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Bewildering Press (BwPress) is the publishing imprint of Bewildering Stories, one of the largest literary webzines on the Internet. BwPress was founded in 2006 by the late Jerry Wright. Upon his death in May 2013, it passed to Donald Webb, the Managing Editor of Bewildering Stories.

From its origin, BwPress published only the works of veteran contributors to Bewildering Stories, namely authors whose names could be found in our Biographies & Bibliographies or who had a title listed as forthcoming on BwStories’ official schedule.

Originally, BwPress proofread and formatted works for print on demand as trade-paper editions. It no longer has the means to do so. However, it continues to offer through third-party vendors the works it originally published.

In the future, it may also advertise the works of past or current members of the Bewildering Stories Review Board and others, by invitation. The works must be in print elsewhere or otherwise available on line. The mention will include:

• a page in the BwPress website with a description, cover images, and links to vendors. All sales are handled by vendors or by the author.

• a thumbnail of the cover image on the BwStories home page with a link to the work’s page at the BwPress website. Authors must make their own arrangements for cover art.

• a downloadable copy of the work, at the author’s option. Restrictions: Downloads must be free of charge. They will be archived (compressed) as .zip files, to save bandwidth.

Summary: Bewildering Press is henceforth an advertising website; it can no longer create physical books. Its purpose is publicity; all monetary transactions are handled by the authors or by third parties.

Perspective: Bewildering Press was conceived at the end of an era, namely one in which books existed exclusively on paper — or on parchment, papyrus or clay bricks. Since the advent of the Macintosh computer in 1985, desktop publishing has been gradually supplanting publishing houses for all but highly specialized, heavily illustrated works such as magazines and what might loosely be called “coffee table” books.

Authors can now format their own e-books, and physical copies can be made by print shops and bookbinders. A book can even be made privately by the readers themselves. After downloading a copy, they need only a a loose-leaf binder, a moderately fast printer, and a lot of ink.

Print on demand risks loss of quality, namely editing, as well as the marketing that is — or at least used to be — provided by traditional publishers. However, it achieves great economies in terms of storage, transportation and financial investment. Its main advantage is ubiquity: virtual books — especially free downloads — can be obtained anywhere, at any time, and almost instantly.

The public’s primary concern, then, is: What is available? How can I get it? And why should I? Bewildering Stories and Bewildering Press attempt to address those questions.

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