Last month, I kicked off this series with a post about what Haywire Books is here to do—offer a select group of writers a home while they build their audience. I beat up on the model for big publishing without offering a perspective on the pressures the big five out of New York are facing. Beyond the pressures all large organizations face—legacy systems, stakeholder obligations, demanding shareholders—publishers of all sizes are facing some enormous uphill battles.

Hello, I’m Jon Sealy, author and publisher of Haywire Books in Richmond, Virginia. This is the first post in what I plan to be a series of behind-the-scenes looks at starting a small publishing house.