What is a "boutique press"?

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Christyp

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I've searched everywhere and can't find what this means. I've heard of vanity, traditional, self, etc, but I've never come across this term until today.

Anyone have an answer?
 

veinglory

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These days I see it mainly used as a euphemism for small.

Previously I saw it used for things like small art presses that made small runs of high value books. Like a boutique dress shop will have some boho hand-screen printed T-shirt--not huge run walmart specials.
 

Drachen Jager

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Boutique means your book will only be on their website and Amazon, they don't have really good editors or the time to edit your manuscript properly and you're completely on your own in regards to marketing.
 

Richard White

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Boutique means your book will only be on their website and Amazon, they don't have really good editors or the time to edit your manuscript properly and you're completely on your own in regards to marketing.

Wow, I'd really love to see the sourcing you used to come up with that definition.

Echoing what Veinglory said, a boutique press was used to describe small publishers who focused on very niche books. I've encountered them as art books, books of artistic photographs, local histories, and other less-common niches. I can't think of a boutique press that did "mainstream or genre" because that was outside of their capabilities to compete. Some of the boutique books I've seen were heavy with illustrations and many of them were hard backs (at least, that's what I've encountered . . . other experiences might be different).

Everytime I've run into this type of book, it's been in a major chain (under either art or regional authors) as well as independent book stores, so they do get at least regional distribution.
 

Drachen Jager

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Yeah, I wasn't being 100% accurate. Perhaps only 95-99% accurate. Exaggeration is a fault of mine.

Nevertheless, MOST authors who go with these very small presses will never sell any significant number of books unless they hit the bricks for themselves. MOST editors at small presses are overworked and don't have the same competency of editors at larger presses. MOST books published at small presses never see the inside of a bookstore.
 

Christyp

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Nevertheless, MOST authors who go with these very small presses will never sell any significant number of books unless they hit the bricks for themselves.

I was under the impression that just about every new author had to do a lot of legwork themselves, these days.
 

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I was under the impression that just about every new author had to do a lot of legwork themselves, these days.

Nope. I have several friends whose debut novels will be published this year, and whose books are being quite heavily promoted. It all depends on how well your agent sells your book, and how fiercely your editor believes in your book.
 

Drachen Jager

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Not just promotion, a larger publisher will get you on the shelves of every major bookstore. Most boutique publishers don't have the ability to place most of their titles in physical stores.

It's hard to sell when nobody sees your book unless they go specifically looking for it on the Internet.
 

Old Hack

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To be fair, the good independent presses, from large to rather small, will also get their books onto bookshop shelves. This is very important. And yes, I know that Amazon grabs a lot of sales now but nearly half of all online sales are made after the book has been selected in a physical bookshop, so that's still an important part of selling a book.
 

veinglory

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Yeah, I wasn't being 100% accurate. Perhaps only 95-99% accurate. Exaggeration is a fault of mine.

Nevertheless, MOST authors who go with these very small presses will never sell any significant number of books unless they hit the bricks for themselves. MOST editors at small presses are overworked and don't have the same competency of editors at larger presses. MOST books published at small presses never see the inside of a bookstore.

The dispute is with your definition. Boutique, until recently was not a synonym for small and almost the antitheses of POD/ebook (in fact some still performed hand binding)..

Traditionally a boutique press was, as I said, a purveyor of very high quality niche materials. Normally prestige presses like fine art/gallery presses, literary chapbooks by big names, and producers of limited edition folios.
 

Christyp

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Maybe I should have told y'all why I ask; a 'boutique press' requested a full from me today. Just want to make sure I'm not dealing with the devil.
 

veinglory

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Maybe I should have told y'all why I ask; a 'boutique press' requested a full from me today. Just want to make sure I'm not dealing with the devil.

Do not believe they are a boutique press just because they say so. The term has now been thoroughly hijacked. Check them out.
 

Old Hack

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Agreed. Ivory Press (Madrid?) is an extreme and wonderful example of a boutique press. It specialises in publishing art books with print runs of perhaps five or ten copies (really. Look at their website. Amazing, gorgeous, wonderful books). Presses which publish obscure books with no market are not the same thing at all.
 

Polenth

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My understanding was you wrote commercial genre fiction. That's not the usual area for a boutique press (outside of limited edition fancy versions of books perhaps... but that tends to be a collector's thing when an author is famous). So approach with extreme caution. It shouldn't take much looking to see if they're actually a boutique press, or a micro-publisher trying to make themselves sound fancy.
 

Old Hack

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Agreed. Do please Google the name of this boutique press and check out our BR&BC forum, too. Just to be safe.
 

artemis31386

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Yeah, I wasn't being 100% accurate. Perhaps only 95-99% accurate. Exaggeration is a fault of mine.

Nevertheless, MOST authors who go with these very small presses will never sell any significant number of books unless they hit the bricks for themselves. MOST editors at small presses are overworked and don't have the same competency of editors at larger presses. MOST books published at small presses never see the inside of a bookstore.

Wow! You're way off base there. I'm not going to turn this into a small vs large press argument, but there are pros and cons in both markets. There are also good and bad editors in both.

I think you should do a little more research before you speak on things you don't know.

FYI, even with large houses, authors have to hit the bricks to promote themselves; and there are some well known small presses like Kensington (still considered small) that has distribution and their authors have to work just as hard.
 

Christyp

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My understanding was you wrote commercial genre fiction. That's not the usual area for a boutique press (outside of limited edition fancy versions of books perhaps... but that tends to be a collector's thing when an author is famous). So approach with extreme caution. It shouldn't take much looking to see if they're actually a boutique press, or a micro-publisher trying to make themselves sound fancy.

Hence the reason I'm mildly confused. I've seen boutique described as a small press. Others say they're specifically niche related. Then, of course, others are saying they're a vanity press.

I've research them, and they have a link on here. It's Crescent Moon.
 
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It's a euphemism small presses of whom no-one has heard use to make themselves sound more exclusive, when they're actually obscure.
 

az shea

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Boutique means your book will only be on their website and Amazon, they don't have really good editors or the time to edit your manuscript properly and you're completely on your own in regards to marketing.

Drachen, I think I love you.

I was just looking this term up when someone using this phrase followed me on Twitter. Thanks!

*---
 

az shea

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Do not believe they are a boutique press just because they say so. The term has now been thoroughly hijacked. Check them out.

I tried with the one of which I speak. They don't have a listing here on AW nor on Preditors and Editors.

What they do look like... is two people who decided to hype a micropress. It may be a perfectly valid micropress, but it looks like it's only got two authors. And interestingly enough they sell editing services, design services, and other 'author services'.

=grimace= I'm not an author, I do production myself.

*---
 

JustSarah

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Maybe I'm not familiar with boutique, but I'm personally skeptical of publishers selling author services.
 

Old Hack

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I tried with the one of which I speak. They don't have a listing here on AW nor on Preditors and Editors.

What they do look like... is two people who decided to hype a micropress. It may be a perfectly valid micropress, but it looks like it's only got two authors. And interestingly enough they sell editing services, design services, and other 'author services'.

=grimace= I'm not an author, I do production myself.

*---

"Boutique" is so often used instead of "tiny", and it's just not accurate. Gah.

A small press with a craving for a pretentious title.

caw

That is often the case, but it's not always true, blac.
 
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