Founders
Gopal Mukerjee and Amita Mukerjee are siblings who are both writers and were born and raised in India, but lived thereafter in the UK, the United States, France and India. They are opinionated, stubborn and idealistic. They don’t believe in making money unless it’s earned through work that doesn’t feel like work and the money helps them spread some joy. They have, at great personal cost, dedicated their lives to writing, art, esthetics and revolution. They personally read and edit all submissions.
Our Ethos
Mainstream Publishing: An Elite Enterprise
The publishing industry is made up of giant conglomerates. It is an industry that tolerates only certain types of stories told in fixed ‘approved’ ways, about countries, cultures, peoples and individuals – all so that a narrow elite view of humans, their lives and histories is kept alive and transmitted from generation to generation. We’re talking about a ‘coded’ or narrow elitist account of the real world that gets constantly reaffirmed and reinforced, because of the ‘prestige’ associated with ‘fiction writing,’ so that finally, people reading books come to believe the world is what the books say it is, NOT the world we actually live in.
The publishing industry is the ‘father’ industry of the news media and of all discourse having to do with culture. It tells us who is important, what kinds of people should and will be ‘writers’ and what kinds of books should and will constitute ‘literature.’ Check any mainstream publishing company and you’ll notice immediately their tone: they’re talking down to you. They’re telling you as a writer what you are, where you should fit and why (most probably) you will never be published (by them). And they’re telling you as a reader that some books (and publishers) are worthy, while others are not.
Simply put, if you tell a good story this elite is not interested in, if you write about things that happened to you, about circumstances, people and locales that don’t fit with the mainstream’s view of ‘literature,’ then the mainstream will simply leave you out. And once enough people (and their stories) get left out, the mainstream can then turn around and say their version of reality and their view of literature is all there is. Worst of all, they continue to give themselves the exclusive right to decide what is ‘bad’ and ‘good’ writing, even if in most cases over the last 100 years, they have been wrong.
The result? People think they know what books are and what they should look like. Books supposedly exist to make our lives better, to teach and ennoble us. Nope. At Revenge Ink, we believe books are humanity’s essence. Its most ingrained power. Books enable us to reach out to each other, not just over space, but over time and culture. We at Revenge Ink believe that good books written by real people can change the world, whether the books tell stories that the elite might call ‘leftist’ or ‘reactionary.’ We don’t judge anything but the quality of the writing. We don’t judge people on their ideas. We believe shared humanity as it is changes the world. All comprehension of others is good. All solidarity is good. We all deserve to be reflected in our world’s collective culture. We all deserve to be read, have our talent appreciated. That’s freedom. That’s civilization. When culture belongs to us all. (We told you we were idealists…)
Our Business Model
We don’t make money like traditional publishers, but we do absolutely traditional publishing (we select, edit, fabricate, market; we own rights; we trade rights; once the contract is signed, we act exactly like a traditional publisher). Except we do it in a ‘revolutionary’ way. This means we don’t do royalties but ‘shared returns.’ And because we’re not swimming in money, but still believe good books by unknown writers should get out there, we have adopted outright mercantilism as a way out. (In so doing, we reject the patronage model favored by the mainstream publishing industry.) With us, authors ‘invest’ in their books and receive the lion’s share of proceeds (ask us for details if you’re interested). But it ONLY happens if we like your book or your book and style fit with our ethos. We don’t do self-publishing, hybrid or vanity publishing and this is not a ‘volume’ business. This is about getting new and original writing onto the market any which way we can. And putting readers in touch with new, explosive talent.
This is why we call it ‘collective’ or ‘revolutionary.’ Because we share everything, from costs to returns. If we like your submission, but you can’t afford to invest, we invite you to be part of our Lit Hub and Process Publishing pages, where readers look at your book and if they like it, contribute to getting you published.
Yes, publishing costs money. And because no one realizes that and no one is willing to invest in their own book (preferring to wait for the divine light of the mainstream to fall like a ray of noblesse oblige upon them), the mainstream with its millions of dollars continues to dominate, to talk down to us and leave most of us out of what they call ‘literature.’