Editing, Design, and the 1455 Aesthetic
Sean Murphy on how 1455 Books approaches the making of a book
Had such a great time chatting with Jenna Blum—NYT bestselling author and A Mighty Blaze co-founder—about our new venture, 1455 books! Jenna’s always been incredibly supportive, so of course she invited me on to talk about how this whole thing got started. We covered a ton of ground: founding 1455 Lit Arts, building a nonprofit (it’s wild, y’all), how my corporate background actually came in handy, and the whole process of getting donors on board and building a team. We also dug into the big stuff: Why does art matter in 2026? (Spoiler: it really, really does.) Is this a smart time to start publishing books? (Absolutely not, which is why we’re doing it anyway!) The whole point is that publishing fits perfectly with what 1455’s always been about—supporting real voices, building community, and showing up for writers at every stage.
For over five years, Morgan Ryan has been 1455’s creative director, a genius who designs virtually everything on our website, Movable Type covers, and my podcast collateral. We have a professional book designer and two part-time workers obsessed with this cause. The pieces will be edited and approved, but my experience with Movable Type has shown that the vast majority of submissions are such high quality they don’t require or warrant heavy editing. I have zero ego about this—if you can stay out of the way and let good writing shine, let it happen. The books will be curated, agonized over, and professionally laid out.
Humble brag: our books are going to look better than the majority of independent and Big Five publishers. I see Big Five books all the time with awful design and mediocre execution. Wherever possible, I want to curate original art for covers and get writers paid to help design them. They will be professional products. If anyone has doubts or questions, I want to hear from you—I expect pushback and skepticism, and I’m here for it. What we’re trying to do is put beautifully designed professional books in the world at very low cost and spread the word, and that’s the only guarantee I can make.
Visit 1455litarts.org to find out more, get involved, or help support our mission.