Running a Small Press: Behind the Scenes at 1455 Books
Sean Murphy on operations, outreach, and building awareness for the press
Jenna Blum—NYT bestselling author and A Mighty Blaze co-founder—invited me to discuss how 1455 books advances our mission to democratize storytelling. Our conversation traces 1455 Lit Arts from concept to reality, examining how nonprofit work intersects with advocacy for authentic voices. We address crucial questions about art’s relevance in 2026 and whether launching a publishing imprint makes strategic sense. The answer? Publishing books is the natural extension of 1455’s commitment to free programming, community building, and supporting storytellers across all ages, genres, and experience levels. It’s not about good timing—it’s about essential work that can’t wait.
How do we make readers aware of our books? We’ve spent nearly a decade building community, relationships, and a social media presence through 1455—so we’ve actually done it backwards. Anything we publish will reach the audience we’ve already built, then it’s about strategy: asking people to help spread the word. If the product is good, you have a fighting chance. My goal isn’t cynical—if nothing’s riding on it and you’re just doing good work, there’s no way to fail. Even 10 sales would personally feel like a failure because I should do better, but if 10 people enjoy the book, that’s not a waste of time.
Through our magazine work, I realized making a book isn’t that different—platforms like Amazon handle customer service, distribution, and printing while we control the quality of what we upload. With resources dwindling across publishing, authors already do most of the design, PR, and marketing ourselves anyway. I’ve done it for my own books with independent presses, so I know what’s required. We can cover the essential bases and do it guerrilla style through ingenuity and our existing toolkit.
Visit 1455litarts.org to find out more, get involved, or help support our mission.