rim-ric rimric, n.; [from rubric and limerick, M.R.M. Parrott, 1992]

1. a creative company or press
2. a projection of artistic expression and literary merit
3. a becoming

Well, here it is, a new tenth anniversary rimric.com I've spent so much time conceiving, building, and testing for you. Before I tell you about that, though, let me tell you about rimric. It was ten years ago, in the Fall of 1997, that I founded rimric corporation in Columbia, South Carolina to run rimric press, a small publisher. At that time, it was still considered very strange to publish your own work, or to publish in a small group, historically called "small press", despite the fact that all publishing was done this way before big business took it over. The New York marketing machine and conglomerate, multi-national ownership of "big press" had turned writing and publishing into a mere product vehicle for other properties, not to mention a fame generator, something which continues even more strongly today.

Yet, toward the end of the 90s, there was a new dawn of crazy people like me, people who were more interested in writing and publishing books and magazines of consequence than in popcorn popularity and safe investments. The snobs laughed at us, the New York types ignored us, and of course, we rarely "sell" as much "product" as they can. But, my books are still here, still relevant to our world, and I know there are thousands of writers and publishers out there in the very same position. We write because we're writers, and we publish because we're publishers. Can I say that we're in print because we write things that matter? We don't do it because it might be lucrative (although that might be nice), we do it because we don't have a choice. So, since the 90s, there has been quite a boom in small and self press, and services like Booklocker and Lulu have greatly helped get people in print. Even the big guys sometimes try to make themselves appear as small presses, the print "houses" they used to be.

Through the Fall of 2006 to the Spring of 2007, I took a long, long drive. Leaving my home and everything comfortable, I travelled all over North America, driving 40,000 miles in all kinds of weather, in 46 US states, 9 Canadian provinces, and some 21 Mexican states (my book about that experience, "Driving Home", is forthcoming). Along the way, I met all kinds of small business people, from restaurateurs to mechanics to artists and musicians. At the same time, I knew the successful but dated website here at rimric.com needed a makeover, that I had a quirky enough name in "rimric", and I wanted to develop something which celebrated the small presses of the world. Instead of more press about the watered down "product" the big guys keep offering, I wanted to build something here giving essentially free review copy and opinions about works we've never heard about, works which won't be reviewed in those same conglomerate-owned mainstream media outlets.

With my experience from SOHOdb and GetWiki, I set out this Fall to write the code, all by hand again, but now in Chicago. Although it's just getting started, rimric is to be a place where good writing from small press and self press is welcome, where we review and discuss good work, thus giving them web-exposure. The basic model is similar to Yelp and LibraryThing, both great sites. So, please join me in sharing with others the impressive small press and self press titles you're writing, publishing, and reading. Welcome to rimric.com :)

M.R.M. Parrott Chicago, December 2007

(last updated by rimric press, 10:56am EST - Wed, Dec 05 2007)