Printing Information Unique to IFB Publishing

One of many factors that makes Demokratia unique is that each copy is handmade by the author. I print and handle every last page (all 563 of them), then trim, score, glue, bind, and press each copy into a physical paperback with my own two hands. It takes about two and a half hours to make a single copy. Hardly efficient by 21st century standards. Why might someone do this, you ask? Besides the fact that it makes me feel like a master wizard crafting his own spellbooks, here is how I arrived at this point:

Throughout the writing of Demokratia, I thought that when I was done I’d send it off to an agent, who’d send it off to a publisher, and then in some magical moment I’d be set for life. Research suggested, however, that I wouldn’t be able to choose the cover of my own book, and I would be more or less left to do my own marketing as a complete unknown and nobody. It also involved a whole lot of sitting around and waiting for the approval of others, and so, being someone who prefers active protagonists, I decided to research other, more proactive avenues of publication.

The self-publishing world sure was interesting to look at from the outside. I could pay someone to edit my work, pay someone to do the cover, and pay someone to promote it on social media. If I didn’t know where to start, I could pay someone to teach me in a course designed specifically for unsigned authors like me! I could let big corporations like Amazon leech off my profits by hosting it on their generous platform that is so clearly designed with the self-publishing author first in mind! I never knew writers needed so many services! So many services that... I could just do myself. After a while every single website, offer, and marketing promotion only made me feel like I wasn’t ready or good enough as I am, which I knew was decidedly untrue; I had finished writing a novel, after all.

At this point I was starting to think that if there was any industry where it made sense for the employees to own the means of production, it would be book publishing. This is what self-publishing seemed to offer when the craze first took off, but I feel like a bunch of service-providers and middlemen swooped in and defined the landscape before people could take the idea all the way—because how dare authors move in on publisher’s territory and take profits away from them. With the current enshittification (I love that that’s the official term now) of the internet and unregulated deluge of AI generated garbage, I believe the time is ripe to propose a new model for independent authorship that centers not only on self-publication, but self-printing as well.

The process came to me much like my stories do. It’s a small, imperfect set-up, but it’s my own, and infinitely scalable with my ambition. There’s still a million kinks to work out, and I’m funding my paper expenses through plasma donations, but what else would I be doing right now? Sitting by the phone waiting for an agent to call back and validate my ego? Working a soul-crushing day job to pay a bunch of other people to do minor services I’m perfectly capable of doing? I would much rather be learning new skills and working with my hands to manipulate the physical matter of this universe into vessels that capture my constantly red-lining imagination so that I can share it with others.

All this is to say paperback copies will be available in limited quantities while I’m just starting out. I plan to produce at least ten a week and add them to the online store inventory every Monday. Between batches, however, I do have an infinite supply of eBooks to sell, the profits of which will be directly invested into more effective and efficient printing and binding capabilities. In theory, it should be an upward spiral from here as long as I stoke the fire and put in the work to market this venture. It From Bit Publishing’s goal is to be at a level of mass production by the time I finish my next book.

Head on over to the store to pre-order a 100% independently produced first print edition of Demokratia, the adventure of a lifetime. Own something made with love and care, and be happy.

-pb

Oh, and also: If you have any specific questions or would like a more in-depth overview of my process, feel free to email me. I'd love to share, and I'm always open to others' feedback.