Subterranean Press is winding down its operations
The publisher says that it intends to close down by the end of 2027 or early 2028
Bill Schafer has revealed that he's planning on retiring from his role running specialty genre publisher Subterranean Press and that he'll be winding down its operations in the coming years (via Locus Magazine). The plan is to close down in an orderly fashion, and to finish out their existing series and obligations, handing off some of their work to other presses. He notes that the press will likely finish out its work by the end of 2027.
When I reached out to them, they provided me with the same statement they provided to Locus:
Tim and I plan to retire from SubPress, but we have a flexible, multi-year plan in place to accomplish this. We intend to publish a full schedule through the end of 2027, which may bleed into 2028 as we wrap things up.
I can’t really say more because we want to handle this in a structured, orderly fashion, which will include communicating with a large number of writers, artists, as well as publishers we license rights from.
I can tell you that one goal of our plan is that we either complete a number of ongoing series, or place them with other presses, to be continued in the same style as our volumes, so long-time customers will have a uniform set.
Schafer founded Subterranean Press in 1995. Over the decades, it's become known for its high-quality, collectible volumes of genre literature, publishing a range of limited editions, trade editions of hard-to-find shorter works, short fiction collections, standalone novellas, art books, and more. Over the last three decades, they've published hundreds of books, and have amassed a dedicated following amongst genre readers and writers.
It's not clear why the business will close down entirely, or what other presses and organizations will take over some of those ongoing series.
Andrew Liptak
The closure comes as the larger traditional publishers have begun to adopt some of the same tactics and features for their own releases that specialty publishers like Subterranean have been known for, such as sprayed edges, exclusive art, and other perks.
But despite those efforts to bring these upgraded editions to consumers in a social media era, Subterranean's books often far exceed those more readily available editions. The publisher's books that I've had the pleasure of owning over the years are not just handsome editions, but good stories from a press that has contributed enormously to the SF/F community.
I reached out to a handful of authors who've published with Subterranean over the years, and to a person, they not just praised the quality of the books they produce, but were quick to single out Schafer as a pillar of the SF/F community who took an exacting and detail-oriented approach and to the authors he published.
Alix Harrow (who published The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, Starling House, and Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended with Subterreanean) described him as "one of the kindest, most generous people I've ever met. I kept wondering, early on, what I could possibly have done to earn that kind of consideration; it occurred to me eventually that he's just one of those people who gives it away for free."
Jeff VanderMeer (Absolution, Ambergris, Bliss, The Complete Borne, Dead Astronauts, and Hummingbird Salamander) noted that "he's been absolutely above and beyond the usual as a publisher of limited editions," and recounted an instance when he was first transitioning to full-time writing and sold a story to Schafer on spec, Borne:
"At a certain point, I had to withdraw the piece, because I wasn't ready to write it; I knew it wasn't going to be a novella. He knew that I was still a full-time writer and he was just unbelievably gracious and how I was paying back the advance. He could have been upset about it. He understood entirely – he understands writers."
He, and other authors I spoke with noted that Schafer has bene known to be extremely generous to authors in the community, often lending support or helping them out behind the scenes in ways that go far beyond the books he published.
Everyone I spoke with also praised his approach to the books he published. "What a marvelous contribution to the field, what an outstanding crew, and what an incredible company," Cherie Priest (author of Clementine, Dreadful Skin, Holy Terror, Jacaranda, and Those Who Went Remain There Still) said. She also noted that she was conflicted: "on the one hand, I'm sad to see such a good thing come to a close. [But] on the other, what a run, eh?"
John Scalzi (who published numerous collections and novellas with Subterranean over the years) recounted that he had an excellent experience working with them, and that it was a company willing to take risks on the stories they acquired. "They were happy to publish stuff from me that was outside my usual remit (The God Engines) and gave me a home for my essay compilations. SubPress understood its market and addressed it really well, and as a small publisher with a specific business model, I don't think anyone has been smarter."
"He doesn't just do reprint, limited editions," VanderMeer said. "They publish some surprising books. They do a lot of collected fiction, sometimes without a trade edition (or they'll do the trade edition themselves). I think having the mix really helps."
Over the years, I've picked up a handful of Subterranean's books, and I've been impressed with how there's a link between the quality of their books and the stories their physical volumes contain. While they do publish high-end limited editions of many of the genre's best books, they also publish the things that most trade publishers might not pick up, such as novellas like Cixin Liu's novella The Cretaceous Past, Arkady Martine's Rose/House, or Ted Chiang's Lifecycle of Software Objects.
These are all good stories that not only found a home with the publisher, but which were also given a consideration and weight that goes beyond what you might find from the larger publishing industry. It's that focus on good storytelling and good packaging that established Subterranean as one of the best in the business: not just for their products, but because their products are art in and of themselves. While many of the regular trade publishers have begun to adopt the bells and whistles for special "deluxe" or "collector's" editions of hot titles, these efforts can sometimes feel like afterthoughts, tacked on to bump up the edition's list price.
Subterranean's books never felt phoned in. Harrow praised the quality of their books: "seeing the care they put into every book and the range and depth of their list, was a treat and an education for a debut SFF author. In a publishing climate that feels increasingly fueled by trends and virality, subject to censorship and stockholders, disinterested in their own midlist – the loss of SubPress feels enormous."
"He puts a lot into the books, VanderMeer explained, "Quite frankly, there's some special presses where you find a fair amount of typos or mistakes, and I've never found that to be true with Subterranean. They take a great deal of pride in their work."
I'll be sad to see the company announce that it's closing its doors, but at the same time, I'm happy that this doesn't seem to be a situation where it's been forced to do so. Subterranean set a high bar for the SF/F community: not only demonstrating the value of quality and attention to detail, but in serving as a stellar citizen of the SF/F community.