Minds of the Press, Vol. 10

Travis Dunn of MidWorld Press

MidWorld Press is a relative newcomer to the small press world and released their first batch of published works in 2021. Since then, Travis Dunn, has continued to introduce a stream of interesting authors in wonderful productions that have been consistently high value when compared to the price tag. MidWorld focuses on areas of genre fiction such as fantasy, science fiction, horror and crime, but Travis is always looking for engaging stories within this space that challenge and cause people to think about something larger than the narrative itself. We are fortunate that Travis took the time out of his busy schedule to give us a little peek into the day-to-day of MidWorld Press.

Q: It is great to finally chat with you after talking about this for quite some time now. Can you tell us a little bit about the internal process you went through when contemplating MidWorld Press? Where did you get your love of small press books from? What were some of the more memorable stages in the development of the imprint?

Thanks for this opportunity, Zach. I’ve been reading the other interviews you’ve done and I think they’re great. It’s been nice to hear from other press owners about their experience with this stuff.

Dust Jacket Illustration - Those Across The River

I got into small press books accidentally. Years ago, I would be checking out books on the site of the Great God Amazon and would find these beautiful hardcover books of titles that I love. Older books by authors like Peter Straub and John Farris but also newer books (at the time) by John Scalzi and Steven Erikson. I’d buy them, read them, go nuts over the artwork inside, and then I would go to the publisher’s website to see what else they had published. That was how I found out about presses like Subterranean, Cemetery Dance, Centipede, etc.

Q: So, it sounds like you were a collector well before you were a press owner, what were your favorite genres/presses to collect? Who do you currently look up to in the small press industry?

I started out buying books from Subterranean Press, Cemetery Dance, and Centipede Press. I still love the books that they put out, they’ve just gotten better and better; we hope to have MidWorld follow suit. In the past few years, I’ve discovered Earthling, SST, PS Publishing, Dark Regions, and, of course, Suntup; again, all great publishers who I’m still learning things from in the realm of specialty publishing.

Q: MidWorld is a wonderful press name and brings to mind images of The Dark Tower series for me personally, but also shares its name with a book by Alan Dean Foster set in his Commonwealth Universe. Where did you draw inspiration for the name?

Yes, I love the Dark Tower books. That’s where the name originated but at the time, I also thought it brought to mind other book/story-related connotations: Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and Midgard from Norse mythology.

Front Board for The Library at Mount Char

Q: I’m sure that you spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of genres you wanted to publish and the specifications of the actual published works. Small press publishing is a more crowded space today than it was ten years ago, did you look at the landscape of what other presses offer and see something that was missing? What made you focus on the specific areas of genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime) you chose?

So, the genre thing makes me a bit uncomfortable. I know it’s necessary to categorize books en masse, for many different reasons, but I’ve always found that it falls short as a way to describe a lot of individual books. A lot of my favorite books don’t fall into one specific category: is The Dead Zone horror or is it science-fiction? Is John Dies at The End a comedy or cosmic horror or a fucked-up coming-of-age story? Is The Library at Mount Char a horror novel, or fantasy or science fiction? I remember reading Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe; I picked it up because it’s the book that the movie Die Hard is based on. The book’s protagonist is older than John McLain is in the movie, probably in his early or mid-fifties. Not only is the book an action-packed thriller but it’s a bit of a meditation on aging and parenthood (the woman in jeopardy in the book is the main character’s daughter instead of his wife). I thought it was great that the book wasn’t just a thriller, just as the movie Die Hard isn’t just an action movie (and yes, Die Hard is also a Christmas movie). Anyway, to actually answer your question, I’m drawn to books that are considered “genre fiction” but I also want the stories to at least make a pass at talking about something impactful or bring something new to the genre party.

I will say, that the thing I wanted to offer in the small press space was books that are a little more recent. Not that there is anything wrong with the editions of older books that some presses produce; I buy copies of many of them myself. There were just a lot of newer books (I use the term “newer” loosely: books from the last fifteen or twenty years) that I had read that I wanted to see limited editions of.

Q: That makes a lot of sense, we live in a time where there are more choices of new authors and works than ever and so many of them deserve the small press treatment! Walk us through a day in the life of a small press owner. How do you make sure you are moving forward with all the different stages of your projects and is there anyone else on your team that helps make it happen? Is this a side project for you or your main focus? What has surprised you most since you started running MidWorld Press?

A: Oh, man, every day is a new day, at least for me. I still have a full-time day job as well as running the press so I try to work on the MidWorld stuff on breaks, during lunch, and in the evenings. So, I’m answering emails and doing paperwork during the day when I can and at night I do the book layout work, etc. Honestly, the thing that’s surprised me the most is that I’ve actually been able to get this thing off the ground and keep it flying, or at least gliding.

Q: Many modern presses are offering different states of their books, such as numbered and lettered editions, which provides different tiers of quality for collectors. Is this something you plan on doing in the future and what would you see differentiating the various states of each publication if you did?

We’ve been asked this question by quite a few people. MidWorld Press will absolutely offer other tiers for collectors in the future. There are two reasons we haven’t thus far: 1. Experience and 2. Money. I wanted to make sure that the press had enough experience in the publishing/book industry before we started offering books to customers that are going to cost them two or three times as much as our regular offerings. I also want to make sure that we have enough money saved up to be able to afford the up-front costs of having those higher-tier books made. We’re getting there, on both counts, so hopefully it won’t be long.

Interior Illustration from The Blacktongue Thief

Q: One of the main praises I have heard from other collectors relates to the quality of your books versus the price point. You seem to be able to bring beautiful productions to your fans in an affordable range. What allows you to continue to produce new books at reasonable prices and is there anything unique you do that helps keep costs within the budget of people who follow MidWorld?

The biggest reason we are able to keep costs low is that the press isn’t my main source of income. The overhead for MidWorld Press is relatively low, at least right now. That will change in the future if we are able to keep folks interested in buying our books and continue to grow.

Q: Though the press is still very young, MidWorld awareness is rapidly growing within the small press community and it seems to be picking up even more steam with the recent release of the first Black Company book. Can you tell us a bit more about why you chose this book/series specifically and how you went about securing the rights?

The opportunity to produce a limited edition of the first Black Company book was just pure luck. As I mentioned earlier, MidWorld has mostly been looking at fairly recent books to give the signed and limited treatment to. It just happened that the person we have been working with to secure rights at the parent company for Tor books mentioned to me that The Black Company was available for sub-rights. I had read the book years ago and loved it and of course I knew it was a classic forerunner to many of the grimdark fantasy novels and series that we love today. I just felt like it was something I had to at least try for.

Dust Jacket Illustration for The Black Company

Q: I know that I am not alone in wanting someone to tackle this series and hope you continue on well into the series! There seems to be a problem with quality control at many printers over the last two years and MidWorld has been subjected to this along with many other small presses. Obviously, we know that supply chain issues have a part, but what do you see as being other factors that have caused this in the industry? How do you try to navigate this issue when you go about selecting future printers and collaborators?

Yeah, the supply chain issues have definitely been an issue but, I think, more in the sense that it has pushed publication dates farther out and it has been harder to schedule things out very far because everything has been so unpredictable. I see a lot of that starting to subside now, at least a little.

Dust Jacket Illustration from The Library at Mount Char

The quality issues, I feel like, are a different matter. I have a guess on what is causing it, but it’s only a guess and I am completely open to other thoughts and pertinent data on the issue. My guess is that the bigger publishers are a priority with the majority of printers. A company that orders 50,000 or 100,000 copies of hundreds or thousands of books is going to be the main concern for a printer when compared to a company that only orders 400 or 600 copies of a few books. I wonder if that kind of makes specialty press orders kind of an afterthought for printers, especially when you throw in supply chain issues and a reduced workforce; maybe we don’t rate the kind of attention to quality that the bigger hitters do. Again, this is just a guess, I have no actual data to back any of this up. And really, at the end of the day, all we can do is try out a new printer and see what kind of product they put out and how they deal with mistakes. That’s really the biggest thing; everyone makes mistakes, it happens, but it’s how a company deals with it that is really telling.

Q: Every small press publisher has to navigate the space between personal favorites that may be more obscure and titles that are definite sellouts, it’s a delicate balance. You have a wide variety of authors in different genres which hints at the genres you generally enjoy, but who are your favorite writers that you think are at their peak currently? What is it about them that you enjoy and think will last the test of time?

That’s a tough one because there are so many that I enjoy and new ones are cropping up all the time. A short list would include:

Front Board and Spine of Between Two Fires

Laird Barron, Benjamin Percy, Kameron Hurley, Lindsay Ellis, Daryl Gregory, Adam Sternbergh, Lou Berney, Terry Miles, Patrick Lee

I think they all bring something new and different to their stories, whether it’s a subverting of tropes or a fantastic writing style or both.

Q: If rights acquisition and price were not a barrier, what would be some of the top books/series you would like to see under the MidWorld imprint? Why do you think these would be good fits for your press?

Oh, man, I would love to do some really beautiful productions of R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing and Aspect-Emperor series. Also, as weird as it might sound, I love John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport thrillers; it would be awesome to start with the first book, Rules of Prey and keep right on going.

Q: Well, I know at least one person who would go bonkers if you were able to lock down some R. Scott Bakker, as his work really has never got recognition from the small press world. If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of MidWorld Press, what would you hope that it would be?

Dust Jacket Illustration of The Pale Blue Eye

My hope would be that MidWorld Press has brought attention to some authors and books that really deserve it. I want people to say “I was introduced to a great author/book by MidWorld Press.”

Q: What should we be looking forward to next from MidWorld? We know that you have recently released John Dies at the End for preorder and that Pale Blue Eye is coming at some point in the future, but is there anything you can share about what you may be most excited about in the second half of 2023 and beyond?

We’re looking forward to The Atlas of Hell by author Nathan Ballingrud that should be out around the end of the year, we also just announced pre-orders for In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson, coming out at the end of summer this year. Oh, also, The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey is on the roster.

This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Travis for his willingness to participate. If you want to keep up to date with what is going on with MidWorld Press you can check them out at https://www.midworldpress.com/ to see some of their past and current productions. You can also follow them on Facebook to stay on top of what is coming out of this wonderful press.

Interview by: Zach Harney a contributor to the Collectible Book Vault