Falschrum is interested in movement, personal or cultural, whether through changes in life, place, or language. We publish books in which verbal and visual modes of communication resonate, inviting readers to rethink the encounter between the one and the other. All Falschrum books are collaborative, connecting authors, artists, and designers. We are hands-on editors, and are committed to developing collaborations that support the form and content of each book we produce, making book-objects that exceed any one individual’s initial imagination. Because of the dialogue and support that is necessary for this process, each book tends to take more time than a conventional publishing or self-publishing process.

Most of our books are solicited, or come from our close network of contributors (scholars-activists-designers-poets-intellectuals-artists) with shared enthusiasms. We are able to consider submissions of books and book proposals that align closely with our interests, but we are not able to provide full financial support for the production of all our books. Submitting authors should be prepared to secure a subvention that covers the cost of 30–40 % of the book production. Below is a table showing some examples of the production costs of our books, and why a subvention is required.

In some cases, Falschrum may be able to offer advice on applying for funding, or support a crowdfunding campaign by promoting it to our network. There are also moments of reversal, or different logics for funding different projects: if your submission to us becomes a chapter in an edited volume, for example, we may be able to pay an author fee instead of requiring a subvention. We also recognize that access to resources and funding is a privilege not granted to everyone. Our commitment to promoting stereotype-refuting narratives of migration, in particular, compels us to find ways of working through situations of precarity, when we see the need of a book to be made.

If you are interested in submitting to Falschrum, please send us an email explaining briefly why our specific press is a fit for your project, and providing some context for your submission. Make sure to mention:

• if you’re willing to have your work included in an edited volume, or collection of material by various authors and artists, instead of publishing it as a single-author book;

• if you are capable of contributing 30–40 % of the production costs, either through your own funds and networks, a publication grant you have received or are applying for, or a crowdfunding campaign you are willing to organize;

• if you are approaching us, as an individual, a group, or on behalf of an organization, with a publication project that is either fully self-funded, or funded through a grant, and you need a publisher to produce, promote, and distribute your work;

• if you find yourself unable to provide a subvention, and envision your work to be published as a single-author book, with a waiver;

• if you are interested in unconventional/experimental/non-industrial ways of book making, are willing to invest your own time and energy in a publication that requires manual labor, and, if so, whether you have any experience with the crafts this may involve (folding, cutting, sewing, etc.)

Include, as an attachment, either the completed manuscript or a developed proposal including an outline and sample pages. We try to respond to queries within two months.

 

 

 

As you can see from these examples, the retail price of our books is often close to the production costs per copy. Bookstores get a discount of 30–40 % (which is how they survive). This means we sell our books for less than the amount needed to produce them, and even if we sell the entire print run, we will not break even. From our experience, we are unable to produce a book for less than the price mentioned in the first example (chapbook), while maintaining our quality standards. We usespecial materials and production techniques (letterpress/hot foil stamped cover, risograph/screen prints, extra colors, sewn binding, different papers or paper formats), which increases the production costs, but also makes our books unique. The print run of our books normally ranges between 200 and 500 copies, with the exception of our artists editions of 80–100 copies, or edited volumes of up to 1000 copies. The production costs per copy decrease the higher the print run gets, but it is unrealistic that we sell more than these quantities – in other words, we cannot simply produce more books to achieve a better sales margin. We also cannot increase the retail price of our books – then, nobody would buy them anymore.

The difference between the total production costs (which also include the designer’s fee and advertising), and the total revenue (“print run,” multiplied by “revenue per copy”) is the minimum subvention needed. The subvention, which the author is responsible for, is estimated in the last column of the above table.