"It's one thing to have no control over your own destiny as a writer, but I've had so many students with really wonderful books fail to find publishers," said Kaylie Jones, author of Lies My Mother Never Told Me, daughter of author James Jones, creative writing teacher in MFA programs at Wilkes University and Long Island University for more than two decades--and now head of Kaylie Jones Books, an author collective and imprint of Akashic Books in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"It got to the point where I started to feel that my profession was pointless," explained Jones. "Very often, books just come down to a question of 'how do we sell this?' So many of my students have been told by publishers 'we love it, but we don't know how to sell it.' I started thinking, why would anyone spend this much time helping other writers hone their craft when it's virtually impossible for them to get their voices heard?"
Last October, after Jones woke up one morning feeling particularly frustrated by the plight of many of her students and colleagues, who typically write artistic, literary novels not deemed commercially viable, she called one of her MFA students and her bosses, asking if they'd help her if she started an imprint. The answers were emphatic yeses. Then Jones called Johnny Temple, editor-in-chief and founder of Akashic Books, and asked if she could start an imprint. Temple called her back two hours later, saying yes.
"They backed me 100%. It was life changing," recalled Jones, who was given total freedom to run the imprint however she chose. From the outset, Jones's plan was to make a collective; all of the imprint's authors would be involved in a "grassroots way" at all levels of publication, including acquisition and editing. The idea, Jones explained, was that no decision would be made solely by a single person. At present, the collective consists of seven writers, and any writer who publishes with Kaylie Jones Books in the future will become part of the collective. Beyond the collective, Jones has one official employee, several graduate interns and many generous volunteers.
"The most amazing thing is all the help I've gotten from so many different people," said Jones, citing the willingness of colleagues, students, friends and other writers to help out. "These writers are willing to do anything and everything they can for each other. Editing, readings, workshops, book trailers, anything."
Submissions are open to all authors, emerging or established, and Jones looks to publish anything, novel or memoir, that is "beautifully written, beautifully structured and courageous in what it does." The imprint's flagship title, Laurie Lowenstein's debut novel Unmentionables, is set to be published in January. The novel, set in 1917 on the Chautauqua education circuit in rural Illinois, has so far generated a great response: advance reviews have been positive, the book was chosen as a Midwest Connections pick for January by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, and the American Library Association invited Lowenstein to its Midwinter Conference to be featured in its debut novelists spotlight. 
Also in the pipeline are the novels Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor and The Love Book by Nina Solomon, along with the memoir Starve the Vulture: One Man's Mythology by Jason Carney. Ostensibly, the books don't have much in common: two of the imprint's first four titles are historical fiction. Another is a literary women's novel, and the last is a memoir by a performance poet and former drug addict. Commented Jones: "I'm not an expert in historical fiction. Or memoir. Nothing about these books could you say look like me. They're just beautifully written and say something about the world."
Further down the road is an all e-book line, which would allow for the speedier publication of "playful, fun, weird, alternative stuff." The plan is to publish two or three physical books per year as Jones and others work to get the imprint and e-book line up and running.
"I would be happy to do a thousand books a year," Jones remarked. "But we're just starting out, so we don't want to get overwhelmed." --Alex Mutter
