Posted by Tobias Carroll

Via Lauren Cerand’s Twitter account, I found myself reading a Bookforum interview with Matthew Stadler of the Portland-based Publication Studio. I’ll confess to being less than familiar with Publication Studio before now — though the interview did cover some interesting territory.

…we’ll do anything we can to help spread the news, including a “free reading commons,” which is something we started in 2009, an online environment where anyone can read and comment on our books for free. Some of our writers opt out, for various reasons, and it’s their prerogative; but most are excited and we believe that the commons stimulate sales rather than undermine them.

And from looking at Publication Studio’s “about” page, it turns out that Stadler was one of the people behind Clear Cut Press, who originally released Charles D’Ambrosio’s excellent nonfiction collection Orphans (which we wrote about here) and Stacey Levine’s novel Frances Johnson (reissued last year by Verse Chorus Press). That, more than debates on the pros and cons of print-on-demand publishing, is what’s piqued my interest in delving into Publication Studio’s body of work.