
I am currently sitting in deep gratitude for the magic I am being called to put out into the world as a creative,
Big Love,
Nyasha