Geoffrey Gatza

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Geoffrey Gatza

(Editor, Blazevox)

Geoffrey Gatza is editor and publisher of the online poetry journal BlazeVOX2k3. He is a recent graduate of Daemen College with a degree in accounting and literature. His work seeks to unify the ideals and disappointments of Avant Pop. He is the author of Avatar, an epic poem of Superman through the twentieth century, Secret Origins (Charles LaSalle Publishing, 2003) and John 9:25 (CD-ROM). His digital art has been displayed internationally, and was selected as one of the top 50 artists in the electronic literature organization’s State of the Art 2002 exhibition.

Q: How has publishing changed with the advent of short-run printing and print-on-demand possibilities? Does this negate any need to sell a specific number of a title? Is this a freedom from traditional print expectations/values?

A: There are tremendous new freedoms in the short-run printing and print-on-demand technologies. This has opened the market place to small presses as there is very little investment involved. This leaves only the merits of the author and the energy of the editor to place a well crafted, well made book into the world. We have made the change from a smaller POD company to Amazon dot com's POD service and we are prospering. We now have53 books about to come out and have another 14 in the works. We have the ability to make hardcover books as well so all of the traditional 'keep off the grass' signs shown to poetry presses in the past have been lifted.

Q: Why does poetry continue to create schools and movements who feud?

A: I believe that it comes from the need to identify one's self by what they are not.

Q: With POD possibilities, including various organizations that will take on anything without a set-up fee and simply send royalties to the author, do poetry publishers need arts council subsidies any more?

A: Sure. BlazeVOX receives no money from anyone other than the leftovers from my chef's pay check. However, if we were to receive arts council funds or other granting agencies, this would go towards the other real costs associated with an organization trying to attract people to your cause. The cost of the book is only a fraction of the whole picture. A press has to advertise, buy computers and update software. And all the other general administration costs are there too. So if any arts group wants to send you a small press money that would be fine, I believe.

Q: If poetry presses are concerned with cultivating a wider readership, could this not be done more effectively via the Internet (where there are thousands of potential readers) rather than worrying about sales of printed poetry?

A: I believe this is true. At BlazeVOX we offer ebook versions of all of our titles so as to capture all of the audience possible. We want to promote the poetry, not transfer of resources for an object. Our ebooks have an average readership of 6000 unique hits per title where our printed books will be lucky to sell 1000 over it's lifetime.