Grailing Press is excited to have been profiled in the online magazine Bold Journey. The profile features an interview with the publisher, Michael Piekny. Bold Journey is an online magazine featuring profiles of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and others who have a story to tell. The profile looks at the founding of Grailing Press and how lessons learned as a publishing startup can help other entrepreneurs succeed.
Here is a link to the full profile and some excerpts are printed below.
From Bold Journey's profile of Grailing Press—
Michael, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose? When I was finishing law school and preparing for the bar exam, I needed some type of outlet and place to rest my mind between all the cramming, and I turned to a pile of books on my nightstand. I wasn’t yet a “reader,” even though I had always bought books and casually stuck my head in them, but picking up those books at that time in my life, and starting to read with curiosity, completely changed my life as a reader and a person. It was an “Aha!” moment that opened up an incredible new outlet and passion for me. Making it through those initial books on my nightstand–Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Atonement by Ian McKewan, and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas–launched me on a path to read as many stories as I could, to study literature, study the theory of literature, the craft of writing, to learn more about these strange objects (books) and how they worked to have such an impact on me. The more I read and the more incredible experiences I collected from books and their dreamy story worlds, the more I kept going on this path, hoping to find ever deeper pleasures in books. A great book has aesthetic prose, inventive story, and myriad other aspects that all add up and make you feel as if the top of your head were taken off, to quote Emily Dickinson. Having experienced that supernatural feeling so many times in my reading life, I am now on a mission to spread it to others. I am on a mission to bring as many people as I can to great books and to get them enjoying texts, studying and wrestling with texts, living with texts, so that I can pay forward those transformative moments I’ve had with books. Great writing and great story is a gift that is out there waiting for everyone–I’ve experienced the miracles it can work in a mind and a heart and the opportunity to share that with others is where I find my purpose in publishing.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you? I am the founder and publisher of Grailing Press, a trade publishing house specializing in fiction. We publish new titles and publish new editions of classic titles such as The Great Gatsby and others. Our mission is to grow the audience for beautiful books. Books mean the world to me, and I am passionate about sharing that love of the written word with as many people as possible and hopefully bringing new readers into the fold. We want to introduce people to the extraordinary experiences you can have with books and want to keep finding incredible writers to publish who deliver such an experience. The brand we are building is one of great story–read one of our books and you’ll be thrilled by it.
Being the publisher of a small press means the opportunity to check in on all aspects of the business–one day that might be talking with an audio book producer or sales partner, and another day can come down to cover design, editorial work, contract drafting, or meeting a new author we’d like to sign. I founded Grailing Press because as a publishing industry veteran, I truly enjoy all aspects of the industry and what it takes to find, publish, and sell great books. The varied workdays mean always having something new and different to turn to and getting to play around with a lot of interesting workstreams–all in service of putting meaningful stories into the world, which is a great mission.
In addition to our book publishing, Grailing Press also publishes an online writing magazine known simply as Grailing. This magazine is free to read and subscribe to and is a great way to discover new writers and new writing you might not otherwise have found. The magazine showcases our press’s editorial vision and lets you know what kind of great reading experiences are in store for you from one of our books. We have a few other projects we are working on getting off the ground, and can’t say too much about them yet, but keep checking grailingpress.com for great books and all our literary ventures.