About Phenomenology Press
Our Origin
Phenomenology Press was established in mid-2019 to manage the publishing and release of Andrew Fookes’ debut novel In Body, In Mind, and to support the development and release of two related works: In Living Memory and In Medio Dierum, as a philosophical literary fiction collection. By mid-2020, the scope of that initial collection increased to include two additional works: In Absentia Lucis and a fifth which provisionally is to be titled In Time and Space.
With our modest list we hope to help keep alive the tradition of philosophical literary fiction, the novel genre which captured the attention of European readers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Our Direction
Phenomenology Press exists because big commercial publishers don’t bother with philosophical literary fiction. It’s not profitable. It’s too niche. It borders on an anachronism. Big commercial publishers don’t care if works of philosophical literary fiction disappear altogether.
And this isn’t because there aren’t readers. Nor is it because these works aren’t being written, or because those that are written aren’t of superb quality – it’s because the expected volume of sales isn’t big enough for large publishing houses to achieve the margins they want. We believe there are many other literary niches that are likewise disappearing from the bookshelves of the world, all in the name of corporate profit.
Big commercial publishers want books to be short, catchy, and pitched at the reading level of a nine-year-old. Kind of like an advertising jingle on paper. The shorter the book, the cheaper it is to produce (though not necessarily buy), and the sooner it will be that the reader is ready to buy again. And books need to be easy to read and understand, because some people don’t want to think too much about what they read. And while that’s fine for them, it doesn’t suit all readers.
At Phenomenology Press, we think readers deserve a better range of choices, far broader than the narrow list of works from which big publishing can make the most money. And so do many other independent presses, which are likewise committed to producing works that readers want rather than telling readers what they can have.
So that’s what we’re doing. That’s why we’re here. And if what we’re doing excites you as a reader, then join us for the ride as we help to fill the philosophical literary fiction-shaped niche in bookshelves of the world.
Our Readers
At Phenomenology Press we have a very clear idea of the type of readers who will get what we publish. After all, philosophical literary fiction is pretty niche, so we know that it’s likely to be a special type of person who will want to immerse themselves in our titles.
We think it’ll be someone who reads to make sense of the world, who reads to form and refine their opinions about the state of humanity; someone who wants our species to be better than it is.
We think it’ll be someone who doesn’t seek constant distraction, and who isn’t afraid to tackle a work that will make them think, or challenge their beliefs, or lead them to learn things they didn’t know they didn’t know.
We think it’ll be someone who wants a book to use grown-up language, to acknowledge that readers aren’t all nine years old, that readers have intellect. We think it’ll be someone who wants the characters they invest in to be real – to grow and develop and make hard decisions and experience complex emotions, to be the heart of the work rather than puppets dangling on the skirts of a self-propelling plot.
We think our readers are most likely to be smart, compassionate, open-minded people. They won’t necessarily have a background in either philosophy or literary fiction, but they’re nevertheless curious and perceptive and thoughtful. They’ll demand a lot from what they read, and we hope they’ll appreciate it when we get it right.
If this sounds like you, please bookmark our site and become part of the philosophical literary community.