Interview: Kristopher Young / Another Sky Press

"Art for all, regardless of disposable income."



Radiohead's move last year to release In Rainbows initially as a digital download only and allow fans to pay what they wished, was heralded as revolutionary, a fascinating experiment that called into question the role record labels would play in a digital world. Dogmatika talks to Another Sky Press, Oregonian publishers who have been asking the same of its readers for a couple of years.

Susan Tomaselli: How does Another Sky Press work?

Kristopher Young: We make all of our releases available for free online while at the same time selling high quality hard copy versions 'at cost plus optional contribution'—that is, with no built in profit. That way, our customers can decide a fair price for our books. Readers can also contribute if they read the book online without buying a copy.

On the other side, Another Sky Press gives back 100 per cent of profits as royalties to the authors, artists, and others involved in a project. Another Sky Press only gets a share if an individual who gets a royalty decides to 'tip back' some of what they made to the press. Anything that Another Sky Press does make is used to produce new books and promote our existing releases. More on the whys and hows can be found here.


Kristopher Young, author of Click and founder of Another Sky Press

ST: How long has Another Sky Press been going, and why did you set it up?

KY: We've been going strong for about two years. At the time Click was ready to go to press, no traditional publisher meshed with my beliefs and Another Sky Press was my solution. I'm a firm believer in putting ideas into action—and not settling for whatever is out there simply because it's easier. If I had went with a traditional press for Click, I'm not sure I'd have ever forgiven myself. I have a lot of hope for this world and, as Mahatma Ghandhi stated, "Be the change you want to see in the world".

The philosophy behind ASP was the result of years of thought on many intertwined subjects. It was my goal to remove as many barriers to experiencing and enjoying our authors and artists as possible while at the same time providing a fair way for the creator(s) to be recompensed for their work. I wanted a system that was as pure as possible—idealism in action— one that had safeguards in place to avoid many pitfalls common to any 'business' venture. For example, we make our exact costs of production transparent to our customers and allow the customer to effectively set their own price. Furthermore, the entire book is available for free online so people know exactly what they're getting. As a result of these different principles, readers are able to buy our books at a price they find fair and affordable and it's literally impossible for us to ever rip someone off. Providing our books online also allows people who can't afford our low base prices to still read our books (assuming they can get online)—art for all, regardless of disposable income.



ST: Is Another Sky Press a collective?

KY: We don't really have a set structure, but I suppose Another Sky Press is run as a loose collective by default—anyone/everyone involved has a say on the projects they work on, and we want everyone involved to be happy with the direction of the press. If someone doesn't want to work on a specific project, they simply don't (though thankfully that has never been an issue) and if we ever ran into a situation where someone had a serious issue with a project we'd most likely not take that project on. We want everyone to feel part of something special.


ST: And what is neo-patronage?

KY: Neo-patronage is a merit-based way of reimbursing an author for their work. Essentially, it means that each individual audience member (the reader) can contribute to the author if they wish. This is how the author makes money—many people who like a book contributing to their ability. A contributor is not only thanking an author for the book they've already read (or are about to read), but is helping to finance the author in creating new works.

This differs tremendously from traditional patronage in which a rich patron would fund an artist to create a specific work. By spreading contributions over an entire readership, the artist can stay true to their own vision, beholden to no single donor. There is no longer need for a rich patron either—even a dollar or two goes a long way.


Detail from Click

ST: ASP makes its books available for free. Do you find that people donate after reading?

KY: Some do, and I'm sure some don't—we don't track how many people read our books online. Just because someone downloaded the PDF doesn't mean they have read it yet, and even if they did, they may have ended up buying a hard copy from some other distributer. Or, they may have convinced ten friends to buy the book. We go on a simple principle: if someone downloads one of our books and takes the effort to read it that means they're almost certainly a fan. That's valuable to us regardless of donation—readership is more important than profit.

We're always getting emails from grateful fans who read our books online.  Based on their testimony, they often end up buying a copy (or multiple copies to give away), or contributing, or, if they can't afford that, pointing their friends in our direction.

ST: How successful is ASP in this regard?

KY: Despite not knowing any sort of deeper statistics, I'd say we're very successful. People do contribute after reading the book online. People do tell their friends. We've had people buy a book, and come back to contribute even more once they've read it. Click's success, for example, has been based almost completely on word of mouth. It's garnered a lot of great reviews—including the one on your site!—and achieved other recognition, such as being the Book Club selection on Chuck Palahniuk's official website, The Cult.


Drawings from Jesse Reno's Outside the Lines

ST: Do you know of anything similar to Another Sky Press?

KY: Not really. There are certainly some people starting to make digital copies of their work available for contribution, such as Radiohead's recent 'pay what you want' system. We've talked with a couple of other authors—Cory Doctorow and Roger Williams come to mind—who have released their free digital versions of their books into the wild. However, we've yet to come across anyone selling hard copies at cost...but we're looking forward to the day we do. We don't want to be the only people out here doing this—we want to show that it is a viable method of distribution. If anyone reading this knows of any more examples let us know—we're all about spreading the word.

ST: What do you think of Radiohead's recent move in making their album (almost) free?

KY: It's absolutely fantastic. I've long wondered why already successful artists don't explore ideas like this. At Another Sky Press we've always had the added major hurdle of relative obscurity—that is, in addition to a radical paradigm our artists and authors are struggling to get known. We've been fortunate this has been going well—as mentioned, Click has received quite a bit of positive attention and is definitely building a fan base, Jesse Reno's art career has been sky-rocketing. Every artist (musician, writer, painter) needs to obtain a degree of notoriety in order to become financially independent, regardless of the path they take to get there. The recognition that Radiohead has goes a long way in getting these types of pro-artist/pro-audience ideas out there, and that can only be a good thing.

---

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Susan Tomaselli is the editor of Dogmatika as well as a contributing editor to 3:AM Magazine, where she writes on comics.