In light of the current global emergency, we at Kyanite Publishing have decided to suspend all upcoming releases until the situation becomes more stable. This has been a difficult decision, but for several reasons we feel this is the most responsible thing for us to do.
Our first concern is the satisfaction of our readers. Amazon has announced that they will be prioritizing delivery of essential products—such as food, medicine, and household supplies—over all other products. Also, our distributor is taking steps to protect their staff and will be scaling back their operations, which is cutting off the opportunity to list new titles and fulfill print orders. We anticipate other arms of the global delivery infrastructure will be impacted by the situation, as well. As a result, delivery of new titles may not be possible.
Also, because of distribution delays for print orders, please be aware that purchases of print copies of our existing catalog will likely be delayed for the duration of the crisis.
We are also concerned about the social impact of our upcoming titles, many of which deal with themes of dystopian and apocalyptic futures. Right now, we feel these themes will hit too close to home. Out of respect for those who are dealing with these issues in a very real way right now, we feel this is not the right time to share these stories with the world.
Finally, as the global economy is affected by the pandemic and individuals find themselves unable to go to work, we do not feel that spending on entertainment products such as books and magazines should be a priority. We would much rather wait until better times to encourage entertainment spending, and instead encourage our global neighbors to focus on sustaining themselves and assisting each other with essentials such as food, medicine, and other necessities.
If there was an upcoming release you were planning to purchase from us in the upcoming months, we encourage you to instead consider donating that amount to a local charity, hospital, or relief agency—such as the Red Cross or Red Crescent.
That all being said, we want to assure you all that we are still operating as usual behind the scenes. Our currently available titles will remain available, and we will continue to work on preparing new titles for release in the future. We do not anticipate the cancellation of any titles. We see this as a temporary measure, and will be reevaluating our stance regularly as the situation changes.
In an effort to do our part to help in what ways we can during this crisis, we’ve also decided to offer some of our back-catalog of eBook titles for free. We understand that many people are spending long hours at home and the psychological health of our populations is as important as our physical health. Hopefully, a little reading material will help with this. We’re offering the entire first volume of the Kyanite Press journal of speculative fiction for free for the duration of the crisis, and will be rotating through books volunteered by our authors to be given away. We hope you enjoy these titles, and that a little escapism might make it just a little easier to cope with these troubling times. You can find all these titles here.
We’d also like to take this moment to wish everyone the best of health and safety.
Warmest regards and best wishes,
B.K. Bass
Editor-in-Chief, Kyanite Publishing, LLC
Sam Hendricks
Publisher, Kyanite Publishing, LLC
