Frankford Publishing is a new independent publisher based in Philadelphia. We aim to curate and produce Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and Fantasy stories. We are interested in promoting local authors and those with unique perspectives. We also provide Publishing Services to independent authors who want to get their books to market.
If one googles the phrase “Frankford Press,” the search engine will return information about a machine that makes ammunition. Let’s be clear: that is not what this is. To quote the 1970’s funk band Brick, “we ain’t gonna hurt nobody (get on down).” Except maybe ourselves in trying to make books.
Some say books are dead and that it would be dumb to start a publishing house in this era of consolidation. But we disagree. We see books as timeless art forms, like vinyl music or oil paintings. Books are not dead. They’re classic.
And although we distribute e-copies of our books, there’s a lot to say about paper technology. There’s no battery, no loading times, and no internet required. You might be reading this on the internet, or you might be reading this in the back of one of our anthologies, sprinkled for free throughout the city’s “Little Free Libraries.”
So why call it Frankford Publishing? Frankford is a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia, and most of the contributors in our first volume grew up there. The city has a rich literary history, and we aim to continue the tradition. Digging deeper, we chose the mascot of a bee after the history of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, Philadelphia’s first NFL football team, back in 1924.
But let’s be clear: we’re not going to sting anyone, we don’t make ammunition machines, and no one’s getting tackled. The goal of Frankford is to be a high-quality source of stories that can transport the reader through time and space.
When done correctly, writing is a bit of magic, a remote form of telepathy that allows one human to imagine something wild and broadcast it to another. It’s a miracle. One person can write a story about a Noisy Alien Communicator (link), and another can experience it in the movie theater of their mind while riding on the Market-Frankford line commuting home from work.
That’s what this is. It’s a little bit of Philadelphia magic. Like Gritty, the Rocky steps, and cheese wiz. One of our mottos is “you’ll smell it.” Because like onions on the grill from a half block away, our stories will fly through the air and hit your sensory organs. That’s the Frankford Press guarantee.