Betty Books is an energized, synergistic collective. We work with each other, for each other.” This is how Haley Hach—author of a forthcoming collection of short stories spotlighting women in rural America, When We’re Ready—describes publisher WTAW Press’s new imprint, Betty (known on social media as Betty Books).
Named after WTAW publisher Peg Alford Pursell’s mother—a literary enthusiast who began to value her autonomy later in life—the imprint was born in May 2023. WTAW sought to promote and enable writers who identify as women. Betty now boasts 10 creators, each partaking in the imprint’s unique publishing model, which serves to empower them creatively and practically.
At Betty, authors work as a collective to move every manuscript through the publishing process. Traditionally, a publisher handles most of the publishing process: from design to marketing to sales. At the imprint, all of the publishing decisions are made collaboratively. In monthly meetings, Betty authors are encouraged to share what they know how to do best, and then help others. Everything from choosing Betty’s next manuscripts to marketing current books is discussed in these meetings; authors are in complete control of their work and are able to aid others via calls, Zoom, and an active Slack channel.
“Being part of a project like Betty is immensely nourishing. Suddenly, you’re not the lone voice crying out in the wilderness. You’re doing something for the greater good,” says Marianne Villanueva, author of Betty’s forthcoming The Last American Governor, a collection of stories focusing on immigrant women, the life of Filipino Americans, and the Philippines
Pursell talks with the California Book Club about this innovative imprint and the challenges that arose when Small Press Distribution (SPD), the press’s distributor to the trade, unexpectedly shut down a few months ago. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Can you tell me more about launching the Betty imprint? What motivated you to focus specifically on publishing books by women?
By publishing [books by writers who identify as women], especially those that break barriers or explore unconventional themes, Betty can provide role models and inspiration for aspiring writers, readers, and future generations. Books that amplify the voices of women from diverse backgrounds contribute to a more nuanced understanding of women’s experiences. The authors whose books Betty seeks to publish often face multiple, intersecting challenges in the literary world, including ageism.
How do you envision the Betty imprint contributing to the literary landscape?
Small presses play a key role in providing options that aren’t available in mainstream corporate publishing.
It is in the hands of the small presses to keep making things happen. I think that’s where we see most of the headway taking place when you think about books that you really love or books that really speak to people.
I also think it’s important to support the creative work and the careers of women. The way I have set up Betty with this cohort, and having writers participate in and understand and learn how the publishing process works from beginning to end, it’s like an MFA really. And there’s so many ways that’s really valuable and helpful, whether it’s going to be just for their own careers, but also there are many women who hope to learn about this and start their own presses. That’s a very exciting part, to me—just to say that in any given cohort, there’s one person, one woman, who comes out of there and starts her own enterprise.
Can you elaborate on how Betty’s publishing process works?
We’re just establishing our processes. This year, in many ways, it’s been more of a learning experience for the authors. Some have had books published before but weren’t that involved. Everyone learns to write query letters and pitch letters and things like that. There’s shared things to do: helping to write little pieces for the newsletter, help with supporting one another’s books on social media.
I want people who are curious and want to come to this with their imagination and sense of inventiveness.
How did losing a distributor affect Betty?
It was really devastating to us because we lost so much inventory, and you have to make decisions then also about the inventory that’s left there that does turn up. And it’s quite expensive to do shipping if you leave it in these different warehouses—because SPD had moved from their warehouse. It became a whole other ball game. And once they just disappeared, for example, I had a new title that they had me ship preorders to just the week before, and that’s all been lost.
Any favorite moments since starting Betty?
There are so, so many. We had a holiday get-together one evening, and everyone read from their work. It was beautiful to have the time again, to share the whole reason we’re here, and to hear each person talk about how their creative work was being inspired and sparked by the community that they’ve built together.
What’s in store for Betty in the future?
Our first title, Take Me with You Next Time, by Janis Hubschman, will be available for preorder in a matter of days, and our next title’s production is well underway. We’ve acquired four new manuscripts and welcomed their authors into our community. We’ll publish our sixth newsletter in two weeks, and authors will share works in progress via a Zoom read-in next month.
I don’t know how far this can go; it’s kind of hard to know because I think it’s just going to flourish and be so much more beyond me. I don’t have concrete plans. I just want these books to be the best they can be, and I want women to be inspired by them. And not just see themselves in them but want to be part of this, want to do it, and then go off and do their own presses. •
Join us on July 25 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when author Venita Blackburn will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and a special guest to discuss Dead in Long Beach, California. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
GHOSTS
Read prior CBC author Myriam Gurba’s remarkable essay on Long Beach, the setting of this month’s CBC selection. —Alta
SPLITS IN CONSCIOUSNESS
Consider author Sarah Stone’s beautiful essay on Dead in Long Beach, California, by Venita Blackburn. —Alta
WHY READ THIS
Alta Journal books editor David L. Ulin recommends Blackburn’s “book of farewells,” reflecting that the novel “means to explore questions of presence and of absence, of loss and grief and love and longing, none of which, she insists, will sustain or save us in a universe of entropy and disarray.” —Alta
GEN Z FAMILY SAGA
California Book Club editor Anita Felicelli interviews author Porochista Khakpour about her delightful, absorbing, and campy third novel, Tehrangeles, and the challenges of writing fiction. —Alta
MISSING CHACMOOLS
Read Gregory Gray’s riveting piece about his investigation of bestselling author and New Age con man Carlos Castaneda and the disappearance of women from his cult following his death. —Alta
BLACK-OWNED BOOKSTORE
Octavia’s Bookshelf, a unique bookstore focused on books by authors of color that opened last year in Pasadena to much fanfare, is in urgent need of funds to stay afloat. Consider a donation to this vital literary business. —GoFundMe
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