Readers: methodology

Epistol strives to deliver you the writing that bestseller lists forget. Overlooked by the mindless rush for the next billion-seller, and neglected by traditional publishing, our writers have plenty to say but nowhere to say it.

We publish book-length works in digital form, and intend to maintain emphasis upon the digital form itself. Epistol will of course offer print-format works upon request, but concentrate on electronic dissemination. Epistol publications will be available primarily for use on tablet devices and our apps are in development to launch with our first season.

We believe that there is a great unseen body of writing which would, in previous eras, have found audiences through boutique imprints, but the costs associated and the dangerous lure of Mammon in the bestseller age have kept them not only underground, but entirely invisible.

As the major imprints struggle to figure out the internet and are fast introducing their own online and digital iterations, we are keen to distance Epistol from the current status quo. Epistol is an independent project, unperturbed by the perplexities of commercially-focused trade publishing, and lament the inundation of pulp trade fiction at the expense of the old risk-taking publishing community.

Romance for the ink-stained page notwithstanding, can we not accept that it is perhaps now, more than ever, with the revolution of the digitalized expression, that quality has its heyday, and commercialism its comeuppance? 

This is where Epistol lives.

Epistol prizes quality over community, idea over ideology, electricity over entertainment.

Every season, we will produce a curated collection of the most engaging publications submitted to Epistol. These seasons will represent what we consider to be the most exciting writing that would not otherwise have been published.

Every month we will make available one exclusive short publication, free of charge. These short works will be culled from the submissions we have been receiving, giving you an early indication of how the season is forming.

All of the above publications will be available as PDFs and will be accessible via our website, as well as via our tablet applications and via direct download to tablet readers.

Initially, Epistol publications will be English language. Epistol's evolution contains plans for platforms in many other languages and for many other forms.

Please return regularly to learn what we have in the barrel.

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