Our mission is to publish and produce art that is intellectually, culturally and environmentally sustainable.
RAPID ASCENT
In the short time since our 2010 inception, Jaded Ibis has gained national attention for its innovative business model, quality literature, and intrepid explorations into the newest digital technologies, from interactive multimedia books to the app-novel and beyond. Our editors and authors have been the subject of feature articles, reviews and interviews in Forbes, Slate, Poets & Writers, Huffington Post, The Brooklyn Rail, Los Angeles Review of Books, Lambda Literary, American Book Review, and many other prominent print and online publications. Our books have made a number of “Best” lists, including The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, four of Oprah’s O Magazine, and one achieved bestseller status on The Wall Street Journal, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble Nook.
WHY ALL THE ATTENTION?
Jaded Ibis Press creatively uses Print-On-Demand (POD) services to reduce our carbon footprint and alleviate some of the massive environmental waste produced by the publishing industry. Our projects typically manifest in multiple editions: full-color illustrated print; black and white print; ebook and/or interactive multimedia book; and fine art limited edition. Each title includes visual art created by a notable artist or artists. Fine art editions incorporate a variety of materials and conceptually reflect the content of the book. Jaded Ibis Productions also produces a CD compilation of music created for the previous 10-12 book titles by renowned and emerging musicians. Our first CD LP, Edible Flowers, is available for download on iTunes, Rhapsody, Sony Music, Napster, and hundreds of music sites throughout the world.
EVOLUTION
Jaded Ibis publishes books that do not easily fit into marketing categories but clearly speak to contemporary society. We promote the evolution of narrative as it intersects with 21st Century technology. As a result, our books appear on college syllabi with increasing frequency, and our editors and authors are invited to lecture on current and future narrative forms. Contact us to book a lecture, literary reading, panel or workshop.
TECHNOLOGY
Jaded Ibis Press enthusiastically seeks projects that utilize digital platforms as an integral part of the narrative, and multimodal projects that cannot be effectively published as anything except multimedia, interactive narratives. We keep current on “future” technologies like Brain Computer Interface and Real Time Interactive Simulation gaming that may significantly affect literary art and other intellectual narratives.
COLLABORATION
Jaded Ibis Press publishes and produces text + image collaborations between authors and artists, or one author’s multimedia project. Some narratives may result in long-term, multi-dimensional collaborations that span the virtual and real worlds, from digital deliveries to gallery experiences.
GENEROSITY
We pay our authors an extraordinary 40% or more net royalties compared to the industry standard of 7-10% of cover price. Our structure usually amounts to 4x the standard royalty.
Furthermore, through our Giving Projects we donate to nonprofit environmental and cultural organizations as a way of offsetting our carbon footprint and giving back to those who work to make the world a better place for us all. Each year we select one project to be our Giving Project of the Year, with a percentage (usually 20%) of proceeds earmarked for the chosen organization.
THE JADED IBIS BUSINESS MODEL
Networking is more than a publicity strategy.
Our innovative business model arose from an understanding of Systems Theory and a confidence in its organizational efficacy. A system is a set of social, biological, technological or material parts cooperating as a whole toward a common purpose.
Systems Theory developed from biology, where it is difficult to understand the functions of, for example, the sexual reproduction of flowers separate from the functions of insects. The newest scientific research (Scientific American) confirms that quantum entanglement does not exist only at the micro level. The universe is one great web built of interconnected webs built of interconnected threads that, when tugged or snipped, shift the whole design. Thus, for every cause there is an effect – even if those effects take years or decades or centuries or millennia to manifest. (Pictured at right: Debra Di Blasi’s Facebook network of only her top 50 friends.)
Just as ignoring interconnections may cause environmental and organizational destruction (think climate change and banking crises), utilizing them can create tremendous benefits to the individual parts and thereby the whole. By linking literary, visual, and musical arts — and the newest technological platforms — we can expand audiences for all participants: Readers and listeners learn a bit more about music; musicians and readers learn a bit more about visual art; and listeners and musicians learn a bit more about literature and its marvelous possibilities.
Because artists and musicians are urged to respond to the writing rather than illustrate it, the reader-viewer-listener who explores all aspects of a project receives multiple perspectives on a single theme — a theme that may mutate into larger themes as a result of the aesthetic collision.
Culture and humanity, as a whole, also benefit by the evolution and generation of ideas. Book publishing, large and small, has become a tenuous web, unable to remain economically or culturally feasible without full cooperation of everyone involved. The amount of funds, time and talent expended to bring out just one book is tremendous; thus, threads that do not contribute to the whole must be snipped so as to not impede with the success of the system’s parts.
Our Expectations
One of our goals is to teach you that actively participating in a network exponentially expands the reach of your own projects and career, consequently benefiting you, other Jaded Ibis writers, artists and musicians, and the company and culture, in general. To this end, we expect our writers and artists to work closely and cooperate with Jaded Ibis publisher and editors, and show support of other Jaded Ibis authors, artists and musicians. We also expect them to comprehend and care how book publishing can be much more than just a business, academic requirement, or self-promotion. Publishing can be an art.
If you are submitting a manuscript but are unable or unwilling to participate in our system, or if you feel our philosophy is at odds with yours, we strongly suggest that you withdraw your project from our consideration.
Help Us Sustain You and the Planet
We are continually looking for new ways to keep fine literature, art and music in the world without burdening the planet. To this end, we welcome your suggestions on how we can be more sustainable.