Multivalent Press is an agile, growing publishing concern.
Who are we, and why do we exist?
A micro publishing house is defined as one that releases fewer than twenty-four titles per year. Multivalent Press fits that description. At the time of this writing, we have published four titles, and are on track to publish three to five more by the end of calendar year 2025.
We are not a vanity press. For this discussion, we will define “vanity press” as a press that will publish any work for a fee. That is not who we are. We are discerning in the projects we take on, and we marshal resources according to project merit.
The publishing industry is going through a lot of changes. The traditional publishing market is and has been dominated by the “big 5” companies. There are voices saying book publishing is spiraling down to oblivion, but we believe that is a “glass almost empty” world view, and we disagree. people are always going to be hungry for good books to read.
It is undeniable that in the last thirty years, the industry has seen disruptive advances in technology. The phenomenon of “On Demand” publishing has changed the industry in a fundamental way. It might be the biggest shakeup since Heir Gutenberg invented his printing press in 1436. Prior to the On Demand (ODP) phenomenon, having books printed was only practical if you went through an established printing house, and broad distribution was out of the question unless you could get a major distributor to take on your project.
This barrier to entry served to filter what was printed. Because of how difficult and expensive it was to fix an error, writings were scrutinized before the printer started setting the printing blocks. Not that everything printed in the old days was good. Far from it. But there was a bar that had to be cleared. And the unfortunate, shadow side of the industry was that not all good books made it to print.
When you hear the stories of today’s greatest writers, most of whom were rejected by dozens of publishers before they finally got a deal, it seems almost certain that there have been masterpieces that slipped through the cracks, and never made it into the hands of the reading public. It is reported that many of Isaac Asimov’s works faced such opposition that they never were printed, and were eventually lost.
With today’s technology, those barriers no longer exist. Anyone can publish a book in an afternoon, and based on the disparity of quality found in self published works, it would seem that some people are actually doing that. Many self-published books are rife with misspellings and poor grammar. Writers who market ill-conceived and poorly executed work on the internet are doing real damage to an otherwise beautiful opportunity for writers everywhere.
Far too many self published “books” are essentially rough drafts that were rushed to print. Because of a complete disregard, rather disrespect for quality, public respect for self publishing is lagging well behind the technological curve. There is a persistent stigma attached to being a self-published author.
The advent of AI is compounding this problem. Some people are flooding the market with “books” which are spit out quickly by AI, with varying degrees of follow-up editing. AI is an amazing technology, and will be even more so in days to come. We here at Multivalent Press are of the opinion it will never be able to replace the spark of human creative genius. That does not mean it won’t someday get good enough to push a lot of human authors off of the edge of the table. We believe AI, like every other technology ever invented, is here to stay. Once a genie is out of the bottle, time spent trying to stuff it back in is time wasted. Those who don’t learn how to use AI will be run over by AI. Our approach at this micro publishing house is to utilize AI to the fullest extent we can, without sacrificing the human creative genius that makes books special.
We use AI extensively for doing market research, to help us determine the optimum way to position our books in the market. AI may also be used for doing research during the writing process. We use AI-assisted editing software. We use AI to help us produce marketing materials that will be competitive with books put out by larger houses. However, we don’t use AI to produce content, and aren’t interested in publishing books that were produced by AI. AI can be a highly effective tool in the book production process, but we prefer to work exclusively with human authors.
We would like to acknowledge that in spite of a flood of low-quality books on the market, there are very fine works being published using the ODP process. It is a shame that those authors working hard to produce quality material are burdened with the stigma produced by those who are simply being lazy. That is not meant to sound unkind. But seriously, if an author loves a story enough to take publish it, why would that author neglect to put in the effort to tell the story well, and present it in a form that makes it accessible to a discerning reader?
Multivalent Press was created in an attempt to bridge the chasm which exists between the big publishing houses, who seem to pride themselves on being utterly unapproachable, and the on demand publishers who are literally willing to publish anything, regardless of the quality of the manuscript.
We feel it makes sense to utilize the convenience of on-demand technology. Far too many authors have found themselves stuck with a garage full of molding books they couldn’t get rid of. Even the Big 5 publishing houses shred thousands of books every year. Production on demand just makes sense. But the convenience of ODP services does not excuse polluting the market with shoddy, sub-standard books. Balance is achievable. Good books should be published, and quality should be respected. That is the philosophy we are striving to uphold at Multivalent Press. There is evidence that our approach is working. Our work has received multiple awards for quality.
Our Mission
We offer an outlet for the voice of independent authors. We are selective about the authors we work with, but we do not want to erect impossible barriers to talented people. We insist upon top-shelf quality, as this is key in opening the broader market to independent authors. We utilize the cutting-edge printing and marketing tools, and hire the services of experienced industry professionals where they are needed. We negotiate flexible terms with authors, so that both the author and the publishing imprint have the best chance of realizing profits. Using this approach, we strive to deliver reading materials to readers, with quality that rivals traditional publishing houses..