Small Press Publishing
The designation ‘small press’ should delight us, presuming, as it does, the existence of intelligent writers and readers intent on seeking out the extraordinary, realizing how rare the extraordinary is. The smaller the press the better, so small that the book a small press publishes might have been made by one writer for one reader. But this is an ideal; it’s enough that a small press can publish, independently, the work of talented, skilled men and women whose work deserves to be published. And what fun publishing such a book is, from beginning to end! It’s quite alchemical—the transformation of original material into an object—the book—that could only have been that book, so that writer, editor, designer, and printer become one. Will the success the book deserves follow? Good reviews? Sales? Awards? The answers could be yes, yes, yes and yes. Whatever the case, a small press is a small press is a small press.
Brooks Roddan, Publisher
Our History
Founded in 1999 in Los Angeles as If Publications and now located in San Francisco, IFSF is a not-for-profit press that has published books in a range of genres, including memoir, poetry, and photography. IFSF books are now in the archives of both private and institutional collectors in the U.S. and abroad.
The IFSF imprint, praised in the past for publishing the work of 'voices that deserve to be heard in books of visually arresting formats' is known for taking a collaborative approach to each project, inviting the artist to take part in the creation of the book. Each IFSF book is published in the medium best suited to the material.
While continuing to focus on the literary and graphic arts, IFSF remains open to the projects of interest in other categories.