Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Givens.
Mark, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Southern California, in the Pomona Valley, and have deep roots in the Southern California DIY art and music scene. In the ’80s and ’90s, I created a few ‘zines, from the satiric bowling pun-filled Bowl Sheet to the meticulously hand-drawn Salmon Bosch, literary magazines featuring a wide variety of artists and writers. Moving to the web was a natural progression that resulted in an online literary magazine called MungBeing which ran for ten years. After a while, I wanted to take the ideas from the beautiful online material that I was publishing in MungBeing and create a permanent home offline.
I have always loved the printed word. There’s a certain joy that comes from being able to pick up a physical object and spend some time with it. Or to stumble across a long-abandoned filing cabinet and discover writings that had been hidden for years or a box of old photographs that illustrate a forgotten history. Additionally, I wanted to help bring some regional stories – stories from local authors – to the forefront and make them part of our collective history. With the global input from MungBeing and the local influences of artists and writers around here, I started up a publishing company.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think each project has unforeseen and unforeseeable challenges. The ease and grace with which one confronts those challenges determine how smooth a project feels in retrospect. Individual bumps that arise over the course of a project can be irritating but, if dealt with quickly and directly, have a little lasting effect. The ongoing challenges for Pelekinesis, for any small press I think, include financing and time management. I want to do a lot more and if the money and time were there, I’d be sitting pretty.
On a larger and more industry-specific front, the publishing world is changing and yet most of the practices – from review policies to manufacturing models and expectations – are still defined by models that have not evolved. For example, to obtain rights to use a quotation in your book, the agreement wants to know how many books will be printed. That seems like a simple question but in today’s publishing world the print run can be a variable, and printing more copies of a book is not only possible but in many cases preferable to printing up 5000 copies and sending the overstock to sit in a warehouse where the publisher is charged “pick fees” and warehousing fees and fulfillment fees. So a simple question about the size of a print run can vividly illustrate the struggles of an industry as it redefines itself.
I think the publishing industry is currently undergoing a revolution, much like the music industry experienced at the turn of the last century. I think the blockbusters will continue to dominate the best-seller lists, I don’t think the large-scale book publishers are going away, but I do think that the rise of self-publishing and all manner of new approaches to independent publishing are creating a new market that will have a large-scale impact in the wider industry. I see smaller publishing house being gobbled up by larger houses while the number of small presses increases to accommodate the demand for individual projects and specialized production. I see a more service-oriented business with evolving business models rising to fill the needs of the independent author who wants to self-publish but also seeks some guidance and expertise in the field. I see distribution models evolving to accommodate the narrowly-focused markets of the independent presses. I see more regional projects on the horizon accompanied by consortia of small presses working together, pooling their resources, and expanding their reach in an ever-increasingly segmented and specialized market.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Pelekinesis story. Tell us more about the business.
Pelekinesis is a publishing company with a focus on literary-minded authors and artists. We have an eclectic variety of books available including children’s books, coloring books, short stories, poetry, literary non-fiction, local history, and fiction. We are proud to be able to present such a wide variety of work from the next wave of literary authors. We continue to take chances on lesser known artists and explore the outer boundaries of the printed word. I hope to continue challenging the procedures and practices of an industry that I love and respect, and in the process bring a lot of wonderful books to an increasingly curious literary public.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
In “Crossed Paths: Desperation Squad and the Age of Fortuitism,” Fortuitism is described as “The lines that are drawn upon the globe, the signals zipping around from one node to another, the paths that cross every day, the people we meet and the sounds we hear – these are pieces of the world we live in, the world we embrace, and the decisions we make. How we interact with the pieces — which pieces we touch, which pieces touch us —determines how we see ourselves moving through life. Some decisions are out of our control. Some decisions are the lesser of two evils. How we use the results of these decisions are ours, and interact to shape who we are and how we live.”
In my opinion, luck is a form of Fortuitism where the ability to capitalize on advantageous situations can be perfected to favor positive outcomes. I am still working on this and hope to encounter more opportunities in the future.
Contact Info:
- Address: 112 N. Harvard #65
Claremont, CA 91711 - Website: www.pelekinesis.com
- Phone: 909-293-9270
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @Pelekinetic
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/pelekinesis
- Twitter: @Pelekinetic
Image Credit:
Terry Givens, Marian Schell, Alex Pennington, Greg McGoon, Annika Givens
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
