subscribe to the newlights press!
There are two ways to subscribe to the NewLights Press. You can sign up for a full year directly through this website, or you can pay monthly through Patreon. There are two subscription tiers:
Supporter: $45 as a single purchase or $4 per month.
Patron: $90 as a single purchase or $8 per month.
Being a NewLights subscriber comes with the following benefits:
One printed thing per year, either a small book or print.
The $90 Patron level also includes one smallish, not-editioned, mixed-media drawing/collage/print/poem per year. Only 50 Patron level subscriptions are available each year.
Free access to all digital publications for both personal and classroom use.
A discount code for 10% off any items on the NLP website.
One entry to win a free copy of any editioned large books that are published. These will probably be one every 2 - 3 years, valued at $500 or more. (No purchase necessary to enter the raffle. See note below for details.* Institutional subscribers are not eligible for the raffles. Patreon subscribers become eligible after 12 monthly payments.) The 2024 raffle will be for a copy of Drift • Fragment. 2025 will be the start of a new raffle, with the drawing most likely taking place in 2027.
The opportunity to vote for which projects are supported through the NLP Public Goods Grants. (more info)
Other fun stuff along the way, as circumstances permit.
You can become a monthly subscriber through Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/newlightspress
Or you can sign up for a calendar year here:
https://www.newlightspress.com/store/newlights-press-subscription
* To enter the raffle without buying a subscription, or to get extra entries as a subscriber:
Find or take a photo of a NewLights piece (book, broadside, ephemera) that uses the Threshold Alphabet for seven or more words. Feel free to use images from this website or the NewLights Instagram.
Post the image to social media along with your reading of the Threshold Alphabet text.
If posting on Instagram, tag @newlightspress. If posting to other platforms please include a link to the piece on the NewLights website.
Email Aaron Cohick with a screenshot of your entry (be sure that your complete text is visible) and your name and mailing address.
For entries to count you must make a good faith attempt to read and transcribe all of the text in the image that you chose. The transcription does not have to be 100% “accurate.” NewLights reserves the right to disqualify any entries that don’t meet the criteria.
One post equals one raffle entry, with individuals limited to three entries max, plus–
BONUS: If you find a typo or other mistake in the text that counts as another entry. Typos must be explicitly pointed out in the post. Only one typo entry person, in addition to the maximum three regular entries.
All raffle entries are collected on an ongoing basis. The next prize drawing will take place in December of 2024. Drawings will take place every 2 or so years when there is a suitable NewLights book to use as a prize.
All entries will be collected into a public digital archive to create a space of shared and living reading.
Email any questions to Aaron Cohick.
BUT WHY?
These subscription packages help NewLights to adhere to two core principles, as well as to support the larger artists’ books/publications community—
Affordability: Books and prints, made in multiple, are a special kind of public art—they can be owned and read by many people, but can still be experienced in the intimate space of the home. In order for that public aspect to be successful, people need to be able to afford the work. The NewLights Press is committed to producing and publishing artwork that is ambitious and rigorous in concept and construction, but that is also—whenever possible—priced so that most people can buy and live with it. A predictable, monthly income and set number of publications that already have homes will help us plan and manage costs and pricing effectively.
Experiment and Play: Experimentation in, through, and with the process of production of our various projects is central to how the NewLights Press works. It’s important that we respond to what a piece needs and let it develop. Having subscribers allows NewLights to produce work in a more sustainable way while still keeping an open-ended and experimental approach to projects.
Supporting Public Goods: Support from subscribers allows NewLights to build resources for the artists’ books/publications community, such as the Press/Working Project and the Artists’ Books Conversations series. For every 50 subscribers, NewLights gives $500 per year to other artists’ books/publications projects that are helping to grow and care for the ecosystem and community. Preference will be given to projects that: a) are run by and/or primarily support people from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the field; b) are in the early stages of their development; and/or c) exist outside of the traditional nonprofit structure, such as co-ops and democratically-run projects. The NLP subscribers will nominate and vote on which projects receive the funds and how the donation will be split if there is more than one recipient. (More info here.)