Horns and Rattles: A Year of Running a Small Press
By H.V. Patterson
My name’s H.V. Patterson, and I co-founded Horns and Rattles Press with Jes McCutchen (artist, educator, and YA author) and Victoria Moore (owner of Whitty Books) a little over a year ago. We published our first anthology of water-based horror fiction, Fish Gather to Listen, in September 2023, and are currently finalizing our next anthology of plant and fungi-based horror fiction, Bitter Become the Fields. The process of running a small press has been rewarding, but it also has its challenges.
Though you can build a press alone (and there are some amazing people doing so), running a small press takes a lot of skills and knowledge, which I wasn’t even aware of until we launched Horns and Rattles. I encourage anyone who wants to start and sustain a press to honestly assess their strengths and weaknesses, to consider the amount of time they have at their disposal, and to seriously think about the reality of burnout and the pressures of day-to-day life. If you can find collaborators with complementary skills to share the work, it can make the process easier and more fun.
Victoria, Jes, and I all work together to read and choose the stories we publish. I handle the majority of our day-to-day email correspondence, submission management, and line-editing and proofreading. Jes, as a self-published author, knows how to bring a book into the world, from getting an ISBN and filing it with the library of congress to common formatting and layout mistakes to avoid. Victoria, as the owner of Whitty Books, has long-championed genre fiction and small presses by stocking indie, speculative titles. She combines this love with her business knowledge, handling author contracts, selling and shipping books, and making sure taxes are filed correctly.
Social media is necessary for a small press to establish itself and get its name out there. Because of their day-to-day jobs, Jes and Victoria are savvier about social media and self-promotion than I am, and I’ve learned a lot from them. As a talented artist, Jes has created the majority of our social media graphics, including our Kickstarter campaign. Between the three of us, we have more collective reach, and we can more easily maintain a consistent online presence on X, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky, and network with other indie presses and authors. We’re so grateful for the Indie horror community, for all the writers and small presses who’ve supported us and each other.
One of the most important things you need to bring to any creative endeavor, including indie publishing, is a growth-mindset. You’re going to make mistakes, and it’s important to give yourself grace and work on improving as opposed to getting frustrated with yourself. As someone with an anxiety disorder, the knowledge that I have made and will continue to make mistakes (sometimes publicly!) is something I’ve struggled with a lot, and I know many people share similar fears. Please, extend kindness to yourself and others.
We’ve learned a lot while putting together our first two anthologies. For Fish Gather to Listen, we found ourselves a little pressed to get everything together in time, and we’ve decided to have a more flexible timeline in the future. We’ve also learned how essential organization is; a shared Google drive and spreadsheets have been crucial for us to keep track of everything. I think that I was a little heavy-handed with some of my line-edit suggestions stories in our first collection, Fish Gather to Listen, and I’m going to be more mindful of revision suggestions going forward. We’d also like to publish more diverse stories in our anthologies. We read submissions blindly, but in the future, we want to be more aware of the subconscious biases which we bring to reading submissions.
Transparency and integrity are crucial for small presses and community building in general. We try to post updates regularly across social media platforms. We also regularly send email updates to contributors to keep them informed of where we are in the process of putting the anthology together. Though it can be difficult if it’s a busy week, we try to respond to messages and emails within a few days when possible. If we make mistakes, even little ones, we own up to them.
When it comes to the submission process, we’ve tried to be clear about what we are and aren’t looking for in our submission guidelines. On our social media, we’ve posted about where we are in the reading process, and how many stories we’ve received. When we read submissions for our first two anthologies, we were overwhelmed by the talent in the horror community. I’m grateful for all of the writers who’ve trusted us with their work, whether we were able to accept their stories or not.
Regarding integrity, I’d also like to take a firm stance, as many have done, against AI art and writing. Our cover art for Fish Gather to Listen and Bitter Become the Fields was created by local artist Dustin Charles Cleveland,and we will never knowingly publish AI-generated stories. Small presses need to stand together against the decentering of humans from art, and the insidious push toward the reduction of art to marketable “content.”
A final thought for would-be publishers: consider why you’re getting into the business. You should come to indie publishing with a sincere desire to uplift writers and bring their stories to a broader audience.
I have learned so much from Jes and Victoria. I am continually amazed by their knowledge and insights. None of us could’ve created Horns and Rattles alone, but together we’re publishing some beautiful, innovative writing. We’re excited for what the future holds in store for us and other small presses. Together, we can keep making and supporting human art and creativity.
AUTHOR BIO
H.V. Patterson (she/her) lives in Oklahoma and writes speculative poetry and fiction. She’s a cofounder of Horns and Rattles Press. When she was little, she cried whenever she saw bright red. She remains sensitive to sunlight and bass vibrations. Recent stories and poems published with Sliced Up Press, Diet Milk Magazine, Creature Publishing, Flame Tree Press, Eerie River, Flash Fiction Online, and Black Spot Books. Find her on X @ScaryShelley and on Instagram @hvpattersonwriter
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