What is small press and what is Small Press Day?
“Small press” encompasses the worlds of self-publishing, DIY culture and micropublishing – work produced and published either by individuals, creative collectives, or smaller boutique publishers. Small Press Day exists to provide a focused occasion to celebrate that scene and those practitioners who work within it across the UK and Ireland. It’s designed as an event that requires minimal organisation for everyone involved but will ultimately be hugely rewarding for shops, creators, and the small press community.
What are the aims of Small Press Day for stores?
Small Press Day provides shops with a dedicated day to shine a spotlight on the self-published comics and zines they stock and bring some of the local creators responsible for them into their environs for in-store signings and workshops. By building a showcase event around the small press world, it’s hoped that it will attract new readers to that work, raise its profile, and also tempt the existing comics audience to check out some of the next wave of amazing UK and Irish artists and writers. It ultimately provides an exciting opportunity for shops to be the first to discover, platform, and champion local talent ahead of national fairs and conventions.
What are the aims of Small Press Day for creators?
It’s a chance for creators to be the focus of their local shop, meet readers, talk about their work with potential new audiences, sign their comics and take part in workshop-style panels. Small press sections are already a thriving part of many shops, but on Small Press Day we support the community side of the scene by bringing together shops, artists, activists and readers in one big party-style celebration – connecting the local to the national to widen reach as far as possible!
What are the values of Small Press Day?
Small Press Day is built on and driven by anti-oppressive values. What this means in practice is that we actively oppose all forms of oppression including racism, ableism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and any and all discrimination attacking religious beliefs, sexuality, and gender experiences.
We created Small Press Day in a commitment to platform the diverse voices working in small press and we expect all participants to help us meet this commitment. By taking part in Small Press Day, you join a beautiful and growing community that holds our values and commitment as collective values and commitment. This is what Small Press Day stands for. Love not hate.
Therefore, we reserve the right not to promote any content/publications that may be considered inappropriate or harmful to our community. This includes any events that promote the work of artists/writers who are known to hold active views that contest what Small Press Day stands for.
Small Press Day is a trademarked event.