Every story needs a beginning. “Once upon a time” is a traditional one, a good one, although sometimes overused. “In the beginning” is another classic, as is “Sing, O Muse.” We’re also quite fond of “Enter, pursued by a bear,” though less fond of actually being pursued by a large creature of the ursine persuasion.

In this case, the story started some time ago; we’re picking up in medias res. All the groundwork has been laid, all the Is dotted and Ts crossed, although we may have missed a few errant penstrokes here and there. How, then, do you begin the actual telling of the tale? None of the usual suspects seem quite appropriate.

Let’s go for the obvious, then.

And so it begins.

Candlemark & Gleam is officially up and running, the latest small press to throw its hat into the increasingly frantic publishing ring. At this point, publishing isn’t a boxing match; it isn’t the Wild West. It’s a dodg’em-car ring, one where there’s a few armour-plated Hummers thrown in for good measure.

So why are we climbing into our very own little car and going for a ride?

Glad you asked.

We here at C&G feel that publishing, as a whole, has fallen apart. The industry has lost sight of what really matters – discovering great stories and getting them into the hands of passionate readers. It’s a service industry, folks, not a monolithic arbitor of “proper content.” There are changes afoot, ranging from how authors get paid to how works are distributed, and we figure that it’s better to take an active role in all this than to sit on the sidelines.

In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be giving you some insight into what it takes to launch a small niche publisher, along with thoughts on publishing, both past and future. We’ll discuss acquisitions, formats, layout, editing, publishing models – the works. And during all this, we’ll be working to bring you the best in speculative fiction, delivered the way you want it.

Come on. Hop in. Take a spin with us in that big, bad bumper-car rally. If nothing else, we promise it’ll be a fun ride! And quite the story to tell…