What is any of this?
InkBlot Publishing began with a dream. A dream of running our own magazine and using each other as professional references.
Long ago, in the annals of history, two friends frequented a bar that sold cheap cider that was even cheaper if you were part of a club event. That club, in a reference too obscure for most of its members, was our own version of Inklings. We ran poetry slams, literary salons, writing groups, and even a book club (where we spent far too much time discussing Twilight). But it was a lot of work, and we were uni students, so we handed it on but stuck around to support. And as an early version of WordWrite, we ran a short story competition for them and found that we worked together really well. We designed little certificates for the winners, and we told everyone about how good they were, but it seemed like such a shame that nobody read them except us. We wanted to really do something with those works that everyone could be proud of, and started talking about a new idea that we weren't sure was gonna work.
InkBlot Mag is a zine that showcases authors alongside their work. We take pieces that are evocative and messy, and lay out a vision for the best version they can be. We do structural reports, we do line edits, and we stretch out our lead times so we're never taking the easy road to meet a deadline. We make authors into InkBlots, keep a dedicated space for bios, dedications, and plugs (from writing pages to photography blogs), because it's the authors who make our weird little zine the moderate success that it is. And we throw in whatever else seems like a good idea, because like a rorschach test, they can be whatever you want them to be. So far that's been one-page RPGs, crosswords full of punchlines, and an editorial about how much the pandemic sucked. What'll be in the next one? Who knows, but it seems to be working so we started to think that maybe we could take it further.
InkBlot Publishing is, and always has been, the team behind The InkBlot Mag and WordWrite Editing. We knew it was time to step out from the shadows when people started expecting us to have a website, like some kind of legitimate business. But what that gave us was a home: somewhere to host our expanding vision, where wayward projects could put their feet up. So now we have a blog, where our editors can vent about their work outside InkBlot; a place for WordWrite, so we don't have to make a full pitch every time somebody's interested; and the beginning of a line of higher production in-house issues with their own branding. What'll be next? Maybe one day we make a real book, or go back to running events, or broaden out again and make Publishing just a part of a larger brand. We're open to ideas, so if you've got them then throw them our way.