State of the Press, March 2020 edition

Rediscovery a smash hit

Hello from sunny San Diego!

When we began Journey Press early last year, we had high hopes. Our goal was not only to bring back some of the forgotten classics of science fiction’s Silver Age, but also to encourage new voices in the genre. Our focus is on marginalized voices: women, persons of color, LGTBQIA+, and so on.

To that end, our flagship release was Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963)… and boy did that turn out better than expected!

As we speak, Rediscovery is in 300 bookstores from coast to coast, and sales are accelerating. I suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised; the 14 stories in Rediscovery are some of the best of the Silver Age, and anthologies of women-penned work are woefully rare. TOR.com recently listed Rediscovery as one of the 12 must-read books from 2019. If you haven’t gotten yourself a copy yet, or if you have friends who might want one (it makes a great gift for Women’s History Month), go ahead and buy one!

And if you’ve read Rediscovery, we hope you love it so much you’ll want to leave a review. 🙂

Old Masters sign on with Journey Press

It is our great honor and privilege to announce that Journey Press will be working with Hugo Finalist and SF veteran Tom Purdom to bring back his classic, I Want the Stars. We chose to bring back this particular book for several reasons. For one, it is a timeless work, with a unique vision of the human condition nearly a thousand years from now. For another, it may well be the first science fiction novel ever to explicitly star a Black man. That’s unusual for today, forget 1964. Finally, it’s just a great book. It comes out in June.

Also, we are bowled over with delight to announce our collaboration with Robin Brown, son of the late, great Rosel George Brown. Ms. Brown was one of science fiction’s brightest lights from the mid ’50s until her untimely death in 1967 (two of her best stories are in Rediscovery). Just before she passed away, she wrote Sibyl Sue Blue, the novel that features the first galactic woman space cop. If ever there were a genre we need to have more books in, it’s that one!

Look for Sibyl Sue Blue next year, timed to coincide with coverage of the book at Galactic Journey.

New Talent on the Horizon

In less than three weeks, we will be releasing Kitra, our first work of new fiction. It’s already gotten some great advance reviews, and we think it’ll be a hit. Well, we hope so: there are nine more planned books in the series! Don’t worry, though. Kitra stands alone.

We’re particularly excited about this release, not only because it’s a revival of the space adventure yarns of the mid-20th Century (think Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton), but it also features illustrations by the talented Lorelei E. Marcus. Last, but certainly not least, Kitra has a queer woman of color as its protagonist — again, something we think there should be more of!

Kitra comes out on March 16.

And toward the end of the year, we’ll be releasing another new title, The Eighth Key. It’s a brilliant high fantasy gay romance (another genre that… well, you get the idea) with a richly developed world and a smoldering relationship between the two protagonists.

Things to Come

Journey Press is committed to releasing several new titles every year. 2020 is already shaping up to be incredible. You can look forward to even more amazing works on the horizon for 2021.

But for us to realize this success, we need your help. You’ve all been so supportive and helpful, making Rediscovery one of the hits of 2020.

Here’s what you can do to ensure we can keep this up:

• Spread the word. In social media. In person. Let your friends know about us and the works we make.
• Buy our books in e-book and physical form.
• Leave reviews on our site, Goodreads, and even Amazon.
• Ask your local library (public, college, or both!) to carry copies.
• Get copies from your local independent bookstore — and if they don’t have any, ask them to carry it!

With your help, Journey Press will become one of the leading small presses in the nation, nay, the world!

From the bottoms of our hearts, thank you. Here’s to the next several years!

Gideon