Hello, friend! Today I have the pleasure of supporting a Canadian press on The Creator’s Roulette! Hope Pages Press Ltd. was founded in 2021 by CEO Trevor Ritchie and Editor-In-Chief Michael Arendt. They were inspired by Ryan Clayton to create an anthology of stories of hope for LGBTQ+ individuals. Initially, Trevor and Michael leaned toward publishing the anthology, Alphabet of Hope, independently. However, they ultimately decided to publish this anthology under their own publishing imprint. And thus, Hope Pages Press Ltd. was born.
In this post, we will learn about how Alphabet of Hope came to be and the steps the new press went through to make it happen. Let’s get started.
Process behind creating Alphabet of Hope
A guest post by Trevor Ritchie, CEO of Hope Pages Press Ltd.
Anthologies are tricky creatures. On one hand, the stories are shorter and thus, potentially the workload to create each story is lower than the efforts of writing a full-length novel. On the other hand, organizing an anthology can present different challenges in trying to ensure all of the stories in the anthology perfectly fit the chosen theme, or that the quality of each entry is consistent with one another. The process of how to organize and present each entry is another challenge unique to producing an anthology.
My name is Trevor Ritchie. I’m a teacher, a writer, and the co-founder of a publishing imprint in Burnaby, Canada called Hope Pages Press. I decided that my first foray into professional writing and self-publishing would be creating an anthology of biographical stories written by members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Before I get too invested in sharing our process, I need to share that this was a group effort. Alphabet of Hope is the inaugural publication of Hope Pages Press, a printing imprint that I started with a very good friend of mine. Michael has been instrumental in helping complete this book and part of our process was to find each other and brainstorm whether or not we had a workable idea.
The publication of our anthology has coincided with a number of laws being passed that make it more difficult for teachers and students to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, but the genesis of the idea occurred long before these bills were ever proposed. The statistics are clear: LGBTQ+ youth face disproportionate levels of bullying and are at a higher risk of suicide ideation and suicide attempts. The root of this is a feeling of isolation and feeling that LGBTQ+ youth do not belong in society.
Alphabet of Hope—it’s an anthology, and it’s stories written by the LGBTQ+ community to help give hope, inspire and motivate the next generation of LGBTQ+ youth that are growing up. Michael and I went back and forth for weeks about what it should look like, and we decided that having each person write a story about themselves and their experiences would be the best way of accomplishing our goals. We had two requirements: the authors themselves be part of the LGBTQ+ community, and their stories contain a message of hope.
In terms of the writing process and finding the stories that would comprise Alphabet of Hope, my editing partner and I investigated where we could find potential authors who may want to share their stories with us and a wider audience. We chose to reach out broadly, looking for LGBTQ+ community centres, university campus pride centres and within our personal networks to find potential authors.
The nature of Alphabet of Hope is that it does include writing about material that may relive trauma or otherwise cause discomfort to the writer. This is due to the nature of being LGBTQ+ in today’s society. We reached out to potential authors and explained clearly what kind of stories we were looking for and how those stories would be used. Many of our authors had no prior formal writing experience, and that was another area where we provided mentorship and explained some of how the process will work and what the expectations would be to complete the project.
Once we began obtaining stories from our various sources and potential authors, we began reading through each submission with a critical eye. We asked ourselves and each other whether this story fit the overall theme, or could it potentially be molded to fit. Although our initial calls for submission were clear in what we expected, we inevitably had to reject some stories due to content or if we simply thought they didn’t fit the theme. After the first round of reading, we narrowed our selection to twenty stories that would go on to form the first edition of Alphabet of Hope. I would also like to note that the selection of my own story was made solely by Michael to avoid any undue bias.
After our selections had been made, each author was asked to sign a contract which would give us first publication rights as well as explain their remuneration schedule. The contract also explained the expectations and responsibilities of the author upon the publication of the book: if they decided to formally participate in the anthology, they agreed to use whatever platform they may have to help advertise the book. Due to Hope Pages Press being a small business just starting out, we needed all of the help we could get in promoting the book.
Now that our stories had been selected and the authors were on board, the editing process began. Our first round of edits was to ensure that the stories were following the guidelines and topics we were looking for. Due to the personal and sometimes traumatic nature of writing about one’s self, we experienced some difficulties with authors asking for extensions. This led to delays and multiple versions of their stories. The nature of the changes often depended on the mood of the author and the changes they made before and during the editing process.
Subsequent rounds of editing were done in consultation with the authors and was based on completing the copy and content editing needed to ensure our book would match the quality standards readers expect. Michael and I worked with each of our authors step-by-step to address any concerns they had, and explain why certain edits were requested. This inevitably caused some stress for all parties involved, but it ended up being a remarkably productive series of conversations that we had with the writers.
Upon completion of the final edits, a draft copy was sent to all of our authors for final approval. Michael began working on the cover art and overall book design, while I began investigating publishing and distribution options. This led to some big deliberations about which companies we wished to work with. Initially, we decided to work with Amazon’s KDP publishing, as it would allow for individuals to easily purchase copies of Alphabet of Hope through the Amazon store. We also felt that maintaining control over the project was important, which led us toward self-publishing and creating Hope Pages Press, rather than work with more traditional publishing companies. However, as we have expanded, we made the decision to partner with IngramSpark to allow for greater distribution into both independently owned and chain bookstores.
Alphabet of Hope is currently available for purchase online at the websites of Amazon, Indigo Chapters & Coles, and Barnes & Noble. Hope Pages Press is also currently accepting submissions for both the second edition of Alphabet of Hope as well as a sister anthology of fictional stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters. More information about Hope Pages Press can be found at https://www.hopepagespress.com, and if you have questions for me, please feel free to email us at contact@hopepagespress.com.
Have you been involved in publishing an anthology, whether as an author, publisher, designer, or in any other capacity? What were your experiences like?
Thank you for hanging out with us today. Alphabet of Hope, an anthology of stories from LGBTQ+ authors, launched on January 1st, 2022. It became a #1 best new selling book on Amazon upon release. It features stories written by Edward Borek, Kellen Bunting, Lillith Campos, Parker Chapple, Monica Furlotte, Brett Grunerud, Austin Johnson, Alex Keen, Colter Long, Alex Masse, McRae, Conner Mertens, Stephen Parnes, Micah Porter, Trevor Ritchie, James Sanyshyn, David J.C. Smith, and Derek Smith.
Cover image: Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
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