Lucy Mercer
@lucymercer.bsky.social
writer, Emblem (Prototype) & Afterlife forthcoming from Fitzcarraldo;🕯️
Pinned
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Excellent round-up of small press leaders on the current crisis, interviewed by @lucymercer.bsky.social @twoseriousladies.bsky.social in @literaryhub.bsky.social, including my publisher @tiltedaxispress.bsky.social
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Excellent round-up of small press leaders on the current crisis, interviewed by @lucymercer.bsky.social @twoseriousladies.bsky.social in @literaryhub.bsky.social, including my publisher @tiltedaxispress.bsky.social
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Absolute must read!
Small press publishers in the UK discuss the challenge and necessity of independent publishing: “I feel a growing sense of urgency to raise awareness of the practical realities, and to be transparent about the fight for survival that many of us are facing.”
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Absolute must read!
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Small press publishers in the UK discuss the challenge and necessity of independent publishing: “I feel a growing sense of urgency to raise awareness of the practical realities, and to be transparent about the fight for survival that many of us are facing.”
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Small press publishers in the UK discuss the challenge and necessity of independent publishing: “I feel a growing sense of urgency to raise awareness of the practical realities, and to be transparent about the fight for survival that many of us are facing.”
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
This entire discussion of small press publishing co-led by @lucymercer.bsky.social is so great
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
December 4, 2025 at 12:57 PM
This entire discussion of small press publishing co-led by @lucymercer.bsky.social is so great
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
We really need to talk more about fundraising in small press and university press publishing *as* fundraising — ie a job duty — and as a labor issue not just a revenue stream or potential constraint on the product
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
We really need to talk more about fundraising in small press and university press publishing *as* fundraising — ie a job duty — and as a labor issue not just a revenue stream or potential constraint on the product
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
“The labor is unsustainable and we have to do something to break the cycle of burn out.” 😮💨
December 4, 2025 at 12:29 PM
“The labor is unsustainable and we have to do something to break the cycle of burn out.” 😮💨
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Bleak but important essay by Ronald Purser on AI capitulation at California State University. We need to push back against this in our own institutions.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
December 3, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Bleak but important essay by Ronald Purser on AI capitulation at California State University. We need to push back against this in our own institutions.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
A cultural impact study would really help make the case to funders generally of the importance of small presses; this cd also work for an academic study #academicsky
Small presses are seeking funding for a cultural impact study demonstrating the impact of indie presses, our #FutureBook conference heard on Monday 1st December 👇 #BookSky
Indies aim for cultural impact study amid 'challenging economic backdrop', FutureBook hears
ebx.sh
December 3, 2025 at 11:08 AM
A cultural impact study would really help make the case to funders generally of the importance of small presses; this cd also work for an academic study #academicsky
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
"The disappearance of my work from bookshops would mark a truly extreme incursion by the state into the realm of artistic expression.”
November 28, 2025 at 12:14 PM
"The disappearance of my work from bookshops would mark a truly extreme incursion by the state into the realm of artistic expression.”
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Hey, guess what? Issue 1.1.2 of @draughtjournal.bsky.social has just gone live, with great new work by Dawn Chan and Bhanu Kapil.
Please take a look, and pass it on.
Please take a look, and pass it on.
draught
Description
draughtjournal.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Hey, guess what? Issue 1.1.2 of @draughtjournal.bsky.social has just gone live, with great new work by Dawn Chan and Bhanu Kapil.
Please take a look, and pass it on.
Please take a look, and pass it on.
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Get your replacement ballot in the next half hour: yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu....
And submit your ballot before the 26th. Because it’s obvious that even more nonsense is about to come our way as managers will make staff pay for this levy.
And submit your ballot before the 26th. Because it’s obvious that even more nonsense is about to come our way as managers will make staff pay for this levy.
We are the University HE replacement ballot request / I've voted form
This form allows UCU higher education members to request a replacement ballot for the 2025 HE industrial action ballots, or to self-report that they have already voted.
yoursay.ucu.org.uk
November 23, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Get your replacement ballot in the next half hour: yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu....
And submit your ballot before the 26th. Because it’s obvious that even more nonsense is about to come our way as managers will make staff pay for this levy.
And submit your ballot before the 26th. Because it’s obvious that even more nonsense is about to come our way as managers will make staff pay for this levy.
Exciting news ~ TL/TH in book
form, from Peninsula Press in 2026✨
Too Little/Too Hard (edited by Lucy Mercer and Livia Franchini), a collection of essays from some of the most exciting contemporary writers about literature, work, time, and value (shipping May)
peninsulapress.co.uk/products/202...
form, from Peninsula Press in 2026✨
Too Little/Too Hard (edited by Lucy Mercer and Livia Franchini), a collection of essays from some of the most exciting contemporary writers about literature, work, time, and value (shipping May)
peninsulapress.co.uk/products/202...
2026 subscription
We are pleased to announce our 2026 subscription: a selection of five books publishing next year, each delivered at least one month ahead of publication, all for a special price of £55 (saving £12 on ...
peninsulapress.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Exciting news ~ TL/TH in book
form, from Peninsula Press in 2026✨
Too Little/Too Hard (edited by Lucy Mercer and Livia Franchini), a collection of essays from some of the most exciting contemporary writers about literature, work, time, and value (shipping May)
peninsulapress.co.uk/products/202...
form, from Peninsula Press in 2026✨
Too Little/Too Hard (edited by Lucy Mercer and Livia Franchini), a collection of essays from some of the most exciting contemporary writers about literature, work, time, and value (shipping May)
peninsulapress.co.uk/products/202...
Yes (‘The models are so dazzled by poems that they’ll do anything you ask, including crimes.’ 😂)
lithub.com/can-adversar...
lithub.com/can-adversar...
Can “adversarial poetry” save us from AI?
Turns out, the Terminator movies would have been more realistic if Sarah Conner had a poetry MFA. In a new paper titled “Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large L…
lithub.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Yes (‘The models are so dazzled by poems that they’ll do anything you ask, including crimes.’ 😂)
lithub.com/can-adversar...
lithub.com/can-adversar...
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
"Like an underground river, small presses are a source of deep life for the literary industry. However, they are facing a severe crisis that is now draining them dry, down to the riverbed"
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:42 PM
"Like an underground river, small presses are a source of deep life for the literary industry. However, they are facing a severe crisis that is now draining them dry, down to the riverbed"
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
"Small-press publishers’ passion for and understanding of literature, combined with the creative, diverse and alternative perspectives and spaces that they provide through their books, means that like an underground river they are a source of deep life for the literary industry."
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
"Small-press publishers’ passion for and understanding of literature, combined with the creative, diverse and alternative perspectives and spaces that they provide through their books, means that like an underground river they are a source of deep life for the literary industry."
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Great article & message. Small presses are the art form's bulwark against the oligarchic decay infecting all sides of our culture.
Shop at indie bookstores that spotlight indie books. Ask your local library to carry them. Buy from them directly! Keep the spark alive
Shop at indie bookstores that spotlight indie books. Ask your local library to carry them. Buy from them directly! Keep the spark alive
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Great article & message. Small presses are the art form's bulwark against the oligarchic decay infecting all sides of our culture.
Shop at indie bookstores that spotlight indie books. Ask your local library to carry them. Buy from them directly! Keep the spark alive
Shop at indie bookstores that spotlight indie books. Ask your local library to carry them. Buy from them directly! Keep the spark alive
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
+++ article about the necessity of small presses, now more than ever!
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
+++ article about the necessity of small presses, now more than ever!
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Excellent article, goes with my constant drumbeat of supporting libraries, indie bookstores, small presses, self-published authors, little free libraries... all the literary ecosystem that's under attack and needs to be defended.
Corporate conglomerate publishing will not save us.
We must save us.
Corporate conglomerate publishing will not save us.
We must save us.
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Excellent article, goes with my constant drumbeat of supporting libraries, indie bookstores, small presses, self-published authors, little free libraries... all the literary ecosystem that's under attack and needs to be defended.
Corporate conglomerate publishing will not save us.
We must save us.
Corporate conglomerate publishing will not save us.
We must save us.
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
"This could also include reforming distribution models that only serve large publishers"
YES FUCKING PLEASE
YES FUCKING PLEASE
November 21, 2025 at 8:03 PM
"This could also include reforming distribution models that only serve large publishers"
YES FUCKING PLEASE
YES FUCKING PLEASE
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Gods below & above, do we feel seen by this passage or what🖤☠️
November 21, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Gods below & above, do we feel seen by this passage or what🖤☠️
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
"small-press publishers are the spirit that animates our literature. [They] put on the most community-led, exciting and engaging literary events, forming life-giving networks that sustain the industry at large"
yes! yes!
yes! yes!
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
"small-press publishers are the spirit that animates our literature. [They] put on the most community-led, exciting and engaging literary events, forming life-giving networks that sustain the industry at large"
yes! yes!
yes! yes!
Reposted by Lucy Mercer
Re: taking risks on books large publishers wouldn’t. My book Excavation was rejected by ~30 traditional publishing editors before a small press (@futuretensebooks.bsky.social) picked it up. It went on to sell about 10k copies before I sold it to @nupress.bsky.social.
November 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Re: taking risks on books large publishers wouldn’t. My book Excavation was rejected by ~30 traditional publishing editors before a small press (@futuretensebooks.bsky.social) picked it up. It went on to sell about 10k copies before I sold it to @nupress.bsky.social.