Diskette Press Moving and Expansion Fund!

SHORT VERSION:

We're holding this fundraiser so that Diskette Press can pay to move into and furnish our new location(!), and so that we can get back to our pre-pandemic levels of output and sales ASAP. It's extremely important that we be able to reprint our back catalog AND all the new artists whose work we've had to put off printing for over a year (cry).

 

LONG VERSION:

 

 

 

 

Diskette Press , our trans-owned and operated micropress, has come a long way since its origins as a single Risograph sitting in the corner of our Ann Arbor, Michigan living room. Early in the 2020 lockdown, we moved to a garage space, but quickly discovered that it wouldn't work as a permanent home. There are three main reasons that a garage didn't work for us:

 

•Power: most garages are on a single, low-voltage circuit and it's easy to overwhelm the power when multiple machines are running at the same time (especially when heating or cooling the space). We tripped a lot of circuits, and had to run at a diminished capacity, careful not to run certain machines at the same time.

•Insulation: although the garage was partially insulated, it wasn't able to keep the machines warm enough to operate during Michigan winter. Several machines completely stopped working until temperatures stabilized to above 60 degrees F, and we were unable to run space heaters continuously because of the power issue mentioned above.

•Space: Although it was bigger than our living room, the garage was not nearly big enough to hold all of our machines while also retaining enough space for us to clean Risograph drums and collate books effectively.

•(Also there was no bathroom............................ )

 

We have recently found a *NEW SPACE* that should hopefully serve as Diskette's home for the indefinite future. Here are the specs:

 

•1,400 sq feet located in the heart of Detroit

•$700-ish/month on a 4-year lease with the option to renew

•Bathroom on-site

•Climate controlled (central air!!)

•Lots of electricity

•Heat is FREE
•Huge windows overlooking Jefferson Ave.

•Tons of shelves and cabinets already there

•Retail *possibilities*

•I already said it has a bathroom but oh my god thank you it has a bathroom

 

The space was formerly a real estate office, and is going to be transformed into an incredible print collective. Diskette will share our area with two other community-oriented Detroit print shops, creating a space that will serve as our new home for the indefinite future. (We'll be announcing a lot more about our collaborations with Small Works and Taxonomy Press , but for now, just know that we're all friends and we're going to do really cool stuff together.)

 

 

 

 

ABOUT DISKETTE PRESS:

 

Diskette  is a micropress publisher owned by Carta Monir and EJ Thomas that specializes in the work of up-and-coming queer creators, with a focus on promoting young trans artists. We have published over 20 short works since our inception in 2018, and our creators have won numerous awards. Among the creators we've published are Emma Jayne, Erika Price, Mar Julia, E. Jackson, Lyle Partridge, Elliott G., Casey Nowak, Sunmi, and Eddy Atoms. Diskette's adults-only imprint, Harder Disk, debuted by printing Carta Monir's celebrated zine Napkin, and is slated to publish several groundbreaking works of trans erotica as soon as printing can resume at scale.

 

Diskette is dedicated to paying our artists the maximum amount that we can without actively losing money, and most of our printed work is essentially printed at cost. It is extremely important to us to compensate our artists fairly, and even during the crunch caused by the pandemic, we have not missed a single royalty payment.

 

 

 

 

Please donate so that our trans-owned and operated small press business can expand and continue to thrive in a beautiful, repurposed office space with a bathroom. (I really can't overstate how happy I am that the space has a bathroom.) (During the pandemic I would have to drive home every time I needed to use the bathroom.) (It wasn't what I would call a "comfortable" or "efficient" studio environment in that sense.)

 

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu <3