What's New at Picaro Press
December, 2011
Updating the website isn’t all that hard ... once we get stuck into it. Being a bit more conscientious about updates sounds like a fine resolution for the New Year. So does finding a simpler way for our customers to place an order ... too many titles, in too many places. That’s a bit technical, and finding time to concentrate on it has been, shall we say, troublesome. PayPal’s wonderful, but our first priority is fulfilling orders; second is publishing new work, and the many tasks that entails. We’re pretty much on top of the former, and have been assiduous about the latter: new books coming out from Mark O’Flynn, Lucy Dougan and Garth Madsen, and some really fine new chapbooks from Virginia Jealous, Phillip Ellis, Steve Woodbury, Nathanael O’Reilly, Yvonne Petitjean, Cathy Bray, and Kent MacCarter. More on the way, definitely.
Meanwhile, exactly what next years’ books and chapbooks might look like is ... a good question. When Picaro Press was born in 2001, there were three paper wholesalers in the Hunter Region to choose from. As of this month, there are none. Innumerable thanks to Jim and Leanne at Newcastle Fine Paper — they’ve been marvellously inventive and supportive for eleven years. Unfortunately, it’s a very bad time for small businesses across the board. Picaro Press isn’t anywhere near big enough to deal with the major wholesalers, who in any case are based for the most part in Melbourne. There’s OfficeWorks, of course ... but they’re expensive, and choices are limited ... very. We’ll work something out, but it won’t be straightforward, and some changes in the design of our books and chapbooks are likely. In the near term, we don’t expect any price increases, and we’re pretty well stocked up for some months yet. How things will pan out over the next year or so ... we live in interesting times.
Still, next year’s Varuna Publisher Fellowship titles are currently being assessed. We’ve six chapbooks and two new books under construction. Wagtail issues through March are coming together. Hopefully, there’ll be time over the holidays to work on the website (and renovations to the laundry room!). For the moment, though, very best wishes to you all for a truly splendid Christmas, and for all good things throughout 2012!
All the best,
Rob Riel, Picaro Press
