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I first heard about Lost the Plot Creative at a panel on small presses at the London Book Fair when a familiar voice in the audience asked a question to the panel. I ran into Sam Dolan later that same day, recognising her from my time at Lancaster University whilst completing my BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. It was a pleasure to hear all about her small press. This is the second part of our conversation.

Emily: What are the biggest challenges facing small presses like yours?

Photo of Sam Dolan, wearing a Lost the Plot Creative Hoodie.

Sam: Money is always going to be a challenge. The unit price of producing books is going up and obviously there’s much more scrutiny on things because of the AI controversies that keep happening. But I’m not so concerned about AI, not in that sense. I think my biggest concern is reaching the authors I’m trying to help. If I stay really small, I don’t know how they’ll find me, if I get too big, I can’t do the thing that I want to do. There’ll be a tipping point somewhere.

Finding authors, especially diverse authors is so difficult, uncomfortably difficult. Most of the time, when I walk into a room, I don’t see people who look like me. So that was one thing I loved about the London Book Fair, that there were rooms where I wasn’t the minority. I would love to be able to show people that not everyone in positions of power in this industry all look the same. But also, that you won’t just get published because you happen to be a black writer. 

It’s trying to even out the playing field and get more people who feel like it doesn’t belong to them to show that it does. It belongs to all of us, we just need the courage to take it. There was a nice panel at LBF, where one of the authors said, ‘freedom looks like writing whatever the hell I want’. That’s what I want Lost the Plot to be. Just tell me your stories, I can give you a platform. I’m a science fiction writer and it has nothing to do with the colour of my skin, I just like writing things in space.

So that’s the dream and it’s also the hurdle. I do think because it’s hard, we make it harder as well. I think there’s the idea that the table’s small and there’s not enough space for everyone, but you could just make a bigger table. I didn’t want to spend any more energy trying to convince people, so I’ve just made my own adjacent table.

Emily: Why do you think small presses are important in the publishing ecosystem?

Image of Lost the Plot Creative’s premises.

Sam: They are vital because you need a space where you can make mistakes. You need to be able to write the book, have it not gone well, and it is not the end. It’s exciting to get a big fat advance but that money’s not free, it’s leveraged. If they don’t get it back, the big presses have no incentive to keep going with you. Whereas with a small press, the money is less of a motivator. We’re doing this out of love of the craft, personal ambition, and as blue sky dreamers. 

So if we publish something of yours and let’s say we’ve got 300 copies of it and at the end of the day, we still have 250. It’s not ideal, but it’s not, in theory, going to break the bank. We can try again. There’s an agility to a small press that the big ones just don’t have. 

Who opens the door if it’s not a small press?

Emily: How does it feel to be a part of the small press community?

Sam: I hadn’t realised I had. I’m used to things being so competitive and cutthroat. I had prepared myself for having to battle through. But it was an absolutely incredible feeling to be walking around with other small presses at LBF. At a panel on small presses when I explained how young my business was, there was an outpouring of support from people. I’ve had so many calls, emails, and meetings with other small presses giving advice. It’s just been brilliant. Then I’ve offered to edit their books in turn. It just feels like we’re all growing in the same direction and if one of us wins, we all win. Cipher Press’ Jack Thompson offered to mentor me and has been so incredibly generous with his time and expertise. Now all I want to do is pay it forward.

Emily: Do you have any favourite small presses you’d like to recommend?

Sam: Obviously Jack Thompson’s Cipher Press is really cool. Bold Wren Press is also another press based in Edinburgh not far from me, she’s been so generous with her time too. There’s a Sci-fi press based in Scotland, Lunar Press Publishing, I met her at Publishing Scotland. It’s been so exciting to watch what they’re doing.

Sam is open to hearing from writers. You can find her on:

Instagram: @lost.theplotcreative

Facebook: @Lost the Plot Creative

Website: https://www.losttheplotcreative.co.uk