Two Small Publishers' Websites

When I first started to browse book publishers’ websites, I looked at big name companies—Penguin, Simon and Schuster, University of Chicago Press (whose website I liked quite a bit), etc. They all seemed to have it together. There was a lot of information, convenient links, the ability to purchase books via the website, reviews, and more.

I then decided it might be beneficial to look at the websites of smaller presses; after all, Ooligan is a small press, and we are thinking about how to improve our website. Nightboat Press publishes poetry and prose books and is found online at nightboat.org. The website is a Wordpress blog, but it is clear that some thought went into the look and content. The site has most of the information that readers, authors, and distributors would look for. There is a catalog with reviews of titles and links for purchase, a submissions page with clear guidelines, ordering and distribution info, links to current titles with author info, and more. They have also highlighted current news and events on a sidebar on the home page. Nightboat clearly thought about who would be looking at its site and provided most of the information each audience would be looking for.

Antrim House is a publisher of poetry, and can be found online at antrimhousebooks.org. This website is also very simple, but not in the same clean way as Nightboat. The layout of the pages is ugly, and the text is difficult to read. In fact, there is way too much text on most of the pages, especially the About Us page. There, you can find submissions and other info, but the text is so small and cramped that it is difficult to read through and find any relevant information. This is a disservice to both interested readers and potential authors. There is also a page entitled “Seminar Room,” although it is not clear what exactly this page is for. There are some questions for authors, some musings by authors, some reviews, some photos…I couldn’t figure out who the page was targeting or what I could get out of it. The press does have a way to purchase its books from the site and a current list of author events and appearances. Overall, the layout and presentation of information here was overwhelming and confusing. It seems as though the creators did not think about their audience and the difficulties it would have with this site.