LBC Books is the publishing arm of the long running Little Black Cart distributor. It will work a little differently than a traditional publisher. LBC Books works with motivated and engaged writers and editors who are doing interesting projects (usually anarchist but not exclusively), to help them publish their material. We deliver end to end: content, editing, and print–with the intention of broadcasting vibrant anarchist voices into this century.
When we work with a writer or editor we are willing and able to work closely (or not) on all aspects of a project to make it successful. First, we understand that different projects have different definitions of success. Second, we have a strong sense of varying audiences, and what will appeal to these different groups. Third, we have extensive content and editing experience that we can offer your project. Finally we have the layout, presentation, and production skills to make projects actually happen and look good.
Our project is an anarchism of many voices & attitudes.
What we publish we then distribute through Little Black Cart, which has its own dedicated audience of attentive and interested readers. Starting with the launch of LBC Books there will be dedicated energy towards marketing our titles beyond our present active website and events tabling.
Dear LBC Books
We are writing to try and secure a small amount of funding for a new monthly anarchist newspaper, the Westcountry Mutineer. The editorial collective have years of experience in regularly publishing and mass-distributing anarchist news – the core of the editorial collective were responsible for ‘The Bath Bomb’, a monthly four-sided newspaper, distributed to hundreds across Bath. The new publication will be expressly class-struggle anarchist focused and distributed throughout the southwest.
The house style is of a muck-raking, humorous tabloid that takes vicious swipes at local politicians, bosses and the like, with serious analysis and anarchist theory thrown in. We found this worked really well with The Bath Bomb, so hope to carry the format on in the The Westcounty Mutineer. The publication will be eight pages long and will cover predominantly local, but also national and international radical news, views and analysis.
We have high hopes for the ‘Mutineer, and hope to be distributing to thousands across the south west. We are serious about making anarchist ideas accessible to a wide audience. Part of doing this involves securing regular funding to allow us to advertise and distribute as many copies as possible. We have already lined up benefit gigs and have some funding secured. We will also encourage readers to subscribe or donate, but in the interests of helping keep the publication open to all, we don’t expect to make a ton of cash that way (the subscriptions and donations for the Bath Bomb covered about two issues out of 12 each year). We know that money is short in radical circles, but we are hoping you will be able to provide a small monthly solidarity donation. In the interest of keeping the publication on a clear class-struggle direction, we are asking a very limited number of anarchist and class-struggle organisations for donations. As well as a few anarchist publishing collectives, we will be asking the Anarchist Federation, Solidarity Federation and the IWW. £15 a month would be amazing, but should you decide to contribute, the amount would be totally up to you (whether you choose to give more or less, or even a one-off, or annual donation). If you do decide to donate (and probably even if you don’t!), we will be happy to put a 1/4 – 1/6 page advert for yourselves in each month. We will also include local group contacts and ‘further reading’ directing readers to ‘Resistance’, ‘Catalyst’, and ‘Freedom’. As a participatory project, we would welcome input whether or not you choose to donate.
We are not trying to supplant any existing anarchist publications – in fact, at least one member of the editorial collective already occasionally writes for, and distributes ‘Resistance’, while others subscribe to Freedom and AK Press. Rather, we are trying to push people towards anarchist groups and publications with an easily accessible style to introduce people to class-struggle anarchism. Through the Bath Bomb, we have found that talking local issues and showing local understanding from an anarchist viewpoint provides a good ‘in-road’ for people to get involved in our movement.
If you would like to see back issues of the Bath Bomb to give you an idea of what you will be supporting, or have any other questions or comments, please drop us an email at mutineerpress@riseup.net. If you do decide to offer some financial support, give us a shout and we’ll send over our bank details.
In Solidarity,
The Westcountry Mutineer Editorial Collective