Why we joined Patreon or How you can be part of our "knot"

After a lot of discussion and thought, we’ve joined Patreon!

We realized our goals for Toad Hall Editions are sky-scraping. We want to provide our authors with payment for their work so they can have time and space to create AND we want to sustain the work we are doing to coach, edit, design, and print our books and journal. We want to create a publishing mutual aid society—what we are calling a “knot” since we found out that a group of toads goes by this moniker (who knew??). Your support on Patreon means we have an opportunity to create a micro-economy where we all support each other at a level that meets our capacity. Because it feels good. Because it means more folks get to be seen and heard. Because when we tell our stories, there is the chance that someone else out there reading them will feel a little less alone. Because more stories from people on the margins need to be heard so more people feel less lonely. Because we have always believed the shortest distance between two people—and the way to build a more empathic society—is a story. A bold, brave, beautiful story.

The best part is, it doesn’t take large donations: imagine if 1000 people pledged $5 a month or $10 a month? What we could accomplish together would be incredible. And everyone at every level receives the same important benefits—access to special events with our authors, first alerts about our books, workshops, and residencies, whimsical surprises from us, AND a possible invite to stay with us here in Maine for a week!!

Toad Hall Editions is founded on the belief that women’s voices should be heard equally, and also heard in a space that centers on equity. Our relationship with our authors is an intentionally collaborative one. We want our authors to feel as committed as we are, not only to seeing their work come to fruition, but in joining us in finding an audience and sharing their work more widely. In this spirit, we want our authors to feel supported, and to receive a fair share of the profits derived from their work.

In order to achieve this equanimity, we believe we must move away from the traditional publishing house system toward a more cooperative model.

In a typical publishing model, a contract between the author and a publishing house often excludes advances and rarely distributes the profits from a book equally because the publishing house “takes on all the risk,” particularly with newer authors. This puts them in a position to be exclusive and make privileged decisions that disproportionately benefit them and keeps the author from seeing much financial reward (much less sustainability) from their work. Established authors might see a healthy advance come their way precluding the completion of their work, but this is an uncommon occurrence.

In a self-publishing model, the author takes on all the risk, mostly working alone to write, produce, publicize, and distribute their work using a print-on-demand company. While it’s much easier for an author to self-publish (no waiting to get an agent or a publishing deal), it is much more challenging to get the book “out there” into the hands of people who don’t know the author personally. Though websites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble will carry any book that has an ISBN number, the author is responsible for driving traffic to these sites by playing a numbers game with algorithms and upticks. What’s more, the percentages of sales that go to the author remain negligible. It is the retailers themselves who keep most of the proceeds.

The bottom line is, in both the traditional model and self-publishing model, the writers are left behind when it comes to equanimity, equity and profitability.

At Toad Hall Editions, we want to have a hand in designing a new model. We want to honor the work of our authors, to provide a sustainable way for their work to flourish, and to create a space unrestricted by many of the old rules. We’re less interested in playing it “safe” and more interested in taking a risk on courageous writing. We want to make meaningful contributions to the field of literature by publishing works that live in the liminal spaces, that defy categorization and that struggle for visibility. We want to carefully, thoughtfully, and intentionally support the work of women and gender-diverse writers to bring their work forward.

We are taking our cue from cooperative models to create a publishing ecosystem that lives and thrives on transparency, exchange, collaboration, mutual benefit, and equity, and we’re looking for people who can help us meet this vision. 

We hope you'll consider joining our “knot” over on Patreon with your monthly support. There are 7 tier levels to choose from. And anyone might get that call to come to Maine!

Any questions? Email us at hello@toadhalleditions.ink. We truly believe in this kind of economy and we are so grateful for your support.